PixlBit

It looks nice out today. I think I'm going to go to town, perhaps meet up with some friends. Leaving my room, suddenly, it hits me. POW!

Cutscene.

Well, now I know some random person I've never seen before is unhappy and needs help in one random area. Guess I'll leave the building. Then, it hits me. Pow!

Cutscene.

Turns out I wasn't done seeing random-guy-I-don't-know be unhappy. He said some things, but then ran into the the building again. Sigh. I suppose I can help him out. I'll go back in. Pow!

Cutscene.

Oh, look, someone else I've seen before, but also don't know, has decided they want to be involved with whatever happened to random guy.

Well, turns out he needs some help doing something rather... random. A quest begins!

Random guy I don't know is in my party. So is girl I barely knew. We go accomplish something in a random dungeon that, oddly enough, lacks random battles. At the end, there's a random boss. Not random in the sense that a computer generates it. As with the cutscenes and the characters, the boss is just kind of there. Video game convention, I suppose.

After the quest, random character joins my group! Hooray? Ok, now I finally want to explore town. Maybe find a shop with cool stuff. Let me go into this building. Then it hits me, POW!

Cutscene.

Ok, all right, enough of this. The point is this: Blue Dragon's story is random and doesn't offer much in the way of character. The created character wakes up after being put into some kind of cryogenic sleep, makes his way to the main town, meets a few people from the original Blue Dragon title, and the game goes on from there. In all but a few cases, no character is developed. Even more, most of the game only loosely relates to the overall plot. In fact, the story doesn't pick up until the last three or four dungeons.

Even then, story events that occur have little logic and aren't very cohesive. Things happen for the sake of making the game last longer, characters remain flat, and the gameplay remains stale.

Did I mention the stale gameplay? Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow uses an alteration of traditional Japanese-styled RPG gameplay. While it isn't turn-based, there's level-grinding, spell-casting, and three simple weapon types. This results in a hack 'n' slash style RPG hybrid that doesn't work all that well. In battle, characters can block and roll to minimize damage dealt, but while it works for the main character, AI teammates are absolutely inept. Rather than having a character level up, shadows gain experience and levels, and determine any particular character's stats, too. These same shadows can be equipped by any character, too.

Allow me to talk about the AI. Ever seen something computer-controlled running toward a wall endlessly? That's in here. Ever seen something make no attempt to dodge incredibly powerful, slow, telegraphed attacks? Meet the party! Do they stand still in attacks that can hit multiple times if no attempt to move is made? Yes, indeed! Do they cast useless or nearly random spells from what's available without much regard to context or timing? Absolutely.

But don't worry. though some enemies and bosses can have attacks that can easily be dodged, others use devastating spells that can hit clear across the stage. These attacks can't be dodged, and blocking weakly reduces damage. Other attacks home in and literally float an enemy two or three body lengths toward its target after the striking animation begins. Even if a party member could dodge it, there's very little chance. Oh, I nearly forgot to mention that often, the hitboxes don't line up with the animations!

All this, combined, means that more often than not, the best solution is to run behind an enemy, slash away, and dodge whenever it turns from a party member to one's character, if that's possible. Attack spells lack whatever kick might be expected and present a large degree of down-time before another spell is cast. Buffs and healing spells are often a better choice, so whenever there's a chance to cast, chances one should choose a random buff.

There is local WiFi LAN play, as well as Nintendo WFC play that lets players trade equipment, battle bosses, and traverse a few bonus dungeons. Players playing with friends or over the Internet via friend codes do gain more experience, and more items are dropped by each enemy to make up for a loss of party members. Co-op play offers a bit more cohesive of an experience. Forget about the random cutscenes and terrible party members. Now that there's intelligence behind the team, and only combat seems to matter, things work a bit better. It's now conceivable to beat some of the high-end bosses, which before seemed impossible due to terrible AI. It isn't an entirely different game in multiplayer, don't misunderstand, but it's much more possible to overlook a few of the various problems this title has, and have an enjoyable experience.

Personally, I recommend this game to those people that have the opportunities to play online, and can tolerate about fifteen or twenty hours of terrible story to get to the post-game, expansive part. While it isn't a great experience and is beaten out in a lot of ways by several other DS RPGs, the game has content than can be fun under a specific set of circumstances. Other than in those circumstances, though, there's very little to offer. This game earned most of its stars thanks to the online play, and not through its main story.