The story at the heart of it all is one of the most moving and heartfelt tales I’ve ever seen in a game, and that’s a huge achievement. The best part is that Mel Kishida is just getting started—if this is his directorial debut, I can’t wait to see what the future has in store.
Gust’s attempt at creating a brand new world with Blue Reflection shows. The development team brought innovation to the table demonstrating they can step outside their comfort zone. However, production value and time may have hurt the project as the game suffers from random graphical stutters, a lack of rich animation, and a failure to utilize the entire cast of characters. Nonetheless, the party customization, character interactions, art style, and overall design is admirable and keeps things entertaining.
This game makes me question why we don't get more magical girl games. It's a severly untapped market, and the game is great in showing that Persona-esque gameplay is perfect format for it!
Conclusion from my larger, full review:
Blue Reflection is the most heart I've seen from a video game. It's gorgeous in every way a video game can be and deeply personally impacted me. The combat was engaging and fun, the characters were a joy to meet and grow with, the world was awe-inspiring to explore, and the OST melted my heart while I listened. If it at all looks interesting to you (if you're a fan of slice-of-life anime, Sailor Moon, emotional experiences in games, turn-based JRPGS, etc.), I strongly recommend giving it a try. This game doesn't deserve to fall on deaf ears for no reason other than because no one was willing to listen.
I can safely say after playing it to 100% completion that its solidified itself as not only a great JRPG and not only as a deeply emotional experience, but also as a close contender for my favorite video game and a modern masterpiece.
Blue Reflection is a game that displays a heartwarming amount of beauty and grace even in the face of some tragically ugly flaws and mistakes. On a gameplay level, it never reaches the heights it wanted (or deserved) to, but as an overall experience, it feels like something special in a way few other games do.
If you're looking for a simple and pretty easy jPRG, with an original concept and a good combat system, Blue Reflection could be a good fit. Otherwise, you'll find a game that's not so challenging, without grinding and no leveling.
Blue Reflection's combination of suggestive imagery with childish, performative femininity makes it difficult to ascertain just who its audience is meant to be; it reads like a game about women by someone who's never spoken to a woman before. In short, it's boring, unambitious, and in a year filled with outstanding RPGs, your time is best spent elsewhere.
Blue Reflection has a lot of interesting ideas, from its plot to the core gameplay, so it’s unfortunate that these ideas are left to fester in a pool of mediocrity and drowned in an adventure that feels boring and stale before it’s even really begun. The opening scenes show a lot of promise, but none of it is built upon as the game develops. Blue Reflection feels like a tutorial for JRPG beginners - one that even the most inexperienced player would get bored with.
Gorgeous game. It's like a mix between Sailor Moon, a dungeon crawler and a 90's anime. I specially like the stylized art. The story is interesting, the leveling up system is practical and rewarding. Recommended if you're into anime girls and emotional stories.
BR feels a bit empty, but like a sort of "slice of life" game - it's nice, warm and soulful experience. I'll forever remember the music from this game indeed. Much love, Gust sound team and Hayato Asano️
Whilst not a fantastic game, the RPG elements and battle system are actually pretty good.
The combat system is turn-based but you can use knockback attacks to delay your enemies' turns, which a lot of the battle can boil down to, making it a tad protracted and repetitive.
Where the game grated on me most was when outside of the Common (where battles take place). The tasks you are assigned to do in the high school are very mundane and interactions with characters are slow and repetitive. I found the dialogue quite immature, but then again it is set in a high school.
I'm not usually a stickler for graphics, but I couldn't help but notice some severe framerate drops in this game, making it quite smooth and fluid one moment, but jerky and stuttering the next. These are anime-style graphics to begin with, so it's not like they're a challenge on the PS4's processor system.
Overall, the game is more fan service than anything. Five minutes into it and the protagonist gets shoved into a river, making her underwear visible through her school uniform. That pretty much sums it up.
Gust was previously the game studio I went to when I wanted great character writing (Atelier series) or insanely wild ideas (Ar series) in my JRPGs.
Unfortunately, that's not the case anymore. This game, along with Gust's other recent releases, such as Atelier Lydie and Nights of Azure, has convinced me that they're no longer great writers and that they can only rehash old ideas poorly.
Though at least Blue Reflection has some positives and isn't total garbage. Let's get to the good part first.
It a game about high school girls dealing with self-identity and emotions in their school society. For the most part, everyone is concerned about their image and what other girls think of them, based on their actions, looks, skills, hobbies, etc. This part of the game is done well enough, but there's not much variety in the different things that each girl experiences.
You deal with these emotions by basically going into a girl's mind, magical girl style, and beating up monsters or picking up items until the target girl no longer has any emotional issues. The big chore in this game is that there's a large number of side-quest girls that you must complete to get through the main story.
