Blue Dragon : The Largest game on 360


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Uh-oh, was sony possibly right?

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/747/747023p1.html

November 21, 2006 - Blue Dragon doesn't hit Japan for another couple of weeks, but there's already talk of a sequel. In the latest issue of Famitsu, producer Hironobu Sakaguchi confirmed plans for a follow up to the big Microsoft-published RPG. Furthermore, while he wouldn't confirm a final platform, Sakaguchi does expect the sequel to appear on the 360.

Sakaguchi's surprise announcement came as part of a lengthy interview to commemorate the end of production for Blue Dragon. That's right, the 360's first Japanese killer app is done, as one would hope given the game's 12/7 Japanese release date.

Including initial planning, development on the title took three years, Sakaguchi revealed. Actual development on the 360 was a two year process. And it was quite the difficult process, it seems, as Sakaguchi claims to have lost 10 kilograms from July 2004, when first interviews were conducted regarding the title.

Blue Dragon ships on three DVDs, making it bigger than any Xbox 360 title to date. According to Sakaguchi, the game required compression technology to fit onto the three disks. In uncompressed form, the game's data takes up over 30 Gigs of space!

Players can expect between 40 to 50 hours of play time for the game. Just playing through the game minus all the side quests, Sakaguchi managed to take 35 hours.

And when you get through it all, you can look forward to Xbox Live content. The first such content will hit Japan some time between the beginning of the year and Spring. Sakaguchi referred to the content as being free of charge, but he wouldn't give further details.

With work on Blue Dragon complete, you might be wondering what Sakaguchi is up to now. A whole lot, it turns out. In addition to Lost Odyssey, a demo of which was recently released to Japan, Sakaguchi is hard at work on Cry-On (Xbox 360) and A.S.H. (DS). Sakaguchi expects to finish A.S.H. in the first half of next year. Half the game is playable at this point.

On top of these three games, Sakaguchi revealed that he has three more titles in the works! Development on two of these has already started, with the third one set to begin shortly. Sakaguchi wouldn't provide specifics on the games, only stating that he'd be taking a slight trip to the West. This seems to suggest work with a publisher located to the West of Mistwalker's Tokyo studio (a list that would include Nintendo, we'll point out) on one or more of the titles, but Sakaguchi went silent when Famitsu pressed further.

The only thing missing from the Famitsu interview is info on Blue Dragon's stateside release. We expect to hear more on the international version once the Japanese version hits shops on 12/7.

Edited by Meshuggah
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Uh-oh, was sony possibly right?

sure looks like it... but depending on the amount of games that come out and are multi dvd... will determine whether sony was right or not... if only a hand full of RPGs come out then its not a big deal... if we start seeing GOW2 and other huge titles come out on 2 dvds... then there is going to be an open door for MS bashing about not going HD-DVD...for me.. i dont play RPGs and had no intention on getting Blue Dragon... so until this effects me directly..... sony wasnt right in forcing the blue ray drive

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Sony wasn't necessarily right. It's because of all the CGI in the game. The Japanese love their CG cutscenes, and Blue Dragon isn't any different.

Had they done cutscenes using the in-game engine, I bet it would be on one disc.

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As long as it's the only the odd game that spans multiple discs I don't see a problem. Such games tend to have 10-20 hours of gameplay per disc anyway so it's hardly a huge chore to swop the disc when required.

In no way does this make me think Sony did the right thing with putting Blu-ray into the PS3. Mainly because of how long it has taken them to get the console out. We'd have been without a great next-gen console for the past year, assuming it would have taken MS as long to sort out a 360 with an HD-DVD drive instead of DVD. Then there's the cost issue, as I think the 360 is costly enough as-is, without reaching PS3 heights.

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Many PS1 games where multidisc such as Final Fantasy VII-IX = 4CDS, Fear Effect 1 & 2 = 4CDS and wasn't a problem and it was all to do with those lengthy cutsences. It will only be a handful of games that will span over 1 DVD and i think MS has nothing to worry about. The discs cost far cheaper that Blu-Ray.

