B.L.U.E. Legend of Water

[fingersmaloy]

Anyone heard of this game? I guess it wasn't released outside Japan, but I downloaded it off the Japanese PSN and so far it's pretty good! It's like Tomb Raider if the whole game was underwater. I know that sounds nightmarish, but it's surprisingly captivating.

Actually the gameplay is divided into two phases. You've got the talk and move around phase, which is interesting because it's like Resident Evil, except you choose the room you want to visit from a big map and then are instantly transported there. Within a room, you have a 3D character model, but she only moves along a preset path, kind of like Killer 7, but kind of different. If there's a person in the room, you can just select the person and you'll automatically approach them and talk. Or you can select "Move" to move to a preset spot, but as far as I can tell this option is totally useless. Basically they cut all of the hassle and pixel-hunting out of the Resident Evil model.

Then the other phase is when you get in the water. Then the game switches to a fully 3D world like Tomb Raider, and you swim around, accompanied but a dolphin. You can give the dolphin basic commands like "Help", "Stay put", "Lure (an enemy)", or "Search". This is the phase of the game that features actual gameplay, and though a fully underwater game may sound like shit, it's actually really interesting and fun thanks to the main character's uncanny lung capacity (so far unexplained!). You will run out of air eventually, but it's only threatening enough to keep the game interesting, as there is no direct combat. It's a game of exploration, and probably one of the better ones.

The only gameplay videos I could find were on Nico Nico Douga, but check it out if you can:

http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4043516
http://www.nicovideo.jp/watch/sm4069789

[CRTGAMER]

Looks like an interesting PS1 game. Dialog in Japanese?
A lot of speech that might affect game play?

A Hudson game, gotta be good!
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