Dragon1893
Member
OK, there are bugs and then there's this.
How the fuck does a game ship with a bug that makes it completely impossible to finish? Jesus Christ.
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Blue Reflection |OT| Modern day Magical Girls
- Thread starter Cornbread78
- Start date
OK, there are bugs and then there's this.
How the fuck does a game ship with a bug that makes it completely impossible to finish? Jesus Christ.
rochellepaws
Member
Thanks for that description, I'm relieved to hear they're infrequent at least.
Mr.Deadshot
Member
Saw it in stores in Germany today. Also Dragons Dogma which officially releases next week . So maybe give your local store a call or visit, you might be lucky.
EDIT: Oh your post was from Thursday ... nm.
^
I've found the fanservice to be pretty light, especially in comparison to games like Senran Kagura, Oneechanbara, Galgun, etc. Some camera angles when stretching, a lower shot after a swimsuit is on or after getting ready for school, and the whole wet shirt thing which I find to be more tame than it could've been. They don't really focus on that scene/angle for too long. There's a boob jiggle or two (not counting when the character model suddenly ports in for a scene), but I wonder if that's just built into KT games...
That underwear scene was hilarious though and showed just how blind that girl is to her own actions.
If you're interested in the game, don't expect it to be the next Persona or Atelier or anything. If people can look past the relatively minor fanservice parts, it's a really charming game. I've found myself laughing quite a bit, especially at the texting. I need to find that bread icon.
R_thanatos
Member
Started the game a bit last night ( chapter 2 done )
I'm liking it. My only problem is the speed of my character when i'm visiting the common ( too slow for my tastes )
Other than that ..it's a nice game.
There is a weird disconnect between the moments subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen and the moment the voice is out. This could have used a little bit more of work.
Other than that it's alright
I'm liking it. My only problem is the speed of my character when i'm visiting the common ( too slow for my tastes )
Other than that ..it's a nice game.
There is a weird disconnect between the moments subtitles appear at the bottom of the screen and the moment the voice is out. This could have used a little bit more of work.
Other than that it's alright
Good to know that this game continues the Gust tradition of "Did they even fucking playtest this?" game-breaking bugs.
Battlechili
Banned
Does anyone else find Lime to be extremely overpowered? I put Admiration on her standard attack and now when I combine that with having her cast Fox Heart on herself she's nearly invincible. Her extremely high attack combined with powerful healing spells makes her a powerhouse of unstoppable fury.
Atelier games (at least from what I've played of Rorona and Sophie) are extremely slice of life heavy and don't put nearly as much effort into fleshing out their characters. At the very least, in the case of Blue Reflection, the characterization is critical to the plot since the whole point is that you're solving people's problems and thus becoming stronger due to it. You have to learn about others in order to help them, and I think that's a really good way to relate the story, characters, and gameplay all together. In Atelier, there's a big disconnect here where there isn't much characterization and the characterization that exists doesn't really relate nearly as heavily to your objectives of collecting resources and using alchemy to create new objects. They're more of separate things that just happen to exist in the same game together.
I apologize. I didn't/don't want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. It was mostly my intention to basically say that I'm really enjoying the game as a whole and that there's not really anything I dislike about it apart from the gameplay. Though, now that I've put more time into it, even the gameplay has been kind of nice. I'm really liking how you can equip items to your attacks. Still, nonetheless, once again, I'm sorry for making you uncomfortable. I don't want to do that.
I think the answer to this question is a mixture of both.There's definitely at least some overlap in audiences. Its not like people only like one type of game and that's it after all.
Really? I don't see how this game isn't far above and beyond Atelier.
Atelier games (at least from what I've played of Rorona and Sophie) are extremely slice of life heavy and don't put nearly as much effort into fleshing out their characters. At the very least, in the case of Blue Reflection, the characterization is critical to the plot since the whole point is that you're solving people's problems and thus becoming stronger due to it. You have to learn about others in order to help them, and I think that's a really good way to relate the story, characters, and gameplay all together. In Atelier, there's a big disconnect here where there isn't much characterization and the characterization that exists doesn't really relate nearly as heavily to your objectives of collecting resources and using alchemy to create new objects. They're more of separate things that just happen to exist in the same game together.
facepalm007
Member
Had a bit more time with the game and still enjoying it so far. The characters are charming and I'm really enjoy the overall dynamic and interactions between them. The story is still building up, but it's sufficing for now, a lot of the character backstories are interesting and it's keeping me invested.
