Blue Archive

Blue Archive is a Japanese role-playing game developed by Nexon Games (formerly NAT Games), a subsidiary of Nexon. It was released in 2021 for Android and iOS, first in Japan by Yostar and worldwide later that year by Nexon. The game is free-to-play with gacha game mechanics as a means to obtain new characters. An anime television series adaptation titled Blue Archive The Animation has been announced.
The player and protagonist is a Sensei who was summoned to the academy city of Kivotos by the president of the General Student Council, an extrajudicial committee governing the schools. Following her sudden disappearance, criminal activity rises around Kivotos and the player is tasked by the remaining members of the council to resolve the issues and help search for the president.
Gameplay
Blue Archive is a tactical role-playing game that allows the player to form and mobilize units of up to six members (two "Specials" and four "Strikers") to participate in various military campaigns with. Students' strengths can be enhanced in various ways, such as by increasing their levels, weapons, armor and skills. More students can be recruited through the gacha system using in-game currency, which may be purchased through in-app purchases.
The units are mobilized on a turn-based hex map and battle initiates when they interact with an enemy or vice versa. In combat, Strikers march along a straight path and occasionally encounter groups of enemies. Strikers fire automatic attacks and can hide behind objects to decrease their chances of getting hit. Specials do not engage in direct combat but increase the Strikers' stats and support them from the backlines instead. The player has generally no control over battles with the exception of using students' skills that cost a regenerable currency to use. Students and enemies both have rock-paper-scissors-based attacks and defenses, which determine their strengths and weaknesses. Students get rescued by a helicopter and can't participate in later battles if they lose all of their health.
Story
Setting
Blue Archive takes place in the academy city of Kivotos, which was established by the union of thousands of academies. The city is divided into mostly independent districts, with the highest entity being the president of the General Student Council, a federal committee, who governs the city from the Sanctum Tower with access to every students' register. Before the events of the game, the president summons the player character, a teacher referred to as Sensei, to be the advisor of Schale, an extrajudicial organization established by the president herself. She then proceeds to disappear, giving an uprising to criminal activities and military presence in the city.
Plot
The story begins with Sensei, the player's character, conversing with the student council president. She tells Sensei that he is the only one who can save Kivotos, the academy city, from a currently unknown apocalypse. After the screen fades to black, the vice president of the student council, Rin, wakes up Sensei. Rin notifies Sensei that he has been called by the student council president to assist the students in Kivotos. The general student council president has also disappeared almost immediately after Sensei was recruited. During this debriefing, Sensei and Rin are interrupted by several students, one of whom is Yuuka from Millennium Science School. After this interaction, the player is given full access to the game and is allowed to explore the story of Kivotos.
The main story is later divided into several arcs (called Volumes) which focuses toward a specific group in their respective school, in which each volume is also divided into chapters. Until now, there are four story volumes and a "final" volume (although not the final volume of the game's entire story) that ties those volumes together.
Volume 1: Abydos Foreclosure Task Force
Volume 2: Clockwork Flower Pavane
Volume 3: Eden Treaty
Development
Yostar announced the mobile game and held closed beta tests for the Android version in July 2020. Initially scheduled to be released in 2020, it was later moved to February 4, 2021.
A worldwide version of the game was announced in August 2021, surpassing one million pre-registrations ahead of its release. The version, which includes English as well as Korean, Traditional Chinese and Thai language support was released on November 8 of the same year by Nexon.
On November 11, 2022, Nexon updated the ratings of the worldwide version of the game to "Mature" from the original "Teen" rating, while released a separate "Teen"-rated version of the game, particularly due to its rating issues in Korea. The "Teen" rating version has some content changes compared to the original release.
A Simplified Chinese version of the game for China release has been revealed in works in March 2023, as the Chinese authority released a statement regarding passing of the games to be played in the country. The game website later went live alongside the first preview on March 31, 2023, with pre-registrations are open on the same day. A closed beta test is done between June and July 2023, and on August 3, 2023, the game finally went live in China as an open beta. The Chinese version is published by Yostar.
In October 2023, Nexon announced that the Global version would be available in the Galaxy Store for Samsung phones. This version was released on October 31.
Anime adaptation
An anime television series adaptation titled Blue Archive The Animation was announced on January 22, 2023. The series is produced by Yostar Pictures and CANDYBOX and directed by Daigo Yamagishi, with Hiromitsu Hagiwara designing the characters.
Reception
Revenue
Their total revenue until 2023 has reached over $240 million for all their versions, and is considered a huge revenue for a new gacha game. The Japanese version of the game contributed majority of it. In August 2023, the game recorded $19 million for the Japanese version, and $4 million for their global version.
According to Nexon, Blue Archive has been one of their most-grossing games in their quarterly financial report, with remarkably being one of the dominant contributor of revenue in Japan in their Q2 Financial Report 2023.
Controversy
Global version content censorship
The global version has been criticized heavily for including censorship in some of their scenes in comparison of their Japanese version, despite Nexon promise to keep the contents as it is. Some of the game graphics has either altered or zoomed in, and some risque dialogues also has been down toned in the translations. This led to review-bombing by users in both Google Play and App Store. However, it was said that Korean version is unaffected by these changes.
Due to this, the chief developer PD Kim Yong Ha responds by saying they need to abide to "external requests" to be able to market their game in other regions and apologises to the players for not keeping his promises.
The censorship was only reversed on November 2022, when Nexon introduces a separate "T-rated" version for the global version (marked as Blue Archive (15) in Play Store or Blue Archive (12) in App Store) while raising the original game age rating in both platforms to 17+ (or 18+ in Korea), mainly due to Korea rating board increasing the rating of the original version.
Korean rating board controversy
The South Korea rating board, Game Rating and Administration Committee on October 2022 has revised Blue Archive's game rating from 15+ to 18+ without any detailed justification, which may put the game into legal issues due to South Korean law of game controls. This outraged a lot of fans who launched petitions signed by 5000 people. Another gacha game, Fate/Grand Order has also received same rating revision.
This movement got the attention of one member of National Assembly, Lee Sang-Heon from Democratic Party of Korea who is also a member of Sports and Culture Commission, who brought this matter to the commission. The Auditor-General has decided to hold a throughout audit of the board. The result of the audit is made known in July 2023, where GRAC is found of misusing the funds of a system called "Self-Rating Game Integrated Management System" to mine bitcoins while the system has never been materialized. The auditor office has instructed temporary halt of activity of the board and damage recovery. The GRAC chairman, accepting this result ordered resignation of the board members and promised to do reforms of the board.
As of the report, however, the rating for the Global and Korean versions has yet to be revised.
References
External links
2021 video games
Android (operating system) games
Anime television series based on video games
Fantasy video games
Free-to-play video games
Gacha games
IOS games
Mobile games
Nexon games
Science fiction video games
Shochiku
Single-player video games
Tactical role-playing video games
Upcoming anime television series
Video games developed in Japan
Video games featuring non-playable protagonists