Any time a Japanese Role-Playing Game (JRPG) is set in an all-girls’ high school, you know that all kinds of weird are about to take place, and Blue Reflection’s setting of the Hoshinomiya Girls High School definitely delivers on the weird – and frankly, the questionable – material.
One might be able to chalk up the suggestively-dressed schoolgirls viewed from borderline upskirt camera angles as being a difference in acceptable cultural mores, but the moment that two of these girls decide that swapping the panties they are actively wearing might be a good idea for some odd reason – well, that’s when Blue Reflection’s takes a very concerning turn.
While I understand that this is a common subject matter for JRPG and Anime as a whole, as a father of a high school girl myself, Blue Reflection’s portrayal of adolescent girls is really not acceptable in our culture, and I found myself really having to force myself to play through the game for the sake of this review.
Blue Reflection is the localized release of Gust Co. Ltd. and Koei Tecmo’s Japanese release from earlier in the year, the final of Gust’s ‘Beautiful Girls Festival’ trilogy which previously featured Atelier Firis and Nights of Azure 2. Blue Reflection tells the story of a young ballet dance named Hinako Shirai, who no longer can dance due to knee injury, but who is given the magical powers of a “Reflector” which allow her to move freely in a parallel dimension called “The Common” and fight monsters while collecting “emotion fragments” that to help the other girls at the school.
Battle is comprised of the JRPG standard turn-based 3-character parties, each sporting unique strengths and weakness. Gamers are given the choice to either stand in defense or advance in attack, with attacks being either alone or in cooperation with other party members. The battle, while rather simplistic compared to some of the more complex games in the genre, is still quite rewarding with the ability to gain “growth” points which help the girls improve their abilities, resulting in some really cool attacks.
Visually, the Blue Reflection is stunning. The overall aesthetic is warm and dreamy, with great use of lighting and fuzzy filtering, which complement the spot-on Anime visuals perfectly. But the real star of the show is the amazing visual effects that accompany the battle and “transformation” scenes, which seriously top some of the big-name games in the genre.
In terms of audio – Blue Reflection is simply atrocious. With no localization to the spoken dialogue, the entirety of the gameplay consists of listening to an endlessly looping, and naggingly irritating soundtrack that is a step away from new age midi elevator music that amps up slightly for the battle scenes. Nothing puts me to sleep faster than reading screen after screen of text accompanied by instrumental keyboards, and I found myself dozing off to Blue Reflection more than a couple of times.
I’m sure fans of the JRPG genre are bound to find something to appreciate in Blue Reflection. It follows the formula to a “T”, and features some really impressive visuals and battle gameplay. In terms of overall action, it can really tend to drag on – at least for a grown man like myself – but I know quite a few Anime fans who would have no issue sitting through hours of seemingly unimportant dialog, and well…actually care about it. I do have serious concerns with the overt sexualization Blue Reflection delivers with respect to teenage schoolgirls – to the point that I’m not really sure this would have passed approval if it had been pitched in the US, and frankly may be borderline criminal. But I’ll just leave that there.
