Still working on Firis but no, Sophie was quite fun imo. Firis I'm too early in still.
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Blue Reflection |OT| Modern day Magical Girls
- Thread starter Cornbread78
- Start date
Still working on Firis but no, Sophie was quite fun imo. Firis I'm too early in still.
This game feels like missed opportunities.
I would have gone an entirely different direction with the DLC. Like, do they not understand how thirsty the Sailor Moon fan base is?
I'm really hoping this is the rpg equivalent of Mass Effect/Uncharted/Assassin's Creed in that the first game was just setting up the rules and conceits and the next game is transformative excellence.
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It would be nice to have a good magical girl game before we played the pandering card.
I would have gone an entirely different direction with the DLC. Like, do they not understand how thirsty the Sailor Moon fan base is?
I'm really hoping this is the rpg equivalent of Mass Effect/Uncharted/Assassin's Creed in that the first game was just setting up the rules and conceits and the next game is transformative excellence.
I also hope this gets a late Switch port, cause if it's on Vita, it should be on Switch.
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http://www.jrpgreview.com/blue-reflection.html
https://www.destructoid.com/review-blue-reflection-463367.phtml
It would be nice to have a good magical girl game before we played the pandering card.
E&L was amazing and Shallie was really, really good though lesser than E&L.
Sophie was also very good and fun game, but Firis was worse than Sophie. So it's been on a slump ever since E&L, however, even Firis is still considered a good game.
Sophie was good, Firis was absolute garbage.
Rosa Lilium
Neo Member
I agree. It seems so disconcerting to see the obvious shoujo style inspired artwork and very grounded slice of life portion of its story attached to such a high level of fanservice. The game would have hit the magical girl demographic much more head on and been less dissonant if it kept to a Sailor Moon or Madoka Magica level of fanservice.
In regards to fanservice in Senran Kagura, sure keep it high but it seems so out of place in Blue Reflection.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
I'm only on chapter three so maybe there's a lot more but what fanservice is in the game that's worse than Sailor Moon?
SolicitorPirate
Member
Damn shame about the creepy fanservice.
The gaming circles I run in are predominantly female and many of them were excited about the shoujo bent of the game until we learned about all the gross undertones
The gaming circles I run in are predominantly female and many of them were excited about the shoujo bent of the game until we learned about all the gross undertones
AtomskEater
Member
Yeah, I was somewhat interested in the game until I saw the wet shirt stuff and pointless bathing scenes. Along with some of the DLC costumes, lol. I still think what I heard of the OST is great and while I can put up with certain amounts of fanservice, I'm tired of having to tolerate or suffer through it (depending on how bad it is) to enjoy stuff that looks initially like it'd just be cute or innocent. Maybe sometime in the future I'll borrow it from a friend, but that combined with some of the impressions about the gameplay make me feel lukewarm on it.
JoeyJungle
Banned
Wait really? I thought that stuff was just in the creepy DLC?
Oh no.
Outside of the bathing scene (that literally serve no purpose unlike of things you can do at night), they actually spent time to make their wet shirt tech as realistic as possible
Code:
[IMG]http://www.jrpgreview.com/uploads/5/3/8/7/53875073/blue-reflection-20170331121232_orig.png[/IMG]Which is just like, seriously man?
And let's not even with the fucking DLC:
Code:
[IMG]https://apollo2.dl.playstation.net/cdn/UP4108/CUSA09085_00/FREE_CONTENTol69oW6JNmTqZu8ClX4T/PREVIEW_SCREENSHOT1_156065.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://nsx.np.dl.playstation.net/nsx/material/c/cb8d04e75af66ca8ce245322a0bd3a60d7a0eadc-1173076.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://nsx.np.dl.playstation.net/nsx/material/8/8f3b70127fa0ca5d9364c72a462a3d47f6c8637f-1174811.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://cdn.edgecast.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/688240/ss_baf4b3640bf3488d7c8353c80199ce537fd4c60c.1920x1080.jpg?t=1506414816[/IMG]And the goddamn season pass is $80, which apparently the only story DLC is locked behind. Let me say that again for the people in the back: you can buy pretty much every one of the costumes piecemeal, but the only way to get the "Special Event" content is the $80 season pass.
Blue Reflection is the most disappointing thing to happen this year since the terrible America Chavez ongoing comic. I don't want to *like* this game, I want to *love* this game. I wanted this to be one of my top ten games of all time.
