Mahou shoujo, despite having an immense popularity in other forms of media, is relatively unexplored in games, limiting itself to existing properties turned game. Which is why, when Gust announced their new IP, Blue Reflection, I was into it from the first trailer: not only did it feature exactly that subject matter, but it was an incredibly stylish game to boot -- I was so pumped. The final product, however, was a game I had to drag myself through finishing.
The game follows Hinako Shirai as she returns to Hoshinomiya Girls High after a serious depressive episode. Hinako's life used to revolve around ballet, and she had a promising future in it... until she suffered an injury and was forced into early retirement. Her world having fallen apart, a chance presents itself: after an encounter with an oddly overemotional girl, then with the very eccentric pair of twins called Yuzuki and Lime, she ends up awakening to the powers of a Reflector, which allow her to see through her peers' emotions and help them navigate troubling feelings. Through those, she can not only help her colleagues, but there's also the promise that, should she fight off the monsters that threaten her school, a wish of hers will be granted, and in her mind, it's pretty clear what that wish would be.
The game is divided in chapters which tend to follow episodic formulae, at least until the later parts of the story: a new girl is presented along with her troubles, Hinako and the twins try to learn more about her, something causes tensions escalate to a boiling point, the girl breaks down, they use their Reflector powers and fix everything, befriending the new girl in the progress. In between these main story segments, there's free time, during which Hinako is free to go out with her newfound friends, help minor characters around the school and explore the magical world of Common, where their battles take place.
The ingredients are all here: There's a mystery: why was Hinako chosen? Who, or what are the twins? And why is Hoshinomiya a target for monsters? Plus, there's a wide cast of characters, consisting of the main trio and a whopping twelve girls that join over the course of the game and each have their own history and traits. Sure, one might say there's a lot of clichés in there, but that's like saying the baker uses a lot of flour: what matters, in the end, is how those characters interact and grow. Nobody at Gust needs to be told that, as they are experts in creating emotional character-driven stories with large, lovable casts, even if the premises seem like nothing much.
...and yet, that's exactly where Blue Reflection falters. While it has the makings of a good slice of life slash coming of age story, it lacks the character development to allow it to truly blossom. The main story's pacing suffers greatly from the long series of character introductions, and when it finally picks up, it mostly focuses on Hinako, Yuzu and Lime, not resolving a lot of the conflicts presented over the narrative and ultimately failing to justify the size of the cast. Past their introductory chapters in the story, most girls end up not having much relevance, the idea having been, I guess, for each of them to develop their characters over the course of the dates with Hinako as well as through specific character events but, well...
I suppose it's better to just talk about the elephant in the room: Blue Reflection was rushed out the door, and while the game is complete, it's severely unpolished. In no feature is this felt more than in the character relationships, which, for one, are not voice acted and feature shoddy animation and direction, resulting in very dry scenes. They're also formulaic to a fault: I mentioned that what really matters is how characters interact and grow, and the main issue here is that they don't do that. Throughout the character events, you'd expect the girls to grow in some way, to navigate some sort of problem or develop a part of their character, but instead, most character storylines don't lead anywhere: some loop back to where the character started, and there are a couple girls that come out worse than they started.
It does not help that all events have the girls interacting one-on-one with Hinako, who, save for the Achilles's heel that is her ballet injury, is on the stoic side, resulting in rather one-note conversations. Plus, when hanging out, Hinako takes every friend through the same list of locations instead of picking from those that would trigger more interesting reactions. Every girl has a scene on every location in the game, which include common points of interest in the city, like the station, the general store and temple, but also a few more... exotic picks, like the locker room, the showers, the pool scenes, as well as events where they stand under the rain, uniforms wet. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess the motivation behind those isn't exactly character study.
...so let's talk about the second elephant in room (yes, there's two, it's a big room): it's not unusual for Japanese games to feature some degree of moe, and there's a line between that and just plain sexualization. Some games trip over that line sometimes. Blue Reflection somersaults over it -- it is creepy to the point of being disturbing. Many people mention the panty shot of a character going through a moment of grief that happens in the beginning of the game, which is terrible, but it's also the tip of the iceberg. Throughout the rest of the game, we have magical girl outfits that would make a stripper blush, we have jiggle physics on 14-year-olds, we have skirt flipping, see-through wet uniforms in the rain, underwear scenes, sexual assault played off as a joke, sexual assault not played off as a joke...
