Blue Dragon has some reviews out for it already. They are good but not as good as we hoped for.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/bluedragon
82% from 16 critical reviews, 78% from 18 user votes

http://gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/927950.asp
82% from 14 critical reviews, 79% from 57 user votes

Something along the lines of Final Fantasy XII or a console Zelda game would get a score in the high 80's or low 90's. I think the critical reviews don't like the character design, game pacing, and lack of innovation in the game. I'm disillusioned by these developments, although I had earlier removed Blue Dragon from my "to buy" list because it appears to be aimed to a younger audience to my preference. I'm hoping that Lost Odyssey gets higher reviews when it comes out. What are your thoughts on this topic? :D

My views? Meh, critics never seem to agree with my tastes anyway. I can't recall a single game where I've actually even had site/magazine review play any part in my decision to play or buy a game. I know what types of games, stories, and characters I like and appeal to me immediately. If there's something I'm still unsure of, I'd rather ask my gamer friends who know what kind of gameplayer I am if they'd reccommend I try it (or better, let me borrow it for a few).

I'm the type of person who may hear of a game and get interested in it from the get-go, and in that case, I usually don't even bother with reviews; I already know I want it. Blue Dragon was one of those games, and it didn't disappoint me.

Maybe I'm a little more tolerant of the character designs and style of Blue Dragon (I love the chibi-saccharinely cute style of FF9, too, after all), so that really didn't bother me at all when I played it, and personally I thought it was gorgeous. And as far as it seeming to be aimed for a younger audience? Eh, just because there's a lack of blood and guts doesn't mean that only kids or younger audiences will get enjoyment from the game, or its story and characters. Blue Dragon has its campy moments, yes, but that didn't bother me; I still had a helluvatime kicking poosnake butt and trying to achieve perfection with the Mechat shooting.

I'll also mention Blue Dragon's competition, Eternal Sonata, which I've also played and really enjoyed; to be honest, while I like Eternal Sonata's fighting system more, somehow, Blue Dragon became the game that ended up having more replay value for me... played it about five times now. Yes, I liked it that much. ;)

If you're still wondering if you'd like it at all, though, Blue Dragon's demo is out. If you can stomach the demo, you may actually enjoy the game, after all. ;)


As for Lost Odyssey... I still think Kaim is a pretty, pretty man.

WHO THE FREAKING HECK EXPECTED THIS TO GET LIKE PERFECT SCORES???

DOCTOR MARIO?

Do you guys think thatr there is a big audience overlap between Blue Dragon and Persona 3 like there is between Blue Dragon and Eternal Sonata? How much competition does Blue Dragon have from Wild Arms 5 and .hack//G.U. Vol.3: Redemption as well? :D

My views? Meh, critics never seem to agree with my tastes anyway. I can't recall a single game where I've actually even had site/magazine review play any part in my decision to play or buy a game. I know what types of games, stories, and characters I like and appeal to me immediately. If there's something I'm still unsure of, I'd rather ask my gamer friends who know what kind of gameplayer I am if they'd reccommend I try it (or better, let me borrow it for a few).

I'm the type of person who may hear of a game and get interested in it from the get-go, and in that case, I usually don't even bother with reviews; I already know I want it. Blue Dragon was one of those games, and it didn't disappoint me.

Maybe I'm a little more tolerant of the character designs and style of Blue Dragon (I love the style of FF9, too, after all), so that really didn't bother me at all when I played it, and personally I thought it was gorgeous. And as far as it seeming to be aimed for a younger audience? Eh, just because there's a lack of blood and guts doesn't mean that only kids or younger audiences will get enjoyment from the game, or its story and characters. Blue Dragon has its campy moments, yes, but that didn't bother me; I still had a helluvatime kicking poosnake butt and trying to achieve perfection with the Mechat shooting.

I'll also mention Blue Dragon's competition, Eternal Sonata, which I've also played and really enjoyed; to be honest, while I like Eternal Sonata's fighting system more, somehow, Blue Dragon became the game that ended up having more replay value for me... played it about five times now. Yes, I liked it that much. ;)

If you're still wondering if you'd like it at all, though, Blue Dragon's demo is out. If you can stomach the demo, you may actually enjoy the game, after all. ;)


As for Lost Odyssey... I still think Kaim is a pretty, pretty man.

I played the blue dragon demo like 5 times. At 1st i was thinking "meh, I'll pass". Everytime I played it again I enjoyed it more and more. The battle system did seem boring but once I got the hang of it and understanding the charge attacks it become pretty fun. I love the limit/summon attacks but I feel they were a bit over powered in the demo. So far Im really excited about this game. I just mihgt get it this week.

I also played the sonata demo and at 1st I liked it better than blue dragon. I played this demo 3 times. I must say the game is looking good. I love the art style. The fighting system is cool. I love the whole light and dark attacks.

I must say that Im enjoying blue dragon more now. Its good to see some good rpgs heading to the 360 though.

it looks fun

That is expected. Going back to the classic Japanese levelup games style is all well and good, but not when you add the battle system element to it to an environment where you can interact with objects in realtime, it just doesn't seem to mix well.