The game is rated T, it's not as bad as some people are making it out to be. It's nowhere near as bad as Senran Kagura or something. The focus of the game is definitely not on the fanservice, but if people have little to no tolerance for any of it then I guess it would be off-putting. It's mostly just school swimsuits (the more revealing ones aren't in the game without DLC), random wet shirts on rainy days (which I've only seen happen twice so far) and bath scenes where you can't even see anything.
Rosa Lilium
Neo Member
Actually, that's a part of the problem. The fanservice isn't justified by either the setting or the larger story line so the gratuitous stuff that is there stands out that much more awkwardly. It doesn't fit with the rest of the game.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
So I've already seen it all besides the rainy clothes.
School swimsuits are whatever. Bath scenes are a total non-issue. Both of those are in every Mahou shoujo anime ever.
Wet shirts I can do without but if the girls are in the rain doing their normal stuff it seems like it'd be whatever as long as they don't go the typical anime route of comparing breast sizes or whatever. I'll see when I get to it. This game has been pretty tame and innocent so far.
Lee Chaolan
Member
The pre-order theme is one of the best in years.
Gonna keep it as my main theme for a while.
Gonna keep it as my main theme for a while.
Yeah, hence the term "fan service." It doesn't need to be there, and I'm not defending it, but it is for people who like that stuff, it's typical for games and anime targeted at otakus. That's GUST's main audience, though they do have a decent-sized female fanbase from what I've read. I just think people are making it out to be worse than it is, since you can find swimsuit DLC costumes and such in pretty much every modern JRPG, including others that aren't focused on fanservice like the Tales games, Trails, Final Fantasy, Xenoblade, etc. I can understand it if people have no tolerance for stuff like that, but I imagine that'd mean you'd be skipping nearly every JRPG in general these days.
I wanted to play this game, but it hitting at a time where I'm already busy with so many titles (as well as the fact that it's not the strongest, gameplay-wise) leads me to believe I should wait until later if/when it receives a price-drop, and then jump in. Or I might pass entirely, we'll see.
The OST is absolutely amazing, though.
The OST is absolutely amazing, though.
chrominance
Member
I guess part of it is that it's also something that drastically limits the audience for these types of games. Like, Atelier is already not amazing with the fanservice, especially lately (PLACHTA), and I think that's the kind of franchise that would otherwise be really appealing to a broad demographic. I still play every Atelier game, but the inevitable hot spring scene or whatever isn't something I look forward to. It's something to rationalize, to ignore, to weigh whether it's bad enough to make you not want to play anymore.
It would also be a lot easier to set aside your reservations if the game was worth it, but reviews are mixed. So who knows.
Personally, though it's not actually a magical girl thing (or really even all that close to one), I'm holding out more hope for the Little Witch Academia game.
Sophie is the last good Atelier game. I wouldn't call it bad at all, though it might pale in comparison to some of the highlights of the PS3 era like Totori or (imo) Ayesha. Firis is a lot more divisive and I found the pacing to be awful, plus the writing continues its downward trend in terms of poor dialogue and one-note characters that all agree with each other and get along all the time.
Aww was expecting the title to be I hope you will accept this. Anywho, I got it on steam in support of the soundtrack which is pretty freaking catchy. Although a few songs have some dub step in them, overall the music is awesome.
Here is one of favorites:
https://youtu.be/4C_D26xmW04
Wow, I was going to pick this up when it went on sale, but I'll probably have to get this in the next 2 weeks. Awesome track.
Just not sure I'll have time to play it.
So many damn good tracks.
As for the game, I'm loving it so far. I find the gameplay and combat rather fun. The story is charming to me. The TIGAR tracks are top-godddamn-knotch, especially -Michael-.
texhnolyze
Banned
LMAO. Yeah, I'm staying away from this game. Thanks for the warning.
Balmung421
Member
Thanks for the OT! Nicely done.
I am really loving this game so far. Playing this and Ruiner and I can already see those two games being in my top 10 for this year.
The OST is damn good, and I love the battle menu design. Also, creatively I love the game's story so far.
Game looks and runs great downsampled from 4K on my PC with no frame rate issues whatsoever.
If you are interested in a fun JRPG to play right now, I'd highly recommend this game, otherwise I'd say this is a solid pick up during a PSN/Steam sale during black friday etc.
It's a great time to be playing videogames!
I am really loving this game so far. Playing this and Ruiner and I can already see those two games being in my top 10 for this year.
The OST is damn good, and I love the battle menu design. Also, creatively I love the game's story so far.
Game looks and runs great downsampled from 4K on my PC with no frame rate issues whatsoever.
