Wait a second, I hear you say, the first Blue Dragon RPG isn’t even out yet, so what’s this Blue Dragon 2 talk then? Well, in Japan the game by the famous Hironobu Sakaguchi, the creator of Square’s Final Fantasy series (who now works at his own studio Mistwalker), will be released soon on December 7th. So Japanese gaming magazine Famitsu got an interview with the creator of the game, which for now has a “sometime 2007” Western date.
Blue Dragon 1 details:
* Including initial planning, development on the title took three years. Actual development on the Xbox 360 was a two year process.
* Blue Dragon is a 3 DVDs big game, making it bigger than any Xbox 360 title to date.
* 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!
* The game contains about 40 to 50 hours playtime. Playing through the game minus all the side quests, it took Sakaguchi himself 35 hours.
* There will be free downloadable content for Blue Dragon, at the earliest at the start of 2007, but at least before spring.
Blue Dragon 2 details:
* Blue Dragon is now officially a series, in an interview Sakaguchi reveals a sequel is planned. There are two different design plans for the Xbox 360.
* Unlike the first Blue Dragon, the sequel might not be an Xbox 360 exclusive.
What else is in development at Mistwalker?
1. Lost Odyssey, another Xbox 360 exclusive RPG. No release date yet.
2. A.S.H.: Archaic Sealed Heat, a tactical RPG for DS that is 50% complete. Release is in the first half of 2007.
3. Cry-On, an action RPG for Xbox 360 that is 50% complete. Release is in the second half of 2007.
4. Blue Dragon 2 is in the planning as mentioned.
5. Development on unknown game one has already started.
6. Development on unknown game two has also already started.
7. A joint production game with a developer in West Tokyo (Nintendo?) for either the Wii or the DS. Development will begin soon.
Translation from Japanese by IGN.