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Brand new Blue Dragon RPG announced for DS!

duckroll

Member
Blue Dragon Ikai no Kyojyuu (Behemoth of the Otherworld) has been announced for the DS. It's a brand new full 3D RPG collaboration between Mistwalker, Bird Studio and Bandai Namco Games. The game will be published by Bandai Namco Games and produced by the Tales series producer Hideo Baba.

The game is a new story in the Blue Dragon world, and this time you don't play as Shuu and his friends. Instead you play as a user created character ala DQIX. There is a full character customization system and the game features totally visible equipment and weapon change. It looks pretty awesome honestly.

The battle system is fully realtime but it doesn't look like a complete action RPG. Instead it looks like you map commands onto a hotkey bar to use them, like in MMOs. The game is also supposed to support "many players" in a multiplayer mode. It looks like the player character can use different shadows that have been featured in the series. Shuu and his friends are still in the story, but it doesn't look like they'll be playable.
 

Hunahan

Banned
Why even put the Blue Dragon license on this game at all?

- Brand new publisher and developer
- Aren't reusing mechanics
- Blue Dragon Plus bombed anyway

What's the point.

Weird.
 

Delio

Member
Sounds interesting really. It sounds like another mini mmo for the Ds though i like that we are getting a few of those :)
 

duckroll

Member
Hunahan said:
Why even put the Blue Dragon license on this game at all?

- Brand new publisher and developer
- Aren't reusing mechanics
- Blue Dragon Plus bombed anyway

What's the point.

Weird.

What? What you're saying doesn't make any sense at all. Mistwalker is not a developer, so it's a given that every game they work on will have a different developer actually making the game. How is the game not reusing mechanics? It still has shadows, and many of the attacks and skills look the same too. BD+ bombed because it looked like crap from the start. No one in Japan really wants to play a lame RTS. This looks way better.
 

VOOK

We don't know why he keeps buying PAL, either.
duckroll said:
It's in the next issue of Weekly Jump. There's a 1-page full color preview on it.

Noice, I assume there is scans somewhere *goes googling*
 

Barrett2

Member
Whatever happened to the other Blue Dragon DS game? Is that still coming stateside in 2009? Is that the BD+ people are talking about?
 

Hunahan

Banned
duckroll said:
What? What you're saying doesn't make any sense at all. Mistwalker is not a developer, so it's a given that every game they work on will have a different developer actually making the game. How is the game not reusing mechanics? It still has shadows, and many of the attacks and skills look the same too. BD+ bombed because it looked like crap from the start. No one in Japan really wants to play a lame RTS. This looks way better.
Yeah, I didn't word that well.

My surprise is that Mistwalker is working with Namco to produce an original action RPG for the DS, and the choice was made to carry that project on the back of the Blue Dragon brand.

I could understand if they were working with Brownie Brown again, or Artoon, that they might receive enough internal reinforcement to want to continue the same IP. I could also understand if there was a single investor behind the endeavors who was trying to recoup their initial marketing push, that a stubborn insistence might have taken place.

But with all of this switching around, I'm just not quite certain that the decision to further mangle a confused IP makes much sense to me.

What is it about Blue Dragon that they think will click with this?

The third consecutive genre shift across as many available titles is making it difficult to determine what type of gamer "Blue Dragon" even belongs to anymore. It's a staunchly traditional RPG, or a RTS, or a action-RPG with MMO elements, or a collectible card game.....the lack of consistency for the brand is puzzling enough.

Yet the fact that the franchise is kicking back this third reboot on a platform where it never had any sort of presence to begin with - and specifically directly after a complete and utter retail flop - makes it even more confused to me, but whatever.

Anyways, hopefully it turns out as well, I guess. Just doesn't seem to make much sense.
 

duckroll

Member
Blue Dragon is a lot more than just a game series in Japan. It's also an anime series, and a trading card game. The anime is in its second year now and the ratings are pretty decent. Konami handles the trading card game and it's still being supported with expansions. Toriyama's designs make the franchise VERY appealing to kids and publishers, so I don't see why it's so surprising that it's the one franchise that Mistwalker can so easily shop around even if BD+ bombed. BD+ is just one game that didn't even have much support or advertising from a C-tier publisher (AQI). Everything else revolving around Blue Dragon is pretty moderately successful. Blue Dragon is still the highest selling game on the Xbox360 in Japan ever.
 

Mr.Wuggles

Neo Member
well, at least it's an rpg. idk what to think about the battle system though. it does seem very mmo-like with the hot-key buttons, and i dunno how fun that would be. not only that, but i'm not sure if a battle system like that would allow for multiple party members in single player mode. if there are party members, maybe they'll include gambits. :lol

hideo baba being apart of it is very interesting though. i wonder why mistwalker decided to go for a namban collaboration (or maybe it was the other way around?).
 

duckroll

Member
Mr.Wuggles said:
well, at least it's an rpg. idk what to think about the battle system though. it does seem very mmo-like with the hot-key buttons, and i dunno how fun that would be. not only that, but i'm not sure if a battle system like that would allow for multiple party members in single player mode. if there are party members, maybe they'll include gambits. :lol

hideo baba being apart of it is very interesting though. i wonder why mistwalker decided to go for a namban collaboration (or maybe it was the other way around?).

