this is gust's best game since atelier shallie/the atelier dusk trilogy in general and that completely took me by surprise. the original blue reflection is what i would call a (perhaps more than) slightly perverted edm album with boss fights - hayato asano, who returns to score second light, provided an absolute rave of a backdrop to the few spectacular battles but everything else about the game had this uncomfortable sense of voyeurism barely holding together an rpg with many pointless systems and no budget to make sense of any of it. based on my experience with another of gust's sequels - nights of azure 2 - and the general trend in the kind of audiences they have been more obviously courting (stares despairingly at atelier ryza which i have not played yet due to oozing reddit aura) since about 2017 or so i had no hopes for this game and had written it off. a day before its release i had an epiphany that if i dont buy a physical copy now i would never be able to. so i did.
not only does it tone down the leery undercurrents of the original game, limiting more """fanservice""" (god i hate this term) elements to the DLC costumes that i'll happily look away from if it keeps the actual game not-cringe, it produces a kind of jrpg that simply doesnt exist anymore - one where characters have relationships with other characters who arent the protagonist! this is partially due to it having its own original cast, the cast of the 2017 game, the BR Ray anime and the BR Sun (as of yet unreleased) mobile game all present but they are all so well integrated into the narrative - a genuinely well written science fantasy mystery underpinned by the usual jrpg themes of friendship, love, self-actualisation - that it never feels like the annoying crossover episode it should feel like.
the most genuine pleasant surprise of all? a lesbian romance that is celebrated and proves central to the narrative, not fetishised even to the extent that it is in the original nights of azure - which i still commend for staying true to itself and acknowledging itself as a gay romance unlike the obnoxiously fetishising and pandering nonsense of nights of azure 2.
the battle system is fantastic, so in love with "ether per second" as a statistic that exists - extremely fun to say. but like most gust games the difficulty just isnt there to warrant engaging with the systems too much on the normal difficulty and you only unlock hard after your first playthrough. there is a bonus ending to achieve on new game plus so there is incentive there so i may return at some point. the auxiliary systems that exist - the social mechanics, the school building aspect all serve their functions but it isnt anything unseen before.
if you have ever been a fan of gust's output you will absolutely love this. its their best work in close to a decade and im glad its free from the worst elements i was saddened to see them approach on the whole. but fuck mel kishida for doing NFTs
not only does it tone down the leery undercurrents of the original game, limiting more """fanservice""" (god i hate this term) elements to the DLC costumes that i'll happily look away from if it keeps the actual game not-cringe, it produces a kind of jrpg that simply doesnt exist anymore - one where characters have relationships with other characters who arent the protagonist! this is partially due to it having its own original cast, the cast of the 2017 game, the BR Ray anime and the BR Sun (as of yet unreleased) mobile game all present but they are all so well integrated into the narrative - a genuinely well written science fantasy mystery underpinned by the usual jrpg themes of friendship, love, self-actualisation - that it never feels like the annoying crossover episode it should feel like.
the most genuine pleasant surprise of all? a lesbian romance that is celebrated and proves central to the narrative, not fetishised even to the extent that it is in the original nights of azure - which i still commend for staying true to itself and acknowledging itself as a gay romance unlike the obnoxiously fetishising and pandering nonsense of nights of azure 2.
the battle system is fantastic, so in love with "ether per second" as a statistic that exists - extremely fun to say. but like most gust games the difficulty just isnt there to warrant engaging with the systems too much on the normal difficulty and you only unlock hard after your first playthrough. there is a bonus ending to achieve on new game plus so there is incentive there so i may return at some point. the auxiliary systems that exist - the social mechanics, the school building aspect all serve their functions but it isnt anything unseen before.
if you have ever been a fan of gust's output you will absolutely love this. its their best work in close to a decade and im glad its free from the worst elements i was saddened to see them approach on the whole. but fuck mel kishida for doing NFTs