Yostar’s highly-anticipated mobile game “Blue Archive” officially launched yesterday on 4th February! Follow QooApp’s review to learn the appeals of this Bishojo x School RPG!
▍Meet the Beautiful Girls & Kawaii Enemies
“Blue Archive” is set in School City, Kivotos (キヴォトス). Players will play the role of a teacher who leads students from different schools to solve a variety of incidents.
Though girls in Kivotos carry firearms and fight with each other on a daily basis, they remain a peaceful relationship. However, the missing of the Federal Council president makes the situation intense. You thus become the adviser of the Federal Student Council to investigate the case.
▼Arona is an Android on your tablet that will guide you through the systems
The main story features diverse expressions of the girls which makes them more special and alive. You will easily immerse in the world of “Blue Archive” and the joyful daily life of the girls makes you smile from the heart.
▼ At the beginning of the story, it mentions that options are crucial for this game. But no obvious influence can be found at this moment
The story may feature a lot of characters, but it is not hard to remember them all when they are distinguished with vivid personalities and expressions. The attractive allies and enemies also encourage you to move on with the story.
▼ The girls that you meet accidentally in a ramen shop is actually your enemies. They look cool but also have kawaii personalities
▍Interacting with the Girls is Fun!
In the Facility, you can develop bondings with each character by increasing their Kizuna Rank. You can give gifts to students at the “Cafe” to raise their Kizura Rank, as well as earning stamina and in-game currency by placing furniture.
▼ Arranging the Schedule for the students can get Kizura point
The higher the Kizuna Rank, the girls’ individual story can be unlocked, so that you to get a glimpse of their hidden faces and secrets!
One interesting system is “Momo Talk” (モモトーク), which allows you to get messages from girls. Since you can choose the reply, it really makes you feel like you are interacting with the girls in real time.
When their Kizura Rank reach to a certain rank, a special episode with a live 2D illustration will be unlocked. You can set the illustration at Home screen and enjoy the voice recordings. However, only ★2 & 3 girls features an illustration.
▼ You can select which girls on duty (shows on Home screen)
▍Plot Different Strategies in Battles!
If you want to proceed with the main story, you will need to complete the battle mission. In battle missions, you can freely build your party with the characters obtained in the gacha. In the main story battle, you can only fight with a predetermined party.
The party is consisted of 4 STRIKER who actually fight in battles and 2 SPECIAL who supports the party with their skills.
The battle is basically automatic. You can easily clear the quest at early stages. But as you progress through the game, it becomes crucial to decide which skill you want the character to equip with and when to activate it. Cost is needed to activate skills and it will replenish with time.
▼ The girls will find cover automatically, but some girls are weak of finding covers
There are many powerful skills such as those with range attack or those that penetrate heavy armor. But in certain situations, you will need the skills to shield or recover your allies. The range of strategies is wide as the characters have their strengths and weaknesses.
The girls also have favourable and less favourable terrain. They will deal lower damage when you dispatch them to less favourable terrain. Their moods will showcase at the beginning of the battles.
The enemies’ HP colour will indicates which defence type they are. If you find it hard to clear the stage, try using the skills with the same colour of the enemies’ HP.
▼ Don’t miss the kawaii cut-in animation when the skill is activated. The animation can be turned on or off, or it can be displayed only once a day
The battle system also features an auto and double speed function if you want to proceed quickly. A skip function is also available for players to challenge the same stages for training materials.
▍An Easy & Familiar Nurturing System
There are many things you can do to nurture your characters, such as leveling up and increasing the skill level. Raising the character’s rank can release more equipment slots, while the equipments help enhance the character’s status. You can also raise the character’s rarity by “Limit Release.”
You are also recommended to complete the “Special Request,” which drops various materials needed to train the characters!
▍Editor’s Note
“Blue Archive” provides a fun way for you to interact with the cute characters. The game system is also well-developed, and I felt that it is a work that many gamers would enjoy. The joyful story and colourful graphics are a pleasant to watch. There are many factors that affect the battle results, so it is fun to plot different strategies. The missions gets more challenging in Area 3 , so you may not be able to clear the stages by turning on the auto mode.
Though it also includes multiplayer contents like Boss Raids and PvP battles, the game contents has no large difference with other RPGs. So don’t expect it to bring great surprise.
