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Blue Dragon (Xbox360) |OT|

Bebpo

Banned
Blimblim said:
Can you believe this is realtime?

Sure. I mean on a tech level it's not all that impressive. You have the 3 character models and 3 not too high geometery robot hand models using the same textures. So six objects in a not too detailed background.
Plus I remember that cutscene because it's one of the few that had a screen tear when the kids were grabbed.
. Game looks very nice and I'm completely happy with it on a graphical front, but like other Jrpgs and most Japanese games in general, it looks good because of the art, not because of any neat tech things that are hard to believe are happening in real-time like Gears or Resistance.
 

clashfan

Member
Blimblim said:
Well I wouldn't say it's "too bad", it's just a way for the real RPG newbies to get used to the fight system and exploration.
Can you believe this is realtime?
bd3.jpg

I can't believe that's realtime, the graphics for Blue Dragon is much better then I though!
 
Bebpo said:
Sure. I mean on a tech level it's not all that impressive. You have the 3 character models and 3 not too high geometery robot hand models using the same textures. So six objects in a not too detailed background.
Plus I remember that cutscene because it's one of the few that had a screen tear when the kids were grabbed.
. Game looks very nice and I'm completely happy with it on a graphical front, but like other Jrpgs and most Japanese games in general, it looks good because of the art, not because of any neat tech things that are hard to believe are happening in real-time like Gears or Resistance.

You underestimate the tecnical difficulties of making rounded objects IMO
 

clashfan

Member
Bebpo said:
Sure. I mean on a tech level it's not all that impressive.

I think you are underestimating Artoon's technology. The Blinx games may not have great gameplay but it's tech was always pretty good. Blue Dragon doesn't have that generic shinny 3d rendered look. From what I have seen it looks fantastic!
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
Bebpo said:
it looks good because of the art, not because of any neat tech things that are hard to believe are happening in real-time like Gears or Resistance.
Resistance IMHO looks good thanks to the excellent (for the most part) art direction and a solid but absolutely not amazing tech. The lack of any kind of seemingly proper lighting really kills it for me.
But I digress, let's take this discussion to PM or AIM ;)
Edit: Ho yes, the tearing was really bad in this scene, that's how I realized it was realtime in fact :)
 

duckroll

Member
clashfan said:
I can't believe that's realtime, the graphics for Blue Dragon is much better then I though!

That's because it's a FMV. :p

clashfan said:
I think you are underestimating Artoon's technology. The Blinx games may not have great gameplay but it's tech was always pretty good. Blue Dragon doesn't have that generic shinny 3d rendered look. From what I have seen it looks fantastic!

The Blue Dragon engine isn't that impressive technically honestly. What is impressive is the excellent 3D modeling, textures and overall solid design. We all know that Artoon has great 3D artists, since many of them came from Sega, but the programming isn't all that hot. Seriously.
 

Bebpo

Banned
duckroll said:
That's because it's a FMV. :p

No that scene is real-time, evidenced by the screen tearing. :p

The easiest way to tell the two apart is that the FMV scenes have facial expressions like a movie, whereas the real-time stuff just has the simple open/close flaps.

Realtime (eyes vacant staring straight ahead, no real facial expression):
317040277_213a18721c_b.jpg


CG FMV (very animated facial expression. Eyes looking around, mouth shaped)
bd1.jpg
 

Bebpo

Banned
Blimblim said:
HAaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa lalalaalalalalaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
I can't get the song you get after you are done with this quest out of my head :D

Heh, yeah I've had the boss battle theme stuck in my head all day. Great song!
 

duckroll

Member
Bebpo said:
No that scene is real-time, evidenced by the screen tearing. :p

The easiest way to tell the two apart is that the FMV scenes have facial expressions like a movie, whereas the real-time stuff just has the simple open/close flaps.

Was it? Then it must be the scene right after that which was FMV. The falling sequence was totally ROBOT CG.

Actually later in the game the best way to tell if it's FMV or not is if the hair on certain characters animate reaally smoothly. There was one part on top of the castle where it was going between FMV and realtime over and over and you could tell they're loading the realtime cutscenes while the FMVs were running and it was just going back and forth to a) save space, b) so there would be no longer for the entire sequence. But when it cuts back and forth it's pretty obvious if you're looking at the details. :D
 

cvxfreak

Member
Blimblim said:
It's the most beautiful realistic game too?

