Blue Protocol: Star Resonance review - “This could be the best action RPG on mobile”

• A gacha you don't have to pay for
• The class selection process needs work
• But it is the best Action RPG on mobile

These days, it feels like we get an action gacha RPG for every three games produced, and most of those are remarkably similar - some might even say that they're blatant cash grabs. These cynical thoughts circled when Blue Protocol: Star Resonance was announced, so much so that when I was presented with the chance to review it, I thought for sure I wouldn’t like it. Well, I guess that even I can be wrong.

You can be almost anything you want to be

In Star Resonance, you take on the role of your own avatar, with quite an impressive range of customisation (although it seems like only one voice, which does not suit any taller, older male type character). Add to this the expansive Wardrobe system and all the accessories that you can equip, and you can make someone truly unique. Either way, with your hero created, you are thrust into the city of Asterleeds.

The story starts fairly slow, and obviously, for spoiler reasons, we won’t go too deep with it. The short version is that, you team up with a delightful idiot named Airona who saved you from a goblin's cooking pot, or so she says. You are afflicted with the classic ‘protagonist amnesia’, and soon set off for the standard save-the-world type heroics. And of course, this includes combat.

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A lot of classes, but none really gripped me

There are eight classes that you can pick from, split between three roles: Attack, Guard, and Support. Each of these then has two 'specs' to unlock, giving you quite a wide range of ways to play. If you want to heal, for example, you choose Verdant Oracle and eventually follow the Smite Spec to heal and deal damage. Or, go Lifebind to sacrifice your offence for more heals.

On the face of it, you get a lot of options. However, you can not experience all of them before you are locked in behind a time gate or paywall. I will explain. I started as a Marksman, the ranger, because it summons wolves. After a bit, though, I got bored, so I made a new character to try the Stormblade, a fast melee class. That didn’t gel either, so another character got made as a tanky Heavy Guardian, which also didn’t take. Unfortunately, you can’t easily try more after that.

The reason for that is that you have three character slots, and it takes a week to delete one. You can change classes, but it requires an item that costs 680 of the in-game currency. The nearest amount for that is the 980 package, which is currently valued at 98 Yen (less than a dollar). I imagine it won’t stay that cheap.

You do get one of these items free, but I wish there were at least a way to try a class before potentially wasting money on it. Especially since none I tried personally grabbed me, it felt like I just settled on one, which would really annoy me if it cost real cash. What makes it even worse is that you need one class from each of the three roles to fully complete the Trial Path challenges.

Pick a melee class, and combat will be incredibly enjoyable

Putting that aside, I quite enjoyed the combat. It is certainly more fun in melee range, however. There’s a lot of focus on dodging at the right moment to pull off powerful counterattacks that just flow a lot better up close. My experience playing the Markmans was remaining static, firing off different arrows until things died before they got close.

Each class has multiple skills to pick between, each of which can synergise with others, so you need to think carefully about what you want to end up focusing on. Some skills work best for either one of your class specs, so be mindful of that when choosing. It is very fun getting that perfect flow between skills down.

As an aside, this ties into the thing that irked me the most about Star Resonance’s UI. You can upgrade your skills with cash, and at any point you have enough money, you get a very annoying notification mark on the menu that won’t go away. Even when you are running around, there's an ever-present exclamation mark pulling your focus. I know I can upgrade, I'm choosing not to. Go away.

Even better are the Battle Imagines - big beasts you can summon or transform into to pull off powerful moves to supplement your skillset. Or, get the Imagine of your favourite NPC and fight alongside them. The interconnected skill system and fast-paced combat are incredibly fun, provided you pick the right class. If, for some reason, you don’t enjoy the combat, however, you can turn “Auto-Combo” on and sit back as your avatar farms for you. A neat little feature, and a big plus for the combat that I opted to fight manually, no matter how many times I accidentally aggroed a Goblin.

The greatest gear upgrade system in all of gaming

This brings me to a system that I need in more games: Gear upgrading. You can slot gems to make an individual piece more powerful, but what I adore is Refining. It is Star Resonance’s version of upgrading your armour level, but with one amazing difference: you upgrade the slot, not the equipment. Say you upgrade your helmet slot to level two. Now, every helmet you ever encounter and equip will be level two. It is a fantastic way to save resources and ensure you immediately get the most potential out of any new piece of gear you pick up.

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Our hero clearly needs to work on their cardio

Something that I personally didn’t enjoy much, however, was the exploration. Not because the world was ugly. Far from it. I loved the graphic style. The world can be beautiful, the characters are wonderfully crafted, and early on, when Airona is explaining how she saved you, the animations used in the slideshow are endearing and hilarious. Plus, there is at least one dog you can pet. I will, however, note that the character’s mouths move incredibly oddly in cutscenes. They're out of sync, and they look off-putting in general. 

My problem with exploration is how slow you move. Even sprinting, it feels like your character is stuck in treacle. You unlock a Phantom Dash to burst forward, but it takes 30 seconds to refresh. There are Mount Imagines to use, but even they feel slow. The only time I felt fast was when I was flying, but more often than not, you are running around slower than Link in his Iron Boots.

A good crafting system held back from greatness for one key reason

Now for something I take seriously in all RPGs: crafting. Called Life Skills here, there are three Gathering Skills and six Crafting Skills. You level these up by, of course, doing them. Find resources, make items and equipment, you know the drill. I really liked Star Resonance’s system, for the most part. Gather nodes respawn almost instantly, so you don't have the Genshin Impact problem of having to wait or having people raid your world for them.

It does have a few drawbacks, though. To start with, crafting is slow, taking five seconds to craft a basic Cut Stone. So if you make 12, maths fans will tell you that's a minute, and you can’t leave the forge and come back. You just have to sit there watching the meter fill up over and over. Big argument for the mobile version, though, simply set up your crafts and put your phone down.

The worst part of this system is Focus. It is a necessary resource for gathering certain items or crafting certain recipes. You only get 400 of this per day, and there aren’t many ways to replenish it without spending real cash. It's definitely a way to make sure you don’t max your Life Skills right away, but it makes it so unnecessarily limited.

Now, for the dream of many of my generation, home ownership. Further down the line in the story, you unlock a Homestead, a little island all for yourself. You can name it, use it to grow plants, and furnish it. This is certainly a long-term project; crafting furniture pieces takes hours, and the components needed draw from all Life Skills, but it is a delightful little side activity to keep coming back to.

Put your wallet away, you don’t need it here

At the top of this review, I mentioned gacha, and Blue Protocol: Star Resonance does have it. However, it is only for fashion pieces, and surprisingly, I never felt like the developers had their hand out. You can spend money on things, but it is truly only if you feel like it. It was never thrown in your face, and you can enjoy the whole thing without spending a penny.