Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow scores 6/10 in the verdict of The Games Market editorial team.
Once Upon a Time
Blue Dragon! The Dragon's Shadow Awakens on DS!
by Simon Larocca·June 9, 2024
Finding enough room to maneuver to spread your wings and take flight, just as a young dragon would to show it has become an adult and independent, is by no means easy when it comes to JRPGs, those classic Japanese-style role-playing games scattered everywhere in the shops of the Land of the Rising Sun.
Quando nel 2006 Mistwalker by a certain Hironobu Sakaguchi (the legendary game
designer who gave the world Final
Fantasy and forgive me if that’s not a small thing, to say nothing of holy shit) developed
exclusively for Xbox360 Blue Dragon, it was certainly aware that it would have to work
hard to develop a title that had something extra beyond the masses, so that
that famous flight we were talking about earlier could happen without too many jolts
or disastrous falls that would have made credibility plummet as well as sales. The title went
fairly well despite many reservations, so
Nintendo seized the dragon, uh I mean took the opportunity and published those
that to this day constitute the two direct sequels for Ds, Blue Dragon Plus and
Awakened Shadow: in those years, Nintendo’s dual-screen console was
undoubtedly the first choice for a dynamic and colorful role-playing game like
this.
Having had the good fortune to
play all the titles in the series back to back, I can say that
not only does the world invented by Sakaguchi have its own raison d'être, but fans of
classic role-playing games will find plenty to sink their teeth into on the little big
console with the dot on the top! The character design is easily attributable to the
Master of Masters: just a quick glance at Shu and company to understand
that it was handled by none other than Akira Toriyama
and his studio, giving it that extra authorial touch.
From the very first moments, this title loudly tells us that yes, the evolution of the plot from the series’ original entry is there and can be seen, but at the same time it tells us of the desire to distance itself from it and take on a clearer, more defined role as a game in its own right. You can feel this both in Blue Dragon Plus and in Awakened Shadow, the first thanks to the revival of the combat system that closely resembles gems like Revenant Wings (which I devoured), the second by adopting a fun and spectacular multiplayer mode: a necessary little digression of mine, because just imagine, we’re talking about almost fifteen years ago, what could that have meant, especially on a tiny handheld console? In simple terms, an absolutely awesome thing, no more and no less.
If we talk about the mere visual aspect, the graphics engine reaches a good level even if it does not exactly work miracles; the game environments, both the dungeons and the cities, forests and various settings, are rendered with the effectiveness one would expect from the console we have in our hands.
[Good graphic rendering]
Ambiented a couple of years after the main events
of the first chapter, the new iteration of Blue Dragon does not choose the path
of originality and dresses the game in a steady series of deja vu that could have been shaped
with more innovative elements and that creative wit that seems to tell us: hey, I'm
just doing the bare minimum, I know, but I'm doing it well enough, right?
Hours and
hours spent farming to power up the party
and clear dungeons without running into the notorious 0 life points and having to
start over: all been there, done that? Yes.
È anyway fun? Yes, again, it is worth it; if you are JRPG lovers, don’t let this blue-scaled dragon slip away, and if you really want to see it fly, let it be on your consoles.
6
Pro
First-level character design, Toriyama is synonymous with quality
Very classic, purists will like it
Bestiary and a fairly varied supporting cast
Contro
Dungeons are sometimes a bit too repetitive, structurally speaking
A constant feeling of déjà vu that might make those looking for something more innovative wrinkle their noses
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
Simon Larocca
My name is Simon Larocca, and I am a gamer, collector, and lover of pop culture in all its forms. I go to the cinema whenever I can, I have been reading since I started wearing glasses, so, basically forever, and I have a passion for storytelling in all its forms, so powerful that it became my profession. But as Doc from Ritorno al Futuro would say, there would be no present if one did not look at the past with respect and admiration, and it is the Simon child of more than thirty years ago, give or take a year, who is to thank for that.
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