Letheka

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.

It's Koharu and Kazusa from Blue Archive wearing the Yurigaoka school uniforms and cuddling up with each other. They share the same voice actresses as Riri and Yuyu from Assault Lily, so I thought it would be a cute idea.

I hope the artist is fine with me using it as a header. I mentioned that I'd like to in the request and they didn't directly respond... I think it's safe to assume that's a 'sure', but I can't be, well, sure. Skeb threatens you with dire punishments for contacting the artists directly (presumably so you don't do comms without going through them and paying their premium) so I think I have to leave it at that.

Regardless, I'm delighted with the lovely artwork! Thank you Negu!

This blog post is about Volume 4 of Blue Archive's main story, Rabbit of Caerbannog. It will contain spoilers.

I don't intend this to be a comprehensive plot summary (I recommend finding and watching a video for that, if you can't play the game or the story chapter yourself), just a rundown of things I found interesting or amusing, plus screenshots.

I created a cohost page mainly to stay in touch with friends, in case the Other Site burns to ashes literally and not just figuratively (edit: Twitter has yet to literally burn to ashes but I went inactive there.) I used to blog in the past and it might be nice to start doing it again. So here goes!