14 DAY TRIAL // Developer Gust Studios, the team behind Atelier series, is now working on the highly anticipated sequel to the 2017 JRPG, Blue Reflection. Today, the studio announced new characters, new battle systems, and an entire new land that will be part of the upcoming Blue Reflection: Second Light.
As previously revealed, Blue Reflection: Second Light follows the adventures of three students – Ao Hoshizaki, Kokoro Utsubo, and Yuki Kinjou – who find themselves transported to a mysterious floating academy, searching for clues to find their way back home, with only their names as memories.
The new land in the game is referred to as “the heart of the world” and the new area where they arrive is called Heartscape. Inside Heartscape, the characters will be able to find ingredients for cooking, and materials for building, crafting, and battle, just like in every Atelier game.
Since monsters stalk the land, Ao and friends will need to use the power of rings to summon weapons, change their appearance, and become “Reflectors” ready to repel the attacking beasts in a hectic real-time battle system.
Throughout battle, the Ether points (EP) necessary to launch skills recover over time, and their recovery speed gets faster the more these skills strike various enemies. If you go over a certain number of points, you will switch up “gear” meaning you will be able to launch multiple skills at once. Chaining up combos will accelerate the battle speed and increase the amount of damage dealt to the enemy.
Once players reach the 3rd Gear, the protagonists will turn into “Reflectors”, unleashing their secret powers onto the enemy. Against a powerful opponent, when players manage to make the enemy falter, one member of their team will approach the enemy and there begins a One-on-One battle.
During One-on-One battles, the party as well as the enemy’s movements will become faster, repeating quick dodges and attacks. After linking up a definite number of combos, a super-powerful signature attack called the “One-on-One Finisher” will be launched.
Joining the three previously announced characters on their journey will be two new additions to the academy: Hiori Hirahara and Shiho Kasuga. Both Hirahara and Shiho appear before Ao and friends after certain events trigger their appearances in the game.
Blue Reflection: Second Light is in development for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 (playable on PlayStation 5 via Backward Compatibility), and PC (via Steam) and is scheduled to release on November 9.
