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Old 03-26-2021, 04:52 PM   #63
Hateandhatred
"The Quebec Steparatist."
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Join Date: Feb 2011
Age: 33
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Default Re: March 2021: 31 days game review challenge



March 26th

Today's challenge is: Game that no ones seems to know.

This theme was suggested by Hakulyte.

Honestly, I could have picked a lot of things if we were talking about your average gamer. I mean, most people I know know at the most about 5 games in this entire challenge so far. Even with some of my more connoisseur friends, I could still have picked some obscure Japan only modern game, and it would definitely qualify. However, I have something better in mind for today.



The game I picked is Blue Reflection, a turn based RPG (yes, another one of those, that doesn't really please me lol) that's very similar to the Persona games. It's also published by Koei Tecmo (the people behind Ninja Gaiden) and developed by Gust (the guys who make the Atelier games). Not exactly small studios, but despite that, and despite the fact that a lot of my friends are into these kinds of games, only one of them had even heard of the title before, and all he knew of the game was a shitty trailer for the Vita version (which is only available in Japanese). I personally had never heard anything about this game either; I just saw it sitting on a shelf in one of my preferred modern gaming hunting spots, and since it intrigued me, I ended up picking it up blindly.



In this game, you play as a former ballet prodigy who can no longer dance due to an injury. She meets with two strange girls and gains the power to transform into a mystical warrior or something (magical girl style) to fight against emotion monsters, predominantly in the other dimension, which she is quite thrilled about since in that form, her leg is no longer injured. The game has two main segments: one is the real world (which is mostly limited to her school and some cutscenes at home) where she can talk to other students, text people on her smartphone, start quests, improve her friendships and whatnot, and the other is the other world, which is governed by strong emotions, and depending on which emotions are in play, the world changes accordingly. You can also find a girl in the real world, trigger an event that will overwhelm her with an emotion, and you'll have to go defeat enemies to bring her back to normal. Really, it's a Persona game. Sometimes, big ass monsters will attack the school in the real world, and you can attack them there as well.



The music is pretty great honestly, and I think the graphics are fantastic, especially in the other world, where everything looks incredibly vivid. The combat system is also surprisingly satisfying, even for a turn based hater like me. Even when it's not your turn, there's a bunch of shit you can do and there's always some kind of passive strategy you have to keep in mind. By the end of the game, you manage a ton of gauges at the same time in order to give yourself an edge, so you really are always doing something, which is great! The attacks you use are also super flashy, and that's also a huge and welcome distraction.



There's one more thing this game is known for (among its small dedicated fanbase, at least), and it's the ungodly amount of fanservice the game gets. It's ridiculous how often you see characters half naked or bathing or trading underwear or grabbing each other's boobs or doing other stupid anime girl shit, to a point where it can become an annoying distraction, but I'd say it doesn't hurt the experience too much if you can deal with this kind of stuff. Personally, I'd say I didn't mind the game taking every excuse to turn the entire school into a gigantic wet t-shirt contest because it never felt like it was the real meat of the game, and there's always something going on I guess.



While I honestly liked this wayyyy more than Persona 4 (the only one I played and completed), I'm not gonna pretend that this is a better product overall. Sure, the dungeons are far better, the visuals are uncomparable and so is the gameplay, and the main character is honestly cute and fun to get into, but it's not without its shortcomings. You do so little stuff in the real world, it can feel pretty constricting. There are also only 3 playable characters, so there's not much room for variety or customization. The biggest flaw is probably how the game is all about emotions, but sucks ass at conveying anything other than depression. But hey, I still liked it, and I think any Persona fan should check it out and give it a shot as they'll probably have a great time with what this has to offer.



Blue Reflection is available on Vita (only in Japanese), PS4 and PC.
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Last edited by Hateandhatred; 03-26-2021 at 05:49 PM..
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