Blue Dragon - Here's Why It Hasn't Helped 360 in Japan

The 360 is not doing very well in Japan, let's put it like that. The system needs something that will sell. So Microsoft turned to the creator of some rather famous RPGs to make some more RPGs for them, and this is his first.

[cloud360]

This game is an rpg so it has to be good . but it aint selling at all 150,000 meh on the 360.

could this be on PS3 or did MS pay for this game to get developed for 360

[Bloodmask]

realize that there are roughly only a little less than 500,000 360's sold in Japan. So for a game to sell 150,000 copies is actually really good. That means almost 1/3 of the entire install base bought the game.

[tehcellownu]

Its still low..and it barely sold here in NA...Blue Dragon would sell better if it is on the PS3 but it wont cuz its published by micrsoft..Enternal SOnata is comin to the ps3..so more sales for namco..

[chasegamez]

i think this game should port 2 the ps3
(reply) i didnt know that
o well what a waste of game

[TriggerHappy]

Forget the port. The game is published by Microsoft so it aint happening.

[PS360WII]

yea it's hasn't helped in Japan because HE didn't like the game... yeah that's makes sense

[lonestarmt]

you just have to look at what type of people buy a 360, most of them don't like JRPGs. If they released it on the ps3, its not doubt it would have done loads better. Now its simply getting overlooked.

[Capt CHAOS]

Don't expect to release one game that people in Japan care about and expect to take the market by storm. Where are the others?

And.. How many 360s would have been sold in that market if it WASN'T for this game?

[Crazy Larry]

but I sure as hell thought this game kicked ass. (but I am SOOOO burnt out on the Final Fantasy games...I needed a game like this one)

[cr33ping_death]

good thing i had cancelled my reservation for the game.

[PS3Rebel]

LOL! it hasnt sold because no1 wants to see a stupid looking dragon give u a thumbs up after ruining some monster lol

and 4 discs OMG!! PS1 all over

[Crazy Larry]

You are totally right...I can't believe I wasted a whole 20 seconds (literally...maybe 25) on disc swapping twice during a 50 hour game...good night that was a waste (end sarcasm)

[Depressed Mode]

How do they determine their overall score? Shouldnt it be the average of the other scores?

[mirroredderorrim]

I wouldn't want to swap discs anymore unless I were playing a PS RPG from the 90's or early 21st century. I hope with PS3 that will be eliminated.

As for Blue Dragon it's an alright game...but it could have been alot more. I think Sakaguchi-San rushed this *concept* out too soon.

[benfinkel]

You're misunderstanding.
It's not a constant swapping of discs. All three discs contain all of the world content, it's just the story elements that are split up. So once you advance the story to disc two you'll never have to go back to disc 1. Even the old towns and dungeons are on the new disc so there is no "swapping" just two changes during the course of the entire game.

[Bnet343]

Errr ... you wouldn't want to swap discs ... so how many games are you playing on PS3 then, don't you have to swap discs to change games? Ehh ... you are weird, I guess you just play one game the entire generation. :/

[WilliamRLBaker]

thats the worst review ever, and the scores dont average out in the overall area...lol

I love the gameplay thing...when this game is the standard of rpgs..IT uses all the standard rpg that all standard rpgs use, Its no different saying the gameplay was only 5.0 means you think every RPG that uses any form of rpg standards is 5.0 in gameplay.

I repeat the overall score doesn't reflect the average.

P.S: I love the people saying this game hasn't sold...It sold good in japan, and sales numbers for the game hasn't even been released in america...I wish i had a crystal ball.

[tplarkin7]

Blue Dragon was strictly targeted towards Japan. It was an attempt to compete with Dragon Quest. But that's like Killzone competing with Halo, sort of. The team behind Blue Dragon is made of the best Japanese talent, unlike Killzone.

Famitsu gave Blue Dragon a very high rating of 10,9,9,9. Nearly perfect. Mistwalker did their job. Obviously, 1 game isn't enough. MS either needs 10 "Blue Dragons" per year, or exclusive rights to Dragon Quest.

[crck]

Lets face it. I'm not 15 anymore. And I have no interest in a game about 10-16 year olds running around in a cartoon world at least when it comes to rpgs. Cute cartoony platformers are ok because they dont rely so heavily on story.

