Posts with tag blue dragon
Posted Jul 5th 2007 9:30AM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Xbox Live Marketplace
If you've been on the fence about
Blue Dragon, then we have some good news for you. According to Dengeki Online (helpfully translated by Siliconera), an international
Blue Dragon demo is slated for July 20. Weighing an impressive 1.1GB, the demo will apparently contain a whopping 2 hours of available gameplay. We hope you've grown accustomed to the English voice-overs though, as Japanese will not be an option in the demo. There may be a few different subtitle options, depending on the language settings of your Xbox. Finally, be sure to grab the demo as soon as you can, as it will fly away from
Marketplace on August 3rd, giving just over three weeks to save up for the
real thing.
[Via Siliconera]
Posted Jul 2nd 2007 11:45AM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
The United States of America's birthday is just around the corner and Xbox.com thought of no better way to celebrate July 4th than by playing ... Japanese games? Well, we don't quite see the correlation here other than a
Blue Dragon name tie-in, but we'll go with it. And even though we prefer to celebrate the Fourth of July with explosive fireworks, grilled food and family we just might pop in some
Dead Rising,
Tenchu Z,
Street Fighter or
Castlevania come Wednesday.
See Japan, the Xbox 360 loves you so much it's willing to incorporate your gaming culture in a marketing campaign aimed at Americans on their country's birthday. Don't you think you owe the 360 some love now?
Posted Jun 28th 2007 11:30AM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News
It was confirmed during
GDC this year that
Blue Dragon would be hitting the U.S.
sometime this August. We've received official word from Microsoft this morning that the game will ship on August 28. Yes, in just 61 days, U.S. games will finally be able to play Mistwalker's first opus. In celebration of
Blue Dragon, Microsoft plans to make a fan site kit available from the official
Blue Dragon page on Xbox.com (it's not available right now, despite the press release's protestations to the contrary). Xbox.com will also be hosting a feature article about the game, though it still hasn't gone live as of this posting. For those of you still unfamiliar with the game, we suggest you check out the
recent preview from Eurogamer.
Posted Jun 27th 2007 5:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News
Eurogamer got its hands on the English version of
Blue Dragon and took the time to write up some impressions. Overall, the gist of the preview is that
Blue Dragon tries to recreate classic Japanese role playing game design without reinventing it. As noted by the preview, everything seems as though it was pulled from classic RPGs and made to mesh with modern console aesthetics. The graphics look like old school 2D characters and worlds come to life, the characters are broadly drawn, and the combat is solidly turn-based. About the only concession the game makes to modern game design (or "progress" as Eurogamer calls it) is that battles are not random. In the end, it seems that
Blue Dragon was meant as a nostalgic trip down memory lane with a new coat of paint. The only problem, according to Eurogamer, is that such nostalgia may be in limited supply outside of Japan. We'll find out when
Blue Dragon hits North America this August.
Posted Jun 24th 2007 4:15PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News
Microsoft's 360 sales in Japan may be borderline sad and depressing, but at least their ad campaigns are winning awards.
Blue Dragon's marketing campaign BIG SHADOW won a coveted Canneslion award for best outdoor advertisement. The BIG SHADOW campaign can be seen here and took place in Japan where they projected people's shadows on a nearby building that morph into
Blue Dragon creatures. The campaign also went online featuring a live feed of the fun and interaction with the shadows. It's quite the creative experience and well worth an award. Now only if Microsoft could translate an advertising award into Xbox 360 hardware sales then we think things would be good in Japan.
[Thanks Jonah Falcon, Via Joystiq]
Posted May 24th 2007 1:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News
If you've been waiting for a version of
Blue Dragon with English subtitles
and you happen to live in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, or Singapore, then you are in luck! Siliconera reports that Microsoft has officially released
Blue Dragon to Asian territories outside of Japan. This version of
Blue Dragon features Japanese or Korean voice acting and both Chinese and English subtitles. Before you start getting your importing hopes up though, we must inform you that the game
is region locked, unlike many Asian Xbox 360 games. However, if you just so happen to have a Japanese Xbox 360, more power to you.
The rest of us, unfortunately, will be waiting until the English version's official
August release.
[Via Joystiq]
Posted Apr 26th 2007 11:00AM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News
Speaking to Japanese website, Gpara.com, Mistwalker head,
Hironobu Sakaguchi, expressed interest in taking the inevitable sequel to
Blue Dragon online. Sakaguchi told the website (translated by Eurogamer), "Specifics aren't finalised, but there's a possibility that it will be produced as an online title." Granted, it's possible that something was lost in translation, but it sounds as though Sakaguchi wants to make online functionality central to
Blue Dragon 2. Of course, it's just as likely that the online functionality could be limited to simple things like item trading or the Mechat shooting segments. Given the original title's relative success in Japan, adding online functionality could be a good way to get more Japanese gamers on Xbox Live.
American gamers will finally get their shot at
Blue Dragon in
August.
[Via Joystiq]
Posted Apr 19th 2007 4:30PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News, Xbox Live Marketplace
Today, Microsoft announced a sparkly new piece of
Blue Dragon downloadable content that will be available for Japanese Xbox 360 gamers April 27th. For 300 Microsoft points (444 yen) you too can get your very own Random Dungeon Creator. That is if you live in Japan and have a copy of
Blue Dragon. And excuse us if this is common knowledge, but what in the world is a Random Dungeon Creator? Does it create post-modern dungeons in a random fashion to explore and wander about? Seriously, a Random Dungeon Creator ... it just sounds silly to us.
