Blue dragon

Blue Dragon (OT: Japanese ブルードラゴン , Burū Doragon ) is a Japanese computer role-playing game that was released in December 2006 for the Xbox 360 console . In Japan, over 80,000 units were sold in the first week alone. After Dead or Alive 4, it was the fastest-selling Xbox 360 game in Japan to date (as of September 2007). It was followed by two manga serials and anime - television series that in, TV Tokyo is broadcast. There have been two follow-up titles so far: Blue Dragon Plus , which takes place a year after the events of the original, and Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow (both for Nintendo DS ).

Computer games

Game mechanics

The game mechanics of Blue Dragon with its turn-based game elements were inspired by older Japanese role-playing games . The game world consists of two main areas: cities, in which the player can rest and purchase items , and areas that resemble dungeons with countless opponents to be defeated.

The player can initially move between the locations of the upper world and later receives the ability to teleport back to previously visited locations . The player controls a group of characters, but only one of them is portrayed when the overworld is discovered. When a fight begins, the whole troop appears. Enemies are visible while exploring the world and can be avoided. But monsters can also be attracted and several opponents can be fought at the same time by activating a circle. In certain cases, adversaries block a path or a treasure chest and must first be defeated before proceeding. Other opponents will chase the player as soon as they spot him. But they can also be bypassed if the player flees from them.

The core of the combat system in Blue Dragon is the use of magical shadows, each of which has one of the playable main characters and each of which has an individual appearance. The shadows of the main characters are modeled on a dragon , phoenix , minotaur , saber-toothed tiger and a bat . Each shadow can be assigned a single character class, which can be selected from several. Only the active class can be leveled up. However, the player can exchange them at any time (except during a fight). As Shadows gain experience in a class, they learn new skills and can use them in combat. However, this ability is only applicable in the class in which it was learned. Even if the fight is turn-based , a character can attack multiple times in one round, depending on their agility. Different attacks take different lengths of time to execute. The power and effectiveness of a normal attack can be increased by having the player prepare for an attack longer. The longer the preparation, the more powerful the attack.

Game world

Blue Dragon takes place in an open world that is divided into climatically different regions, each of which is home to kingdoms and villages. For the past ten years, mysterious purple clouds have appeared in the sky every year as harbingers of calamity and catastrophe. At the same time as the strange clouds, a terrible beast called a land shark appears, killing thousands of people and destroying countless villages around the world.

action

The home of the young Shu is haunted every year by a "land shark" which causes great damage. But this time Shu (the hero of the game) and his friend Giro decided to stop the land shark. Unexpectedly, a girl named Klug also interferes. The attempt to stop the land shark failed, but it pulled them into underground ruins. From there, fate takes its course. The three of them get caught by the mechanical land shark on Nene's airship, the one responsible for the annual attack on the village. As soon as they arrive on the airship, Nene chases them away again. They find strange balls of light and a mysterious voice tells them that they have to swallow them in order to escape from this airship. The balls of light give the heroes magical shadows and in the course of the game it is important to discover the secret of Nene and the balls of light and save one or the other village from its fate.

Characters

Shu - The main character of Blue Dragon. Like many others in his village of Talta , Shu's parents died from the land shark when he was a baby. That's why he grows up with his grandfather Fushira . Shu is cheeky and impetuous, which often gets him into trouble. But his courage and determination have often saved him from certain death. Like his best friend Chiro, he has a crush on Klug.

Shu owns the shade "Blue Dragon".

Klug - Klug's parents died of the land shark a year before the events in Blue Dragon . Her parents were the doctors in the village of Talta and after her death, Klug took over her role as the new doctor. Klug is very grown up and serious. The death of her parents hardened her.

Clever owns the shadow "Phoenix".

Giro - An intelligent, young man who has an eye for detail and a gift for planning. Giro's parents were killed in an attack by Szabo. Since then, Giro has been very dogged and quite humorless, he desperately wants revenge.

Giro has the shadow "Minotaur".

Manomaro - Is a member of the Devee tribe, yellow creatures who wear pots as hats. In the village of Lago , Nene poisons the entire tribe, except Manomaro, and forces him to create a special elixir to save his people. Manomaro ends almost every sentence with the words "but always".

Manomaro has the shadow "saber-toothed tiger".

