#Blue Reflection: Second Light

[stiltsthegm]

GOTY 2024 #8 - BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light

BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light is a game that came out in 2021. At least A Highland Song came out in December of 2023, so it almost counts as a 2024 game. However, you will increasingly discover in my GOTY list that I do not care about release dates. I only truly care about when I played the game.

BR:SL is a sequel to the first Blue Reflection game made by Gust, a game studio with a really fascinating if often shaky track record. Although the Atelier series is by far their most popular and successful franchise, my introduction to Gust was via Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia, a game that blended a pretty standard RPG plotline with VN dating sim elements and a pretty cool and unique combat system. The writing was...okay at best, and often far too heterosexual for its own good, but it was a style of RPG I had never seen before, so I appreciated Gust's moxie even if I felt the end result was kinda mid.

BR:SL reminded me a lot of Ar Tonelico as I was playing through it. The story is certainly better than Ar Tonelico's, but still nothing I'd classify as "great". It's way too grindy and a bit long in the tooth (I still haven't actually finished the game, but I got very close). It is, however, an audacious game in all the ways I adore.

It throws you into an ATB-esque combat system where combo chains matter, you can interrupt enemies (and vice versa), and every action you take causes you to move back into the turn order by a different amount. It trusts you to learn on your own when to go for the big but slow hit, when to delay acting at all so you can guard just when a boss unleashes a powerful attack, and when to push for just one more chain attack to stagger an enemy. And then once you've gotten comfortable with that, it reveals that there's ANOTHER combat system layered inside the first one, where a party-member can go one-on-one with an enemy to really do some damage.

It introduces a crafting system where you can make new items (beds, vending machines, martial arts training dummies, takoyaki stands, etc.) with all the other magical girls trapped alongside you in a weird, liminal dimension that consists solely of a high school building and it's immediate grounds. You can then take each of the girls on dates to these points of interest you've crafted out of bits of abstract material dropped by emotion demons.

And by god does it have yuri. The player character--Ao--is an absolutely relentless yuri warrior, taking every opportunity possible to flirt with the other girls. Once Ao's affection with a girl is high enough, they'll hold hands when they wander around the school. The whole game was a parade of new things that made me smile and/or shout "really?!?!" at my screen.

It's just delightful.

I'm so glad it exists.

[mostly-magical-polls]

Best Magical Girl Video Game - Round 1

[yfalog]

[satoshi-mochida]

Don't usually comment on this sort of thing, but the Blue Reflection Sun mobile game is getting shut down in Japan.

I was sort of hoping we'd get it, if only really for the story details from it that were brought up in Second Light/Tie, but not fully elaborated on. The Blue Reflection wiki does have some translations/summaries of events in it, mostly in character pages.

Wonder if it'll get an offline version, like some other mobile games have been recently? Or at least hopefully have the important story details told in another way that's more accessible.

[jewlwpet]

I think that post-redemption arc Uta would love the song Being Alive from Company. Hinako likes musicals so maybe Hinako shows Company to her and she discovers it that way.

I don't know what kind of music she listened to pre-redemption arc besides classical (since she played the organ, but we also know she liked songs that make her feel like it's okay to be herself), but I like to imagine she had Otome Kaibou as her ringtone.

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok time to nyoom my way through a bunch of things I tried briefly, mostly demos, before I forget them entirely.

Toodee and Topdee is I think the only one that wasn't a demo. I loved the idea when I first saw the trailer but didn't get around to buying/trying it until this month. It was fun at first but started getting kind of fiddly as it went on in a way I wasn't loving, and then when it started having enemies I could tell it was going to progress in a way I wasn't going to have fun with. Still think the idea's great anyway.

I was also immediately interested in Pepper Grinder when I saw the original announcement of it, and the demo for it was almost as good as I'd been hoping it would be. It took me a little bit to get used to how it controls, but it seems like it has a lot of potential and I'll definitely get the full game some day.

I randomly clicked on the Witch's Rhythm Puzzle demo because it showed up in the list of demos and I figured why not. It's hornier than I expected and than I would like, but it's also actually kind of fun? Enough that I'd consider getting it on sale for a dollar or two, but it's very low priority.

I tried both Yohane the Parhelion demos because I'd seen someone on my Steam friends list playing one of them before and wondered what the deal is. The deal turns out to be that I don't actually like them very much. Oh well.

I finally gave in and tried the Blue Reflection: Second Light demo. I'd been reluctant to touch any of the Blue Reflection games after hearing they're kinda fanservicey, but I keep seeing them recommended by people who don't usually go in for stuff like that saying good things about them, like women saying they're cute/cozy and appreciating the magical girl aspects, so I had to find out for myself. I liked it more than I expected and could see maybe getting it on sale some day, but it's not super high on my list.

The Sea of Stars demo was a little underwhelming. I had pretty high expectations, and it was only pretty good instead of amazing. It looks great and feels pretty decent to play, but I didn't love the dialogue. I still intend to play it one of these days and see if it grows on me though.

