Blue Protocol: Star Resonance - Final First Impressions

The plan for today's post was to run through the demos I'd picked for the latest Steam Next Fest, which starts today and runs for a week. Unfotunately, in making that plan I hadn't allowed for the fact that it doesn't kick off until 10AM PAcific, which is six o'clock in the evening here. That wouldn't be too late for me to pick and post but it would turn the whole thing into a bit of a race so I'm going to leave it for tomorrow.

All of which means it's yet another First impressions post for Blue Protocol: Star Resonance. Yay!

I guess at some point First Impressions have to give way to plain old Impressions. I think we might be getting close to that point now. I've racked up just short of five hours, which is nothing for an MMORPG, but I'm level 26 and I've finished the first chapter of the main story quest so it feels as though I'm well into the game.

And so far I'm really enjoying it. I realised yesterday why I've seen several reviews comparing it to Final Fantasy XIV.  I though at first it was just that it's an MMO and that happened to be the one those reviewers knew best because certainly BP:SR doesn't seem to play much like the FFXIV I remember. Then, as I was trotting around Asterleeds, the main city, I started to notice how similar the architecture is to some of the locations I vaguely remember from that game.

It's been a long time since I saw any of the cities of Eorzea so I'm vague on which, if any, Asterleeds might specifically ressemble. It's more the look and feel, all that wood paneling, the way the NPCs stand behind counters, the wide streets... True, lots of cities in lots of MMOs have a similar design aesthetic but I can't say any of them have reminded me of FFXIV quite as much as this.

There's also the catalog of creatures to kill, something I recall playing a significant part in FFXIV but again, lots of games have something similar. If there are any more specific similarities, I imagine you'd need to be more tuned in to Square Enix's game than I am to spot them. Still, it's a factor for some people, clearly.

One thing BP:SR doesn't seem to do all that well is introduce players to new features and systems as they come up. It's not that it doesn't do it at all, more that it tends to mention them and move on quite quickly to something else.

Arguably, that's a positive rather than a negative. The usual tendency for modern games is to keep banging on about things until you never want to hear about them ever again. This way, it's left up to the player to do something with the information, which at least suggests some agency.

For example, I'm pretty sure there was a suggestion at some point that I go speak to some NPC about crafting. It wasn't put as obviously as that and I didn't do anything about it but later, as I was going through some icons and menus to see what was there, I came across a whole page of Life Skills, all with details of who to speak to to get started.

That led me to check my Quest Journal for the first time, where I found I had no fewer than sixteen pending quests, only two of which I remembered acquiring. There's a quest tracker but it only seems to highlight a couple of quests at a time.

Most of this is my fault, not the game's. For a few years now, I seem to have slipped into the habit of pursuing the MSQ or core storyline in every new game I try, very much to the detriment of the game as a whole. It's not something I ever used to do and I'm not really sure when or why I changed my behavior. 

I suspect it's simply because most modern MMORPGs and open-world RPGs have strong central storylines and put them in front of you from the get-go. If you don't actively choose to step off the moving walkway, it will carry you through the content it wants you to be consuming without giving you much choice.

 

It's probably one reason why there's a perception that these kinds of games don't have as much going on in them as they once did. As you complete chapter after chapter of the big storyline, there's an inevitable sense that you're making your way along a linear path, exactly like watching a movie or reading a book. When you get to the credits or turn the final page, it feels like the game is over.

That's possibly also why side quests seem to be so looked down upon these days. It's quite common to hear people complaining about them in the way they complain about trash mobs. There are too many; it's boring to have to go through them; why can't it all just be the MSQ?

If you go back far enough, there didn't used to be such a harsh definition, either of quests or mobs. Without a dominant central questline, quests were more likely to seem interesting or worthwhile in their own right, either for the smaller stories they told, or for the xp or rewards they gave. Mobs, similarly, were more likely to have drops you might want or to give xp you might need, so it didn't seem like such an imposition to have to kill them on the way to doing other things.

I've always thought the increased focus on story and on a central, obligatory MSQ was as much a problem as a solution. Yes, it keeps players both engaged and occupied but it also fosters the idea that once you're done with the story, you're done with the game. All that's left after that is a so-called end-game that's inevitably and unavoidably repetitive. For all the complaints about the "grind" of leveling in old-school MMORPGs , it's hard to see the current version as very much of an improvement. Or even all that different.

This, I'm uncomfortably aware, is the hole I've lowered myself into in Wuthering Waves. That game has a wealth of very satisfying and engaging content beyond the excellent MSQ and when I first started playing it I was having a fine old time exploring it all. At some point, though, I locked myself into the central storyline and the rest of the fascinating world disappeared behind a screen of (Admittedly first-rate.) cut scenes and set pieces.