Even on hard I definitely do feel that the game is easy. It's one thing when you can reduce the amount of enemy turns, but it's another when they nothing but tickle you as well. Makes the dungeon crawling portions of the game feel rather mundane at times. The overall level design is pretty repetitive and definitely lacking as well. It's quite a shame since the "concept" of those levels are nice, but the overall feel of those levels are rather small lacking.
Oh yeah, the various text errors are slowly eating away at me.
I totally agree. Normally I don't mind some fanservice here and there for as long as the overall tone of the characters/themes/dialogue call for it, but here it takes me out of the moment for most scenes that have it.
Even on hard I definitely do feel that the game is easy. It's one thing when you can reduce the amount of enemy turns, but it's another when they nothing but tickle you as well. Makes the dungeon crawling portions of the game feel rather mundane at times. The overall level design is pretty repetitive and definitely lacking as well. It's quite a shame since the "concept" of those levels are nice, but the overall feel of those levels are rather small lacking.
Oh yeah, the various text errors are slowly eating away at me.
I totally agree. Normally I don't mind some fanservice here and there for as long as the overall tone of the characters/themes/dialogue call for it, but here it takes me out of the moment for most scenes that have it.
You know what? I would buy an all ages version of Blue Reflection in a heartbeat. You know how they would cut all the sex scenes out of the console version of a hentai game? I would buy a version of Blue Reflection with no fanservice. I bet it wouldn't even be hard. Just remove a few flags from the game code.
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Also, people comparing Blue Reflection to stuff like Senran Kagura need to get fucking real.
It's disingenuous as fuck to pretend you don't see the characters literally pushing their boobs up on the cover. Senran Kagura isn't a game with fanservice, Senran Kagura is a fanservice game.
I saw Oneechanbara mentioned too.
Again, not remotely hiding it. Gal Gun?
Admittedly more subtle, but then there's the ads:
and the back cover:
And yeah, you know what you're getting.
Blue Reflection's cover isn't remotely the same.
Here's the back:
Again, the only "fanservice" this implies is a reliance on Magical Girl storytelling tropes. People are completely justified in being disappointed and/or creeped out by the fact that innocent looking game is pandering to ped- I mean "underage high school anime girl fetishists".
I'm not saying you can't enjoy the game in spite of the fanservice.
I'm not even saying you can't enjoy the game because of the fanservice.
But let's stop fucking lying about what's happening here.
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Also, people comparing Blue Reflection to stuff like Senran Kagura need to get fucking real.
Code:
[IMG]http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/l/288006-senran-kagura-shojotachi-no-shinei-nintendo-3ds-front-cover.jpg[/IMG]It's disingenuous as fuck to pretend you don't see the characters literally pushing their boobs up on the cover. Senran Kagura isn't a game with fanservice, Senran Kagura is a fanservice game.
I saw Oneechanbara mentioned too.
Code:
[IMG]http://gematsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Onechanbara-Z2-Chaos_Box-Art_001.jpg[/IMG]Again, not remotely hiding it. Gal Gun?
Code:
[IMG]https://i2.wp.com/www.sosgamers.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Gal-Gun-Cover.jpg[/IMG]Admittedly more subtle, but then there's the ads:
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[IMG]http://www.ricedigital.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/galgun_jpg.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]https://www.videogamesplus.ca/images/gal-gun-Costume-DLC.jpg[/IMG]and the back cover:
Code:
[IMG]http://www.mobygames.com/images/covers/l/354088-gal-gun-double-peace-mr-happiness-edition-playstation-4-other.jpg[/IMG]And yeah, you know what you're getting.
Blue Reflection's cover isn't remotely the same.