And then finally the Unicorn Overlord demo confirmed that I was right to have it as my most anticipated game of the year. The story and gameplay didn't quite grab me to the same degree as 13 Sentinels did right away, but it seems like it has a ton of potential in both areas and I'm pretty excited for it. If it lives up to what the demo hints at I could easily see it being one of my favorite games I play this year (although I'm currently playing Jack Jeanne, which is going to give it some strong competition).

[elkinboots]

WELCOME to the beginning of a silly fun idea - i've airdropped the tetro cast into one of my favourite games, Blue Reflection Second Light! I think a summer in oasis would fix them.

i'm not saying that tetro and BR2 have the exact same premise or tone, but there are enough similarities in storytelling & tropes i enjoy that really scratch an itch in my brain in each. also, i love making characters into magical girls and giving them guns

watari would adore blue reflection 2

i've split the characters here into girls (and okazaki) and boys, but you can imagine them as one big happy group too. moko's there no matter what <3

you don't have to be up on the lore and junk, i like to describe BR2 as 'the magical girl commune game' (a heartscape's like a dungeon born of your life experience and imagination - everyone gets one, usually as you collect each character they unlock for you to explore)

expect more of this! they don't even have their magical girl outfits yet (and br2 is all about hanging out, my favourite thing to doodle characters doing)

[yuri-game-tournament]

Congratulations to the winners of Season Two of the Yuri Game Tourney!

Runners Up: In fifth place we have Fatal Twelve, and in fourth, Blue Reflection: Second Light!

On the Podium: A Year of Springs takes third place, and in second place, we have Seabed!

And our first place winner is Bad End Theater!

Congratulations to all our winners! Thank you to everyone for voting and playing. If you're interested in a third round, please submit your favourite games here! You can view the winners of season one here if you want to. Thank you again everyone!

[bijeille]

pompompurin yuki for calla!

[sleep-deprived-luka]

There's still much to adjust but hell yeah

[burgers-in-anime]

Blue Reflection: Second Light (2021)

[luna--flare]

October 8

Happy birthday to Rena Miyauchi, from Blue Reflection: Second Light - an international lesbian born on international lesbian day. October 8th is also a date important to me for unrelated personal reasons. What an unlikely confluence of factors.

[yfalog]

[obscurecharactershowdown]

Group F Round 2

[image ID: the first image is of Miyauchi Rena, a girl with light brown hair and brown eyes, wearing pearl ornaments in her hair. she wears a combination yellow-and-blue-plaid and black satin dress. it features a bones motif--on her chest, hands, and knee-high black socks--and glowing cutaways on her waist. the sleeves are puffy, as is the bustle. the second image is of Tiger of the Wind, a horned blue and white wolf with yellow eyes. the third image is of the book cover of The Enchancted Island of Yew by L. Frank Baum. the color of the cover is gray, and it depicts a woman with dark hair, in an updo, and large flowers on the side of her head. she's wearing a pinkish, sleeveless dress with her right leg completely exposed, the material also reminiscent of flower petals. the cloth of her dress is raising with her up-stretched arms to frame the title. she's standing in a white flower, and her feet are bear, but around her right ankle is a piece of the same material of her dress. she's holding a long, black stick, like a fairy wand, that emits a glowing yellow light on the end. end ID]

Miyauchi Rena

shes a magical girl in plaid with a bone laurel and bone gloves and a hula hoop she beats you up with. shes a canon lesbian and heavily autistic coded. she became a magical girl to save the life of her first love. she failed and she doesnt know. she lost her memories while hidden from the apocalypse and didnt question the empty school on the island in a sea that stretched for forever. she wants her memories back but more than that she wants to know why she lost them.  [additional propaganda 1]

Tiger of the Wind

Pretty sure he was my furry awakening if we're being honest.

The High Ki of Twi

it’s never really made clear whether they’re a single person that operates two bodies in perfect synchronity or two different people with two different consciousnesses that share a mental link so deep they always act the exact same and to be honest i’m not sure which is worse. primary ruler over a country (twi) entirely composed of doubles like them. also on that note “ki” is a title that denotes a ruler (as seen in the secondary rulers, the ki and the ki-ki) and it’s not said whether or not they have an actual name. they were once separated physically and mentally due to a magic spell gone awry (and managed to cause a whole civil war before they got it fixed a few days later) and boy if that didn’t fuck with my head the first time i read it. the author is pretty fond of fucking with identity like that. this one wasn’t even because of dismemberment like they usually are. also worth noting that they are by all means a girl and only use they/them pronouns because they’re like. two girls actually. it’s all very confusing

[jewlwpet]

This is so sweet.

Then the sequel game came out... Hiori's in it, and Ruka is not.

And, what's worse, there's no indication that Hiori misses her at all. I haven't played it all the way through, so I can't say for sure, but I don't think it's ever brought up that Hiori had a Reflector partner other than her sister in the past.

The game is a great sequel in some ways, particularly how it develops Uta from a one-dimensional villain to a complex human being worthy of redemption. But it would be so much better if we got to see that Hiori and Mio missed their old partners.

[tatsumi-rin]

Youtube offered me google translate for some romaji - Emphasis on google translate, because last I checked this was a little inaccurate

I think she actually died you know