BLUE REFLECTION Quartet

Рекомендовать можно в двух случаях, вы либо очень любите обе игры и аниме (как я), либо впервые заинтересовались франшизой сейчас и хотите более менее всё и сразу (с нюансами). Убитая селф-инсертом и отсутствием на глобале мобильная гача тут тоже есть, но причины ее смерти пофиксили максимум на половину, а то и только на треть. Ситуация с цензурой первой части довольно сильно драматизирована в обсуждениях, на деле школьниц местами чутка приодели и всё. DLC не включены в издание. По сути: Blue Reflection - пара тройка QoL фич и подправленны ошибки англ перевода. Ray - краткий пересказ аниме, который можно понять, только если смотрел аниме. SUN - выжимка основного сюжета мобильной гачи, гаремник вырезали как могли, но селф-инсерта оставили. Second Light - как была так и осталась главной достопримечательностью франшизы. Отличная игра, отличный сюжет, отличные персонажи, визуал и музыка. Помимо общих для сборника QoL получила новых персонажей (и потеряла летние свиданки, эфирный крафт и целый большой dlc остров) и это вполне повод перепройти игру. Есть ощущения что скромной фанбазе франшизы выдали ее надгробие, но с другой стороны для Nights of Azure и надгробие зажали.

Overall -great value for the price for all the available Blue Reflection content. its a great and unique experience Blue Reflection -annoying loading delays. it would regularly take upwards of 10 seconds only loading screens into new areas or battles -the game had a terrible time maintaining consistent framerates. often it would inexplicably swing between smooth and consistent high framerates to an erratic stuttering mess. -highlights are music, UI design, and combat animations -if you own the original BR, then i suggest the mod that pulls outfits from original. i found it on NexusMods -gameplay is very sparse, so the game can feel very slow if you're uninterested in the character stories which themselves are sometimes shallow slice-of-life scenes -combat is significantly overdeveloped. on Hard difficulty, only boss battles pose any sort of challenge -having played the original, the game did not hold up well for a new playthrough. at the time, BR felt very unique. the music was exceptional, the UI was amazingly clean and well designed, and the game being a magical girl rpg was not something you could easily find. so, it will be best if it isn't something you've experienced before Ray -had no idea what to expect from this gameplay wise. i had seen the anime before but didn't really recall what it was about -short 1-2hr experience that quickly walks you through the story of another group of reflectors from a different school -this helps give context to the other Singularities (other schools) mentioned in the first game and what they're up to. it also familiarizes you with characters that will show up again in BR2 and Sun Sun -do not follow the game's recommendation of playing Sun before Tie/Second Light. i highly recommend playing BR1 > Ray > BR2 > Sun instead. i had already played BR2 when it came out, so i followed the game's suggested order and was very confused because Sun spoils so much of BR2. additionally, there some things in Sun that don't even make sense because you wouldn't learn about them unless you played BR2. yet Sun will behave like the player already knows certain things. -gameplay-wise, its primarily story and learning about the characters as well as the events that lead up to the beginning of Second Light. there are a few battles that use the Second Light system, but they're mostly for show. the game isn't trying to challenge you with the battles. -about 3-4 hrs, however i started going through the dialogue quickly -i don't really recommend playing Sun unless you want to see the events the led up to the start of Second Light. Sun just didn't feel like a good experience. again, play BR2 before Sun or just skip Sun altogether Second Light -Second Light has the best experience in Quartet package. its just a great game overall -has the same framerate inconsistency issues. i reinstalled both the original BR/BR2 to test and neither had these framerate issues -if you own the original BR2, then i suggest the mod that pulls outfits from original. i found it on NexusMods

Even though I absolutely loved Blue Reflection: Tie/Second Light, this compilation is not something I can recommend to most people. I haven't played the original BR and Second Light, so this will mostly be my opinions and reviews of the games themselves and not just the updates and censorship. BLUE REFLECTION The first in the series is an awful game. I liked the theme and visuals as well as the music, but apart from that it is terrible and executed poorly. The story tries to be deep and emotional, but the writing is incredibly boring and shallow. I kind of liked the main trio, but everyone else is very bland and pretty much loses their temper over a small inconvenience. There is also little incentive to battle since you level up through quests and character interactions, so it is better to just run away from most enemies. When you do battle, however, it is braindead easy and often involves spamming the same abilities. I think the lack of budget is very evident. The gameplay loop just consists of searching the school for students losing their minds, entering their hearts, and defeating a certain number of monsters or collecting a certain number of items. I also disliked the lack of variety since there are only four main dungeons to explore, and many of the enemies are the same but recolored. There are also only four story bosses that you have to fight 3-4 times at the end of a chapter. Overall, this is one of the most boring JRPGs I have played. I know some people really like this for the theme and aesthetics, but by the end, I couldn't help but think of it as "Snooze Reflection" in my head. Considering the praise for this series and being a huge Atelier fan, I was incredibly disappointed. I don't think the censorship and cut DLCs are a huge deal, but considering how much I disliked this one, it might have at least elevated my enjoyment a little bit. BLUE REFLECTION: RAY Ray in this collection aims to be a summary of the anime, titled under the same name. Unfortunately, it is simply a walking simulator that poorly introduces the characters and consists of collecting fragments that attempt to tell what happened with a few shots from the anime. I'm glad I decided to watch the anime and stick through it 'till the end because the fragments in this game are very disjointed and told out of context, making it not enough to understand. According to my save file, this only took me 1:36:11 to complete. Apart from the game, the anime is also abysmal and was even poorly received to the point that its Blu-ray Disc release was cancelled. There are a few moments and characters I liked (Shirakaba Miyako and Yamada Niina, in particular), but the plot itself is very slow, barebones and forgettable. I liked the watercolour-like art style, but even the animation was evidently poor and floaty from start to end. I think the characters, however, were a little more interesting than those in the first game, and since a few of the important characters appear in Second Light, I think I was able to appreciate them a little more later. Despite that, the anime is a slog, and the long 24-episode count made it even harder to endure. BLUE REFLECTION: SUN Like Ray, Sun is very short and attempts to adapt the poorly received mobile game that ended service after a little over a year. This one took me 3:27:18 to complete, but unlike Ray, it has a bit of combat gameplay by reusing Second Light's mechanics. I can't say much since I haven't played the mobile game, but I thought this one was good enough, albeit still not great. The world being covered in Ash and the existence of Eroded, individuals who have transformed due to Ash exposure, kind of took me by surprise and after playing Second Light, I appreciated the fact that I could see what this world was like. Considering the poor reception for the mobile game, I think it was good that this adaptation was not long and allowed me to jump to Second Light soon after watching Ray, rather than having to trudge th…