Grab your admiral hat and get ready to set sail in a Warship Girls, a new game where you collect battle ship girls, build your own fleet, and fight against dangerous enemies! But Warship Girls is certainly not your only choice, there are other games out there that also feature battle ship girls – the most popular being Azur Lane and Kantai Collection (or Kancolle for short). So before you hop in and give the game a try though, let’s take a moment to answer a few questions about how they are different from each other.
In fact, Kantai Collection has the recognition of being the first game to start the battle ship girl trend. Each game has their own unique aspects that them a different experience, but they do share a lot of fundamentals. For starters, in each game you’ll focus on collecting battle ship girls, managing resources, and building a fleet to take on enemies. As the admiral, you’ll also be developing bonds with each ship girl and you can marry one should you raise their Affection enough. In addition, these games feature similar mission based structures and have optional PvP battles that will level up ship girls’ skills.
▍Gameplay Differences
Of the three games, Azur Lane definitely has the most different gameplay. Warship Girls and Kantai Collection are both tactical strategy games, where battles play out automatically and victory depends solely on the strength of your fleet. Azur Lane on the other hand, is a side-scrolling shoot’em up game where you control the battle ship girls directly. In this game, victory depends on your reflexes and skills! So if you’re looking for a more hands on game, Azur Lane might be a better fit!
A battle in Azur Lane
(Source: Android Sloth)
As for Warship Girls and Kantai Collection, mission structure and battles play out similarly. Battles involve your fleet of ship girls and the enemy taking turns attacking. Unlike Azur Lane though, when your ship girls are damaged, they’ll have to be repaired afterwards. This takes up some of your resources as well as real time, so there is a bit more resource management in these games. And for an extra layer of strategy, battle ship girls in Warship Girls each have unique skills that can be used to the turn the tide in battle. These skills can be leveled up and swapped out for new ones, so they do call for some extra planning when building your fleet.
A fleet battle in Warship Girls
(Source: This is Game)
Probably the most noticeable difference between Warship Girls and Kantai Collection is how the battles look. In Kantai Collection, battles are shown via profile pictures of your ship girls and the enemies, with basic graphics showing what happens in each turn. Whereas in Warship Girls, battles are animated with your fleet and the enemies represented by chibi versions. The animations are admittedly simple, but in terms of graphics, it does make battles livelier than those in Kantai Collection.
A battle in Kantai Collection
(Source: Kantai Collection Wiki)
▍The Graphics
The biggest appeal and reason for collecting battle ship girls is their art and graphics.
Kongou, Takao, and the Duke of York
(Sources: Kantai Collection Wiki, Azur Lane Wiki, Warship Girls Website)
Warship Girls, Azur Lane, and Kantai Collection all feature illustrations created by various artists, most of them are well-known on art websites such as Pixiv. Since all of the characters are battle ship girls, there are common design elements seen in all three games. Things such as sailor uniforms, military garbs, and even actual ship parts show up in the designs. Not to mention that all of the ship girls have designs that range from moe and cute, to mature and sexy. So picking the “best” illustrations is ultimately going to be up to you!
The Real HMS Hood and Warship Girls’ Hood
(Source: Wikipedia and Warship Girls Website)
Kantai Collection does suffer a bit in terms of a variety of ship girl nationalities. The game has primarily focused on Japanese warships and occasionally featured an American or British ship girl. Whereas both Warship Girls and Azur Lane have battle ship girls from many nations, such as China, Russia, and France. In terms of diversity, Warship Girls seems to have the most as it even features ship girls from Thailand and Mongolia!
Mongolian Oil Ship, Sükhbaatar
(Source: Warship Girls Wiki)
A final thing to note about the graphics is that the interface and menus for each game has a distinct feel. Kantai Collection has a very military feel to it, with a lot of dark gray and green tones; Azur Lane while still militaristic, feels much more futuristic with splashes of brighter colors and sleeker menus; and Warship Girls is a balance between the two, with bright colors and a traditional military aesthetic.
Kantai Collection and Azur Lane menus
(Source: Kantai Collection Wiki and Azur Lane Wiki)
Warship Girls menu
(Source: Warship Girls Wiki)
▍Playing Daily
A big difference between Warship Girls, Azur Lane, and Kantai Collection is the benefit to playing daily. All three of these games have their own sets of daily challenges and tasks to complete, which will grant you extra resources or special rewards. However, both Warship Girls and Azur Lane will give you an extra bonus just for logging in each day. Azur Lane has an additional system that rewards you for logging in consecutively, with a rare ship girl as a final reward for logging in 8 days in a row. Where as of right now, Kantai Collection sticks to holidays and special events to reward players for logging in.
▍The Microtransactions
As all three of these games are free to play, they do come with their own premium currencies you can use to make in-game purchases. To be completely honest though, each game has similar microtransactions and they aren’t really intrusive to their gameplay experiences. You can purchase extra resources, ship slots, and specific rare battle ship girls using the premium currencies (gems in Azur Lane, diamonds in Warship Girls and Kantai Collection). And the only way to get the premium currency is to spend real money on them. Now that said, you’ll get resources just by regularly playing the game, so it’s not necessary to spend money on them; you’ll have plenty of ship slots to collect and build a strong fleet; and you can always get new ship girls as you progress. In Azur Lane, you can spend Metal on rolling for rare ship girls and in Kantai Collection and Warship Girls, you can build them as long as you have blueprints and enough resources.
Adjust the amount of resources to create different ships in Warship Girls
In terms of value, none of these games will require money to make progress. However, some players might find it convenient to have additional ship slots and be able to collect more ship girls at a time. And in the case of Warship Girls, it might be tempting to buy special costumes for your favorite ship girls. Again, none of these purchases are necessary to play the game, but they might add an extra layer of enjoyment.
In the end, if you’re looking to play a game featuring battle ship girls, you certainly have your options. But if you want to try a new take on the battle ship girl strategy genre, then be sure to check out Warship Girls! Have you already given the game a try? Do you have a favorite ship girl that you’re looking to propose to? Let us know! We look forward to hearing from all of you Admirals out there!
Azur Lane and Warship Girls are now available on QooApp. Kantai Collection is available on the DMM browser platform.
