Blue Dragon Awakened Shadow
A surprisingly gentle RPG - achieved because the characters are so nice.
The games takes place two years after the original Blue Dragon.
In this game you play as your own character, nice because you can choose to be female,
instead of as the previous hero - Shu.
However, many of the old friends are still in the game - Shu, Kluke, Jiro, Zola.
Customization can be done from head to toe - gender, mouth, eyes, eyebrows, hair, voice - I chose the one with the most intelligible words.
You awake with no memories, and after traversing various passages,
take a funky elevator up to a seaside town that looks like Coney Island.
Upon meeting some friendly citizens you find out that they all have lost their "shadows".
Shadows are powerful allies and extremely helpful when battling monsters.
Fortunately, you have yours.
And this sends you and your new friends on a searches and quests to find and restore the shadows.
Characters are engaging and go about their business attending to their own tasks,
which generates the feeling that there really is a world out there.
Scenes are generously detailed and characters easily identifiable - you can
actually see the ties on Kluke's apron and the skull on Zola's cap.
You switch characters by focusing on the face and pressing the X button.
Minimal music is unobtrusive except when danger appears.
Eight worlds promise many hours of play - I have only ventured into the
first few worlds - but it looks good in spite of the real time combat.
If the battles get too violent - I'll be back.
Online multiplayer instructions.
Reviewed by: Editor - May/10
Rating: E-10+ - Everyone 10+
Fun Factor: Engaging
Female Factor: Good mix in game - you can choose your character's gender
Player Friendly: With all the good characters in the game - manual misses by not identifying them.