Video Game / Blue Reflection

Blue Reflection is a JRPG developed by Gust Corporation, creators of the Atelier Series, and published by Koei Tecmo. Set in a Japanese all-girl's school, Hinako Shirai is a high school student and Ballet dancer who seriously injured her leg in a car accident. One year later she returns to school and meets a former classmate who is so happy to see Hinako, her emotions go berserk and Hinako is transported to a realm known as the Common.

There she meets the sisters Yuzuki and Lime who offer her the chance to become a Reflector, a magical girl who fights back against the Sephirot, monsters that feed on human emotion. At first she is skeptical but when she is told that defeating the Sephirot will grant her one wish she decided to help so she can heal her injured leg and return to ballet.

There's a character page, due to the numerous characters in the game.

On March 28, 2021, Gust announced the "Blue Reflection project" with the intent on expanding the IP with three projects. The projects include;

• Blue Reflection Ray, an Anime follow up that started airing in April 2021.
• Blue Reflection: Second Light, a sequel game that was released in Japan for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on October 21, 2021. It was released in North America and Europe for PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and Steam on November 9, 2021.
• Blue Reflection Sun, a mobile phone game by DMM Games that was released on February 2023. It is slated to cease service on May 30, 2024.

---

Tropes in this game

• Aerith and Bob: Everyone has fairly common Japanese names as expected, except for Lime.
• Adults Are Useless: More like "adults don't exist". Several of the girls' parents are mentioned or appear as disembodied voices in flashbacks, but none are physically present in the game, not even schoolteachers (when 90% of the game takes place in a school.) This is especially noticeable whenever Hinako is shown at home; we never see anything but her bedroom and she never speaks to her parents.
• After-Combat Recovery: All HP and MP is restored after battle. In return, there aren't any items to restore those in battle or out of it.
• Ambiguously Evil: Exactly how antagonistic Daath actually is isn't clear. Despite his stated goal of assimilating humanity into one being to preserve his power, he's perfectly fine with the heroes standing against him despite acknowledging they're a genuine threat to him, spends the entire fight complimenting them, and when defeated congratulates them. Notably, he says they 'reflect him,' which implies this might have been what he wanted.
• Animal Motif: Almost all of Lime's attacks have an animal in the name.
• Animate Inanimate Object: The Teddy Bear that Lime uses as a weapon.
• Anti-Villain: Daath wants to assimilate humanity into one being, but this is entirely due to their weakening bonds meaning he might not be able to defeat the other Sephirot next time the battle royale starts, which would result in humanity's destruction, something he genuinely doesn't want, and believes it will be happier for humanity this way. He's also entirely polite and spends most of the final battle complimenting the heroes and is genuinely proud of them when they win. It's notable as while he says he made the world hospitable to humanity to power him up, he also genuinely considers them precious to him and part of his reason for his plan is so he can protect them from his kin.
• Assimilation Plot: One particular Sephira has this as its objective as humanity's weakening bonds means that it itself is weakening.
• Badass Adorable:
  • All three Reflectors are high school girls fighting to stop Cosmic Horror from destroying the world.
  • Some of the supporting cast help fight bosses too.
• Battle in the Rain: The final Sephira battle takes place in this.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The Sephirot are in competition with each other in a battle royale where the winner can rule the world, though they're never seen fighting each other directly. If any of them other than Daath win, humanity will end due to the winner remaking reality in their image, which won't include humanity. However, Daath plans on assimilating all human consciousness to protect them from the other Sephirot, making them an antagonist too.
• Bittersweet Ending: The Sephirot are defeated and humanity is saved, but Yuzu and Lime pass on now that their role is complete, leaving everyone with no memory that they were ever there. However, Yuzu and Lime are revealed to still be out there together and Daath does grant Hinako the wish that Lime claimed she would have gotten, which Hinako uses to keep her memories of her time with the sisters.
• Book Ends: The prologue is "The First Step -The Last Step-"; the last chapter is "The Last Step -The First Step-". The first and last cutscenes are also Hinako making her way to school; with the same soundbites and all. The only changes are Hinako's ring and remembering Yuzu and Lime.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: An extra side mission features a particularly strong enemy that looks like one you've likely fought many times before. Easy to be caught off guard by it if you aren't prepared.
• Calling Your Attacks: Yuzu does this a lot.
• Cognizant Limbs: All of the bosses have body parts that function as such, complete with separate HP meters and turns. They'll respawn after a while if you take them down, but doing so debuffs the main body for a bit.
• Combination Attack: If one character uses three overdrive counts to attack, then the character initiates a combination attack with the other two. And there are three variations of said combination attacks. Sadly they are Awesome, but Impractical, since the combined damage of a triple Overdrive will almost invariably bring bosses to their next phase, thus immediately interrupting your turn.
