Blue Reflection Review: Second Light – Best Summer School

“When the last day of summer goes out, everything lights up.”

I have been playing video games and PC games intensively for almost four decades now (since I discovered Space Invaders in an arcade trailer). During this time, I have changed almost every conceivable gaming platform, from Atari or ZX Spectrum through Amiga and PC to Nintendo, Segu and so on. Thanks to my hobby and work, I still try to play almost all new games on almost all platforms. You may not know anyone who has done so much. I am writing all this just to give weight to the claim that I have never played such games before. For me, this was a big discovery and a wonderful break from the established and obsessive gaming clichés.

• Platform: PS5 (peer review), PS4, PC, Switch
• Publication date: 10. 12. 2021
• Producer: Koei Tekmo (Japan)
• Genre: japanese role playing game
• Czech location: Not
• Multiplayer: Not
• Data to download: 18 GB (including full game)
• Game time: 40+ hours
• Price: 1499 CZK (couples)

Unforgettable summer

Ao Hoshizaki is a high school student who considers herself uninteresting and ordinary. While tutoring at summer school, he receives a mysterious SMS message on his cell phone… and next he remembers waking up in an unknown school building, surrounded on all sides by a seemingly endless body of water. In addition to her, there are three more girls who also do not remember how they got here and have no idea what kind of place this is. As if that wasn’t enough, the girls have also lost the vast majority of their memories, so they have no idea if they should be missing or who. However, the more responsible one encourages them to continue studying together, while the more greedy one organizes trips around the school (and subsequently around it) in search of food, and the more caring one makes sure that all the girls keep a good mood for as long as possible. as much as possible and don’t leave yourself in someone else’s situation too distressing. Gradually, a strong friendship begins to develop between the girls.

Although it may sound strange, the biggest difference between this game and all the others is the emphasis on the innocence and humanity of all girls. Written in this way seems strange and it took me several (dozens) hours to unlock the full potential of this concept and I realized that I was dealing with possibly the best written characters in the history of JRPGs and that I started to like them in a way that is not Happened to me for a very long time in any game. And there really is no ambiguity in this – after all, the authors themselves state that the goal of their game was “to correctly depict the youth of real girls based on the themes of human self-consciousness and friendship.” When I first read that sentence in the game’s official description, I laughed. But I don’t laugh after the finale, because that’s exactly what the authors and their characters did, in my opinion, even more impressive than, for example, from the Persona series. This is not a waifu simulator, at the end of the game you will feel like best friends or little sisters in relation to individual girls. Although the game can be classified as a yuri genre, there is nothing sexual in it (although due to the summer and seaside location of the school, girls can wear a swimsuit all the time), and the highlight of intimacy is holding hands while walking.

The biggest difference of the game is the emphasis on the innocence and humanity of all the girls.

Every JRPG fan will probably ask at this point, “Sounds interesting, but where is the threat or tension?” Well, it’s not a fairy tale or dreamy fantasy. The plot of the game is actually solid sci-fi, the central mystery of which gradually wraps you around your finger and you want to know more about this suspicious world. Of course, I will not reveal its true nature, but I will assume that the girls themselves are gradually pumping up topics such as a parallel dimension or time travel. When the “main villain” appears somewhere in the middle of the game, his game seemed to me no less exciting and legendary than when, for example, the original FF7 was introduced by Sephiroth. In other words, the central story completely overwhelmed me, and many nights I went to bed very late or did not go to bed at all, because I could not tear myself away from this story. Either way, this game also confirms the rule that the best stories are the ones that stand on the best characters.

Honest JRPG

The characters and story are the game’s unequivocal focus, so much so that the amount of film and dialogue might tempt anyone to include this title in the graphic short story genre. But that would be unfair, because the game offers a lot of interesting locations (gradually appearing around the school, how the girls manage to recover their own memories), bizarre enemies and bosses, and most importantly: an excellent combat system, which is by far the best feature constantly speeds up and strengthens your attacks with each other. friend. So the longer the fight lasts, the more predatory your girls will fight. This is a very exciting dynamic game, backed up, among other things, by beautiful animation. As if that weren’t enough, the game also features a very complex system of building new buildings and crafting objects (which is what you would eventually expect from the authors of the “alchemical” game series Atelier).

If I had to complain about the game, it would probably be a certain savings in some game locations, which may make the game seem cheaper than the competition in some places. Judging by the headlines, some of these things have been outsourced to other studios. However, some locations, on the other hand, look absolutely amazing (aesthetically and technically) and the school itself must be absolutely beautiful during sunset. But the most important thing is the very successful development of the characters, who are simply irresistible in some grimaces and whose dubbing (only available in Japanese) is definitely one of the best I have ever heard in video games (for example, Yuki is absolutely perfect). In addition, the game breaks down emotional barriers on the part of the player with a great dose of unique humor, so that you gradually relax reluctantly and the more plot passages hit you (yes, there will be death on the characters).