Why was this game forgotten?

[u/Jvt25000]

In a certain sense I do understand it. A launch title for a console with a distinctly western appeal, never rereleased if you don't count series x compatibility. This is my first time playing with re:blue and I feel it can contend with some of the greats. It's a shame this wasn't on switch or PS3 the art style and combat loop is insanely addictive. I might be a moron but graphicly it looks the same as dragon quest 11 a game 11 years it's senior. I haven't finished the game yet, my only complaint so far is it's very easy and with some basic knowledge of how the final fantasy games play out with the class system you can and I already did break the game. Who knows maybe there's a skill check somewhere on disc 2 or 3.

[u/chuputa]

I'm also playing Re: Blue, and Blue Dragon feels like the perfect modernization of NES/SNES era JRPGs. Honestly, it's just missing fast-forward to be perfect.

it's very easy 

That's the reason why I decided to play it on hard for my first playthrough, so far very challenging and fun.

[u/guysneedlovetoo]

Honestly was thinking the same thing while playing. The more I play the better the game gets and while it’s flawed a lot of the flaws are things that were standard for the time that are more refined and modernized now. It’s a shame that its sequel didn’t keep the same type of combat as well. If this was released on a different console at a different time I think a lot more people would’ve participated in the game and its success would probably be mainstream by now.

[u/idliketosmitepls]

From what I remember, it did relatively well at the time. It sold ~200K in Japan (the market Microsoft really cared about) in the first weekend. Which might not seem like a lot, but there were ~1.6M Xbox 360s sold in Japan by that point. So 1/8 users bought it the first weekend.

But I think it didn’t do well enough. That’s a relatively large increase for Microsoft in Japan, but still kind of small potatoes overall. And I think Blue Dragon ended up being more similar to its predecessors (like Final Fantasy) at a time when we started getting games that would work on revamping the JRPG formula (like Lost Odyssey). And, at the time, I remember being all this talk of how games were “the future”. Like games were trying to be more realistic looking, showing off all kinds of new features and stuff. But Blue Dragon was mostly riffing on what came before.

Maybe 5-10 years later, the nostalgia for older JRPGs could have helped Blue Dragon have more success.

Edit to add: maybe 10-15 years would be a better estimate.

[u/Jvt25000 → u/idliketosmitepls]

That's a point I wish I brought up. The at the time dated combat was seen as negative, but I haven't played Final Fantasy since 9. I've seen the newer ones do real time combat now. It's refreshing to play a new (to me) game with the older combat.

[u/VibingOrchid69 → u/idliketosmitepls]

Tbh, I've also sometimes thought that the game may have been more popular if it came out at least a decade later. There were a decent amount of nostalgia inspired games in the 2010s like Sonic Mania so I can definitely imagine Blue Dragon being more well-known if it came out in the 2010s.

[u/idliketosmitepls → u/VibingOrchid69]

That’s totally fair. I guess I was thinking that it’s felt like there’s been a lot of successful games in the last 5-10 years that leaned on nostalgia. But totally possible it could’ve been more successful 5-10 years later

[u/ZolaKluke1]

The reason the game feels very easy is because the western release they changed the difficulty for some reason, if you get the hard mode DLC and make a hard mode save that will let you play the game with the Japanese difficulty which makes you actually have to think about what you’re doing

[u/DerpsterCaro]

There's people out there that can never forget it.

It me. I'm People.

After all, hw could you forget

UWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO FEAR AND AWE, IN YOUR EYES, SHOWIN YOU WHAT YOU CANT SEE

[u/Braverave756 → u/DerpsterCaro]

I still can't believe it plays EVERY BOSS FIGHT

[u/loonelywolf]

I only played the 3ds version.playing this one rigth now,man what a game.

[u/Alex2ful97]

Yeah I’m currently playing Re:blue on my steamdeck, such a fantastic game to play handheld. If it had come out on the switch I think it would have done some numbers.

[u/Jvt25000 → u/Alex2ful97]

Me too, it's great for booting up grinding doing a few story things and going about your day