Today, KOEI TECMO Europe and developer Gust Studios announced new characters, new battle systems, and an entire new land inside BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light – the highly-anticipated sequel to their beloved 2017 JRPG, BLUE REFLECTION. The game is currently in development for the Nintendo Switch™ and PlayStation®4 Computer Entertainment System (playable on PlayStation®5 via Backward Compatibility) and is scheduled to release across Europe on November 9th, 2021.
BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light follows the adventures of three students – Ao Hoshizaki, Kokoro Utsubo, and Yuki Kinjou – who find themselves transported to a mysterious floating academy, searching for clues to find their way back home, with only their names as memories. One day, a strange new space spreads across the outskirts of the academy. Since the new land surrounds the world the heroines inhabit, they refer to it as “the heart of the world” and name the unexplained new area Heartscape. Inside Heartscape, the characters will be able to find ingredients for cooking, and materials for building, crafting, and battle. They will also discover memory shards, and the moment Ao and her friends touch one of these enigmatic lights, the memories begin to reignite bit by bit. Collect more memory shards to uncover each heroine’s memories, while at the same time stepping closer to unlocking the mystery of this world.
Unfortunately for the heroines, the almost dream-like land of Heartscape can also be an extremely dangerous location to explore. Monsters stalk the land, and Ao and friends will need to use the power of rings to summon weapons, change their appearance, and become “Reflectors” ready to repel the attacking beasts in a hectic real-time battle system.
Throughout battle, the Ether points (EP) necessary to launch skills recover over time, and their recovery speed gets faster the more these skills strike various enemies. If you go over a certain number of points, you will switch up “gear” meaning you will be able to launch multiple skills at once. Chaining up combos will accelerate the battle speed and increase the amount of damage dealt to the enemy!
Furthermore, if you reach the 3rd Gear, the protagonists will turn into “Reflectors”, unleashing their secret powers onto the enemy. Against a powerful opponent, when you manage to make the enemy falter, one member of your team will approach the enemy and there begins a One-on-One battle. During this sequence, your party as well as the enemy’s movements will become faster, repeating quick dodges and attacks. After linking up a definite number of combos, a super-powerful signature attack called the “One-on-One Finisher” will be launched!
Joining the three previously announced characters on their journey will be two new additions to the academy: Hiori Hirahara and Shiho Kasuga. Both Hirahara and Shiho appear before Ao and friends after certain events trigger their appearances in the game. Both new characters have also lost their memories, and while Hiori seems to be searching for her “little sister,” Kokoro has a funny feeling she knows Shiho, but just can’t remember how. The new members help plan the makeover of the Academy, including construction of a secret base. Using the tools collected on Heartscape, the characters will be able to build special facilities inside the academy, and once built, entering these new facilities can spark special events.
But while planning the new construction, Ao was bugged by something. It was the mysterious person who she first encountered when she arrived in this world. Kokoro and the others also saw her, as this ghost-like character seems to appear in the most unexpected places and moments. The group of friends decide to call this spirit Yuko, but it leaves them wondering who else they might encounter in this strange new world.
To help celebrate the latest edition to the BLUE REFLECTION franchise, KOEI TECMO Europe are offering two delightful special edition versions of BLUE REFLECTION: Second Light, a Premium Box version and a Collector’s Edition, exclusively available through the KOEI TECMO Europe Online Store. The Premium Box version of the game contains an Academy Notebook-styled photo album, a deluxe cloth poster, a special drama CD, an exclusive DLC costume, and the game all packaged into a beautiful collector’s box. The must-have Collector’s Edition version of the game contains all of the contents featured in the Premium Box version, as well as a canvas bag, an illustrated bath towel featuring artwork of Ao Hoshizaki, two mini acrylic charms, and an album featuring original illustrations. Pre-orders for both of these versions are expected to go live soon, with an official announcement to be made on the KOEI TECMO Europe Twitter account once pre-orders begin.
TECMO KOEI EUROPE Ltd, the European subsidiary of TECMO KOEI HOLDINGS Co., Ltd. of Japan established operations in 2003 and based just outside of London, in Hertfordshire.
TECMO KOEI is respected worldwide as the premier developer for historical action games and is recognised as the innovator of the Tactical Action genre. The various Warriors series of games have generated more than 18 million unit sales worldwide since releasing for PlayStation consoles in 1997. With their focus on spectacular battles, legendary characters and dramatic storylines it is these long established series which TECMO KOEI is most renowned for.
In addition to these historical action titles TECMO KOEI’s desire for innovation and diversity has seen the company establish the successful G1 Jockey horse racing series along with the political and tactical machinations of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms series.
TECMO KOEI maintains operations in Japan, the U.S.A, Canada, China, Singapore, Korea and Taiwan and employs over 1200 people worldwide.
The company's continued success is the result of continuing dedication to the quality and innovative game play of its products, the energies of the technical and creative talents and most notably the enthusiasm and alliance of every single passionate fan.
TECMO KOEI constantly seeks a fine balance between entertainment, technology, art and education. With the rapid advance in video game technology, TECMO KOEI aims to provide a global audience with satisfying interactive entertainment experience. The research and development teams are expanding into new genres, experimenting with new innovations and constantly striving to provide gamers with the richest tapestries upon which to live out dreams and spend hours of fulfilling enjoyment.
TECMO KOEI EUROPE invites everyone to be a part of our ever growing and vibrant family.
The group’s publishing activities, marketing and distribution extend throughout Europe, America, Australia and Asia. Koch Media has more than 25 years of experience in the digital media business and has risen to become a leading global publishing partner. The Koch Media Group runs a multi-label strategy with fully owned publishing units such as Prime Matter, Deep Silver, Milestone, Vertigo Games and Ravenscourt, publishing games for consoles, PC and VR platforms across all physical and digital channels.
Additionally, as global publishing partner Koch Media has formed long-term multi-national publishing collaborations with numerous game publishers including Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Capcom, CI Games, Giants Software, Kalypso, Koei Tecmo, Konami, Paradox, Sega, SNK, Square Enix, Techland, Tripwire, Warner Bros, and many others.
With its parent company in Höfen, Austria, and the Publishing HQ in Munich, Germany, Koch Media owns local publishing companies in Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Sweden, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Australia, the United States as well as Japan and Hong Kong.
The Koch Media Group owns nine game development studios: Deep Silver Volition (Champaign, IL / USA), Deep Silver Dambuster Studios (Nottingham / UK), Deep Silver Fishlabs (Hamburg / Germany), Warhorse Studios (Prague / Czech Republic), Milestone (Milan / Italy), Voxler (Paris / France) , Flying Wild Hog (Warsaw, Kraków, Rzeszów / Poland), Free Radical Design (Nottingham / UK) and Vertigo Games (Rotterdam /The Netherlands). Additionally, the Koch Media Group collaborates with numerous independent development studios around the world.
Part of the Koch Media Group is also Koch Films, a leading European independent film distributor with business primarily in Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Italy as a cinema, TV, online and Home Entertainment distributor. The Koch Media Group also owns Gaya Entertainment, a leading video game merchandise company in Munich, Germany, and the Quality Assurance Facility in Olomouc, Czech Republic.
Koch Media is an Embracer Group company.