Code:
[IMG]https://static-ca.ebgames.ca/images/products/732126/3max.jpg[/IMG]Here's the back:
Code:
[IMG]https://gamefaqs.akamaized.net/box/2/8/8/618288_back.jpg[/IMG]Again, the only "fanservice" this implies is a reliance on Magical Girl storytelling tropes. People are completely justified in being disappointed and/or creeped out by the fact that innocent looking game is pandering to ped- I mean "underage high school anime girl fetishists".
I'm not saying you can't enjoy the game in spite of the fanservice.
I'm not even saying you can't enjoy the game because of the fanservice.
But let's stop fucking lying about what's happening here.
Only about an hour in and I'm really trying to avoid any kinds of spoilers but I've got two questions that I kind of want to know very simplistic answers to at this pointbcause I'm getting worried about having too high of expectations that'll make me like the game less to some level when/if I get disappointed. So if someone who knows can give me just a Yes/No/Not good to tell you right now, I'd really appreciate it.
These aren't really spoilers, but don't want anyone else spoiler on the concepts I'm asking about.
* Does the story end up being
? Because it sure as hell feels like it's going that route.
* Does the game feature any level of
? Because OMG it's already driving me mad how proper that feels for a game like this and I was sure Rin was going that direction until it better clarified who she was talking about.
Please give me yes answers to those both. ;_;
These aren't really spoilers, but don't want anyone else spoiler on the concepts I'm asking about.
* Does the story end up being
the downside of being a magical girl (ala Madoka)
* Does the game feature any level of
yuri / girls' love
Please give me yes answers to those both. ;_;
A lot of the fanservice in this game is optional, and all the pandering costumes are DLC anyway. You'll see school swimsuits in the base game but you won't be fighting in them or anything. I think I saw the wet shirt stuff twice so far in my playthrough and I'm pretty sure I'm near the end, you can just not go outside on rainy days which are pretty infrequent in my experience.
To my understanding, no on both counts.
The second is particularly annoying cause that's like, the Magical Girl trope.
Oh, hmm, didn't realize this was out here already. Was vaguely interested since its announcement due to the visual style. Shame to hear about the fanservice though I might pick it up at some point regardless.
Serious though awkward question: what about fanservice makes it a bonus for you? I'm trying not to sound judgemental but is it literally just sexual attraction/arousal or something else?
I just don't understand it and never really have. To me it just interferes with what I want out of a game, and in cases like this, just goes against what the tone/audience/whatever is beyond it. To you, does this game really feel fitting for this sort of thing? Or is it seriously just a bonus no matter how out of place it is?
(Obviously I'm not exactly coming from the exact same view point as Linkura but I similarly feel strongly about this because of how it can make people feel.)
Serious though awkward question: what about fanservice makes it a bonus for you? I'm trying not to sound judgemental but is it literally just sexual attraction/arousal or something else?
I just don't understand it and never really have. To me it just interferes with what I want out of a game, and in cases like this, just goes against what the tone/audience/whatever is beyond it. To you, does this game really feel fitting for this sort of thing? Or is it seriously just a bonus no matter how out of place it is?
(Obviously I'm not exactly coming from the exact same view point as Linkura but I similarly feel strongly about this because of how it can make people feel.)
I doubt.
The "fanservice" in this game, to me, is almost not existent. Since the girls treat most occasions in a natural form that I have a difficult time perceiving anything else.
For example, the wet shirts. It shows that their clothes get wet and since the uniform is white, it becomes transparent. For them, since it's a girls only high school, they mostly ignore the shirts and only want to get out of the rain. No camera focus, no insinuations of something embarrassing from what I can remember, just a wet shirt because of the rain.
When the day ends for the MC you can choose to take a bath, but it shows only her face in a bath tub. From there, there are two options: think about the day and clean your face. Again, the context is that it is a normal and everyday thing, so it's only good to see what the MC is thinking. You can also opt out of those.
You can ask why the devs even bothered with those things, but they are almost invisible to the overall experience of the game.
R_thanatos
Member
i've played 3 more hours on this game and i'm just baffled at the low tolerance i'm seeing written here.