Posted Mar 28th 2007 2:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News
Speaking to Gamasutra,
Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, says that Microsoft is "very realistic" about its prospects in Japan. Kim notes that Microsoft's approach was never to "win" Japan, but rather to do better than the original Xbox. Part of this strategy, of course, means recruiting Japanese talent like Hironobu Sakaguchi, who is creating both
Blue Dragon and
Lost Odyssey for the console. Kim says the importance of Japan is motivated by more than financial numbers, but also by the amount of talent in the Japanese development community. Titles like
Dead Rising and Lost Planet, says Kim, are illustrating to Japanese developers that Japanese titles can be financially successful in the west. Finally, Kim asserts that Microsoft's aims in Japan remain "realistic," and while
Blue Dragon and
Lost Odyssey will be moderately successful in Japan, they will be successful in the west as well.
Posted Mar 8th 2007 8:45PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, Podcasts, GDC '07
During our preview of
Blue Dragon and
Lost Odyssey on Tuesday, we were lucky enough to score a little question and answer time with RPG luminary, Hironobu Sakaguchi (and his translator). We learned a few things about
Blue Dragon,
Lost Odyssey, and the differences between them. We learned about the downloadable content in store for
Blue Dragon, too. We also got to ask him about what its like to have his own company now (Mistwalker), what's next after
Lost Odyssey, the 360's performance in Japan, and Sakaguchi-san's love for
Gears of War.
We captured all the audio and now present it for download on
MP3 (
Fancast subscribers will get it automatically). As an added bonus, we also threw in a bit of the music from
Lost Odyssey. Download and enjoy.
Posted Mar 7th 2007 2:00PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News, Xbox Live Arcade, Mass Effect, GDC '07
For those of you looking to find information on some of your favorite upcoming Microsoft Game Studios or XBLA games, just take a look at what Xbox.com has to offer. Over on the GDC section of Xbox.com you'll find a bunch of downloads for games like
Forza 2,
Blue Dragon,
Mass Effect and
Shadowrun. You can download fact sheets, press releases, and screenshots for those games including XBLA games like
Schizoid,
Eets Chowdown, and
Jetpac Refuelled. So much information, so little time ... but get downloading because everyone knows you care.
Posted Mar 6th 2007 7:15PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: News, GDC '07
A jet-lagged but amiable Hironobu Sakaguchi gave us a first look at the English localized version of
Blue Dragon. As luck would have it, we also got a firsthand look at the localized version of
Lost Odyssey. That statement is actually a little misleading, as Sakaguchi informed us that
Lost Oddyssey will launch simultaneously around the world this holiday. That's right,
this holiday, not holiday 2008. But, back to the preview. The first game up was
Blue Dragon.
Continue reading GDC 07: Sakaguchi part one: Blue Dragon
Posted Mar 6th 2007 5:45PM by Dustin Burg
Filed under: News, GDC '07
Blue Dragon, the only Xbox 360 game Japan cares about, will be coming to the Americas later this year. Microsoft just announced that
Blue Dragon will see a North America release sometime in August. We also learned that upcoming RPG
Lost Odyssey will have a worldwide release sometime this Fall. And remember kids, our culture isn't as familiar with blue dragons, but it is common knowledge in other parts of the world that they are indeed calm creatures. That is until they are cornered, told they are bad Japanese games, and that the color blue is so last year ... then they will hurt you.
[Thanks, dpcough]
Posted Jan 31st 2007 4:00PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Console wars
While those in the west see the Xbox 360 a definite
success (
so far), Japan is a completely different story. Having only sold 300,000 units throughout the first year in its lifespan, the 360 has a
long way to go in the land of the rising sun. Gamasutra sits down with a localization specialist and Kotaku's Japanese correspondent to discuss Microsoft's prospects in Japan. The prognosis: it needs work. While the two disagree on a few points (the localization director sees the glass half-empty, whereas the other sees it half-full) the overall picture is somewhat grim. The Xbox 360 has been gaining some ground in the past few months. Titles like
Blue Dragon (and to a lesser extent
Gears of War) have helped generate 360 sales, but it's not nearly enough to gain a decent market share. Microsoft's biggest hurdle will be penetrating the culture barrier and understanding Japanese consumers (and apparently Do! do! do! isn't cutting it).
With more Japanese titles on the way (namely
Lost Odyssey), Microsoft better get its marketing crew in gear if they want to stand a chance in Japan. If MS can get a foothold in Japan, it means more variety for everyone, and that's always a good thing.
[Via Xbox-Scene]
Posted Jan 22nd 2007 4:30PM by Richard Mitchell
Filed under: Rumors
We don't always report on GameStop ship dates (you should see the pile of
Halo 3 release date tips we get on a regular basis) but this one is special. According to GameStop's
Blue Dragon entry, the game is set to hit the US on June 5, 2007. This meshes well with a recent Game Informer cover story claiming that the game would hit this summer (Game Informer, incidentally, is owned by GameStop).
We know that the Japanese version of the game received some
decent reviews, but Joystiq sheds what little light it can on the US localized version. Essentially, the game will remain the same apart from translated text and re-dubbed English voices (which can blessedly be replaced with the original Japanese voices if desired). Some of the songs will be re-dubbed in English as well (
that should be interesting). Joystiq also notes that episodic content may be available for download after the game is released.
[Via Joystiq]
Next Page >
