And it’s not for the Xbox 360. Mistwalker is keeping the Blue Dragon franchise on the Nintendo DS with Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojyuu (loosely Blue Dragon: Colossal Beast of the Underworld). Unlike Blue Dragon Plus which comes out here in February this Blue Dragon game is not a real time strategy game. Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojyuu is being billed as a real time RPG with full 3D graphics designed for multiple players. My first impression is Blue Dragon meets Diablo.
Players don’t control Shu or any of the Blue Dragon stars either. Instead you play as a nameless protagonist that you customize and dress up with armor. Blue shadows are still key elements and judging from the early screenshots you might be borrowing them from Kluke and Jiro.
Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojyuu is a collaboration with Namco Bandai and Mistwalker. Hideo Baba who is fresh of Tales of Vesperia will work on the project with Hironobu Sakaguchi and Akira Toriyama. Namco Bandai plans to release Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojyuu in Japan sometime next year. While Blue Dragon never took off here like it did in Japan with the anime series and trading card game chances are good Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojyuu will come out in North America. If Namco Bandai doesn’t pick it up XSEED could since they have connections with Mistwalker via AQ Interactive and Namco Bandai from Retro Game Challenge.
Images courtesy of Namco Bandai / Shonen Jump.