The game's fantastic so far.
my only problem so far are the technical shortcomings . The common "hapinness area " framerate is quite low, in fact it can go up and down depending on where the camera is. That's unnaceptable really. A total shame since the other areas aren't that bad.
As for the game itself , the fanservice complain is ridiculous really. I'm actually really happy to see the characters acting and reacting in their environnement rather thanstupid fade to black and other "shortcuts" i see in other games. As someone who consume a lot of anime magical girls shows , i even fail to see the problem. I haven't seen one problematic scene so far.
Oh yeah , clothes get wet in the rain , what a big deal. Even the transformation scene is short and tame. I'm seriously looking for the "fanservice"
The game's fantastic so far.
my only problem so far are the technical shortcomings . The common "hapinness area " framerate is quite low, in fact it can go up and down depending on where the camera is. That's unnaceptable really. A total shame since the other areas aren't that bad.
As for the game itself , the fanservice complain is ridiculous really. I'm actually really happy to see the characters acting and reacting in their environnement rather thanstupid fade to black and other "shortcuts" i see in other games. As someone who consume a lot of anime magical girls shows , i even fail to see the problem. I haven't seen one problematic scene so far.
Oh yeah , clothes get wet in the rain , what a big deal. Even the transformation scene is short and tame. I'm seriously looking for the "fanservice"
Battlechili
Banned
I see it as adding something that's pleasing to the eye to something that is already otherwise pleasing based on other merits. Basically, adding in something good alongside other good content. It doesn't necessarily need to make sense contextually for me to enjoy it. I like content that is made to be sexually attractive. The aforementioned fanservice centric titles like Senran Kagura and Gal Gun imo are medicore games gameplay wise though not entirely devoid of fun, so the fanservice being there helps make the games more visually appealing, make the characters easier to like, and help me look over and ignore the game's faults and enjoy what would otherwise be very mediocre experiences. Nonetheless however, I'm not always looking for content that specifically is made to be such. Senran Kagura and Gal Gun put fanservice on the forefront as their first and primary objective, and while that can be nice, this means that it puts other things I also like on the backburner. I like games that have quality content in all kinds of fields, so playing something like Senran Kagura, while fun, can be a disappointment at times because the games could be great in other ways too outside of fanservice and instead are overall mediocre because they focus primarily on the fanservice. Blue Reflection isn't a fanservice game like those and as such, while it has fanservice, its not put at the forefront nor is it the primary focus, so I feel like I'm getting a meatier overall package with a game like this but with the fanservice as being an added bonus.
Regarding how fitting it is though, I'm not entirely sure its even unfitting. Blue Reflection reminds me a lot of Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The one wish being granted to each magical girl, the alternate worlds the girls go to to fight monsters, the fact that in these alternate worlds you need to collect gems that are frequently protected by monsters where these gems are necessary for the magical girls to continue to be, an injured character not being able to follow through with their old hobbies....Its all very Madoka Magica-esque. And Madoka Magica had a decent bit of mild sexual pandering in it (mostly in the OP of the show really, but nonetheless there) as well as some mild yuri despite the show being aimed at adult men (being a seinen anime). So I see this as just following the routes of some other similar mahou shoujo content in a way (as well as following what other Gust games already have done), so I'm not sure I'd even say it is out of place. It helps that Blue Reflection's graphics are as gorgeous as they are.
Though like I said, even if its out of place, I usually still see it as a bonus to most titles. The only exceptions to this are when the game having such sexual content contradicts the games thematically (such as perhaps a game whose plot criticizes the sexualization of characters whilst simultaneously doing it itself. Note that I can't actually think of games that do this, just that if one were to, I could see it as a problem). I don't typically have a difficult time taking things seriously even if the way characters look or are dressed or the way camera angles are presented in a way that have some degree of sexual pandering. It is as you say; its typically a bonus for me even if it might seem out of place for some.
Like I said though, I can understand how some might dislike such content. I just like it and think it just adds to the overall game. That game being a really fantastic JRPG and genuine contender for GOTY.
