Developer: Gust
Publisher: Koei Tecmo, Nippon Ichi Software
Platforms: PC, P5, Switch 2
Tested on: Switch 2
Blue Reflection Quartet – Review
For better or worse, the Blue Reflection series was one that had eluded this reviewer up until this point. Prior series entries, Blue Reflection and Blue Reflection: Second Light, were covered by our fellow writers. We’re familiar with Gust’s far more famous Atelier series, of course, and the first impression we got from Blue Reflection simply was that it’s the less exciting of the two. Of course, judging a book by its cover is something we shouldn’t do, so when Blue Reflection Quartet rolled around, we figured it was time to give this slice-of-life/magical girl series a fair shot. What better point to start from than a collection that contains all games in the series so far?
Story
Since this is a collection, you’re getting four distinct narratives rather than a single story. All of the stories are set in the same magical girl universe. In the original Blue Reflection, we follow Hinako, a ballet prodigy whose career comes to an abrupt halt due to a serious knee injury. Hinako is subsequently recruited by twins Yuzu and Lime, who grant her magical powers. Together, the trio explores the Common, a metaphysical realm representing collective human emotions. Here, Hinako fights monsters born from emotional turmoil, with the promise of having her knee healed upon overcoming the challenges waiting for her. Ray, the second series entry, sees players return to the Common. After being defeated by the villain Shino, new protagonists Hiori and Ruka suffer from amnesia, and they must wander the Common to gather memory fragments.
The third story, Sun, is set in the Ashen World, where ash falling from the sky causes people to either transform into monsters called Testa or acquire powers, turning them into Eroded. This entry is notable for featuring a male protagonist, who commands a squad of (female) Eroded who fight back against the Testa threat. The final game, Second Light, starts with protagonist Ao waking up in a deserted school surrounded by water, alongside other girls, all of whom have lost their memories. Together, they venture into Heartscapes, dungeons reflecting individual memories, to uncover how they ended up there, and to find a way home.
Graphics
The character designs for Blue Reflection were handled by Mel Kishida, who was also responsible for the Arland entries in the Atelier series. The overall vibe between the two series is quite different though, with Blue Reflection coming across as more serious and darker. The character artwork is gorgeous across the collection, featuring delicate, frilly magical girl designs. The series’ aesthetic remains consistent across all four entries too, despite each entry working as a standalone story. In terms of performance, Quartet isn’t entirely up to snuff on the Switch 2, being capped at 30 fps and filled with minor visual flaws, including low-resolution textures, clipping hair and jarring camera cuts. The PS5 and PC versions reportedly perform better across the board. While we can’t directly compare these newer versions to their older generation counterparts, these are billed as being remastered. Seeing the end result, we can’t imagine the differences with the original Switch version of Blue Reflection to be big enough to warrant upgrading if you already own that version. It’s also worth mentioning that adjustments have been made to make the games less fan service-y, though once again, we lack the reference material to comment on this.
Sound
The quiet, atmospheric, and emotive soundtrack is a consistent pillar across all four games. We particularly enjoyed that specific tracks returned across different games, as it helped to tie everything together neatly. The Japanese voice acting is great as well, effectively enhancing emotional plot beats. Ambience and sound effects support the overall slow-paced, grounded pace of the games, particularly in the parts that take place in the real world.
Gameplay
While Quartet brings together the entire Blue Reflection series up until this point, only two out of the four included entries can be considered full-fledged games. We’ll refer you to our fellow writers’ coverage of those games for the full details on them, but for completeness’ sake, we’ll also quickly recap what the gameplay is like. Blue Reflection combines slice-of-life visual novel storytelling with light dungeon crawling and traditional turn-based combat. The game centers around completing quests, with leveling occurring through completing missions and bonding rather than standard experience gains. Quests award fragments that can be socketed onto abilities for skill customisation, providing a surprising amount of strategic depth, although this isn’t the most challenging game when it comes to combat in the first place. Conversely, Second Light uses an Active Time Battle system based on accumulating Ether and unlocking mid-battle transformations. It expands on the first game’s storytelling and introduces school facility construction, item crafting, and character dates.
This then brings us to what are supposedly the main draws of Quartet: Ray and Sun. Unfortunately, these simply disappoint. Ray is a recap of the anime series of the same title, and features no combat or real gameplay mechanics. You simply walk through environments to trigger narrated anime screenshots and text logs. It can be completed in under two hours. Sun fares better, relatively speaking, although with roughly 5 hours’ worth of content, it isn’t a very substantial entry either. This is a former mobile game that has been retrofitted to make use of Second Light’s engine and combat system. At least the original gacha mechanics were removed here. Fortunately, the two other games are big enough to warrant that €49.99 price tag, with the entire collection adding up to 100 hours of gameplay. But wait, I hear you say, €49.99? But Second Light is €59.99 on its own! Isn’t that a steal? Well, not really. The versions of the games included in Quartet aren’t the definitive versions, omitting a ton of DLC content. Conversely, some new content is still included in Quartet, including an expanded roster that includes characters from Ray and Sun in Second Light. As it stands, there is no version of either main game that includes everything, which seems like a huge missed opportunity. Even offering the omitted DLC as a paid upgrade would’ve been preferable.
Conclusion
On the surface, Blue Reflection Quartet looks like an attractive package, but in practice things are slightly different. More substantial versions of the mainline entries exist elsewhere, although you’re going to have to rely on older hardware or backwards compatibility for the original Blue Reflection. A glorified anime slideshow and a stripped-down mobile game aren’t exactly the most attractive selling points either. While those mainline games remain great for what they are, in the context of this collection they feel incomplete. We’d rather have seen slightly more expensive definitive editions.
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