That alone would Blue Reflection incredibly hard to recommend even if the characters and gameplay were properly developed. Which is to say, even forgetting all about the issues with the writing and judging the game purely based on gameplay, it doesn't fare all too well either. Yet again, there's something here: the game features an enticing and stylishly presented turn based combat system that is centered on a timeline gauge in which characters advance towards the center to take their turns: by using resources correctly and aiming for enemies weaknesses, the player can monopolize the time gauge and prevent opponents from even taking turns.
This system shines the most during boss battles, in which foes often consist of multiple parts that attack separately, further playing into the idea of denying turns. Other mechanics, like overdrives and supports, become available later on, expanding the possibilities during battle. Outside of battle, characters can be built in different ways, earning them different skills that can then be customized through the fragment system. Fragments allow the assignment of additional effects to characters' abilities and become critical in the mid to late game. Both of these systems are inherently capped in how much you can power up between main story segments, meaning you're always at an appropriate power level during boss battles -- never stomping, but never quite getting stomped either.
Sure, the normal enemy encounters are much, much less exciting, but that's the case with a lot of RPGs, and is not the real problem. The real problem is that the game is entirely lacking in level and quest design. The mahou shoujo part of the game takes place in the parallel world of Common, which consists of maybe twenty or so different rooms that are reused throughout the entire game. Quests are similarly lacking in variety, with there being three types of fetch quests that you are forced to complete a number of to complete the story. That is what makes normal enemy fights become unbearable in the long run: the sheer amount of repeat journeys into Common in order to perform the same tasks. Add to that an unhelpful and sluggish UI present both when learning and customizing skills, and there's also potential for frustration, with the player losing due to bad builds and not quite knowing what's wrong.
Gust, I'm a fan of your work, but... this is not it. Blue Reflection shows a lot of promise and delivers on some great ideas, but completely fumbles the landing, becoming a disappointment to anyone who got hyped for it on its announcement. I hear the sequel is much better, and I will give it a shot some time, but I'm less than hopeful it can make the time I spent with the prequel worth it.
The game follows Hinako Shirai as she returns to Hoshinomiya Girls High after a serious depressive episode. Hinako's life used to revolve around ballet, and she had a promising future in it... until she suffered an injury and was forced into early retirement. Her world having fallen apart, a chance presents itself: after an encounter with an oddly overemotional girl, then with the very eccentric pair of twins called Yuzuki and Lime, she ends up awakening to the powers of a Reflector, which allow her to see through her peers' emotions and help them navigate troubling feelings. Through those, she can not only help her colleagues, but there's also the promise that, should she fight off the monsters that threaten her school, a wish of hers will be granted, and in her mind, it's pretty clear what that wish would be.
The game is divided in chapters which tend to follow episodic formulae, at least until the later parts of the story: a new girl is presented along with her troubles, Hinako and the twins try to learn more about her, something causes tensions escalate to a boiling point, the girl breaks down, they use their Reflector powers and fix everything, befriending the new girl in the progress. In between these main story segments, there's free time, during which Hinako is free to go out with her newfound friends, help minor characters around the school and explore the magical world of Common, where their battles take place.
The ingredients are all here: There's a mystery: why was Hinako chosen? Who, or what are the twins? And why is Hoshinomiya a target for monsters? Plus, there's a wide cast of characters, consisting of the main trio and a whopping twelve girls that join over the course of the game and each have their own history and traits. Sure, one might say there's a lot of clichés in there, but that's like saying the baker uses a lot of flour: what matters, in the end, is how those characters interact and grow. Nobody at Gust needs to be told that, as they are experts in creating emotional character-driven stories with large, lovable casts, even if the premises seem like nothing much.
