Blue Flow – An Introduction

I was first drawn to this game because the box art reminded me very much of Power DoLLS, a tactical RPG that I played donkey years ago (it ran on MS-DOS). As it turned out, both games were published by the same company, KOGADO.

Besides the nostalgia factor, what drove me to fork out 49 dollars of hard-earned cash for an old game released back in 2005 is essentially summarized in the picture above. I mean, what can go wrong with the combo of mecha and cute girls, right?

Btw, don’t bother zooming up her skirt. I already tried. It’s just a bunch of black stuf- SHIT. Wait… So did she bleach her hair or… Nevermind.

Synopsis

The year is 2500AD.

Mankind has colonized space and there is war between Earth and the colonies (think Gundam). A civilian boy gets caught up in a prototype mecha hijack and ends up piloting it (think Amuro/Kamille/Kira).

The Gundam:

The boy gets stuck with the (previously) all-female 177th Publicity Unit, whose mission is supposedly to boost the morale of Earth’s soldiers with steamy pinups of its members. Of course, we all know that is just a cover and they are actually an elite covert squad of mecha pilots. But since they have to do the photoshoots for real to keep up appearances, I’m a happy guy.

Gameplay

The game is a real time tactical RPG with a dash of dating game elements.

Those who have played the Mech Commander series would find the strategy aspect extremely similar. I suspect the developers of Blue Flow are probably fans of Mech Commander. Basically, the game plays like any RTS minus the base building and your characters get stronger as they gain experience.

The missions are varied but rather standard, ranging from “kill everything” to “protect this idiot who will try to kill himself by charging the enemy”. What I enjoyed about them is that most missions can be completed in multiple ways.

And half the fun is customizing your team to suit the upcoming mission. Do you pick the brawler who jumps head first into fights? Or do you pick the recon expert who directs airstrikes onto enemy positions from behind the scenes? That said, I usually find myself picking the squad based on cuteness though.

Hey, it’s a moeritocracy here.

The dating game aspect is minimal actually, and they come in between missions when the story plays out. You get to make some choices which I don’t think affect the overall story much beyond which girl the guy gets to spend time with. It does affect whether he gets to kiss the beauty above though. Btw, it’s a splash of white this time. I’m confused.

There is a mini-game which lets you “converse” with the girls by clicking on them. Clicking on different parts gives you different responses, most of which are rather amusing. Guess where you’ll have to click to make one of the girls say “Ugh~ I’m ruined for marriage~”.

One interesting point to note is that since the protagonist is only 14 years old, all but one of the female characters are his Onee-san. So those with an Onee-san complex would probably enjoy this aspect of the game.

On the whole, the gameplay isn’t really outstanding and there isn’t much replayability, but it did keep me entertained for 2 whole weekends.

Next, let’s talk about what I think is the main draw of this game for me.


The Cast


Blue Flow has full Japanese voice acting and several popular seiyuu are on the cast list. I think the wonderful voice acting is probably the main thing that kept me interested. It really helped to make me feel for the characters and I found myself looking forward to the story scenes more than the missions which were suppose to be the core of the game.

Here’s a few of the characters that I like:

Yuan - The Protagonist.
Seiyuu: Kawakami Tomoko

Well, I don’t exactly like him but he IS the protagonist and you’re forced to field him whether you like it or not. This guy’s all dere dere around the Onee-sans. I knew Kawakami could do both Butch (Soifon) and Cute (Misuzu). Now I know she does young boys too. (That sounds wrong somehow) Plus her real name is 川上 倫子, according to the most reliable source on the internet. See the 倫? That means she’s awesome.








Claudia – The Squad Leader
Seiyuu: Tanaka Rie

Gentle, nurturing, yet extremely capable in her own right. Basically sounds like a mature Maria/Lacus. Harbours a dark secret. My favourite character, probably because it’s Tanaka Rie. And the criminally good-looking ponytail definitely helps her case.





Maki – The Goofy Melee Tank
Seiyuu: Haruna Ikezawa

Somehow “Goofy Melee Tank” made me think of Minsc and Boo. “Jump on my sword while you can, Evil. I won’t be as gentle!”

Carefree, a bit of a busybody. Exploits her Onee-san Authority to torture Yuan, like forcing him to apply sun block on her just to see him blush. Ponytail not as criminally good as Claudia’s, therefore 2nd favourite character.

The only other Haruna Ikezawa role I know is Mizusawa Mao (Kimikiss) and both are quite similar in character. Ikezawa did mention in an interview for Kimikiss that she does mainly such roles. Mao’s my favourite Kimikiss girl by the way.




Rachel – The Tsundere Nekomimi Tsukomi (TNT)
Seiyuu: Morinaga Rika

The squad’s disciplinarian. Polar opposite of Maki in that she is a total sticker for doing things by the book.

The nekomimi is actually a hairband. I’m not really into nekomimi but she’s always on my min- I mean, squad for her marksmanship.

Morinaga voiced Mawari (Seto no Hanayome) and Souseiseki (Rozen Maiden).



Tama – The Airhead Ruined For Marriage
Seiyuu: Morinaga Rika

Morinaga doing overtime as the kawaii unit Pet. Actually, all the seiyuu here voiced multiple roles in this game.

One of the more useless characters stat-wise, but she’s a regular on my team. It’s to make up for getting her ruined for marriage.







Jerid – The Enemy
Seiyuu: Shiraishi Minoru

For someone who’s supposedly a hotshot colonel in the enemy force and the final boss of the game, this guy is quite a goofball.

Maybe it’s because he’s voiced by Sebastian from Raki Suta. Ok, fine. I know Sebastian wrecked the Raki Chianaru set. But where I come from, colonels are old men who at least look capable and authoritative even if they really aren’t.

Tessa doesn’t count. She’s cute. Our armed forces could use more colonels like her.




Soundtrack


The BGM was totally unremarkable. The theme song, on the other hand, was rather enjoyable.

旅光年空へ, which loosely means “To the Sky Lightyears Away” (I think), is a catchy number by now defunct tiaraway, a seiyuu duo consisting of Saeko Chiba and Nanri Yuuka.

Nanri Yuuka was the one who sang 暁の車 and 焔の扉 in Gundam Seed, both pretty good songs.

The 2 instrumental versions of 旅光年空へ were decent as well.

Here’s the Game’s Opening featuring the theme song. And a live version.


Extras

I just had to fork out $20 more to get the “Deluxe” edition which came with the fandisc and some extras.

1) Game guide, useful if you want to get past the tougher missions with minimum fuss and enjoy the story.
2) The OST, which like I said, has only 3 decent tracks.
3) 3 extra missions – a prequel, a conclusion to the cliffhanger ending which ends on a cliffhanger yet again, and an epilogue.
4) Game Setting Book that introduces the characters and mecha.
5) Drama CD – 2 decently funny skits and 3 monologues which were kind of boring.
6) Novel – Expands on the back-story of the characters. I’ve yet to read this.
7) Bonus CD with wallpapers (plastered all over this post), screensavers, system sounds etc.


Conclusion

Not the best of games, but enjoyable nonetheless. If you ask whether I’ll spend another $49 on another game of the same quality though, the answer will be “No”. If I wanted a real time tactical RPG with Mecha I’d play Mech Commander 2. If I wanted moe girls, superb voice-acting and story I’d watch Anime.

What if I want a well executed tactical RPG with mecha, moe, superb voice-acting and story?

Well, I hear the sequel Blue Blaster came out in 2006…

And I can’t let it end like this…


…GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MARIA, YOU TANIGUCHI!!!!