These side quests revolve around a girl standing in place and going crazy, giving you a line or two about her situation, such as "I'm ashamed of my body and people think I'm fat," going into her subconscious and defeating an enemy, then exiting and the girl giving you another line, such as "I was silly and shouldn't put so much thought into what other people think of me."
Due to the number of these side quests that you're forced to complete, I eventually got tired of reading their few lines of dialogue. This could have been so much better..
The main quest situations are basically the same, but are better written, longer, and involve the protagonist directly. And while they're not very interesting in most cases, this is the best part of the game in my opinion.
Technically, the game isn't good and is the worst that I've experienced from Gust. Issues include typos, non-centered text, words wrapping to the next line mid-word, and battle animations pausing randomly. The actual environment isn't much better: The school is small and uninteresting with no teachers or non-student NPCs. The world inside of girls' emotions is low quality and small. There's basically no exploration there since each time you enter, you're put into a small random map, with each map only containing items, monsters, and a crafting station.
Crafting isn't worth mentioning, other than saying it's the most basic crafting system you could possibly put in a game. Yeah, this came from the Atelier people (the most extensive crafting system I've ever seen in a game).
The battle mechanics aren't good. Going through the game on Normal mode, my party never died. There's not much of a challenge or strategy besides deciphering the large number of skills that have almost identical descriptions to determine which ones are worthwhile. After you figure this out, you'll likely only use 2 attack skills (out of 25 or so) for each of your characters for the entire game. But at least it's flashy with lots of lights and colors to keep the kids entertained.
The main plot isn't very good. Early in the game, you might assume that it has something profound say about the protagonist's situation (an injured leg that prevents her from doing ballet), but you'd be disappointed. It's all about defeating demons with power of friendship. The protagonists's situation is never addressed. You just beat the big bad guy who is trying to destroy the world/humanity for typical JRPG reasons.
The game will work best for people who are going through similar self-identity situations in school, or who want to re-experience something like that. Well, I suppose the other audience are those who like high school girls in short skirts - Oh, did I mention their tops go see-through when they get wet? Yeah, that's the best that Gust could come up with this time around..
C’est une sorte de « Persona » dans une école de filles… avec aussi un soupçon de Neon Genesis dedans… mais juste un chouia… et beaucoup de magical girls ! Bien sûr, c’est bien plus simpliste et maladroit qu’un Persona récent… et à peine plus beau d’ailleurs. Quoique -le plus important évidemment- les poulettes soient fort bien rendues et bien faites.
Le jeu reste néanmoins faiblard techniquement parlant avec ses seulement 30 im/s, ses ralentissements (pas trop nombreux heureusement), ses temps de chargement (pas trop longs mais fréquents) et son aliasing un peu trop marqué. Mais l’interface est globalement bien pensée, des niveaux de difficulté rendent le jeu tout à fait accessible (et facile… en facile) et la musique est moins insupportable que dans les jeux japoniais de cet acabit (et on peut la baisser ou la couper, de toute façon).
L’histoire est -globalement- complètement con… et le jeu oblige à faire des missons annexes pour progresser dans l’intrigue principale (ou l’espèce d’intrigue niaiseuse), des missions vite faites mal faites qui consistent à buter tel ou tel monstre etc, etc… Heureusement que c’est vite fait parce que franchement… c’est un brin pénible.
On peut sauvegarder -presque- quand on veut, donc, profitez-en parce que le jeu ne fait pas de sauvegarde automatique… en dehors de points-clés de l’histoire à la godille. D’ailleurs, je me demande pourquoi j’ai fini ce jeu pour otaculs, volontiers nais et limité, répétitif et simplet…
Ah oui, c’est surtout grâce ou à cause du DLC de bikinis que nous vous recommandons tout à fait… du moins en solde à au moins -50% bien sûr parce que le prix qu’ils vendent ça, ces bandes de pervers chez Gust, putain ! Oui et donc… avec la ribambelle de poulettes en bikini, eh bien, le jeu se laisse jouer. Il est même parfois assez drôle lors de quelques répliques. Il est vrai que ça bavarde beaucoup… en voix japonaises bien aigües… et sous-titrées en anglais !
C’est de l’anglais très scolaire, très limité, aussi limité que tout le reste en définitive… donc, pas de souci particulier, sauf si vous êtes une quiche en anglais. Dans ce cas, jouez en japonais. Alors, ça passe le temps et ça reste mignon et naïf (pour ne pas dire… niiiiiais) mais tenez-vous le pour dit : c’est ultra con-con.
SummaryBlue Reflection takes place at Hoshinomiya Girls' High School, where players assume the role of student Hinako Shirai. When Hinako's ballet career comes to an end after a tragic accident, she closes her heart off from the rest of the world. However, her life changes when she meets her new best friends, the magical Shijou twins -- Yuzu, w...