Highly Anticipated New MMORPG Is Climbing Steam Charts, But Is It Worth Playing?

Those who played the original Blue Protocol playtest and fans of games like Genshin Impact have had their eyes on Star Resonance for a while. The game certainly caught my eye with its stunning anime graphics and free-to-play model. Gacha games might have a bad rep, but as my Umamusume: Pretty Derby login streak proves, I’m a sucker for anything I can try out for free. So, I was excited to see this one climbing the Steam charts upon release (over 86,700 concurrents and counting, as I write this). But then I noticed it’s already hit a Mostly Negative review average on Steam. So, I decided to check it out for myself and see whether this free-to-play anime MMORPG is worth your time (and mine).

Blue Protocol: Star Resonance Negative Reviews Focus on Gacha Mechanics, Server Limitations, & UI

On Steam, gamers will give a game a negative review simply for having a gacha mechanic at all, or for seeming too much like a mobile game. So, it can be hard to rely on Steam reviews for games like Blue Protocol: Star Resonance. As I scrolled through early reactions from players with less than 1 hour of gameplay on the record, I definitely saw some of that. Early negative reviews complain about “gacha noise” and “gacha mobile game slop.” Many games that release for mobile and PC simultaneously get this kind of commentary on Steam, so that alone wouldn’t leave me deterred.

But a few of the other criticisms do look like issues that Shanghai Bokura Network Technology might need to address. Many gamers are frustrated that the game doesn’t feature region-specific servers. Others are disappointed by auto-battling mechanics and the fact that Steam achievements are currently bugged, along with some FPS issues.

Despite an influx of negative reviews, some players are enjoying the game. A few negative reviews even note that the game’s beautiful style has them planning to come back if other issues, like server speed and achievement bugs, are addressed. Positive reviews promise that fans of Genshin Impact will like this game, early negativity notwithstanding. Naturally, that settled it for me. I would be logging in to Blue Protocol: Star Resonance to form my own opinion.

An Honest Opinion on Blue Protocol: Star Resonance From a Gacha Game Enjoyer

After spending some time with Blue Protocol: Star Resonance, I can see where some of the negative reviews are coming from. But I also agree with the players who’ve said that people who like games like Genshin Impact will enjoy it. I found myself wanting to keep playing, which is one of the most important marks of a new game in my opinion. I can easily see myself sinking quite a few hours into the game, though the current Level 21 cap might limit that until new content arrives.

The story throws you right into the action, and though there is a bit too much talking to random NPCs at the start, you get to check out combat pretty early on. I’m not sure where the auto-shooting complaints come from, because you definitely do have to fire your weapon and attack yourself, and you have various abilities to choose from as well. For me, the combat felt pretty similar to playing something like Throne and Liberty, another free-to-play MMORPG. That said, I definitely did see a few areas for improvement.

The frame rate for characters’ talking animation is definitely a bit off, which leads to them having a weird, blurred effect when speaking. And there is no English voiceover acting, so you’ll be reading subtitles if you don’t speak Japanese. Not every scene is voice-acted anyway, however, so it’s not a big issue – similar to something like Umamusume: Pretty Derby, where you can largely ignore the spoken dialogue if you don’t speak the language.

In terms of those server complaints? I didn’t notice any major server stability issues. My PC didn’t have a fun time launching the game the first time, but it ran well enough once I hopped in. The only real way that I noticed the lack of separate servers was the mix of different languages in the chat. I could see that being a bit frustrating if you’re really into the social elements of an MMORPG, as it’s a bit harder to weed through the messages to find people to party up with. But joining a guild and focusing on the in-guild chat would likely solve that problem. Or, if you’re a bit of a loner gamer like me, just tune out the chat altogether and focus on exploring the world and completing quests.

I really enjoyed the art style of the game, odd frame rate issues aside. The world you’re exploring is beautiful, and it does remind me of other anime-inspired games like Genshin or Honkai. The character creator is a nice change of pace here, though. I love creating a custom character, and many of the gacha games I’ve played focus on character pulls as mechanics. In Blue Protocol: Star Resonance, you craft your own hero, and there’s a pretty decent variety in the options for a free-to-play game. We could use some more skin tone options, and that body slider sure doesn’t let you truly craft a plus-size character, but those are sadly pretty common issues. Despite these limitations, I spent a good bit of time building my character, choosing different hairstyles and playing with the color sliders for hair and eyes.