Blue Dragon Goes Online

While we're still waiting on Blue Dragon Plus, over in Japan, DS owners can now look forward to their second Blue Dragon game, and the third overall for the series. Bandai Namco recently announced Blue Dragon Ikai no Kyojuu (which we'll call Blue Dragon DS 2 for the rest of this story), and followed up the announcement with a playable debut for the game at the weekend's Jump Festa event.

Blue Dragon DS 2 is a direct sequel to the original Xbox 360 Blue Dragon, taking place two years after the events of that game. Shu isn't the main character this time around, through. Instead, players get to create their very own main character, who joins up with Shu and the rest of the Blue Dragon cast for an all new adventure.

You have plenty of options when creating your character. Starting with a default male or female template, you can select from a series of preset hairstyles, eyebrows, eyes, and even voices. During the game, you can equip a variety of weapons and other items, altering your character's physical appearance.

Character customization isn't all that's new for Blue Dragon DS 2. The first Blue Dragon was a traditional menu-based RPG. The second, Blue Dragon Plus, is a real time strategy game. For Blue Dragon DS 2, Bandai Namco is delivering an RPG with real time action-oriented combat. You move about on 3D fields, directly attacking enemies and calling upon your shadows for magic.

You're not alone during combat. Also new for Blue Dragon DS 2 is online play. The game allows for up to three players to play together, making use of their customized characters. Judging by the Jump demo, the online play is a bit early, but we're excited by the prospect of group action RPG play, even though specifics on the game's structure haven't been revealed yet.

We're not sure which side of the game will have more importance, the story mode or the multiplayer mode. At Jump, Bandai Namco had players first sample multiplayer for 10 mintues, then sample single player for another 10 minutes. That's not nearly enough to get into a single player mode of play, so we couldn't determine how strong the game is when it comes to story telling.

There are some good signs for those who want a story driven experience. First off, a trailer shown at Jump (you can see it for yourself at the game's official website) suggested that there will be lots of events in the story mode. Also worth noting is that the game's producer is Hideo Baba, brand manger for the Tales series, which is known for its involving stories.

Despite a playable showing at Jump, there's still plenty of mystery surrounding this second DS Blue Dragon game. The title is still being flagged with a vague 2009 Japanese release date, so we expect Bandai Namco to take their time sharing further details.

In the mean time, English-speaking Blue Dragon fans can be on the lookout for Blue Dragon Plus, which is due for stateside release in February.

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