By the end of the first disc, though, you will have been thoroughly exposed to Blue Dragon’s wavering visuals. Sometimes they’re stunning (like the mural town, whose inhabitants are “painted” to the wall and drift across it, or the great castle town where you’ll hook up with Zola) and sometimes they’re drab, but there’s usually enough detail and imagination for it to all leave a lasting impression. Also, there’s a persistent blur to the background, sometimes only a few feet in front of you, which seems to be a trade-off for keeping your character’s immediate surroundings incredibly crisp. That perpetual fuzz may annoy some, and hurt the eyes a bit, but we’re more than happy when the foreground is as flawless to look at as anything out of the gorgeous Viva Piñata.

We’ve no complaints about the superb soundtrack either, though some may have fingers in ears when they hear the boss battle tune, a typically hilarious over-egged cod-rock tune with vocals provided by the lead singer of Deep Purple (No? Ask your dad - or that uncle who never married.) Bizarre, eh? But it’s something you’ll either love and want to download for your music collection, or simply cringe at whenever it fires up; either way, we hope it doesn’t get chopped when the game’s released in the west (mid-2007 for the US, shortly after for us). Different is definitely better than dull.