Developed by NAT Games (V4, Overhit), a team under Nexon Korea, Blue Archive launched last week in Japan by publisher Yostar (Arknights). We did try to play the game, but it was plagued with random extended server maintenances each time we tried. Nevertheless, we finally got into Blue Archive, and here is the starting gameplay experience!
As played on BlueStacks: https://bit.ly/3aFWyoJ
Technically, we left out a huge portion of narrative by skipping through them. If not, the starting narrative will take up around 40 minutes of your time before actual combat begins… To us, it felt like Blue Archive is somewhat incomplete, mainly due to the lack of low-resolution 2D character images and missing Live 2D technology in character profiles.
As with a typical mobile strategy RPG, there are tactical elements in which players can control such as the team setup, active skills etc. But more often than not, automated combat tides players through. The money drain here is the requirement to grow different teams to have the best results in the different game modes.
Players can expect the usual waifu features such as relationship points (via the irritating mobile phone SMS system), player housing, and the inevitable gacha and gacha banners. We don’t think that Blue Archive is a great game by any means, but with such big companies behind its launch, it will somewhat still move the meter these few weeks.