...and yet, that's exactly where Blue Reflection falters. While it has the makings of a good slice of life slash coming of age story, it lacks the character development to allow it to truly blossom. The main story's pacing suffers greatly from the long series of character introductions, and when it finally picks up, it mostly focuses on Hinako, Yuzu and Lime, not resolving a lot of the conflicts presented over the narrative and ultimately failing to justify the size of the cast. Past their introductory chapters in the story, most girls end up not having much relevance, the idea having been, I guess, for each of them to develop their characters over the course of the dates with Hinako as well as through specific character events but, well...
I suppose it's better to just talk about the elephant in the room: Blue Reflection was rushed out the door, and while the game is complete, it's severely unpolished. In no feature is this felt more than in the character relationships, which, for one, are not voice acted and feature shoddy animation and direction, resulting in very dry scenes. They're also formulaic to a fault: I mentioned that what really matters is how characters interact and grow, and the main issue here is that they don't do that. Throughout the character events, you'd expect the girls to grow in some way, to navigate some sort of problem or develop a part of their character, but instead, most character storylines don't lead anywhere: some loop back to where the character started, and there are a couple girls that come out worse than they started.
It does not help that all events have the girls interacting one-on-one with Hinako, who, save for the Achilles's heel that is her ballet injury, is on the stoic side, resulting in rather one-note conversations. Plus, when hanging out, Hinako takes every friend through the same list of locations instead of picking from those that would trigger more interesting reactions. Every girl has a scene on every location in the game, which include common points of interest in the city, like the station, the general store and temple, but also a few more... exotic picks, like the locker room, the showers, the pool scenes, as well as events where they stand under the rain, uniforms wet. I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess the motivation behind those isn't exactly character study.
...so let's talk about the second elephant in room (yes, there's two, it's a big room): it's not unusual for Japanese games to feature some degree of moe, and there's a line between that and just plain sexualization. Some games trip over that line sometimes. Blue Reflection somersaults over it -- it is creepy to the point of being disturbing. Many people mention the panty shot of a character going through a moment of grief that happens in the beginning of the game, which is terrible, but it's also the tip of the iceberg. Throughout the rest of the game, we have magical girl outfits that would make a stripper blush, we have jiggle physics on 14-year-olds, we have skirt flipping, see-through wet uniforms in the rain, underwear scenes, sexual assault played off as a joke, sexual assault not played off as a joke...
That alone would Blue Reflection incredibly hard to recommend even if the characters and gameplay were properly developed. Which is to say, even forgetting all about the issues with the writing and judging the game purely based on gameplay, it doesn't fare all too well either. Yet again, there's something here: the game features an enticing and stylishly presented turn based combat system that is centered on a timeline gauge in which characters advance towards the center to take their turns: by using resources correctly and aiming for enemies weaknesses, the player can monopolize the time gauge and prevent opponents from even taking turns.
This system shines the most during boss battles, in which foes often consist of multiple parts that attack separately, further playing into the idea of denying turns. Other mechanics, like overdrives and supports, become available later on, expanding the possibilities during battle. Outside of battle, characters can be built in different ways, earning them different skills that can then be customized through the fragment system. Fragments allow the assignment of additional effects to characters' abilities and become critical in the mid to late game. Both of these systems are inherently capped in how much you can power up between main story segments, meaning you're always at an appropriate power level during boss battles -- never stomping, but never quite getting stomped either.
Sure, the normal enemy encounters are much, much less exciting, but that's the case with a lot of RPGs, and is not the real problem. The real problem is that the game is entirely lacking in level and quest design. The mahou shoujo part of the game takes place in the parallel world of Common, which consists of maybe twenty or so different rooms that are reused throughout the entire game. Quests are similarly lacking in variety, with there being three types of fetch quests that you are forced to complete a number of to complete the story. That is what makes normal enemy fights become unbearable in the long run: the sheer amount of repeat journeys into Common in order to perform the same tasks. Add to that an unhelpful and sluggish UI present both when learning and customizing skills, and there's also potential for frustration, with the player losing due to bad builds and not quite knowing what's wrong.
Gust, I'm a fan of your work, but... this is not it. Blue Reflection shows a lot of promise and delivers on some great ideas, but completely fumbles the landing, becoming a disappointment to anyone who got hyped for it on its announcement. I hear the sequel is much better, and I will give it a shot some time, but I'm less than hopeful it can make the time I spent with the prequel worth it.