Even though Microsoft's original Xbox was considered to be a huge success, there were still a few 'pockets of resistance' in the gaming markets around the world when it came to their take up of the Xbox console brand, and one of these was Japan - a market which heavily favours the Sony and Nintendo offerings. Naturally this is something MS were desperate to change with the Xbox 360, and as such quite a few in-house funded games have been more or less squarely aimed at the Japanese gamer by outsourcing Japanese developers - some decent, some pretty terrible. Unfortunately for MS, this focus on the Japanese market has not equalled large sales once again for the Xbox brand in Japan, but relative to the amount of 360 consoles which have actually been sold there one game has stood out - Blue Dragon. After its Japan release in late 2006 Blue Dragon went on to be the most successful Xbox 360 game in the Land of the Rising Sun. Almost a year on this title is now seeing release in the Western markets, but does it have enough appeal to sell outside of its intended audience?

From game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi, whose resume contains work on the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts series, it comes as no surprise that Blue Dragon is an RPG that tells the classic story of the good underdogs versus the evil villain. The underdogs in this case are three kids - Shu, Jiro and Kluke -  from a small village known as Talta. As the story goes, Talta Village has been under random attack by an imposing mechanical beast the village refers to as a 'Land Shark' to the point it is making life much harder than it should be on the humble towns folk. Anticipating its return with a counter attack of their own, the kids find themselves literally hanging on for dear life as this heroic attempt to protect their village sparks the beginning of an epic journey across the lands to find and eliminate the cause of these attacks. While at the start Shu, Jiro and Kluke were acting on their own will and fortitude alone, early on in the game's story they will be approached by a mysterious anonymous figure granting them all magical powers. These powers are represented by mythical beast like blue coloured shadows that appear during combat and basically allow these kids to take on enemies much bigger and stronger than themselves - for instance, the main character 'Shu' has a dragon for his shadow, and hence you get the game's title name.

Being a single player only experience, Blue Dragon does not have much in the way of differing game modes. In fact, there is only one - the single player story mode - and this mode and therefore more or less the entire game features two distinct modes of gameplay - the exploration mode, and the combat mode. The exploration mode is how you move about in the lands of Blue Dragon and primarily how you progress the storyline. It is here where the game takes on a real-time form as you rummage through treasure chests and various other objects for gold and items, as well as interact with other characters and services such as item shops. Even though in most instances your party consists of more than one character, in this mode you are only represented visually by one character which you can choose via the game's all purpose pause menu. This is one of the many instances where Blue Dragon conforms to traditional RPG design, as the exploration mode itself isn't so much a gameplay element as it is an interactive menu system.

Of course, there is one other major purpose in the exploration mode, and that is to instigate battles, i.e., the game's combat mode, which is done in a purely turn based way, once again adhering to the framework of the traditional RPG, particularly the traditional Japanese RPG. How you instigate a battle in the exploration mode can have a direct influence over how the combat is portrayed. For example, if you attack a enemy in the exploration mode from behind, when the game enters the combat mode your enemies will be facing the other way enhancing your attack. On the other hand, if an enemy surprises or attacks you in the exploration mode, you may find the formation of your character party to be out of sync, or you may find that your enemies dominate the 'first dibs' when it comes to the order of attacks in the game's turn based system, which can mean the difference between victory and defeat against the game's more formidable foes.

It is this order or sequence of attacks that really dictate the battles in this game, and while the order itself will vary battle to battle based on character attributes and the likes, it is always visible at the top of the screen so you'll always be privy to when and how you should plan your attacks and defenses. For example, if the order favours you and all your characters have a turn before any of the enemies, it may be optimal to deploy a few less powerful but more widespread attacks that damage an entire line of enemies rather than target individuals. On the other hand, if you're up against multiple enemies one of them has a turn between your characters, it might be a better idea to target the enemy who dissects your turns so he is defeated before he even gets a go. On top of this, the game adds an additional layer to the combat strategy with the ability to 'power up' certain attacks where you must decide between an attack's impact and its placement in the attack order. It's a tricky balance that the game pulls off reasonably well as while the combat gameplay can naturally become very repetitive after a while, you will have to really be on your game here and there otherwise you might get surprised.

There is more to Blue Dragon's combat strategy than just the order however, naturally success in combat is also about picking and choosing the best attacks for the type of enemy you face. If you're up against a giant dragon that seems to be half rock half fire for instance, it might be best to consider attacks that don't involve fire. And it isn't just the physical and magical attacks your characters can do either, certain items you pick up in your journeys may also be useful during combat not to mention very useful to replenish either of the game's two bars when it comes to your characters - HP and MP, representing health and magical power respectively.