Zola - Zola was originally a mercenary until she was almost killed. To save herself from death, she swallowed a ball of light that was given to her by a stranger. After this experience, she joined the sword masters of Jibral , became the most powerful fighter among them and earned the respect of King Jibral and his entire kingdom. Zola owns the shadow "bat". The only shadow in the game that carries a gun.

Nene - The villain in Blue Dragon is an old man who belongs to a humanoid "old race" and rules the great kingdom. It flies across the globe in an air fortress surrounded by purple clouds, causing destruction and despair. Its main goal is to rule the world. Nene's power over magic was so great that he became sick with it and quickly aged. To solve this problem, he wants the power of the heroes from Blue Dragon to put them together into a strong soul and to cure his illness.

Deathroy - Deathroy is Nene's lackey, who seems to take great pleasure in his wickedness. He sits dutifully on Nene's shoulder, tied with a short cable and repeats, like a parrot, everything Nene says, although he also has a will of his own and could speak for himself.

General Szabo - Szabo, also known as Grand Szabo, is Nene's servant robot. He is the leader of Nene's robot army and often moves on a floating platform.

Bouquet - Bouquet is a nice, very pretty, but rather clumsy girl. She worked as a waitress but was then fired for her clumsiness. Since then she has been traveling with Zola and the others. She has a crush on Shu and since he wasn't really listening to a conversation with her, he accidentally agreed to get engaged to Bouquet.

Bouquet has the shadow of Hippopotas.

development

Blue Dragon was first introduced on February 24, 2005 as one of two nameless role-playing games by the developer Mistwalker for the Xbox 360 console . The game was created in collaboration with Artoon . Well-known Japanese heads of the game industry contributed to the game. The story of the game was written by Hironobu Sakaguchi , who was responsible for the first five Final Fantasy games. Akira Toriyama took over the design : the father of Dragon Ball already provided the design of the characters and monsters and the illustration of the Dragon Quest series and Chrono Trigger . Another star of the development was Nobuo Uematsu . The well-known composer provided the appropriate background music. Much of the actual development work was done by Artoon , with Takuya Matsumoto as director.

In 2006 it became quiet about Blue Dragon , so that speculation arose in the media about the planned publication and an appearance at the end of 2006 was doubted. Microsoft's Takashi Sensui , however, confirmed the planned release date in August 2006. Blue Dragon was the first Xbox 360 game to appear on three DVDs. Just one year later, Lost Odyssey , also developed by Mistwalker , released it on four DVDs. The main reason for this is likely to be the epic and long render sequences in both games and the lush language selection.

Ratings

Magazines

GamePro : 87% (issue 10/2007)
Games current : 88% (edition 09/2007)
Maniac : 78% (edition 10/2007)

Online magazines

4Players : 82%
consolewars.eu : 9/15
DemoNews.de 79%
EuroGamer.de : 7/10
Games world : 78%
Spieletipps.de : 83%

Blue Dragon Plus

Blue Dragon Plus is a by Mistwalker designed and Feelplus and Brownie Brown developed role-playing game for the Nintendo DS handheld . Publisher is AQ Interactive . It is the successor to the Xbox 360 title Blue Dragon and starts a year after the events of this one.

Ratings

Magazines

N-Zone : 78% (03/2009 edition)

Online magazines

IGN : 8/10
4Players : 63%

Manga

There are manga produced -Adaptionen the computer game, Blue Dragon: Secret Trick and Blue Dragon RalΩGrad , both appear in magazines of Shueisha -Verlages.

Blue Dragon: Secret Trick

Blue Dragon: Secret Trick ( ブルードラゴンシークレットトリック , Burū Doragon Shīkuretto Torikku ) by Mangaka Ami Shibata was published monthly from January to July 2007 in the discontinued magazine Monthly Shonen Jump . An anthology was published on September 4, 2007. The series adhered closely to the computer game template.

Blue Dragon: RalΩGrad

Blue Dragon: RalΩGrad ( ブルードラゴンラル Ω グラド , Burū Doragon RaruΩGurado ), drawn by Takeshi Obata and written by Tsuneo Takano , was published weekly from December 4, 2006 to July 9, 2007 in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine . The 29 individual chapters, called tales , were published in Japan in four edited volumes. In Germany, all volumes were published by Tokyopop from October 2007 to November 2008.