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Put it on HD-DVD, alienate everyone who doesnt have one, smart business move.

Besides streaming the game over HD-DVD USB cable would be like waiting for a game to load on Blu-Ray because if its **** poor transfer rates.

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Man, they should just release it on HDDVD.

I'd cancel my plans on buying the game if they did that.

Besides streaming the game over HD-DVD USB cable would be like waiting for a game to load on Blu-Ray because if its **** poor transfer rates.

Data can be transferred through a USB cable a lot faster than the HD-DVD player can read the data off the disc.

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Sony wasn't necessarily right. It's because of all the CGI in the game. The Japanese love their CG cutscenes, and Blue Dragon isn't any different.

Had they done cutscenes using the in-game engine, I bet it would be on one disc.

Many PS1 games where multidisc such as Final Fantasy VII-IX = 4CDS, Fear Effect 1 & 2 = 4CDS and wasn't a problem and it was all to do with those lengthy cutsences. It will only be a handful of games that will span over 1 DVD and i think MS has nothing to worry about. The discs cost far cheaper that Blu-Ray.

:yes: - well i think the same thing atleast :p

As long as it's the only the odd game that spans multiple discs I don't see a problem. Such games tend to have 10-20 hours of gameplay per disc anyway so it's hardly a huge chore to swop the disc when required.

i've never understood why people made such a massive deal over multiple discs.. it's totaly stupid, how many pc games on multiple discs? how many people complained? how many ps1/2 games came on multiple discs? how many complained? etc.

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I still fail to see the "reason" for higher capacity game media. With Final Fantasy on the PSX, no one cared about switching between 3 or 4 disks. Granted, it wasn't every game that required multiple disks, but those that did, no one minded.

And I bet most of that data is compressed video cut scenes. Like others have said, using the game engine would simply reduce the video to scripted sequences, so all those gigs of data would be virtually eliminated.

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Hmmm... 3 double-layer dvds are 8.5GB each, so that's 25.5GB. So they only managed to compress it down to 85% of the original uncompressed 30GB...

Not all 3 DVDs are necessarily full. Also, all 3 discs will have to have some redundant graphical assets and sound effects as well as the game engine and possibly music.

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Why does everyone think that FFVII was 4 discs?

Anyway, I thought that disc swapping days were over with the end of the PSX, but it looks like the X360 has revived that old tradition. I'm in no way saying that it will be a crappy game (I for one will buy it as soon as it launches, whenever that will be), the only thing I'm saying is that with the technology available today, disc swapping should be a forgotten activity.

And I agree with everyone saying that its only a RPG, so its kind of justified. But as soon as games start coming out in two disc versions (if that were to happen), one for the single player and the other for the multiplayer (for example), then something went wrong.

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Who cares how many goddamn discs games come on, seriously....

Id rather swap discs than have to pay extra due to the manufacturing costs of the larger disc and the outlay for the optical drive.

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Wow, I find it funny that all this time people were saying no 360 game will be bigger than one disc. And what happens? We get a three disc game. Granted, it is a japanese RPG and blu ray is more expensive and CG movies take up most/all spaces. I still feel that at this point in time, we shouldn't have this. Now I know any 360 fan would find it hard to agree with me or Sony's decision on going with a format like Blu Ray but it makes me wonder whether games will in fact expand to take advantage of the Blu Ray space.

Again, swapping discs is only a minor inconvenience but I'd rather not deal with it. I'm sure Blue Dragon will be success and if it's not, it won't be because it's a multi disc game.

@Sheppard

You missed Sony PSP , Gameboy and N Gage :D

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i wish microsoft DID make xbox360 HD-DVD internal.. I would of gladly of paid the extra $150 for an internal HD-DVD player.. the games would of been way better :D

but im happy with my purchase nevertheless

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Who cares how many goddamn discs games come on, seriously....

Id rather swap discs than have to pay extra due to the manufacturing costs of the larger disc and the outlay for the optical drive.

;) The game will probably still costs $60. But at least we can put one argument on the side.

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