Blue Archive

Blue Archive (ブルーアーカイブ; 블루 아카이브; 蔚蓝档案) is a role-playing game developed by Nexon Games (formerly NAT Games), a subsidiary of Nexon. It was released in 2021 for Android and iOS, first in Japan by Yostar and worldwide later that year by Nexon. The game is free-to-play with gacha game mechanics as a means to obtain new characters. An anime television series adaptation titled Blue Archive The Animation aired from April to June 2024.

The player and protagonist is a Sensei who was summoned from outside the academic city-state of Kivotos by the president of the General Student Council, an extrajudicial committee governing the schools. Following her sudden disappearance, criminal activity rises around Kivotos and the player is tasked by the remaining members of the council to resolve issues that crop up and help search for the president.

Gameplay
Blue Archive is a tactical role-playing game that allows the player to form and mobilize units of up to six members (two "Specials" and four "Strikers") to participate in various military campaigns with. Students' strengths can be enhanced in various ways, such as by increasing their levels, weapons, armor and skills. More students can be recruited through the gacha system using in-game currency, which may be purchased through in-app purchases.

The units are mobilized on a turn-based hex map and battle initiates when they interact with an enemy or vice versa. In combat, Strikers march along a straight path and occasionally encounter groups of enemies. They also fire automatic attacks and can hide behind objects to decrease their chances of getting hit. Specials do not engage in direct combat but increase the Strikers' stats and support them from the backlines instead. The player has generally no control over battles with the exception of using students' skills that cost a regenerable currency to use. Students and enemies both have rock-paper-scissors-based attacks and defenses, which determine their strengths and weaknesses. Students get rescued by a helicopter and cannot participate in later battles if they lose all of their health.

Setting
Set on a planet similar to Earth, Blue Archive takes place in the academic city-state of Kivotos, which was established by the union of thousands of academies. The citizens of Kivotos are composed of three races: Humanoids, which include subraces ranging from the common human to resembling angels, demons, elves and kemonomimi retaining lesser features of various animal races such as ears and tails, intelligent werebeasts citizens of various races, and robots with human levels of intelligence and individuality. Due to possessing Halos, humans can resist and survive serious injuries like gunshots and explosions, and only human would be killed through destroying a Halo. Thanks to the near-indestructible nature of the citizens of Kivotos, everyone has the right to carry firearms as if they are decorative cellphones.

The city is ruled by the General Student Council (GSC), a federal committee led by a President, who governs the city from the Sanctum Tower with access to every student's register. Despite the GSC having the main authority within Kivotos, many of the schools operate and lead their districts with virtually autonomous independence with almost every school district having a rich, long lasting history to them, with the three most powerful schools being Millennium Science School, Trinity General School, and Gehenna Academy.

Before the events of the game, the GSC President summons the player character, a teacher referred to as Sensei, to be the advisor of SCHALE, an extrajudicial organization established by the president herself. She then proceeds to disappear, which is followed by a rise in criminal activity and military presence in the city. As Sensei helps the students, clubs, and academies of Kivotos with their various problems, the Sensei must also deal with rival schools, criminal warfare, corrupt corporations, rogue AIs, paranormal creatures, mysterious groups, and cults that threaten Kivotos.

Volumes
The main story is divided into several Volumes, which focus on a specific group in their respective school, in which each volume is also divided into chapters. There are five story volumes, the first four of which lead up to the story's first climactic volume titled "Volume F" that ties those initial volumes together as the first overarching story arc closes and allows future volumes afterwards to exist and evolve, narratively.

Contrary to most gacha games on the market, the vast majority of Blue Archive's main story is presented as a visual novel first, using over-leveled characters and automated gameplay to contextualize the narrative as opposed to locking off story behind constant level barriers as seen in other gacha games, while also using events to add extra context to the story, with many released after Volume F also adopting the visual novel format if not an alternative form of interactive fiction.

