Gamer reviews for Blue Archive
Blue Archive Review - Girls and Guns Academia
Blue Archive is a gacha military strategy RPG for the mobile platform that takes place in the academy city of Kivotos where players take the role of an advisor to the Federal Investigation Club (Schale) and will be tasked in resolving a myriad of incidents that happen within the academy city. Players lead a group of select students that act as combatants for clearing missions. These precious and reliable students have various roles, strengths, weaknesses, and of course, personality.
Like most gacha games, Blue Archive is an ad-free and free-to-play title with optional in-game purchases. The game’s content is not locked behind a paywall so F2P (free-to-play) players can enjoy what the game has to offer without spending anything. Of course, spenders will enjoy faster progress and an edge since they’ll be able to obtain resources much faster than the average F2P can do.
The game itself follows a standard gacha title format; recruit new characters, clear missions to proceed with the story, clear daily tasks, farm for upgrade materials etc. You’ll need different materials for leveling up your students, leveling up their skills and equipment, as well as upgrading their equipment. The game also has an auto-combat and auto-complete (sweep) feature, giving players a chance to instantly complete missions that they have already fully cleared or even let their characters fight automatically without the need for their input.
Thankfully, the grind in Blue Archive isn’t that tedious though it will take time since it has an Energy/Stamina/AP system that acts as a time gate, forcing players to wait for their energy to replenish automatically over time. Players can spend premium currency (pyroxene) to replenish this energy if they don’t want to wait. Otherwise, most players will have to play the game as it is designed - slow, steady, and regularly.
Being a gacha game, expect the drop rate of high-rarity units to be abysmally low. The game has a “pity” system where players who pulled 200 times during the active banner will get the chance to select the featured characters in the current banner. However, this pity counter resets as soon as the featured characters’ banner period ends. Fortunately, the game’s missions don't revolve around high-tier characters; you can make do with the 2-stars and even 1-star characters to help clear most of the game’s content for you. Since the game’s launch, there have been several instances where the developers have given players free pyroxene (premium currency used for recruitment). Additionally, players can also obtain freebies by redeeming gift codes provided by the developer.
Blue Archive’s overall graphics will depend on your device’s performance. For powerful devices, you can enjoy a smooth 60 FPS and a “very high” resolution setting without noticeable performance issues. The UI isn’t cluttered and everything is just alright to look at and navigate. The game’s character designs are interesting, and the adorable chibi character models that you’ll see during combat are incredibly detailed and animated. For waifu lovers, there are even select characters with their own special L2D (Live 2D) animated wallpapers that you can set in your game’s homescreen. (You can unlock these by increasing your relationship level with them)
The game’s audio is also pleasing to the ears. You can even download an additional audio pack so that your in-game assistance calls you by your preferred nickname in a fully-voiced line. This is optional of course.
Finally, we strongly recommend Blue Archive. It’s a solid, F2P-friendly mobile game with a roster of desirable characters and engaging combat. If you want to take a break from the heavily used fantasy themes, you can try managing a group of combat students while also having a chance to interact with them as you see fit.