Blue Archive is a mobile gacha RPG created by Nexon Games, formerly NAT Games, a Korean development studio active since 2013. The studio's past projects were largely free-to-play PC games using the Unreal Engine which amassed little in the way of popularity; one such game, Overhit, had the distinction of having its global servers shuttered only six months after they first opened.
Director Kim Yong-ha and writer Isakusan's most notable past credits were on Qurare: Magic Library together, a card battler developed by Smilegate that made only slightly greater waves. Tapping this studio and these staff to develop a gacha game for the Japanese market was a quirky choice.
Nexon itself is a name notorious overseas for bungling the global releases of a bunch of free MMORPGs like MapleStory and Dungeon Fighter Online, but nonetheless rising to be one of the largest players in the space over the course of its decades of misrule. Despite the involvement of the slightly more reputable Yostar Games as the Japanese publisher, this was a game with the opposite of a promising pedigree.
But sometimes, miracles happen.