Hironobu Sakaguchi's Mistwalker Studios is prepping up another Blue Dragon game, titled Blue Dragon: Colossal Beast of the Underworld in Japan. Like Blue Dragon Plus, this one will also be on the DS, despite the low sales of the first one. The game will be abandoning the turn-based format for a more action-RPG approach. Players get to create and customize their own character and swap shadows. The main feature of the game is that it supports 4 player online co-op through the Nintendo WFC service, something that Square Enix decided not to implement in Dragon Quest IX despite the confusion.

Dragon Quest IX is ready to storm sales charts this week while another “Dragon” game is on the horizon.

Namco Bandai and Mistwalker plan to release Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojuu (Blue Dragon: Colossal Beast of the Underworld) in Japan on October 1st. Instead of turn based battles Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojuu has an action RPG combat system. Players swap shadows, a first for the Blue Dragon series, and attack enemies in real time.

Even though the box art doesn’t show it, this game also supports Nintendo Wi-Fi for online play. Up to three players can connect, grind, and collect 200+ pieces of character customizing loot found in the game. Dragon Quest IX only has ad-hoc multiplayer.

While it’s nice to see online play, it’s only useful if people purchase the game. Blue Dragon Plus didn’t sell well on the Nintendo DS. Can Blue Dragon: Ikai no Kyojuu do better or will Japan still be busy with Dragon Quest IX then? Either way Akira Toriyama wins.

McClubbin via siliconera.com »