It isn't "like" the most beautiful non-realistic game ever, it is bar none the most beautiful non-realistic game ever. :D

There better be Core Pack bundles left over next month *grumble*
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
duckroll said:
Was it? Then it must be the scene right after that which was FMV. The falling sequence was totally ROBOT CG.
Yep, the falling part was CG. No tearing.
It's still rather incredible to have to look for the tiny details to be sure if it's realtime or not.
 

duckroll

Member
Blimblim said:
Yep, the falling part was CG. No tearing.
It's still rather incredible to have to look for the tiny details to be sure if it's realtime or not.

Yeah I notice the tearing when they're usually panning upward on a character or scene. Anyway, why are we nitpicking on video details again? It seems that no one wants to discuss the gameplay. :(
 

Blimblim

The Inside Track
duckroll said:
Yeah I notice the tearing when they're usually panning upward on a character or scene. Anyway, why are we nitpicking on video details again? It seems that no one wants to discuss the gameplay. :(
I'm only 1 hour in, so I can't discuss much more than the graphics :/
 

Bebpo

Banned
duckroll said:
Yeah I notice the tearing when they're usually panning upward on a character or scene. Anyway, why are we nitpicking on video details again? It seems that no one wants to discuss the gameplay. :(

Uhmmmm....searching stuff and finding EXP or SP is COOL!

Magic is very powerful, but very expensive! Often kills entire enemy groups in 1 hit. Magic-sword skill + MONK = POWERMAN against any ELEMENTAL ENEMY.

I sorta wish you could setup Suikoden V style party formations instead of just the back/front stuff. It's interesting that the game lets you get away with putting tanks in front and mages in the back and the mages will never be attacked ever by physical attack enemys unless the tank dies. Sorta like a turn-based Tales fight!
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
fixed. A review is something done when a game is finished and all the pros and cons are weighed. As always, on-going impressions are just that...on-going. As the game quality dips up and down so do the impressions. You never seem to get this aspect :p

oh no, i agree on that - buy you still have 4 more predictable Bebpo stages to go through. ;)

Also - most people tend to temper it a bit rather than be GAME BREAKING ISSUE, wait... GAME OF THE GENERATION! wait... no... RUINED AND TECHNICALLY LACKING....

;)
 

duckroll

Member
Bebpo said:
It's interesting that the game lets you get away with putting tanks in front and mages in the back and the mages will never be attacked ever by physical attack enemys unless the tank dies. Sorta like a turn-based Tales fight!

There are bosses with attacks that can alter your formation later on, so you either live with that or use a turn swapping back, which might be wasted if it does the attack again right after.
 

painey

Member
oh man they better fix screentearing for english release.. i CANNOT believe that shit is allowed to be left in by MS
 

Bebpo

Banned
painey said:
oh man they better fix screentearing for english release.. i CANNOT believe that shit is allowed to be left in by MS

Well MS lets a lot of other games get away with it, so why would BD be any different :\ Screen-tearing is a major next-gen problem with many, many developers. But I do think as developers get more accustomed to the new machines screen-tearing will go away.

[EM] actually got its screen tearing fixed in the US version though (though [EM] had screen-tearing during FMV WTF!?!!? Most confusing tech glitch ever!)...so who knows?
 

painey

Member
i didnt just mean for Blue Dragon. It is completely unacceptable to have screen tearing in any game, at least give us the option to sacrifice frame rate by having V Sync on/off in the options (ala saints row after patch)
 

Ginko

Member
Thanks everyone for the images, great stuff. Thanks Blim for the video.

So for those who finished the first disc, can you give an estimate of how long it should be for a regular walkthrough?
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
I'll reiterate again - i've seen the vsync go off ONCE for a split second when turning in a large area (being someone who doesn't care about framerates and stuff though, i'm probably just missing this on my inferior set up! ;) ) - i've literally seen this once, i'm not seeing it at the same rate as bebpo and it's definitely not going to affect your enjoyment of the game (IMO)
 
DCharlie said:
I'll reiterate again - i've seen the vsync go off ONCE for a split second when turning in a large area (being someone who doesn't care about framerates and stuff though, i'm probably just missing this on my inferior set up! ;) ) - i've literally seen this once, i'm not seeing it at the same rate as bebpo and it's definitely not going to affect your enjoyment of the game (IMO)

the battle of impressions
 

Teleporter

Junior Member
Just my quick words...

I WANT THIS GAME NOW!!!!!!!!