How many people here have the demo? I don't have it(just because I don't have internet or I would get it).

I played it just because I was curious to see what it was like in English. ^^ Still loved it.

When I buy games, the last thing I factor in is what the critics think about them.

If a game gets 95% after 30 critics review it, that will mean, if everything else stays the same, that a person is more likely to like the game than if 30 critics review it and give it an average rating of 30%.

No offense, but I think some people are trying to deny that they care about reviews and are trying to act like they 100% make the decision themselves. There's nothing wrong with reading reviews. Reviews are important to many people and are a valuable tool in assessing whether or not somebody should spend time and money on a game.

If somebody is being honest in saying they 100% ignore all critical and user reviews, that's ok. I'm just concerned that people are not being honest. Don't take it the wrong way though. :D !

I just picked up the game today. Played it for about an hour and so far, as first impressions go, I really like the game. I hear alot of gripes about the music and so far from what Ive heard, it sounds really good. The in game graphics are excellent as well and the cut scenes. Ive heard gripes that the game starts off really slow but from what Ive seen so far, the game is really action packed. The battle system is really interesting. I dont want to give too much away. If you havent played the game, give it a try.

I've got it preordered and can pick it up if I want to, but I have earlier changed my mind about buying it. I wonder if can change my pre-order credit to Lost Odyssey at EB Games.

I long for the days when a highly anticipated game comes out and ends up being extremely ultimate for me, like Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy X were for me.

I ended up getting FF VII and I didn't have a memory card at the time, I played the opening of the games a few times before I was able to get the memory card. I remember I got FF X as a gift for Christmas and immediately with my Christmas money I went to buy a PS 2. I also remembered skipping class one day so I could finish FF X that day, it was great! :)

Oh I enjoyed playing FF VIII a lot also. I remember that I forgot one time that FF IX was coming out, I knew about it but forgot and I found out that it was coming out in a few days and got it, but I didn't like the style/tone of the game, and only played 10 hours.

I'm hoping the Lost Odyssey experience can imitate me when I got Final Fantasy VIII for the first time(only time actually). :)

I didn't have this experience when buying Final Fantasy VII: Dirge of Cerberus, Rogue Galaxy, and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Also, I haven't had this ultimate experience when renting Persona 3 and Bioshock. I DID have this ultimate happiness emotional state experience when buying Final Fantasy XII though! :)!!!

I remember that I forgot one time that FF IX was coming out, I knew about it but forgot and I found out that it was coming out in a few days and got it, but I didn't like the style/tone of the game, and only played 10 hours

I remember that time too. I didn't really forget about it. But it was not at the top of my list. At the time it came out, I was playing the newly released Shenmue on the Dreamcast. FF IX had to wait until I finished it.

Which was a first for a Final Fantasy title.

It wasn't because the game didn't appeal to me. People know how I really enjoy this game. It's just that I got into the hype machine that Suzuki created for his game, and unlike a lot of gamers, Shenmue did end up delivering its promises for me.

I was planning on buying FF IX the day it came out. I got busy with school and other stuff and forgot, then found out a few days before it came out about it. I didn't get that ultimate feeling from FF IX. It's not made by the main FF team by the way, but a seperate team. FF VIII and FF X is from the main FF team though. :D

Do you bathe in ignorance and gargle fallacy? The so-called "main FF team" you speak of was only the main team for the two previous games. FFIX's development was handled by more people who had been involved since the beginning of the franchise.

Well, after playing the demo quite a bit and reading over a number of reviews it seems to be the usual by the numbers RPG. Nothing that I'd even dream of spending 70 euro on.

Also, Dragonsouls last post was hilarious. He obviously doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about. :D

Gah, I thought that FF IX's designers included more non-FF people, like people from other Square departments. I see more common people though. I thought that FF IX and FF X were being developed at the same time, with more standard FF people working on FF X and FF IX containing a higher percentage of designers from other teams from Square.

Final Fantasy VIII
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_fantasy_viii
Designer(s)
Hironobu Sakaguchi (executive producer)
Shinji Hashimoto (game producer)
Yoshinori Kitase (game director)
Yoshitaka Amano (image illustrator, title logo designer)
Tetsuya Nomura (character designer)
Kazushige Nojima (scenario writer)
Nobuo Uematsu (composer)
Yusuke Naora (art director)

Final Fantasy IX
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_fantasy_ix
Designer(s)
Hironobu Sakaguchi (game producer, original concept)
Shinji Hashimoto (game producer)
Hiroyuki Itō (game director, game designer)
Shukō Murase (main character designer)
Kazuhiko Aoki (scenario writer, event planner)
Yoshitaka Amano (original character designer, image illustrator, title logo designer)
Nobuo Uematsu (composer)
Hideo Minaba (art director)

Final Fantasy X
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_fantasy_x
Designer(s)
Yoshinori Kitase (game producer)
Hironobu Sakaguchi (executive producer)
Motomu Toriyama (game director)
Tetsuya Nomura (character designer)
Yoshitaka Amano (image illustrator, title logo designer)
Kazushige Nojima (scenario writer)
Nobuo Uematsu (sound producer, composer)
Yusuke Naora (art director)

:D