Blue Reflection Reviews
Pleasant and engaging jRPG from Gust, exploiting the forgotten Magical Girls theme. It has some flaws, but a tale about handicapped girl trying to fulfill her dreams is interesting enough to give it a chance.
Review in Polish | Read full review
A limp, repetitive gameplay loop and uncomfortable characterization rob Blue Reflection of the magic it tries so desperately to create.
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.
Blue Reflection is certainly not a title for every gamer: the fans of this genre might find something worth their time, while the hardcore gamers should probably look somewhere else.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Blue Reflection seems to want to tell a story more than wanting to be an RPG. The focus on delivering a coming of age tale, seeing all the characters deal with their growing pains during a typical school life comes across as genuine.
Blue Reflection feels like a Gust game. That is, it looks and sounds beautiful at times, but ultimately falls flat elsewhere. While certainly easy on the eyes, it cuts every corner it can in what feels like a purposeful attempt to emit mediocrity. There's some good in here, but the rest feels hastily put together.
Blue Reflection is a really fun journey. It has an earnest and enjoyable story, strongly supported by a solid cast of characters. Though it was sprinkled with some minor flaws, it was easy to look past them when enjoying the entirety of the game. It's also a really decent length, and doesn't overstay its welcome like some RPGs tend to do. For anyone who enjoys slice-of-life and magical girls, this is definitely a solid pick.
A number of issues with Blue Reflection quickly present themselves, such as some screen-tearing witnessed in the visual stakes and a questionable focus on the level of fan service wedged into the adventure, yet underneath these opinion-splitting matters there is an extremely enjoyable, memorable, and rather uncommon Japanese RPG adventure that will certainly leave an impression for the duration of the journey, as well as for a while after playing it.
Blue Reflection is one of the few times where I would say that it would work better as an anime rather than a game. It has a lot of good ideas and systems at work but sadly none of them are fully developed and poor performance ruins the experience.
Blue Reflection doesn't offer much as an RPG but it does carry a certain charm. The gameplay loop can get repetitive while the customization and combat system are fairly simple. The art style might make it feel like a typical slice of life anime but the game attempts to target the magical girl genre with its gameplay.
Blue Reflection surprised me much more than I initially expected. Accompaning Hinako in her journey back to ballet got me interested in her story and in all the characters that support her. The battle system became more interesting with new mechanics that were added, even if the challenge never made those additions necessary. Blue Reflection is a great RPG, but one that requires a lot of patience from the player, so that it can slowly show everything that makes this game so special.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
I really liked Blue Reflection for the changes it made to the RPG system, eliminating grinding for character progression is an interesting way to respect the characters time. I do wish the game was a bit harder since it felt like the focus was in the story (which is a good story) with battles as a mean to have some gameplay between the other sections. But other than that, if you are a fan of RPGs, then this is a good one to try.
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.
Blue Reflection is a solid, if somewhat fanservice-y, JRPG that suffers from some poor pacing issues. The characters themselves are decently fleshed out, and it's worth sticking with them to see how their arcs develop, even if there is a lot to keep track of. The skill customisation is a lot of fun to mess around with, but combat is the weakest part. Despite the excellent combat tracks, most battles feel like a drawn-out exhibition more than anything else. As one of Gust's best titles in years, however, it's definitely worth checking out.
The game itself might take place on a relatively small scale, but the ambition of the game is much bigger.
Blue Reflection is a simple game that'll appeal to a very niche crowd of gamers.
You know what I’m done! There’s nothing more to say. It’s clear that there’s a market for this game and is also clear that that market won’t be reading this review. Mostly because they’ll be too busy shining their anime doll collection and cuddling up to a love pillow deciding which fedora to wear tomorrow. If you like Anime good for you but I can grantee you still won’t enjoy this broken whiney mess of a game that had a development team more focused on making tits bounce about than making a fight that made any sense! It’s over! I’m done! Peace out!
Blue Reflection will not revolutionize the JRPG genre, but its tale of magical high school girls fighting an otherworldly invasion is far more grounded than I expected it to be. Players looking for an endearing adventure backed by an entertaining combat system and a gorgeous art style won't be disappointed with GUST's latest release.
What feels like an attempt at streamlining the Social RPG formula ends up creating a title that just isn’t fun to play. The ambitions of the story mostly fall flat, although there is a small spark of charm in some of the characters. Really, that would be enough to give the game a perfectly mediocre score. However, the sheer ineptitude of a text editing job and horrifying handling of what could’ve been beautiful graphics are major dealbreakers, driving this game down into the dirt.