If you are interested in a fun JRPG to play right now, I'd highly recommend this game, otherwise I'd say this is a solid pick up during a PSN/Steam sale during black friday etc.
It's a great time to be playing videogames!
Started playing. Up to the start of chapter 3? Are they separated into chapters? I forget. Its the one after Rin. My opinions so far
Pros:
Visually looks great.
Really enjoying the music.
Character designs, I approve of short hair protagonists.
Pretty easy to understand combat and how to distribute stats
Cons:
Weird slow downs during cutscenes on the ps4
PS4 turns into a jet on multiple occasions with this game (I've only had this happen with games like uncharted)
The volume on the dialogue can get drowned out by the music or just go really quiet sometimes
Quite a few grammatical errors
Pros:
Visually looks great.
Really enjoying the music.
Character designs, I approve of short hair protagonists.
Pretty easy to understand combat and how to distribute stats
Cons:
Weird slow downs during cutscenes on the ps4
PS4 turns into a jet on multiple occasions with this game (I've only had this happen with games like uncharted)
The volume on the dialogue can get drowned out by the music or just go really quiet sometimes
Quite a few grammatical errors
Dandy Crocodile
Member
That's pretty much my con list as well. Shame about the errors in the text as the localization is good but the editing could be better.
R_thanatos
Member
Legit annoyed i have to wait since it's not out in europe yet.
The wait ... is so hard.
The wait ... is so hard.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Oh, you mean for the assists?
They take a while to charge so you only get to do it maybe a couple times in longer boss battles. There's plenty of time to react as well. Nothing to worry about!
Another shitty Gust localization? Come on, KT....
Dandy Crocodile
Member
The localization is good. It's the editing that's lackluster.
I consider editing part of the localization package...
Dandy Crocodile
Member
That's fair!
Cornbread78
Member
It's a shame games like this (not the fanservice stuff) are falling out of favor..
More jrpgs like this are much appreciated..
More jrpgs like this are much appreciated..
I just want a magical girl game that I can unequivocally support.
Lee Chaolan
Member
I have an extra code for the pre-order bonuses including the theme.
I'll award it to the first person who adds me on PSN and sends a nice message.
Cornbread78
Member
Not good enough imo. Oh whoops, you said Vita and I thought of PSP.
Here's this though: https://kotaku.com/if-you-skip-the-madoka-magica-vita-game-you-wont-be-m-1500857553
Actually there's one fantastic magical girl game, but it can't legally come out in America. Magical Battle Arena 2 is an aerial combat game that pits famous magical girls (Card Captor Sakura, Nanoha, Prism Ilya, etc) versus the Touhou girls. It's great.
But I would still like a MG action game. Closest thing that exists to the ideal is something like Neptunia U.
Battlechili
Banned
So far Blue Reflection has been really wonderful for me. At the very least, its better than other recent Gust games I've played by far (Atelier Rorona, Atelier Sophie, Nights of Azure). The game wasted no time getting straight to the story, and to my glee the Persona-esque aspects of the game directly relate to the plot, making it much easier to care about everything going on in the game. And boy oh boy, the plot really is a lot like Persona in some ways. You go into an alternate world based on people's psyches and fight their inner demons to help solve their personal problems. And doing this makes you stronger as a magical girl, brings you closer to getting one wish of yours granted, and makes the world safer. All the game's plot points and character focus seem tightly knit to each other.
I was surprised at how quick the game gets players to care about the characters too. Right from the start you learn that the main character is depressed since she can't perform ballet anymore after an accident when she was younger. The excitement you see once she becomes a magical girl for the first time and realizes she can move on her feet again is such a pleasure to see. Its a really good game for the heart.
And of course, the game is probably one of the prettiest games out there, both visually and audio-wise. The music is divine, and its also dynamic, changing as cutscenes play. It makes scenes much more exciting and makes the music always be at the right part for a particular scene. The music while walking around the highschool is also really relaxing and mellow and works perfectly with the background white noise of students chatting. And the students chatting in particular I think helps make it easier to immerse into the game.
Some people have mentioned being turned off by the fanservice, but I actually think the fanservice just makes an already good game better. Its an added bonus alongside everything else imo. I think the way DLC is handled is kind of funny though. The most fanservicey of DLC outfits is free, while most of the others are random, less sexualized cosmetics, minus one sailor swimsuit set. But I think the free swimsuit set is better than the one that costs money anyways. Still, I can see how if you're not fond of that sort of thing it can be a bother. Though I personally hope Gust doesn't ever stop doing this in their games. I like my fanservice.