- Shower and bath scenes
- Jiggle physics
- Skirts lifting every time you turn
- Transparent clothing when wet
- Swimsuit DLC
- Some of the dialogue
chrominance
Member
Okay, so setting aside the fanservice topic for now, it seems like people like the game? The other major concern I had from the footage I saw was that it looked really low-budget. Gust games are already notorious for having mediocre environments and character animations (which I deal with in Atelier games because the rest of the package is usually quite good), but Blue Reflection seemed to be quite a bit worse than usual. Is that panning out for people, or did Gust improve upon the stuff I saw?
I like it, but it's definitely low budget. It feels like they had a lot of good ideas, but didn't have the time or budget to really follow through on most of them. The combat is largely pointless since you don't get any XP from battles, only materials for item crafting which again feels pointless because the game is so easy that you never need to use any items, at least on normal. Most of the sidequests are for generic girls that have you repeat the same tasks over and over again and you'll never talk to them again after that one time anyway. There are a bunch of locations outside of the school you'll see when you choose to hang out with a girl, but you can't just pick where to go or anything, it's all random. I also wish there were more playable characters, not that I dislike the party but it'd be nice if there were other girls to play as. I feel like they should've taken another six months or so and fleshed out the game more, but KT probably wouldn't give them the time or money to do that.
R_thanatos
Member
The game has technical shortcomings , but has many parts that are good looking.
-Some areas have framedrops on PS4
-Some lipsync problems here and there
-Environnements are indeed nothing to write home about
-Character animations are quite ok
But for me the game also have :
-Good music
-Good/Great characters
It's pretty much the stuff that you saw but the package is ...alright. Please don't hate magical girl stuff or shoujo matters or else this game WILL BORE YOU
The game is also quite sincere too. If you don't like the first few hours, there isn't much to turn your opinion around.
R_thanatos
Member
Shower scenes where you see nothing , like in most anime , bath scenes were the water is white and you see nothing. Clothes getting wet that does nothing .
Skirt lifting yet the camera is far away and so far i haven't seen a moment where the skirt lifted high enough to see something.
So i guess , that leaves a swimsuit dlc entirely optionnal and jiggle physics that aren't even comparable to what you see in most fanservice games and still tamer than a good half of the anime out there.
Yeah , no .I do not agree with the conclusion so far.
I'll just agree that it's not the focus of the game , so why is it an issue again ?
CielTynave
Member
Great job amazon, the spine on my game case is completely snapped. Not that it's a big deal to me since I won't be keeping the game in the case but I think this is actually the worst package I've gotten from them.
idk wtf amazon does to their game shipments, my disc was rattling around in the case when I got mine.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
That happens regularly to PS4 discs in bubble mailers. I think it has to do with the cases themselves as at least 50% of the PS4 games I get are loose like that.
But yes, I agree Amazon mishandles other aspects of game shipments.
While KT are (hopefully) hard at work on the PC patch, people have found a workaround for the crash issues.
So far, I like the game. It is just what it promised to be.
I first found out about Blue Reflection while browsing art by Kishida Mel around a year ago. I got the Arland trilogy because of his art (as well as the artbook of course) and i pre-ordered the game as soon as I could.
Magical Girls re not exactly my cup of tea, but, luckily, the transformations for the girls are only seen once, so the corny side of the game isn't much of a bother for me.
The High School drama was more attractive to me. The characters look cute and have personality (Hinako can be a bitch sometimes...) but I feel that they could have pushed this aspect further.
The chat feature reminds me a lot of Life is Strange.
Combat is easy and yep, Lime is OP as hell (Well, to be fair, it's her bear who is OP). The enemy design is cool and I like the bosses.
Technically, it is really lackluster, both on PS4 and PC (yeah I own the game on both), but KOEI has already stated they are willing to patch the game. On PS4 Pro, the framerate is crazy. They should have fixed it to 30FPS instead of letting it go wild. PC's Fast Sync instead of typical V-Sync improves a lot the overall quality.
I first found out about Blue Reflection while browsing art by Kishida Mel around a year ago. I got the Arland trilogy because of his art (as well as the artbook of course) and i pre-ordered the game as soon as I could.
Magical Girls re not exactly my cup of tea, but, luckily, the transformations for the girls are only seen once, so the corny side of the game isn't much of a bother for me.
