Blue Dragon - completed

Well, I finally completed Blue Dragon. After over a month of play, 70+ hours of sitting on my couch, I have finally completed Blue Dragon.

My final impressions of the game are definitely positive. It has a good storyline with an interesting twist at the end which I wasn't really expecting. Having said that, the twist wasn't completely unexpected as it does answer a few questions about one of the characters I had but which I initially dismissed as being bad writing on the programmers. Basically, I had noticed a few "discrepancies" in the story and wrote them off as discrepancies without giving the writers their proper due. Not the first time its happened which I guess is indicative of my opinion of writers for games!

The highlights of this game for me were definitely the story (I've always been a sucker for a good story - or even an average one!!) and the combat. More specifically, the fact that the combat doesn't have random battles. I mentioned this in my first post and I can tell you, when you near the end of a 70+ hour game, sometimes you just wanna get through the rest of the story without being distracted by plebby monsters who die with 1 hit!

I haven't got all the achievements for this game yet so I will be continuing to play. However, once I get all the achievements, I can see me putting this game on the shelf. The problem with Japanese style RPGs is that, although you get a good story and some good cinematics, the style of the game doesn't really lend itself to replay. If I play through the game again, I know exactly how the storyline and how the side quests will play out.

Still, it was a good game while it lasted. And considering I've already gotten over 70 hours of gameplay from it (which will rise as I go for the last set of achievements), it was value for money.