Letheka

I am not a fan of Jun Maeda's work. I think that just about everything he's ever had a hand in has some interesting ideas, but wastes them by drowning them in other wacky story beats that clash with the setting, on top of being plotted with the finesse and subtlety of a sledgehammer. People celebrate him for being a master of tragedy, but I've never been able to suspend my disbelief enough to shed a single tear at any of his stories.

That's the opinion I would have given you of Maeda two years ago (HBR launched a bit earlier than that, but due to my low expectations I was late trying it out.)

And now?

As I see it, Maeda just took a long, long time to figure out how to play to his strengths.

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.

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.

If you know me at all, you know that I really love Assault Lily.

And unless I've convinced you to look into it before, chances are you've either never heard of that, or associate the name with a mediocre anime series that SHAFT produced in late 2020. (As much as I love the universe, the highest praise I can give the anime is that... it has its moments.) Maybe you've heard it was originally based on a line of dolls, too.

So if it's not because of the anime, what is Assault Lily, and why am I so into it? Brace yourself for 2000 words, and some pictures and videos, about just that.

(Content warning: brief discussions of incest, physical abuse and death.)