I will say though that the combat itself hasn't impressed me yet. Its too simple. I want more combat options. I know I'll probably get more as I go on, but it makes the early battles less fun. Still, its refreshing in a market free of such titles for there to be a magical girl game.
I was surprised at how quick the game gets players to care about the characters too. Right from the start you learn that the main character is depressed since she can't perform ballet anymore after an accident when she was younger. The excitement you see once she becomes a magical girl for the first time and realizes she can move on her feet again is such a pleasure to see. Its a really good game for the heart.
And of course, the game is probably one of the prettiest games out there, both visually and audio-wise. The music is divine, and its also dynamic, changing as cutscenes play. It makes scenes much more exciting and makes the music always be at the right part for a particular scene. The music while walking around the highschool is also really relaxing and mellow and works perfectly with the background white noise of students chatting. And the students chatting in particular I think helps make it easier to immerse into the game.
Some people have mentioned being turned off by the fanservice, but I actually think the fanservice just makes an already good game better. Its an added bonus alongside everything else imo. I think the way DLC is handled is kind of funny though. The most fanservicey of DLC outfits is free, while most of the others are random, less sexualized cosmetics, minus one sailor swimsuit set. But I think the free swimsuit set is better than the one that costs money anyways. Still, I can see how if you're not fond of that sort of thing it can be a bother. Though I personally hope Gust doesn't ever stop doing this in their games. I like my fanservice.
I will say though that the combat itself hasn't impressed me yet. Its too simple. I want more combat options. I know I'll probably get more as I go on, but it makes the early battles less fun. Still, its refreshing in a market free of such titles for there to be a magical girl game.
As a female who is fucking sick of the sexualization of minors in media and in our everyday lives (but also enjoys the Atelier series, magical girl manga/anime, and JRPGs in general), reading this made me feel so fucking uncomfortable.
I also want to add that I don't want to shit on this thread/make it go off the rails. But I reacted so strongly that I felt I had to say something. Carry on.
Just started it and got through the Tutorial battle. Graphically it looks lovely and the music is nice.The transformation scene just made me think of Sailor Moon haha.
Some small typos and stuff so far. But nothing too major I guess...
Some framerate drops here and there.
I do wish it had been a mixed school instead of an all girls school, just as a side note. Never a fan of one gender schools.
We'll see how this goes anyway.
Some small typos and stuff so far. But nothing too major I guess...
Some framerate drops here and there.
I do wish it had been a mixed school instead of an all girls school, just as a side note. Never a fan of one gender schools.
We'll see how this goes anyway.
purseowner
Member
My copy arrived but Cuphead and SNES are stealing my time. Sorry Gust, I'll get to it eventually.
Cornbread78
Member
Yeah, we rarely get any of the anime games, so I guess we're not missing too much then.
CielTynave
Member
Looks like my copy of this arrived today, but I definitely won't be able to start it until Sunday at least, need to finish Danganronpa V3 first. TBH I feel like I must be crazy for buying this game, because I've bought only bought 5 Gust games in my life and I honestly didn't get much enjoyment out of any of them, but the allure of the Persona-esque elements was too strong.
I noticed the Lime / Raimu thing in the tutorials.
Joe Molotov
Member
Played Chapter 1 last night.
AOTY
AOTY
I was going to get this for PC today (yes, I know about the "We hope you will accept this" bs)
Then i read this,
https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/735iyk/a_warning_about_blue_reflection_on_pc/
Game-breaking crash that makes progression impossible...smh.
Then i read this,
https://www.reddit.com/r/JRPG/comments/735iyk/a_warning_about_blue_reflection_on_pc/
Game-breaking crash that makes progression impossible...smh.
rochellepaws
Member
This is the reason for my hesitation as well. Is the actual audience for this game the shoujo audience or is it the creepy fanservice audience? I've seen a very strange mixture of both from the previews and I'm not sure what to think of it.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
The characters, story, and most of the dialogue is for the shoujo audience.
It's the occasional camera angles, very infrequent dialogue (hey let's trade underwear!), and wet shirts in the rain that are too fanservicey for some.
It's kinda weird tonally, as the closest magical girl show to it imo is Yuuki Yuuna (minus the dark sacrificing stuff) as it's very "yay friendship let's solve everybody's problems and all grow and learn together" but then whoops here's a shot of a girl's butt as she bends over in a swimsuit to talk to somebody in a pool.