blue dragon impressions.

i plugged around 4 hours into blue dragon over the weekend, so here's what i think of it so far.

the presentation of the game is fantastic. at first i didn't like the character design at all: rotund heads, small eyes and plain colours, but to see them move and talk rubs off on you. and speaking of talking, the english voice acting isn't actually that terrible, and the option to turn it off actually appears when you start a new game. kudos!

the battle system is a take on the good ol' final fantasy turn-based system (even pre-ATB) with a few gimmicks tacked on. when casting magic a bar appears; hold down A and let go in the orange sweet-spot to consume less MP. this adds a layer of skill to the simple menu mashing, as well as a genius layer of tactics: the bar also shows when your spell will be cast in the order of each player or enemy's turn.

battles are initiated on the field by touching an enemy just as in eternal sonata, although BD also implements an arc by pressing the right trigger where you can choose to attack an enemy. this also allows you to target more than one enemy; some combinations of enemies trigger "monster battles" where the enemies will attack each other. often you will find yourself luring monsters into your arc to make them fight each other, which does break the monotony somewhat.

the story so far is one of the most outlandish since xenogears; nothing makes sense, random events occur that aren't explained (for now at least), and the characters don't seem fazed by it at all. just the way i like it, actually.