The High School drama was more attractive to me. The characters look cute and have personality (Hinako can be a bitch sometimes...) but I feel that they could have pushed this aspect further.
The chat feature reminds me a lot of Life is Strange.
Combat is easy and yep, Lime is OP as hell (Well, to be fair, it's her bear who is OP). The enemy design is cool and I like the bosses.
Technically, it is really lackluster, both on PS4 and PC (yeah I own the game on both), but KOEI has already stated they are willing to patch the game. On PS4 Pro, the framerate is crazy. They should have fixed it to 30FPS instead of letting it go wild. PC's Fast Sync instead of typical V-Sync improves a lot the overall quality.
Yes, that does the trick. I am able to finish the first run through with that fix yesterday. Or it keeps crashing when entering the
magma
But with or without this fix, the game still crashes quite often, it is safer that you save your game whenever you completed something.
I didn't have a single crash at all in this game so far (i installed the fix before getting to the part where the affected crashes occured, and i'm 16 hours in right now), which leads me to believe that other crashes might be hardware-related.
Grim Patron
Member
The worst part is there are scenes where girls are talking in the background but no subs for those bits. Lazy localization for sure. I mentioned this in my review. We're getting less subs also now. Earlier they used to do less dubs compared to JP VA. then no dubs. now less subs. Annoying.
I don't see how my hardware would be the culprit, unless you mean the NVIDIA driver (latest driver installed), I am on an old i5-2500, 16GB RAM, GTX 970, on board audio with Windows 10 Pro (all latest updates installed).
But it seems that the earlier parts are less of a problem (may be only 1 or 2), the crashes occur more frequent after reaching that area, and my DLC (free bonus DLC) doesn't appear until I did the fix.
Finished the game with the platinum trophy, which was easily attainable since most trophies are story/bond-related and I don't think you can miss anything. I really liked the characters, relationships, music, graphics, storyline and overall aesthetic of the game. It just feels like they really needed more time to flesh out the actual gameplay part of it since you can just completely ignore the item creation and fragment equipping and not have any problems really.
Yeah, seems like they fixed the crashing issues and increased the resolution of the startup logos and tutorial screenshots.
Joe Molotov
Member
Aren't all Magical Girls modern day? Are there any Edo period Magic Girls?
Cornbread78
Member
enough outta you.
Yes, the patch does the trick for me. No more crashing after playing for 3 straight hours.
CielTynave
Member
Just started up the game... did I misread the bit at the beginning or did we just go from the Prologue to Chapter 2?
That was fast... for KT.
A Huge Battleship
Member
Spirit Icana
Member
I bought this game last week for one reason alone:
HAYATO ASANO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This game is his first solo soundtrack work (all music, except the op/ed, are from him). He left Gust/KT after this game released in Japan and is now freelance. I'm hoping to hear his works in higher quality games in the future. I love his music, and he was my favorite composer from the Gust Sound Team.
Anyway, I think I'm near the end of the game, and I'm enjoying it for the characters. I really like the main heroine, Hinako.
HAYATO ASANO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This game is his first solo soundtrack work (all music, except the op/ed, are from him). He left Gust/KT after this game released in Japan and is now freelance. I'm hoping to hear his works in higher quality games in the future. I love his music, and he was my favorite composer from the Gust Sound Team.
Anyway, I think I'm near the end of the game, and I'm enjoying it for the characters. I really like the main heroine, Hinako.
criesofthepast
Member
How many chapters are in the game?
The soundtrack is really amazing. Its so pretty, catchy, creative, and unique. The piano, violin, dubstep, and trance all mash together very well. Even the standalone piano pieces are gorgeous.
I enjoy Hinako a lot. Shes a girl whos just kinda stumbling her way through high school and she comes off as a bitch but is quick to correct it. She has some pretty real issues and her depression touches on a lot of scenarios. Its nice to see her learning that there is more to life and making friends.
I still need those Table Chat stickers like yesterday.
hellishimp
Member
The game is cute, but its lacking majorly compared to Persona & Trails series. Makes me appreciate the aforementioned series all the more.