![]() What I like about Second Light is that there’s no push to connect those memories to big, dramatic revelations in order to crank up the excitement factor. More important than those worlds or the enemies that await in them are the memories you’re trying to unlock. As someone who still remembers years of woefully unimpressive Atelier games on the PlayStation 3, I’ve got to give credit to Gust for how far it’s come in that area. That said, the lands of Second Light have a surprising amount of beauty in both their art design and technical production. ![]() For anyone familiar with the work of developer Gust, there’s only a certain level of expectation that one can put onto the ambition, polish, and budget of the studio’s RPG worlds. What I will say is that part of the game’s focus is on uncovering the lost memories of the main cast, and to do so, players must send protagonist Ao Hoshizaki and her teammates into a variety of fantastical locations. (Though, I know that comparison might not exactly be a positive one for some.) Screenshot taken from PC version of the game I’m a sucker for stories about people finding themselves in a mysterious place where nothing makes sense, and Second Light brings up story beats that took me back to my days of religiously watching Lost to see what craziness would happen next. I can’t actually tell you much about the story without massive spoilers, and I want to be careful not to oversell it too much, but I genuinely loved the direction this game takes. Whereas the original fits into the more traditional formula of “magical girls save their city from the monster of the week,” Second Light almost instantly takes things in a very different direction. Blue Reflection certainly had its share of awkward moments and unpolished gameplay, but it was a tale of friendship, teenage awkwardness, and girls supporting one another that so often had its heart in the right place. ![]() Surprisingly released in the West by Koei Tecmo-and released physically, at that-the game centered around the story of a young girl’s failings in her everyday life, and the second chance she got after becoming a magical girl tasked with saving the world. For me, though, it was something I absolutely wanted to play after stumbling upon its predecessor, 2017’s Blue Reflection. ![]() Unlike Altus’ long-awaited Switch release, Blue Reflection: Second Light is a game without a huge following, and one which will no doubt fly under the radar for a whole lot of people. With SMTV, we get a brutally difficult game that was light on story and characters but heavy on complex gameplay with Second Light, we get an incredibly easy game with more shallow gameplay but hugely fleshed out cast members and narrative. However, following up my playthrough of Shin Megami Tensei V with Blue Reflection: Second Light has been an interesting experience, as I’m not sure if you could find two Japanese RPGs that are such polar opposites. Normally, reviewing two RPGs in a row is something I actively try to avoid, as marathoning games heavy in both story and runtime can really become a struggle. ![]()
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