• Contractual Boss Immunity: Averted. You can inflict debuffs on bosses as well as any other foe.
• Cool Sword: Hinako's sword looks beautiful and reflective.
• Coup de Grâce Cutscene: After killing the boss, Hinako goes one-on-one with the boss and displays Cutscene Power to the Max.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Daath, the final boss. Despite being the closest thing the game has to a Big Good, appears as an armored devil with huge, visceral wings covered in eyeballs.
• Dead All Along: Both Yuzu and Lime died a year before the game began.
• Easily Forgiven: Yuzu and Lime essentially trick Hinako into becoming a Reflector and risking her very existence to save the world (and, by extension, allow them to move on). They could have chosen anyone, but Hinako had an exploitable weakness in the form of her ballet injury, and giving her the false promise of a wish to fix her leg ensured she would stay in the fight. Hinako forgives them, because otherwise they've been good friends to her.
• The End of the World as We Know It: All of the Sephirot's goals. The winner of their fights gets to remake the world as they see fit, and it's implied it's happened a lot in prehistory.
• Eldritch Abomination: The Sephirot.
• Fanservice: Although not directly the focus of the game, it's incredibly unsubtle how much the skirt and Jiggle Physics go about with the likelihood of a panty shot. Rainy days invoke the Sexy Soaked Shirt, and DLC and unlockable costumes only emphasize this more, right down to running around in a Modesty Towel.
  • That said, the Arland outfit sets are a different sort of fanservice altogether.
  • There's also Japan-Exclusive DLC that includes the Blue Highschool Swimsuit and there's also Aranea Highwind's outfit from Final Fantasy XV for Hinako and Cindy's outfit for Kaori.
• Forced Level-Grinding: One of the requirements for the plot-progressing missions is to have the characters at a certain level, as well as a certain number of mission completion points.
• Friendly Enemy: Daath at no point gets angry or even annoyed at the heroes opposing him and actually spends the majority of the fight complimenting them, and is less defeated and more just decides they've proven their bonds are strong enough for his liking.
• Game Within a Game: "Dark Cave", which plays like a basic smartphone game.
• Graceful Loser: After the Final Boss fight, Daath compliments the party for their strong bonds and stops their current attempt to assimilate humanity.
• Green Hill Zone: The Happiness Zone.
• Hard Mode Perks: A minor one, but because enemy HP is higher on hard mode, the player technically gets more mileage out of a full Overdrive combo than on lower difficulties, due to bosses recovering HP on phase changes. It also makes it easier to accomplish the Combination attack mission, since the miniboss enemies will be sturdy enough to survive until the Combination attack is activated.
• Hail Fire Peaks: When the Sorrow Zone and Anger Zone fuse together you get the mix of lava and water.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: Despite Daath being a Graceful Loser, it's unknown if they plan on trying to assimilate humanity again after they win the next war.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: Hinako's main weapon.
• Hold the Line: Technically, all the Reflectors have to do is prevent the Sephirot from actually making it to the school and killing the Common; though that's unsustainable in the long run, hence the need to actually kill them.
• Improbable Weapon User: Other than Hinako and Yuzu who have standard swords and magic wands, we have:
  • Lime fights using an animate Teddy Bear that shoots lasers.
  • Kei's assist attack involves chest-passing a basketball at the enemy.
  • Kaori also kicks an empty drink can at the enemy.
  • Yuri somehow has a rifle.
  • Mao can call in a drone bombing run, never mind where or how she can work them during a Sephira battle.
• Invisible to Normals:
  • Unless you're a Reflector, generally the only hint someone's going rampant is abnormal behavior. While in the Common or fighting a Sephira, time completely stops. In addition, people can only go rampant within the bounds of a singularity (i.e. the school), hiding it further.
  • The main reason Yuri's in Hoshinomiya is because while the stuff Reflectors go about doing is invisible, they still create some abnormalities in time/space, which she managed to figure out.
• Item Crafting: You can make battle items and enhance Fragments using drops and items from the Common.
• Joke and Receive: Ako at first thinks Yuzu and Lime are magical girls because she realized that they suddenly appeared in the first year class but they weren't in the class picture taken at the start of the school year. She immediately follows up saying she was joking. Then she finds out they really are magical girls.
• Jumped at the Call: Hinako only gets seriously motivated when she hears the defeating the Sephirot will grant a wish. She wants to heal her leg so she can return to ballet.
• Lethal Lava Land: The Anger Zone.
• Level-Up at Intimacy 5: Once you've engaged in enough events with the other girls, you can earn growth points to level up your characters.
• The Lost Woods: The Fear Zone.
• Lovecraft Lite: Eldritch horrors are converging on a place where the veil of reality is thin and their invasion of humanity's collective unconscious is driving innocent, unsuspecting people insane, but they're being driven back by plucky young heroines in sparkly outfits with magic powers. In a twist, humanity was created by Daath, a Sephira who is powered by their emotional bonds.
