![]() Crafting isn’t nearly as involved – you don’t have to worry about synthesis charts or anything wild, but you do get to pick and choose which ingredients to pop into your recipes, resulting in slightly different effects and more bonding time for the girls. Thanks to crafting and installation-building systems, the overall game flow is incredibly similar to that of recent Atelier games. It isn’t just the combat system that Blue Reflection: Second Light lifts from Atelier. Combat in the original game dragged on and had little challenge to it, but the real-time turn-based action in Blue Reflection: Second Light is addictive, and the way the game loops story scenes and character development into your combat enhancements is genius. This currency is used to learn new abilities for characters across various talents, giving you a bit of wiggle room to spec your crew in specific ways.Ī major wrinkle of combat is that successive attacks trigger a damage-multiplying combo meter, so you’ll always want characters around that can help keep that meter from being reset by enemies. ![]() You grow stronger by leveling up in battle, but you’ll need to engage characters in the schoolgrounds by talking to them or fulfilling their requests to get Talent points. The combat loop is simple, but there’s plenty of depth to it. You can go for simple skills that cost a bit of Either, but as each character’s Gear shifts mid-battle you’ll be able to store more Ether and use stronger abilities that cost even more Ether. Your three party members are assigned to a different button on the controller, and pressing their button will pause combat and bring up an ability menu for you to assess. Character portraits are constantly sliding along an action timer, and when they arrive at the middle, that friend or foe gets to attack. Most of your crew has been mysteriously equipped with magic rings that give them the ability to fight monsters in The Faraway, and these battles take heavy inspiration from the delightful real-time hybrid combat of Atelier Ryza. Enemies crawl around in The Faraway, and if you run into one or smack one with your weapon, you’ll dive into battle. You aren’t just there to wander and sightsee, though. They aren’t huge open environments, but they’re still a delight to explore and soak-in – with a fully-featured photo mode, you can take your time appreciating every angle of the environment. ![]() Elements of the real world like street signs and buildings are smashed together with otherworldly fauna and gravity-defying debris. Regions of The Faraway feel like a dreamlike, surreal version of the worlds reclaimed by nature that you see in games like The Last of Us or Horizon: Zero Dawn. These areas are a massive upgrade from the quirky yet small areas of the first game. ![]() New regions in The Faraway appear as you progress through the story and recover memories, and these mysterious areas serve as the dungeons in the game. Your time in Blue Reflection: Second Light is split pretty evenly between the schoolgrounds and The Faraway. There’s a huge air of mystery to the world and circumstances of the game, and it’s very satisfying to unravel it all as the game progresses. The game takes a couple of slow hours to get going, but once the mysteries are revealed and your crew have some time together under their belts, it’s smooth sailing through equal parts enjoyable slice-of-life episodes and eyebrow-raising dramatic developments. And so, as the one person with memories from the normal world still intact, your goal as Ao is to help your friends recover their memories and, hopefully, find a way back home.Įverything you do in the game, from exploring dungeons and crafting items to expanding the school and fulfilling your friends requests, all contributes to recovering their memories, as well as causing new amnesiac characters to appear. A trio of girls have seemingly been living in this empty school together and take Ao in, but they don’t remember how long they’ve been there, or even any memories from before their time in this mysterious place. This isn’t the typical isekai story of being transported to a high-fantasy kingdom or a sci-fi city, though – Ao is transported to an empty school building surrounding by nothing but endless water and a pathway to a strange realm known as The Faraway. The game opens with Japanese highschooler Hoshizaki Ao picking up her phone and being whisked away to another world. Story elements and characters related to the anime and the first game that spring up in Blue Reflection: Second Light will mean a little more to you if you’re already familiar with them, but this is still a standalone story through and through. There’s now a lot of Blue Reflection media to explore, but it isn’t mandatory to enjoy this sequel.
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