For the way iconic magical ladies have been in anime through the years, from Cutie Honey to Sailor Moon to Fairly Remedy to Puella Magi Madoka Magica, they’ve been woefully underrepresented in video video games, particularly within the JRPG style. As somebody who fell in love with Sailor Moon as a toddler after which found as many magical woman properties as I might get my palms on, this has been a large oversight for the style. For a very long time the one choices had been Japan unique RPG variations of Sailor Moon and Magical Knight Rayearth, however in 2017 the developer Gust launched the primary Blue Reflection sport, which takes magical ladies to video games. 9 years later, Gust has launched Blue Reflection Quartet, a group of 4 Blue Reflection titles, together with some newly accessible in English.
The primary sport on this assortment is the unique Blue Reflection, which greater than something felt like a proof of idea to me whereas enjoying. In it you play as Hinako, a woman who previously danced ballet at a excessive stage however on account of an harm wanted to cease. She then meets two ladies at her faculty, Yuzu and Lime, who introduce her to being a magical woman. Magical ladies, often known as reflectors within the sport, battle within the Widespread, a shared world of the human unconscious. This results in a gameplay loop that I usually considered, in lack of a greater time period, Persona-lite. The story often begins with Hinako in school and taking over quests that are often associated to a classmate’s troubles or points. Hinako, Yuzu, and Lime go into the Widespread, battle in flip primarily based fight and discover gadgets, after which return to the actual world to repair these issues, which then will get you a fraction, an merchandise that may customise assaults.
The fragment system is without doubt one of the issues that I discovered to be most enjoyable to mess around with in Blue Reflection, because it’s tied with growing bonds with characters however permits for some enjoyable customization. For instance, I added a generate MP fragment to the usual assault of the character I used MP from probably the most, so after I ran out and wanted to make use of probably the most fundamental assault it might get extra MP. I additionally used a passive well being drain fragment on my most used space of impact assault.This was a pleasant system. I additionally like how character targeted this all is, attending to know characters was tied to upgrading your fight. I believe in the end it felt much more repetitive than I’d have preferred. I loved my time with it, however loads of the character tales felt mild. The missions had been additionally fairly repetitive, and often ended up being going to an space of the Widespread, battle a couple of issues, after which that’s the tip of it. The Widespread is often fairly uninspired, although the final ambiance and music is superb. I believe greater than something I simply wished for it getting a couple of higher missions, some higher design within the fight arenas, and extra stakes to the private drama (the overarching stakes are very excessive, however then you might be serving to a personality get the boldness to say one thing to her crush). It looks like a sport that, maybe in different palms, might be certainly one of my favorites however in the end finally ends up not fairly getting there.
The following “sport” on this assortment is the difference of the anime Blue Reflection Ray, and I believe my scare quotes round sport present simply what I consider it. It’s actually disappointing that one of many new components for this assortment is that this inconsequential. That is telling the story of the anime via flashbacks and anime screenshots. That’s it. There isn’t any fight, there is no such thing as a actual gameplay between operating in sport from flashback to flashback. If you happen to beloved the anime and need to see some 3D fashions of the characters, this is perhaps good? However in any other case this feels just like the worst attainable option to expertise this story, and feels prefer it was cobbled collectively to only say they included an adaptation of the anime on this assortment. At a sure level I skipped all of the scenes simply so I might see if there was any sport right here or perhaps a battle on the finish I might work together with. Nope.
The third sport within the assortment is Blue Reflection Solar, an adaptation of a cellular sport within the collection that was solely accessible in Japan. In it you play as the one male protagonist within the collection who strikes to a brand new faculty to guide a crew of Eroded, magical ladies who developed magical skills by mutation because of the ash that fell that’s threatening the world. That is instructed through cutscenes and a few battles, with out a lot in between apart from having the ability to run across the faculty as the principle protagonist. It’s greater than Blue Reflection Ray, but in addition looks like a cobbled collectively inclusion. This feels extra essential since Solar was by no means launched in English and has since been shut down in Japan, nevertheless it additionally looks like a missed alternative. There are not any actual decisions to RPG mechanics past which characters you might be preventing with, no technique past the second to second cases within the battles, which use the Blue Reflection Second Gentle system. The story and characters are attention-grabbing, and I loved the character designs of the Eroded, however this feels a bit slapdash and like they knew they wished to incorporate the story of Solar on this product with the minimal quantity of labor.
The final sport on this assortment is Blue Reflection Second Gentle, and man they actually did depart the very best for final as a result of this looks like an evolution from the primary Blue Reflection sport and one which I actually have loved. You play as Ao, a woman who goes to high school and finds herself instantly in one other world the place the college is surrounded by water. There are different ladies there who’ve misplaced their recollections, and now Ao is trying to discover her approach dwelling. This looks like an improve in virtually each approach. The setting is attention-grabbing, with Ao on the lookout for a approach dwelling being an awesome hook. There’s additionally much more tied to exploring, as a result of the areas the place you battle and collect gadgets are straight tied to a particular character in your crew’s recollections. There’s additionally much more customization, together with crafting of things, upgrading amenities across the faculty, and so forth. Rising bonds and doing quests for characters continues to be one option to improve your characters for fight, however the focus is now on the characters in your crew so there may be extra of an emotional hook. The fight system can be attention-grabbing – as a substitute of getting MP your characters are consistently gathering ether throughout a battle, which you then can select to make use of as you please. Need to hoard a ton of it so you’ll be able to assault a number of occasions in a row? Positive, however then you definately’re nonetheless getting attacked on and once more. Blue Reflection Second Gentle is a genuinely actually nice sport, and felt like one thing I felt virtually shocked to expertise. It makes me need one other on this collection, to see if Gust can proceed to improve on these principal console titles.
At their core, Blue Reflection and Blue Reflection Second Gentle are two strong JRPGs. I most popular Second Gentle however actually, each are attention-grabbing sufficient video games that I’d suggest them to JRPG followers who’ve already performed comparable titles. The primary one is flawed however attention-grabbing whereas the second sands out loads of these points, however I don’t assume ever achieves the heights of what JRPGs and even Gust can do. Nevertheless, the disgrace right here is with Ray and Solar being included within the states they’re in. I get wanting to incorporate these, in order that this can be a extra full assortment, nevertheless it soured my expertise with this assortment. In the end I’m glad I obtained to expertise the 2 console video games however want that the opposite two items to this Quartet got extra consideration.