• Magical Girl: Reflectors. Transformation Sequence and all (though those appear very sporadically). They are actually a means for Daath to fight its fellow Sephirot by proxy.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: Upon getting the twelfth supporter, all the Reflectors get a weapon upgrade - Hinako's sword gets a wider crossguard, Yuzu's gets gems inlaid into the heart bits of her batons which now have wings, and Lime's bear gets more pointy and angry-looking.
• Monster Compendium: Which handily lists item drops and locations for when you need to grind for supplies.
• More Friends, More Benefits: Increasing your friendship levels with the girls grants new fragments to power up your movements and more points to level up with.
• Motivational Lie: The sisters end up lying to Hinako about her being granted a wish for defeating the Sephirot in order to have her keep fighting. Subverted at the end when final boss Daath does grant Hinako a wish in exchange for helping it become the last survivor of the Sephirot.
• Near Victory Fanfare: The Sephira rematches add a third phase with music that sounds more triumphant than the hectic second phase, indicating you're going to finish them for good this time.
• Not What It Looks Like: Yuzu and Lime happen to walk in on Hinako during Shihori's Skinship Grope.
• Point of No Return: Two of them. The first one is once you report your final mission status in Chapter 10 to Lime and Yuzu, as the story will automatically progress from there, so you can't farm for item creation parts or raise your relationships. And you won't know this right away because the game won't tell you. The second is just before you leave for the final Sephirot battle, where the game gives you a notice saying this is your last chance to equip Fragments before you head out.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: Yuzu and Lime are artificial reflectors, having gained their powers through their father's scientific experiments. Now they're dead and unable to move on to their next reincarnation until the Sephirot are properly slain.
• Power-Up Food/Rare Candy: Food items can be used to permanently bolster a character's stats.
• Relationship Values: Each of the twelve friends you make can have their friendship level boosted throughout the game. Hanging out with them and answering questions in a correct manner will bump them up, eventually granting new events, new fragments and points for leveling up.
• Sadistic Choice: The heroes can either let Daath complete his Assimilation Plot or destroy him and risk another Sephira filling the voice and destroying humanity (the outcome he's genuinely trying to prevent) without him as the established victor. Hinako Takes a Third Option: just repel him rather than destroy him, meaning he's still preventing the other Sephira from destroying humanity but unable to complete his plan. Daath is impressed and proud when they manage to do so.
• School Setting Simulation: The game is set in a girls high school.
• Seemingly Hopeless Boss Fight: The second fight against Netzach; even with as high a Guard burst as you can manage, it will one-shot everyone, at which point you get the above Mid-Season Upgrade.
• Sequel Hook:
  • Daath mentions that Sephirot might reform in the future for another battle royale.
  • There's also the girl whose sidequest initiates the Super Boss fight, heavily implying she created the boss and might have some connection to the Common.
• Shrinking Violet: Chihiro is incredibly shy but her efforts to tend to the flower beds around the school and make plush toys helps her come out of her shell.
• Skinship Grope: Shihori does this to Hinako in one late bonding quest, enough that her fragment goes wild and that Hinako has to stabilize it.
• So Proud of You: Daath spends most of the final battle genuinely complimenting the heroes on how strong they are and the power of their bonds, and congratulates them on nonlethally repelling him, managing to stop his plan and keep him victor of the battle royale.
• The Stoic: Lime; she doesn't care how things turn out for the others as long as Hinako, Yuzu and herself get more fragments.
• Super Boss: Complete every other mission in the game to unlock a final one with a fight against a common mook. One that's somehow been elevated to a level of strength above the final boss.
• Support Party Member: All of the characters the trio saves and obtain a ring become one.
• Theme Naming: True to what the main monsters are called, they're all named after the sephirot from the Jewish tree of life.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Played with. Daath, the Sephira who created humanity, wants to assimilate all human consciousness to compensate for their weakening bonds. While part of this is self-service to gain enough emotional power to defeat the other Sephirot (which isn't an entirely selfish goal either, as his victory is the only one in which humanity survives), Daath believes this plan is still beneficial to humanity as a whole so they can cope with their tragedies.
• Wham Line: Yuzu and Lime revealing to Hinako at the end of chapter 9 that they were Dead All Along.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Yuzu does this to Lime because, in her own words, she doesn't care what happens to anyone as long as she gets stronger.
  • Lime gets it again when Hinako realizes she instigated the jealousy Mao feels towards Hinako, just to get another fragment.
• Your Mind Makes It Real: The Common is essentially a collective of human emotion. There are four zones with a central area; Happiness, Fear, Sorrow and Anger. These can even be blended into other zones; for example, a combination of Fear and Sorrow is rather common to jump into.