When they show the characters on full screen, they look exactly like they did in the first Blue Dragon. Otherwise they're much more sprite-like to make them smaller and fit the screen better. The backgrounds themselves are very different from the original. Instead of being mostly outside in nature scenes, here you're in a digital world. There is a lot of grey and computer-looking areas. Personally, I thought the backgrounds were slightly boring with little color. You'll recognize most of the enemies from the previous game. Given that they're in a digital area, there are a lot of robots. But there are also some of the ghost monsters and the other monsters that you saw in the ancient's areas before. Cut scenes are just beautiful though! Animation is amazing. They make up for the lack of color in the backgrounds of the battles.
The sounds can be very helpful in the game. If your characters are all spread out, which happens more than I like, it's hard to keep an eye on all of them. If you hear certain warning sounds, you'll know someone is low on health and you need to find them to heal them quickly. This warning saved my guys more than once. The background music for the most part is pretty, but not necessary to the game. I wouldn't recommend turning the sounds off though, because then you'll miss all the helpful warnings!
