Blue Reflection Reviews
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!
Complemented by a strong sense of style in its gorgeous presentation, this is one of the stronger titles in Gust's library.
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.
The game itself might take place on a relatively small scale, but the ambition of the game is much bigger.
Blue Reflection is just a repetitive and simple rpg full of colors and nice music. It's view of relationships is utilitarian and flat. Just another piece of fandom for the magical girl fans.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Visual novels and other titles like Sword Art Online: Lost Song have attempted to capture anime style in video games , but none have done it quite as well as Blue Reflection. In this magical girl Persona-like JRPG, you play as the lost and broken former ballet dancer Hinako.
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.
It's really rather unfortunate just how much is missing from Blue Reflection.
Blue Reflection is Gust's best new IP and one that would've been a better game had Koei Tecmo put some actual effort into localization wise.
Blue Reflection is lacking in a few areas, but it still has enough going for it to offer an overall enjoyable experience that fans of the magical girl sub genre will enjoy.
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.
Blue Reflection is a good start for something even greater. It manages to perfectly capture the atmosphere of classic magical girl anime series, and does so with some of the prettiest visuals I've seen in a Japanese PS4 game. Unfortunately, it fails at making a truly engaging JRPG to go with it. The lack of a focus on combat is interesting, but it ends up making combat feel more like an afterthought than it ought to be. I hope Gust is willing to put out a sequel, because with some of these issues tackled, this could end up being my new favorite JRPG series.
Blue Reflection tells an accurate story of a high school girl who is coming to terms with becoming a magical girl. The game is graphically one of the best looking games from Gust that I have played and I applaud them for trying something new. There's a lot to see in Blue Reflection if players put the time into the story, but if you're looking level grinding and item collecting, this isn't going to be the game for you.
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.
A limp, repetitive gameplay loop and uncomfortable characterization rob Blue Reflection of the magic it tries so desperately to create.
Obviously the shooter or sports crowd won't play this; it's aimed for a certain niche. For those people, no aspect of Blue Reflection is at all bad, but I just get the feeling that rather than focus on fleshing out a few things, they tried to incorporate too many that all ended up quite shallow. Nothing here will anger or upset you, but nothing will amaze or move you either. It's a steady, repetitive line to the end without any sort of escalation, but not everything need to be full of crazy turns and ups and downs.
As a brand new IP, Blue Reflection does its job well and may serve as a good foundation for a sequel, with an enjoyable (albeit not all that original) story, good character development, a unique leveling system, and a stylish presentation. Sadly, most of the game's features resemble too much those found in the latest Persona games and, as such, the game doesn't feel very unique, while the low difficulty level prevents the RPG mechanics from reaching their full potential.
The art style of Blue Reflection is absolutely gorgeous and truly sets it apart from Gust's other IPs.
The overall experience of Blue Reflection is enjoyable even if it does rely heavily on yuri tropes. The high school setting, particularly what the player does in their free time and tries to befriend the other students feels like the developers took some pages from the Persona 4 book and mixed it into the Nights of Azure Atelier.
Blue Reflection tries to take the social aspects of Persona and make them more streamlined and simplified but fails to make them interesting in any way. The combat and beautiful locations and character models add some light to the title, it's not enough to make it stand out or memorable in any way.