I don't think there'll be a party. If there is, they'll be AI. It looks like you'll only be controlling the character you create.
 

Haunted

Member
Fuck me, can't walk for a couple steps without stumbling over a new RPG announcement for DS.


Hard to get excited for this when BD+ isn't even out over here, though.
 

duckroll

Member
PJX said:
I thought MS owns the Blue Dragon IP. Why is Namco Bandai developing it?

Have you been living under a rock? AQI published Blue Dragon Plus this year, Konami publishes the Trading Card Game and the anime DVDs, etc. I don't think MS cares what Mistwalker does with the Blue Dragon franchise anymore, and they certainly aren't going to control it or tell Sakaguchi what to do. Lolz.
 

PJX

Member
duckroll said:
Have you been living under a rock? AQI published Blue Dragon Plus this year, Konami publishes the Trading Card Game and the anime DVDs, etc. I don't think MS cares what Mistwalker does with the Blue Dragon franchise anymore, and they certainly aren't going to control it or tell Sakaguchi what to do. Lolz.

No need to belittle people over a question. I don't spend much time on forums so I don't follow much news on gaming anymore. I'm too busy trying to finish up our own game to submit to MS to keep on top of what's going on with other IPs.
 

duckroll

Member
PJX said:
No need to belittle people over a question. I don't spend much time on forums so I don't follow much news on gaming anymore. I'm too busy trying to finish up our own game to submit to MS to keep on top of what's going on with other IPs.

I wasn't insulting you, just asking if you were living under a rock. If you're busy developing a game under a rock there's nothing wrong with that. Good luck with your projects. :)
 

Haunted

Member
duckroll said:
Have you been living under a rock? AQI published Blue Dragon Plus this year, Konami publishes the Trading Card Game and the anime DVDs, etc. I don't think MS cares what Mistwalker does with the Blue Dragon franchise anymore, and they certainly aren't going to control it or tell Sakaguchi what to do. Lolz.
The Gooch is a maverick.
 

Hunahan

Banned
duckroll said:
Blue Dragon is a lot more than just a game series in Japan. It's also an anime series, and a trading card game. The anime is in its second year now and the ratings are pretty decent. Konami handles the trading card game and it's still being supported with expansions. Toriyama's designs make the franchise VERY appealing to kids and publishers, so I don't see why it's so surprising that it's the one franchise that Mistwalker can so easily shop around even if BD+ bombed. BD+ is just one game that didn't even have much support or advertising from a C-tier publisher (AQI). Everything else revolving around Blue Dragon is pretty moderately successful. Blue Dragon is still the highest selling game on the Xbox360 in Japan ever.
Ah ok. I didn't realize the anime series had gained popularity. That's the missing link.

I already referenced the trading card game in my post, though. That was a part of this train of confusion for me, since it felt like they were just randomly stabbing in different locations with the IP and trying to find something that would stick - but if you've got a successful TV show backing up the projects, that type of erratic behavior certainly makes more sense.

And yeah, I do realize that Blue Dragon was a relatively large success for 360 in Japan, but all that really does is add to the confusion as to why Microsoft seems to be the only company that isn't actually showing interest in creating some project for the series at this point.
 
Hunahan said:
And yeah, I do realize that Blue Dragon was a relatively large success for 360 in Japan, but all that really does is add to the confusion as to why Microsoft seems to be the only company that isn't actually showing interest in creating some project for the series at this point.

Likely because they have less incentive now that they've gotten Square-Enix and Namco Tales Studio developing on their platform. Back in the Blue Dragon days, I don't think there were any announced RPGs for the system -- maaaybe Tales but certainly not the three SE titles.
 
This sounds really good. I'm glad to see the Blue Dragon series continuing, I just hope this gets brought out over here. I'm not too confident the domestic sales of BD+ will be good enough to justify it, which is a shame because this really sounds like what that game should have been in the first place.
 

harSon

Banned
I'm surprised they're continuing with hand held games, their last three efforts have failed miserably. I don't think ASH, Blue Dragon Plus, or Away (Great game!) managed to sell at all. I'll continue to support Mistwalker though, ASH was mediocre and Blue Dragon Plus wasn't my thing from what I played but Away was pretty awesome.
 
Sounds interesting and the graphics look pretty good. Never played Blue Dragon, but I love RPGs where you can create your own character so I'll keep my eye on this one.
 

harSon

Banned
duckroll said:
Well, with different publishers and all, who knows. The ball for this one is in Namco's court.

I'm pretty confident considering even mediocre Mistwalker games like ASH are getting localized :p
 

Mejilan

Running off of Custom Firmware
harSon said:
I'm pretty confident considering even mediocre Mistwalker games like ASH are getting localized :p

Because Scamco Homewreck have really been raining down their DS RPG blessings here in the West...
 

-MB-

Member
duckroll said:
Have you been living under a rock? AQI published Blue Dragon Plus this year, Konami publishes the Trading Card Game and the anime DVDs, etc. I don't think MS cares what Mistwalker does with the Blue Dragon franchise anymore, and they certainly aren't going to control it or tell Sakaguchi what to do. Lolz.

So if mistwalker decided to put out a new Blue Dragon but now for Wii, you would think MS would still not care?
 
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