 

BP:SR is never going to have the same inherent literary or aesthetic value as the exceptional WW but the story running through the middle of it is still interesting enough to hold my attention and the game constantly nudges me to keep on with it to the exclusion of all else. Those nudges, though, are gentler and less persistent than in most games and that's why I'm here now, considering my options.

When I play again later today, I think I'm going to open up my Journal and start working through a few of those quests I seem to have picked up without even noticing. Maybe they'll be filler I wish I'd skipped or maybe they'll be satisfying vignettes that shed light on the world Floradelle finds herself living in. Mostly, I suspect, they'll introduce me to aspects of the game I ought to know about.

One of them, for instance, introduces Fishing, which appears to be something entirely separate from Life Skills. There's another similarity with FFXIV.  At least Fishing is always pretty straightforward. You know where you are with a fish.

Life Skills or Crafts are always a problem. In some games they're barely more than amusements and it makes no real difference which you pick but in others choosing the wrong one can be almost game-breaking. I've never known any game give sufficient information up front to make that choice a truly informed one. It's always outside sources that tell you Class A must take Craft B and Craft B needs Secondary Craft C.

All of which means I've already reached the point where I ought to do some research outside the game before I make any final decisions. Luckily, BP:SR is one of those games where there's plenty of advice available. 

 

Here's an overview of Life Skills. You'll note it says right at the start that they're "a core part" of the game, "important for progressing your character". Not just fluff for fun, then. A detailed guide to one of them, Weaving, makes it clear why that is: "Weaving allows you to craft Epic and Legendary quality Intellect and Agility Helmets, Armor, Gauntlets, and Boots for the Verdant Oracle, Beat Performer, Frost Mage, Stormblade, and Marksman classes, as well as Strength, Intellect, and Agility Charms."

That does sound like it would be important. Fortunately, as Icy Veins explains, "You’re not locked into just one or two professions. You can pick up as many Life Skills as you want". The real limitation here is something called Focus, one of those infamous time-gated resources. 

I think I prefer being able to learn all the crafts but not always having the energy to do them to always having enough puff but being locked into specific skills. I suppose being able to take them all and never having any limitations on their use would be the ideal but even that would present problems of its own in terms of the investment and commitment required to take advantage of that degree of freedom.

There's probably no perfect solution. So long as whatever's there seems fair within its context, it ought to be acceptable. Based on previous experiences in similar games, in my case, it's highly unlikely I'll ever do enough crafting to run up against the timegates, so from my perspective it will probably seem like I have complete freedom anyway.

Unless I really get into the housing, that is. Oh yes, there's housing! And you can craft furniture. That is the one place where I've found myself hitting the limits in the past.

 

I thought I'd gained access to the housing feature yesterday, when the Mayor of Asterleeds gave me a rent-free room in the inn for as long as I needed it, in gratitude for a service I'd done the city. I went straight to my room to see if that had opened up some customization features but the only change I found there was another player, asleep on my bed.

Which was weird. I thought at first it might be an NPC, like the ones that moved themselves into my houses all the time in Chimeraland but no, it was definitely a player. So much for it being my room. I expect he'd saved the city, too.

That got me to go look up housing and it turns out the feature doesn't open up until Level 40. Whatever the Mayor gave me, it wasn't that. Knowing it's coming is a big motivation for me to carry on until I get the real thing, though.

The one other significant thing I did while I was playing yesterday was to join in a big fight with an open world boss or an elite or something. I was out doing something entirely different when I saw the huge creature wandering about. I went over to have a look and a couple of people were attacking it so I joined in.

It was all very reminiscent of similar events in Guild Wars 2 or perhaps more specifically in Bless Unleashed, although in the latter game the fights were a lot harder. This one, some species of Ogre, had a lot of hit points, so it took several minutes to kill, even with a lot of players joining in as the fight went on. There didn't seem to be any complicated mechanics to deal with. The boss fired off plenty of AEs but as a Marksman, using a bow, I was positioned well out of range so I can't say what they did.

It was fun. For me. I really like open group events where all you do is stand still, firing off all your skills over and over. I like it even better with auto-battling, when I don't even have to hold down a key, much less go through any kind of rotation. I can see why it's not to everyone's taste but as I said yesterday, there are lots of games out there; if that's not your kick, maybe try another.

Everything considered, I'm finding the propspects for BP:SR quite encouraging. There's not much about it I don't like yet and a lot that I do. It probably doesn't have a lot of substance but evidence suggests that several fairly recent games I ended up giving a lot of my time didn't, either. Noah's Heart and Dawnlands come immediately to mind but there have been quite a few. I'm pretty shallow when it comes to games.

Most of those games, though, didn't do all that well. Some of them have closed down now and the rest are mouldering in maintenance mode, forgotten by the world. I have some hope Blue Protocol: Star Resonance might do a little better than that but it's early days yet.

And with that, I think my First Impressions are probably done. From now, it'll just be notes on a game I'm playing.