It may not come as a surprise to those who know me, but I love me a good anime aesthetic, and Blue Protocol, the upcoming MMO from Bandai-Namco and Amazon Studios, is anime through and through. But more than just the art style, I like games that lean into their JRPG bonafides and push them to the forefront. Which is why I found myself enjoying Blue Protocol so much during my brief time with it back during Summer of Gaming Play Days last month. The hyper-anime styled MMORPG from Bandai Namco leans way into its anime aesthetic to the point it promises you a chance to “become the hero of your very own anime adventure” on the game’s official Steam page.
The question is, will Blue Protocol actually allow me, a middle-aged dude who used to spend $30 on anime VHS cassettes in the 1990s, to live out my anime adventure dreams? I’m leaning pretty heavily towards the “yes” column here, because while my time with Blue Protocol was limited to a 45-ish minute demo in a booth in downtown Los Angeles, everything about it appealed to me and my latent anime dreams.
My demo began with a very cool battle scene followed immediately by an anime opening cinematic, one that would have felt right at home in any serialized anime show on Crunchyroll right now. Wide shots of good versus evil, racing towards battle, gorgeous backdrops of the fantastical world, a few shots of characters from the game, the stuff you know and love in an anime series, but in game-form. It set a great tone, with the right mix of high-energy battles, cinematic backdrops, and fast movement. I gotta say, from the get-go, I felt like the game was already living up to its promise to make me the anime hero of my dreams.
From there, I moved to the character creation screen, where I had a chance to play around for a bit, tweaking bits and pieces of my main. There’s nothing too surprising, but it’s really robust and once again proudly wears its anime pedigree on its sleeve. Your first choice is “masculine” or “feminine” body type. I, of course, chose the feminine body type because I’m already a masculine dude, so why not change things up? From there it’s picking out a signature pose, which, once again, anime all the way down.
After that, I was presented with the meat of the character creation, tweaking things like eye color, hair style, mouth shape, the stuff you’ve all come to expect. I do love me a good character creator, and Blue Protocol satisfied me with the breadth of its options. There weren’t so many I felt overwhelmed, but there were plenty more than enough to ensure my create-a-character would look as good, or as goofy, as I liked. While I tend to lean toward “goofy,” I played it pretty straight-laced this time. Do I regret it? Not at all, I can make my real character as goofy as I want when the actual game comes out.
Will Blue Protocol actually allow me, a middle-aged dude who used to spend $30 on anime VHS cassettes in the 1990s, to live out my anime adventure dreams?
After creating the look of my character, I then picked from one of five classes: Blade Warden, a melee and defense build, Twin Striker, a dual-wielding melee class who gets more powerful with subsequent strikes, Keen Strider, a ranged class specializing in “support and fighting from afar,” Spell Weaver, the magic class, and Foe Breaker, your standard tank who loves to smash. I went with the Twin Striker class because I think it looks the coolest.
Since this was a demo, after squaring away the particulars of my character, I was thrust head-first into battle, specifically the “Battle at Cliffside Ruins.” After a brief scene where my character awakens from some manner of magical, anime slumber, I had my first taste of Blue Protocol’s battle system. This is an action RPG, and you attack enemies with the left-mouse button and dodge their attacks with the CTRL key. It’s not quite an auto-battler, because between dodging and attacking, I definitely felt like I was in control of the fight, but holding down the attack button does allow for constant attack. I started out clicking the living hell out of the button, but eventually settled on holding it down to focus on dodging.
After my first taste of battle, I learned a little more about my character and their motivations, as well as learned the true motivations of the companion I just met (mild spoiler alert: she’s kind of a jerk!). With my intro to battle behind me, and the set-up for my character’s motivations clear,, I moved on to the next part of my time with Blue Protocol. This is where it became more of a staged demo, because my create-a-character wasn’t strong enough to participate. Instead I chose a premade character to replace her, which was fine. I obviously didn’t have the time to grind out a character, and speeding things along allowed me to get a better feel for the game, as though I had spent some actual time with it. Once again, I picked a Twin Striker, and off I went to the Montegnor Valley to have a little fun.
I really need to point out Blue Protocol is absolutely gorgeous. Seriously, it’s one of the most beautiful anime-style games I think I’ve ever played. It’s everything I like about a game like Xenoblade Chronicles 3, but turned up a notch. The colors and saturation of the scenery is just so appealing, and the character animation is swift and fluid. Granted, I was playing on a demo computer, but I have to imagine that anime aesthetic overpowers all limitations. It just looks incredible.
I really need to point out— Blue Protocol is absolutely gorgeous.
I explored the valley, picking up resources and running through the eye-popping landscape, engaging in a few battles willy-nilly as I saw fit. I got pretty good at attacking and dodging the random foes I encountered, although I maybe once didn’t do so great (and had to respawn). I’m not afraid to admit it.
Once I respawned, I then joined in on the mission “Dragon’s Rive: Resurvey,” the requirments of which were simply for me and my party to defeat a boss within a certain time limit. There were 6 of us taking on the quest, and I had an absolute blast as we battled our way through the mountain pass, climbing ever higher to our goal. Combat in Blue Protocol feels great, and while I won’t say it’s groundbreaking, it doesn’t have to be. It’s novel, it’s fast, I felt like I was making a meaningful impact in my group’s success with each encounter, rather than flailing around blindly and hoping for the best. Most of all… it’s just fun as hell.
We worked as a team, albeit a little unbalanced, and managed to defeat the boss. It was a really great fight, and while I fell maybe more than once, I was revived by my teammates (shout out to the real ones), and then the demo was over. Which sucked because I really wanted more!
Most of all… it’s just fun as hell.
I’m generally not an MMO type of guy, mostly because I know I tend to go a little overboard when it comes to how I spend my free time, but Blue Protocol has me seriously considering becoming one of those “MMO guys.” The combat is super fun, but aesthetically it checks all the boxes for me. Blue Protocol doesn’t officially release until 2024, but you can sign up for the beta now on the game’s official website. If you love a good anime, a fast-paced MMO, or some combination of both, Blue Protocol looks like it’s got what you need.
Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You can find him hosting the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.
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