Hopes and expectations were high for Blue Dragon long before it was ever released. The hopes sprang from the fact that it was a JRPG, something nearly unheard of on the 360, while the expectations grew from its developer, Mistwalker Studios, aka the new home of Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. The end result is definitely an acquired taste. Only those with a high tolerance for lengthy cutscenes, anime-style humor, and countless monster battles will likely have the patience to discover all the wonders that Blue Dragon has to offer.

Each year, mysterious purple clouds signal the arrival of the town-wrecking Land Shark (insert your own “telegram” joke here). Though most of the villagers run and hide, young heroes Shu, Kluke, and Jiro decide that is enough is enough and decide to kill it once and for all. The Shark turns out to be an enormous machine that eventually returns to a ship hovering high in the air, taking the kids along with it. On the ship, our heroes meet Nene the evil sorcerer and gain access to Shadows, enormously powerful creatures that can be summoned to do battle. That’s a recap of the first hour or so of the game, during which you’ll do little more than watch events unfold, occasionally being prompted to push the A button, presumably just to make sure you’re still in the room and not off in the kitchen making yourself a sandwich.

Once you’ve got your Shadow (a big blue dragon in Shu’s case, thus the game’s name), the game really begins in earnest, and so does the seemingly endless stream of enemies to fight. Saving the game from being a tedious grindfest is the customizability of your Shadow. You start off by choosing a job for your Shadow; each job has access to different abilities and spells. The Monk, for example, specializes in charged attacks that do a lot of damage, while the White Magic, as usual, has healing detail. As you level up, you’re allowed to add more jobs to your Shadow’s repertoire, so that if you don’t think that the Monk gig is working out for you, you can switch off and start developing your Shadow’s Dark Magic skills instead. Some jobs might be better suited to certain enemies or situations, or even just personal player preference, and the option to switch between several very different jobs gives Blue Dragon a feeling of freedom that most RPGs lack.

The combat itself is a hybrid of real time and turn based. A meter at the top of the screen indicates who gets the next whack, letting you strategize about how much to charge your spells and when to set them off. Charge longer and you’ll do more damage, but you’ll also let the enemy get in a few licks first; go with a weaker attack and you might finish him off before he gets a turn. It’s far more interesting than simply picking a command and waiting, but not as frenetic as trying to manage three characters in true real time could be.

There’s rather a lot to like about Blue Dragon, and if you’re, say, in Alaska with an entire month of night stretching out ahead of you, it’s a perfect companion. If, on the other hand, you actually have someplace to be in the next day or two, playing the game is going to be a bit problematic. Not because it’s particularly addictive and you won’t be able to tear yourself away, but because the story spins out so slowly that you have to play for hours to feel like you’ve actually accomplished something. The save points are ridiculously far apart, too; sometimes an hour of game time or more separates one save point from the next. There’s really no such thing as a quick Blue Dragon session. If you start playing, you’d best be prepared to commit the next several hours to advancing the story.

There’s more than enough story, combat, and customization to keep you Blue Dragon for a long, long time; the game stretches out over three discs, an impressive enough feat back in the days of the PlayStation, but truly staggering on the 360. Not everyone is going to have the kind of stamina this game requires, however. Some games can be wrapped up in 15 hours, but Blue Dragon feels like it’s hardly even gotten started at that point. The game is also very Japanese, so if you don’t find the thought of searching piles of golden poo for treasure simply enchanting, you may want to get your RPG fix elsewhere.