Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow

Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow (Japanese: ブルードラゴン 異界の巨獣, Hepburn: Burū Doragon: Ikai no Kyojū, "Blue Dragon: Great Beast of the Underworld")[1] is a role-playing video game developed by Mistwalker and tri-Crescendo and published by Namco Bandai in Japan and Europe and D3 Publisher in North America,[2] for the Nintendo DS video game console and is part of the Blue Dragon series, its third installment and is a direct sequel to both Blue Dragon and Blue Dragon Plus. Hironobu Sakaguchi (series creator), Akira Toriyama (character designer) and Hideo Baba (brand manager of Tales series) are involved in the development of the game.[1] It was released in Japan on October 8, 2009, in North America on May 18, 2010, and in Europe on September 24, 2010.[1][2]

Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow
North American box art
Developer(s)Mistwalker
tri-Crescendo
Namco[1]
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Hironobu Sakaguchi
Producer(s)Hideo Baba
Hiroya Hatsushiba
Artist(s)Akira Toriyama
Kaori Tosa
Composer(s)Nobuo Uematsu
Platform(s)Nintendo DS
Release
  • JP: October 8, 2009[3]
  • NA: May 18, 2010[2]
  • EU: September 24, 2010
Genre(s)Role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Gameplay

In contrast to its predecessors, which were a traditional turn-based RPG and a strategy RPG, respectively, Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow is an action RPG with real time combat. The player is able to explore 3D fields, attack enemies directly as well as call upon shadows.[4]

The game allows the player to customize their character's appearance, such as their gender, hairstyles, eyebrows, eyes, voices, among other traits. Players are able to use their customized characters in multiplayer with two other friends, locally or online.

Characters

For the first time in the series, the player does not play as Shu and his companions. Instead the player will play as an unnamed customizable protagonist. Shu and his friends are not playable characters, but AI controlled party members.[1]

Reception

Japanese gaming magazine, Famitsu, awarded the game 31 of 40 (8/8/7/8). 1UP summarized Famitsu's stance on the game as "a solid standard action RPG but not an exceptional game". Famitsu praised the amount of extra content put into the game such as character customization, item synthesis and boss battles. However, Famitsu noted that with the battles on the lower screen of the DS and the status on the upper screen it may cause some problems for the player. Famitsu also noted that there was a large amount of cutscenes in the game which may make the player "feel like a passive viewer at times."[5]

References
  1. Brandon (2008-12-12). "Namco Bandai Announces Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojuu".
  2. D3Publisher Brings More Blue Dragon Stateside
  3. "Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyoujuu Release Information for DS". GameFAQs.
  4. Tanaka, John (2008-12-22). "IGN: Blue Dragon Goes Online".
  5. Japan Review Check
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