Blue Dragon: Tenkai no Shichi Ryu

From July 2008, a third manga series will appear in the magazine V Jump of the Shueisha publishing house, which is based on the second season of the anime series.

Anime

action

The 16-year-old (in the original: 10 years old) Shu, who lives in a small, peaceful village, is looking for the knight master with his friends so that Shu can become an apprentice knight. Soon they meet two strangers, the shadow users Zola and Giro. Shu and his friends see a giant flying ship approaching their village while the strangers search the ruins for the sacred and powerful powers of the Blue Dragon. The village is attacked and the commander of the flight ship fights with his ogre shadow against the shadow killer bat of Zola. During the fight, huge boulders rush towards the residents of the village. Shu tries to save her and suddenly unleashes a tremendous power, the Blue Dragon. After a violent fight, Zola Shu offers to come with her, since she is the wanted master knight. At first Shu refuses, but then he decides to come along because he represents a danger to the whole village, because the evil Nene would keep sending troops to get to the Blue Dragon.

Together with Zola, Giro and his best friend Klug, Shu sets off to stop the evil Nene. The funny Manomaro and the beautiful bouquet, which also have shade, join them on their journey. When they fight against the evil Nene in the "Great Kingdom", they lose and can only survive a huge explosion with the help of the phoenix, the shadow of Klug. After a few more fights against Nene's followers, he succeeds in defeating him. This makes General Logi the ruler. Delphinum, who is under the command of Logis, kills Homeron and Klug is kidnapped. Logi and his followers treat Klug more like a guest than a prisoner, but cannot break out through the power of their shadow and flee, as this is prevented by a bracelet. Soon afterwards, Logi summoned Klug for an interview. Logi tries to reveal Klug that Zola is not a Knight of Light.

Zola and her friends are now traveling to the Land of Seals to meet Logi there. When he, his followers and Klug, who was able to break free, arrive, Shu breaks the seal on Zola's orders and thereby sets the darkness free. So it turns out that Zola is actually not a descendant of the Knights of Light and has harnessed them for their dark plans from the beginning. While Zola disappears into the darkness, everyone else present has to flee from the darkness, as it is constantly expanding and threatens to devour everything. Logi succeeds in deciphering the book of books and equips the children, Andropof, who has fallen in love with Klug, Schneider, a friend Logis, Delphinium and Logi with special amulets, so the darkness cannot harm them and can thus go into the darkness enter to find Zola and to find out why she released the darkness and how to reseal it. Andropov and Schneider stay behind to stop some guardian spirits and allow the seven knights of light to continue their journey. When the others meet Zola, there is a fight, but Zola only fights half-heartedly, as Logi remarks. Zola offers Shu to switch to her side, which Shu refuses. Thereupon Zola destroys his amulet and that of the others, they are swallowed up by the darkness. Through the darkness, Blue Dragon becomes the god of destruction again (a "real" dragon), Killer Bat explains who he (Blue Dragon) is, and that he devoured Shu, which is why he is now free and no longer on anyone must hear. Blue Dragon however decides against the darkness and instead to destroy it. That's why he "spits" Shu out again and fights his way back with him from the darkness into the land of seals, where they continue the fight against Zola. Little by little the others come back and are amazed to see that Shu and Blue Dragon have become incredibly strong. Shu finally manages to defeat Zola. Then the seven succeed in sealing the darkness, for which they use up all their shadow energy and thus can never call them again. What happens to Andropov and Schneider is not conclusively clarified.

publication

In 2007 Studio Pierrot produced an anime television series for the game with 51 episodes. Directed by Yukihiro Matsushita . The character design was by Tsuneo Ninomiya and the artistic director was Shinichi Tanimura. The anime adaptation has been running in Japan since April 7, 2007 on TV Tokyo , TV Osaka, TV Aichi and TV Hokkaido. From April 11th, TV Setouchi followed, and another 20 channels were added in April and May. After this ended on March 29th on the first airing channels, followed on April 5th - on TV Hokkaido not until April 13th - the second "season" with the title Blue Dragon: Tenkai no Shichi Ryū . However, this was also adopted for broadcast by far fewer broadcasters.

VizMedia has secured the rights to the series and plans to broadcast it in the US and Europe. The series has been broadcast on Cartoon Network in the United States since March 2008 .