...err... When does this masterpiece comes out in US? Hope we get it here in Brazil as well!
... :)
 

Bebpo

Banned
Karma Kramer said:
the battle of impressions

Yet blimblim just said above he saw tearing at the same spot as me and that's how we knew it was a real-time scene ;)

I mean it's one thing to not notice it a few times during cutscenes I guess....but it happens during a various attacks in almost every battle and is even evident in the video captures; saying you don't see that at all is....

DCharlie, I guess you are a picky videophile that just turns off the nitpicking when the game is on X360 :p Actually, all joking aside, how far are you? I'm under the impression you aren't too far in and until you start getting the various magic attacks, you won't have screen tearing in battles.
 
Bebpo said:
Well MS lets a lot of other games get away with it, so why would BD be any different :\ Screen-tearing is a major next-gen problem with many, many developers. But I do think as developers get more accustomed to the new machines screen-tearing will go away.
Bah! PS2 has had screen tearing for a whole generation. Typical MS stealing Sony's techniques.

laugh goddamnit;p
 

DCharlie

And even i am moderately surprised
DCharlie, I guess you are a picky videophile that just turns off the nitpicking when the game is on X360 :p Actually, all joking aside, how far are you? I'm under the impression you aren't too far in and until you start getting the various magic attacks, you won't have screen tearing in battles.

i'm not too far in, but i do have the base magic attacks. Still not seeing any screen tearing there, but i guess we'll see as i power up.

sorry - i'm nearing the end of the 'dull' section i think - i'd be futher if work didn't get in the way :/

*trudges on through*
I mean it's one thing to not notice it a few times during cutscenes I guess....but it happens during a various attacks in almost every battle and is even evident in the video captures; saying you don't see that at all is....

i see a split second vsync just before Shu's dragon lets out a blast and i see a low frame rate in the victory if Kluke delivers the final blow. If Shu gets a critical , you also see a frame or two drop.

However, this is all minor stuff - and - IN A FRICKEN RPG! I'm still not convinced i see what you are seeing as there is just conceivable way this could upset anyone if it's at the level i'm seeing. So there has to be a difference.

X360 wise : I've had a huge rant against Vsync in games that was distracting - prepatched Chromehounds has some shocking issues with vsync - and i'm sure i was the first to point them out too.
 

Zaptruder

Banned
I really hope that either the PAL or American version are region free.

Because man... playing through this game in japanese probably isn't gonna be worth my time (Asian console and all that).
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
That water is wonderful. The translucency mixed with the shimmering just looks right and yet has a style to it. Real nice
 

duckroll

Member
Zaptruder said:
I really hope that either the PAL or American version are region free.

Because man... playing through this game in japanese probably isn't gonna be worth my time (Asian console and all that).

There will be another Asian release in English.
 

Hunahan

Banned
Thanks for all the impressions and screenshots, guys.

I'm not quite sure if you are making the wait for us sorry sods with only a NA-360 to our names more bearable or more painfull in the end, but the irresistable curiosity of living vicariously more or less renders that beside the point regardless.

If localization takes too long, though, we'll all be hurting bad after seeing what we've seen. Looks great!
 

Kodiak

Not an asshole.
I just watched the first part of Blim's video, did anyone else think it was hilarious that they kept pulling weapons out of nowhere? And then the other two kids both had axes and some gigantic random trap? It might seem less ridiculous if it had some explanation, but I don't know any Japanese.

Still it looks fantastic, and is exactly the kind of epic adventure I crave (for shame FFXII!).
 

LevelNth

Banned
This game is a perfect example of why I want DQIX on either the PS3 or 360. Some of these screens look awesome, and as much as I dislike 90% of it, Toriyama's art works really well with hardware capable of this level of detail.

Looking forward to final impressions, especially from duck and Bebpo.
 

adelante

Member
Sweet sweet gameplay impressions...evidently the game appeals to the artistically inclined and is not short of its technical merits too (helps that it uses depth-of-field blur pretty well) :) Times like this I wish my Japanese vocab expand beyond mere well-wishes and ability to count :(
 

Orodreth

Member
duckroll said:
There will be another Asian release in English.

Wohoo!!, great news.

I´m happy with that but will be even happier if that release only has english subs and keeps the original voices.
 
after playing 10+ hours, still not finished the first DVD, I can't imagine what Mistwalker can do with Lost Odyssey.... if they raise the quality level on Blue Dragon, Lost Odyssey could be pretty awesome.. and i don't wanna even think about Cry On..
 
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