[lonestarmt]

Yup, thats why it didn't appeal to me. I'm a huge rpg fan, and when the news first started to get out on this, i was like o I might need to consider getting a 360 now, but a closer look alas not what i was hoping for. I love the dragon quest look, but even for that style this game skews very young. I can handle it if one of the main characters were young, but not three main ones. I agree on a game like rachet and clank and stuff like that its ok, but rpgs there has to me somthing mature going on. Normally rpgs has the main hero 16-20, but 12 is just way to young.

The battle system is fine, people bashing on it are not real fan of rpgs, which is what this reviewer seems to be. Sometimes i hunger for an old school rpg. My problem is when they reused the same storylines. They even gave the main character a annoying catch phrase, I will never give up!!! like believe it!! lol. This game looks solid, but face it, its not great rpg. The problem with blue dragon is whats happening with the ps3 games. Their hyped to be omg its going to save the system! so when there good they get bashed because there not great. People were wanting this game to be FF or dragon quest,but it is not, and reviwers are being too hard on it.

[the worst]

microsoft fu*k up a good japan cartoon

[XxZxX]

The games get high reviews on Famitsu but Japanese just give them a cold shoulder. It just sell as good as PS3 non-blockbuster folklore. Pretty sad actually.

[urban bohemian]

People shouldn't need to spend a silly amount of money to play one game, thats the reason it didnt sell well, because the install base is small. If more people had 360s in Japan then more people would buy the game! Microsoft needs to get more Japanese publishers and then maybe they'l do better.

On the bright side: THERES ALWAYS LOST ODYSSEY!

[abcd]

Blue dragon got good scores:

UOL Jogos - A/A
Famitsu - 37/40
Famitsu Xbox - 37/40
Xbox World 360 Magazine UK - 85/100
Games Master UK - 86/100
GameBrink - 88/100
xbox360achievements.org - 90/100
IC Games - 90/100
gameover.sapo - 91/100
Gamespy - 4/5
Cheat Code Central - 4.6/5
GamePro - 4.75/5
jeuxvideo.fr - 5/5
ptgamers - 16/20
Jeux France - 18/20
Deeko - 9/10
Games Radar - 9/10
TeamXbox - 8.5/10
gamesTM - 9/10
CVG - 9/10
Play Magazine - 9/10
GameInformer - 9/10
360 Gamer Magazine UK - 9/10
Official Xbox Magazine UK - 9/10
xbox365.com - 9.4/10

[THE_JUDGE]

and yet hardly anyone bought it. Reviews can only carry a game so far, its the consumers job to carrt it the rest of the way, and they didn't.

[Lumbo]

EuroGamer: 5/10
Edge Magazine: 6/10
GameSpot: 6/10
1UP: 6.5/10

Your attempt at boosting the scores looks like someone who would take the few Lair 90ish scores and claim its a near perfect game ... while hiding the 4/10 scores it got from several respected pages.

To quote the official Xbox mag: "A very lengthy, beautifully wrought, and next-gen 1998, but 1998 nonetheless"

seems to be agreed uppon overall

[synetic]

because xbox 360 is a fps console .... i have a xbox 360 and the only games i have are fps and soon the sweet halo 3

[mikeslemonade]

In 360 terms the game did well, but the game cost so much money to make that it isn't worth it because the 360 itself did not penetrate the japanese market.

[7ero H3LL]

(I have played many rpgs) But in my book this game gets a 9.0 out of 10. he is right in some ways there needs to be more RPGs for the 360.

I played Eternal sonata and it's graphics are in deed lesser than blue dragon , If only blue dragon had a excellent story it would have both great graphics and great story.

[tomfoolery]

Hear me proud Americans:
Don't buy ps3 or Wii............repeat,
Don't buy ps3 or Wii............until they start showing some
appreciation towards our gaming consoles...........it's only fair.

[BlazinEurasian]

Its b/c NA is more Japanese than Japan is North American. How many North Americans live in Japan vs Japanese living in North America? More eastern influence on our culture.
Bottom line tho Nationalism is stupid, even Einstein said 'Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.'.