The series was broadcast in German by RTL II from October 20, 2008 . The broadcast was canceled on November 7th after 15 episodes, but was available online on the Pokito website up to and including episode 25. Towards the end of November 2008 this broadcast was also canceled. In 2009 RTL II repeated the series on television and this time showed all episodes of the first season. The DVDs were released in two versions on November 24, 2008 by Anime Virtual . One corresponds to the cut and child-friendly TV version, the other to the original version.

Voice actor

On behalf of the RTL II editorial team, the German dubbing of the anime series was edited by MME Studios in Berlin in 2008 . Jörg Heybrock directed the dialogue based on the dubbing books by Isabel Wiest and Sabine Sebastian.

role	Japanese speaker ( seiyū )	German speaker
Blue dragon	Masaya Takatsuka	Gerald Paradise
Shu	Keiko Nemoto	Sandro Blümel
Zola	Romi Park	Tina Haseney
giro	Daisuke Namikawa	Carsten Otto
Smart	Erino Hazuki	Julia Stoepel
Manomaro	Sakiko uranium	Michael Bauer
Bouquet	Saki Nakajima	Isabelle Schmidt
Legolas	Kenyu Horiuchi
Saber-toothed tiger	Jin Horikawa	Axel Lutter
King Nene	Shiro Saito	Frank Ciazynski (Anime) Klaus-Dieter Klebsch (Game)
Dolsk	Hirofumi Nojima	Sebastian Schulz
teller		Dirk Mueller
Ivanov	Tadashi Mutou	Julien Haggége
Gustav	Wataru Hatano	Martin Kautz

music

The music in the series was composed by Megumi Ōhashi and Nobuo Uematsu . The opening title used was Friend by Keita Tachibana and Mune ni Kibō o ( ムネニキボウヲ ) by Haruka . The endings were backed by Fly So High by Yu Yamada, Kokoro by SS501 and Hana by Masami Mitsuoka .

In the German version, the song from the American version, Unstoppable , is used. Credits only existed in the online episodes available on Pokito.de until the end of November 2008.

Individual evidence

↑ Blue Dragon sells 80,000 in Japan. ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Pro G. (English)
↑ ign.com: New Mistwalker RPG Announced, Accessed October 25, 2009
↑ ign.com: Blue Dragon Reveals Accessed October 25, 2009
↑ ign.com: No postponement of Blue Dragon, accessed October 25, 2009
↑ Anoop Gantayat: Blue Dragon Arrives. ign.com, December 6, 2006. (Accessed September 10, 2010)
↑ ign.com: Mistwalker title released on multiple discs, accessed October 25, 2009
↑ Review at DemoNews
↑ Anime News Network on the upcoming launch of the third manga
↑ Anime News Network about the expected airing in the spring
↑ AnimeY ( memento of November 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) about the interruption of the broadcast
↑ Anime no Tomodachi Newsletter No. 387, 41-08
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d Blue Dragon (TV). Anime News Network, accessed December 11, 2012 .
↑ Blue Dragon. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on December 11, 2012 .

Web links

Blue Dragon at XBox.com Japan ( Memento from April 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Japanese)
Blue Dragon at the developer Mistwalker ( Memento from July 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (Japanese)
Anime website (Japanese)
Website of the German manga
Blue Dragon in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Interview with producer Hironobu Sakaguchi

[1] Blue Dragon sells 80,000 in Japan. ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Pro G. (English)

[2] .com: New Mistwalker RPG Announced, Accessed October 25, 2009

[3] .com: Blue Dragon Reveals Accessed October 25, 2009

[4] .com: No postponement of Blue Dragon, accessed October 25, 2009

[5] Anoop Gantayat: Blue Dragon Arrives. ign.com, December 6, 2006. (Accessed September 10, 2010)

[6] .com: Mistwalker title released on multiple discs, accessed October 25, 2009

[7] Review at DemoNews

[8] Anime News Network on the upcoming launch of the third manga

[9] Anime News Network about the expected airing in the spring

[10] AnimeY ( memento of November 10, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) about the interruption of the broadcast

[11] Anime no Tomodachi Newsletter No. 387, 41-08

[Anime_News-12] Blue Dragon (TV). Anime News Network, accessed December 11, 2012 .

[13] Blue Dragon. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on December 11, 2012 .