14-09-2005, 11:08 AM
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| 360+PS3+REV=Life
Join Date: Aug 2005
Posts: 542
|  Blue Dragon Impessions
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/rpg/...w_6133163.html Quote:
Blue Dragon Impressions - Characters, Environments, and More
TOKYO--Hironobu Sakaguchi may have departed the shores of Square Enix, the roleplaying giant that he helped bring to prominence with the Final Fantasy series, but he hasn't gotten out of the RPG game entirely. Sakaguchi affirmed his commitment to the genre today during a visit to his new company Mistwalker Studios, at which time he gave us an early look at his upcoming Xbox 360 RPG, Blue Dragon. In production at Blinx developer Artoon and featuring character designs by hallowed manga artist Akira Toriyama, Blue Dragon looks as though it'll nicely help fill the need for Japanese-style roleplaying on Microsoft's forthcoming console.
Blue Dragon revolves around a group of adventurers from whom have inexplicably sprung gigantic, monstrous, tangible shadows. That may be hard to wrap your head around without actually seeing it in action, but just imagine a big bluish monster rising up behind each character and you're on the right track. The main character, a spunky kid named Shu, will journey along with his companions to discover where exactly these shadows came from, and how the group can be rid of them--if it turns out that they actually want to lose the shadows at all, considering they're pretty useful in a fight.
Of course, this being an RPG, there's also some important world-saving business that needs to be addressed. Shu's world is full of ancient machinery, the remnants of a lost civilization that nobody alive knows how to use. A villain has appeared to take control of these engines of war in order to gain complete dominion over the world, so it'll be up to Shu's group and their shadows to stop the menace and restore order.
Sakaguchi began the presentation with a demonstration of Blue Dragon's environments, which are whimsically designed to fit with the game's brightly colored, cartoon-like art style. One area featured a row of quaint houses alongside a river, while another was set in a canyon village built right up the face of the rock wall, with houses connected by a network of walkways. The environment demo wrapped up with a fly-through of a dank cave setting that contained a subterranean lake, complete with small islands covered with a waving, luminescent green grass.
The level design in Blue Dragon will obviously showcase a higher level of detail than what we've seen on current-generation consoles--we saw close-up views of trees with individual leaves, a house front with extremely high-res textures, and some of the most realistic-looking water in recent memory, with ample specular highlights reflecting the sunlight overhead. A Mistwalker rep showed off how the designers can influence the motion of the water, including the direction of the current and speed of the waves, by tweaking a few variables. Sakaguchi also said more film-like effects, such as depth of field, will be added as development continues. Our glimpse at Blue Dragon's world was brief, but it looks as though the game's fanciful environs will sport a good deal of liveliness...............(continues if you click the link at the top of the page)
By Brad Shoemaker, GameSpot POSTED: 09/14/05 01:14 AM
| Please click the link to see the rest of the atricle. I didn't want to make this post HUGE.
Just for those who are interested in "Blue Dragon" for the 360.
The game looks sweet, and the developers know what their doing.
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