Blue Dragon Plus starts one year after the Xbox 360 game with Shu, Zola and friends returning to the area where they defeated Nene. Strange energy readings have been reported in the area and our heroes are sent to investigate. After a few short battles the team confront a huge robot that can somehow control shadows. The team are confused as only entities with souls can command these, but before thy can get to the bottom of this Nene reappears along with bomb wielding robots and starts to attack. 

 

 

The initial hour of gameplay is confusing as there is no real hand holding here other than a brief intro to each character, so playing the tutorial is recommended. At first you will play through a few battles, meeting more characters then before you know it you will have seven of them to control in each battle. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses so a little experimenting with moves is important. Another thing to watch out for is that just as you start to get to grips with the realtime fighting, the game surprises you and opens up into a huge tactical fighting RPG game with hundreds of items to collect and equip. Gamers that enjoy titles with party management are going to love this.

 

Control of the game is very simple with only the stylus being used most the time, the action on the bottom screen and a simple map or level requirements on the top.

 

To move you just tap on your selected character and then tap where you would like them to go. Characters will automatically start an attack when close to an enemy. When you tap on units their powers and items appear on the bottom screen, with a simple tap it will activate. With the larger groups the tapping does get frantic and it’s hard to see all of the characters, thankfully though the trigger buttons rotate the map so you are able to see all of the units.

 

Each level is basically made up of a small map with objectives for you to complete, such as defeating a certain boss and making sure your team survives and doesn’t get wiped out. Graphically the levels look quite good and each of the characters are really well designed, with the game taking into account their elemental power with each look. The game also has some amazing FMV cut scenes that will stun you every time one pops up.

 

The sheer playability, simplicity, lush graphics and short levels with saves whenever you want makes Blue Dragon Plus perfect for the tactical RPG fans on the go, therefore we would highly recommend this game.