I was debating whether to necro this thread or create a new one, and I guess it's evident what I decided! Now, onto the business at hand...
So, I finally started playing Blue Dragon. As you can tell by the dates on this thread (and my own post in it), I am
rather late to the game. I'm about six hours in so far (looking for some plant
), and it's actually not nearly as bad as I thought it would be... four years ago. Hell, I even kind of like the boss battle music... it's a bit catchy!
I don't think it was very evident in the demo, but I actually really like the class system in the game. It isn't terribly complex, but with the few classes you have available, you're able to gain abilities and essentially create hybrid classes. For example, I was considering messing around with Guardian + White Magic + Barrier Magic to create what's essentially a Paladin.
It's even easier as some classes provide skills that boost your attributes to the level that the class would provide regardless of what class you are: Monk provides attack power, Assassin provides agility and Guardian provides defense. Right now, both Shu and Maru use a Monk, Swordsman hybrid that allows them to counter and gain health when they (direct!) attack. It works ridiculously well at keeping them alive without expending any MP on heals. I also found that getting Black Mage to level 8 is almost necessary for a caster to get the MP regain while walking.
What I don't like about the game? How you have to hit 'A' on almost every god damn object in the game to see if something is hidden there. While it's sometimes a worthless item that you'll never use or gold (1-500 gold is what I've seen so far), you can get permanent stat boosts (EXP, MP, HP, SP or even a full job level) from them as well.
Reading this thread again actually makes me wonder about the character art. People complain about how young they are, but the instructions actually list the main three characters as being 16. They definitely look younger (maybe about 12)... especially when you compare them to
Crono from Chrono Trigger (another game that Toriyama did the art for). I almost wonder if they aren't supposed to look young, but rather weak. In the beginning of the game, they make sure to spell it out for you that they are weak without their shadow guardians. It's also possible that they were originally meant to be younger, but that was considered unpopular.
