The game was released in Japan on December 7, 2006, where it was sold both as a standalone title and as part of a bundle with the Xbox 360 (including the game, the Xbox 360 system itself, and a ''Blue Dragon'' console skin). Other regions received only the game itself, with a release in Europe on August 24, 2007, and in North America on August 28, 2007.
''Blue Dragon'' follows the story of five friends—Shu, Jiro, Kluke, Zola, and Marumaro—as they travel across the world to confront Nene, the evil king of the Grand Kingdom. The setting inspired separate anime and manga adaptations, although these follow the story to different degrees and feature a different cast of characters. The game follows a traditional role-playing design, based around exploration and turn-based combat.
''Blue Dragon'' is the first Xbox 360 title to make use of multiple discs, spanning three discs in total.<ref name="Early Blue Dragon information">{{citation |url=http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/749/749490p1.html |title=Blue Dragon Arrives |first=Anoop |last=Gantayat |publisher=IGN |date=December 6, 2006 |accessdate=July 22, 2008}} Overall, the game has received a positive reception, with an average score of 79% on the review aggregator website Metacritic.<ref name="GR">{{citation|url=http://www.gamerankings.com/xbox360/927950-blue-dragon/index.html |title=Blue Dragon Reviews |publisher=Game Rankings |accessdate=March 21, 2008}} ''Blue Dragon'' was both applauded and criticized for its adaptation of the traditional elements of role-playing games.<ref name="xplay">{{citation|url=http://g4tv.com/xplay/reviews/1597/blue_dragon.html|title=Blue Dragon Review|last=Stewart|first=Greg|publisher=X-Play|accessdate=May 15, 2009}}

Gameplay

The gameplay of ''Blue Dragon'' is inspired by older Japanese role-playing-games using turn-based gameplay elements seen in various Console role-playing game|JRPGs.<ref name="IGN">{{citation |title=Blue Dragon Review |url=http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/812/812365p1.html |last=Brudvig |first=Eric |publisher=IGN |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20071011051214/xbox360.ign.com/articles/812/812365p1.html |archivedate=October 11, 2007 |accessdate=April 14, 2009}} The game world contains two major types of areas: towns, in which the player can rest and purchase items, and Dungeon crawl|dungeon-like areas, with numerous foes to be defeated.<ref name="IGN" />

Exploration