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Blue Dragon can be annoyingly cutesy, and getting the achievements is real hard work, but if you look underneath the childish veneer, the underlying rpg is incredibly solid. If I'm honest, I preferred Lost Odyssey; it's far more adult, and the system seems a bit more polished. However, other than Temple of Enlightenment, the side quests and bosses were significantly easier, and that's not really a good thing. It's a bit more epic, but it's a bit less challenging. The same goes for the achievements, in that it's super easy to get 700+ in LO, but you've really got to work for more than a hundred or so in BD.
As far as other RPGs are concerned, Infinite Undiscovery is a good fun action j-rpg, but is incredibly short, and the sheer amount of controllable characters kind of dilutes the story development. It's got a good crafting system, though, and the extra dungeon is fun if you enjoy the battle system. It's worth it if you can pick it up for fairly cheap, providing you like action rpgs. If you don't this probably isn't for you, especially as it's so short. Typical tri-ace title.
Eternal Sonata is a gorgeous game, and I couldn't help be mesmerised when I first saw it. It did seem a bit lacking, though, and the initial excitement wore off incredibly quickly. It's quite short, and you're best off completing it in one fell swoop; after playing another game you're unlikely to just pick it up and carry on. Not sure why, especially as I loved it so much initially, but I just can't get back into this game. Again, only pick it up if you're into action rpgs, as it wont really have anything to offer if you don't.
Enchanted Arms was pretty rubbish. Well, as a game, it was okay, and the presentation was pretty good, but I just couldn't enjoy the battle system, the characters annoyed me far more than anything in Blue Dragon, and being able to powerlevel your characters to god-like levels after a few hours of gameplay could really take the bite out of it. If you like strategy rpgs, you might want to pick this up, but otherwise it's worth missing out.
The Last Remnant has an interesting battle system, but it doesn't offer you enough control. The characters seem very weak, and the story is even more so. It's long, but it's only long because of epic battles (which you may or may not enjoy). You can also die at any minute, so 'save paranoia' is a frequent ailment. If I'm completely honest, I don't think this is worth picking up at all, but if you're fed up with all the short rpgs around and you just want a long rpg to play, I guess you may want it.
Phantasy Star Universe is a hidden gem of a game, imo. The storyline is great, and overall it's just a solid action rpg. It's not all that long, but you don't really notice that, and you can have a lot of fun levelling your partner machine, synthesising new items and such. If you've played a bunch of other rpgs and just want something to tide you over until FFXIII (or whatever other rpg it is you're looking forward to - I played this when I was waiting for Star Ocean) it's a great choice, as you can pick it up for £5 in most places.
Star Ocean is brilliant. I've only played it for 9 hours so far, but I've loved every minute. I've heard lots of complaints about characters and such, but I don't share any of those qualms. It's exactly what I wanted in an rpg, and although there are minor issues with walking around being slightly clumsy, you hardly notice. The story is pretty interesting, the graphics are lush, and the battle system offers a little more than the typical action-rpg battles that you'll find in Infinite Undiscovery, Phantasy Star Universe and Eternal Sonata.
So yeah, I think Blue Dragon is fairly similar to Lost Odyssey, when compared to the other 360 titles. It's got a similar battle system and a nice long story, and gives you plenty to do outside of that. I definitely think it's one of the better rpgs on the market, but if you can't get over cutesy characters, you may have difficulty appreciating what a good rpg it is.
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