Blue Dragon Basics

When starting a new game, you select the language you want. Later, when loading a saved game, press Blue to change the language before the game starts.

When loading a game, make sure the correct disc (any 1 of the 3) is loaded onto the Xbox 360 disc tray or the game will freeze until you eject the incorrect disc and insert the correct one. Honestly, this is simple — but yet you think you're smarter than a 5th grader.

You can access the sub-menu (Yellow) and change your settings. Items taken will be categorized by class. The encyclopedia (a system item found after a little while) will log your battle, monster, and item records. These are used for various gamertag achievements.

When moving around, your party leader can interact with objects, locations, and NPCs by pressing the Green button. This is very important as soon as you land in the cave (Ancient Ruins Cave).

Exploring and interacting with objects not only nets you a large amount of gold and items, but also gets you these null items called "nothings". This is the "Nothing Man" side-quest that starts as soon as you see a save point.

The world map (useless until you are able to warp) can be called up with the Start button. Warping is also done from this menu, although you will not get this until a little later in disc 1. When warping, keep in mind that certain story quests will prevent your party from warping unitl the quest is resolved. So before moving on, make sure to loot the immediate area or buy the items and accessories you need or you wind up regretting your lack of preparation.

Hit the Right Trigger in the field or dungeon to show the encounter circle. This little item is helpful in getting the parteiprämie (party bonus) of SP to level up your shadows quickly. You may not be able to do that early on, but it comes in handy later. Attack enemies using the dash attack or by bumping into them singly; otherwise, use the encounter circle.

Enemies highlighted in the circle are fought at once when you choose to fight all monsters. There are no back attacks or surprises here. Fighting multiple monster groups sounds tough, but between each monster set, you have a battle roulette that offers only positive afflictions to your party (HP restore, Attack Up, etc.). Fighting multiple monsters will be needed once you have your shadows ranking around 40 or so, since the SP bonuses add up.

EXP is earned across all battles but there is no bonus for experience earned unless certain items are used. EXP is used primarily to gain more shadow classes (up to the max of 9 different classes). EXP ultimately matters only by how many classes are unlocked; the rank of shadows figures more into the power level of your character.

Field skills are special abilities assigned to Right Bumper and Left Bumper in the encounter circle menu. None of the skills are left on for long since you can swap out the skill once it's been activated. Almost all field skills use MP. Field skills are helpful in some situations, but not always.

Data the jack-a-lope monkey from Mega Man Legends had it right on the money about saving data. Save data when you have the chance, since you never know if a boss will come around the corner (without a checkpoint) and turn your party's intestines into balloon animals.

There are 30 save slots, and almost no reason to use anything more than 10 to 12 for each disc.

In dungeons, you can only save at save points. The advantage of a dungeon is once you cleared out all the monsters in that dungeon, you can freely roam around and save once you're done exploring. However, since saving is tied to a save point, the opportunites to save are limited.

In the overworld, you can save by using the sub-menu (Yellow) and saving at any time. While you can save anywhere in the overworld, the number of enemies in the overworld are infinite and no area can be truly pacified.