Development and production
The game was first introduced by Nexon Games (formerly NAT Games) and Yostar by its initial name, Project MX. The announcement, alongside the first promotion video and arts was released in February 2020. Yostar announced the mobile game and held closed beta tests for the Android version in July 2020, where it is now known by its current name as Blue Archive. Initially scheduled to be released in 2020, it was later moved to February 4, 2021.

A worldwide version of the game was announced in August 2021, surpassing one million pre-registrations ahead of its release. The version, which includes English as well as Korean, Traditional Chinese and Thai language support was released on November 8 of the same year by Nexon.

On November 11, 2022, Nexon updated the ratings of the worldwide version of the game to "Mature" from the original "Teen" rating, while released a separate "Teen"-rated version of the game, particularly due to its rating issues in Korea. The "Teen" rating version has some content changes compared to the original release.

A Simplified Chinese version of the game for China release has been revealed in works in March 2023, as the Chinese authority released a statement regarding passing of the games to be played in the country. The game website later went live alongside the first preview on March 31, 2023, with pre-registrations are open on the same day. A closed beta test is done between June and July 2023, and on August 3, 2023, the game finally went live in China as an open beta. The Chinese version is published by Yostar and includes Chinese voice dub for the characters, including the main stories.

In October 2023, Nexon announced that the Global version would be available in the Galaxy Store for Samsung phones. This version was released on October 31.

According to an interview in Taiwan in December 2023, PD Kim Yong Ha explains that they have planned ahead for two years and is expecting a 15-years minimum of development with their approach. He also said that for the time being, they are focusing on remediating crash issues that commonly happened in the game, with reason being their 3D model has becoming more complex as the time goes. He also said that there is no plan for any PC version of the game for now.

The lineup change of the development team happened in 2024 which saw Byeong-lim Park, once the co-director for the Japanese version of the game left the team to handle a new project alongside two other founding members, Cha Min-seo and Im Jong-gyu. Positions such as main scenario writer and art director changed hands from Isakusan and Hwangsang to Oh Hyun-seok and 9ml respectively. Kim Yong Ha returns to head director position of the game after being in a "supervising role" for a while. While he admits that the sudden announcement of staff changes may concern the players, Yong Ha in an interview assured that the changes will not affect the game in any drastic way.

The Korean version of the game has announced Korean voice dubs will be added starting on July 23rd, 2024.

Original net animations
Two short original net animations have been released individually as promotional material of the game. Both titles were produced by Yostar Pictures, and released in their official YouTube channels.

The 1.5th Anniversary Short Animation was released on July 16, 2022, as a special 9-minute animation for its summer events and half-anniversary event, featuring Abydos High, Allied Hyakkiyako, Trinity General, and Gehenna Academy students on their quest of preparing for their summer activities.

Beautiful Day Dreamer is another short animation title, featuring the Game Development Department (GDD) from Millenium Science School. The title was released on November 22, 2022, with a duration of around 9 minutes.

The 2.5th Anniversary Short Animation was initially scheduled to be released on July 23, 2023, but was confirmed on a December 24 livestream session that it was ultimately cancelled due to quality issues.

Blue Archive the Animation
An anime television series adaptation titled Blue Archive The Animation was announced on January 22, 2023. The series is produced by Yostar Pictures and CANDYBOX and directed by Daigo Yamagishi, with Hiroshi Ōnogi and Yamagishi overseeing series scripts, Shunji Maki serving as assistant director, and Hiromitsu Hagiwara designing the characters and serving as chief animation director.

The anime adapts the two, pre-volume F chapters of the "Countermeasures Committee/Foreclosure Task Force" arc, with the cast reprising their roles from the game. It premiered on April 7, with its final episode aired on June 23. on TV Tokyo as part of their new unnamed Sunday midnight anime block and other networks. Medialink has licensed the series in Asia-Pacific (except Australia and New Zealand) and is streaming it on Ani-One Asia YouTube channel. The anime is also released in North America through its official English channel on YouTube. All Blu-rays were sold with English, Korean, Chinese and Japanese subtitles imbedded on their discs.

Print media
The game has released several official print media such as anthology comics, spinoff manga series and official artwork books.

Blue Archive Official Artworks
A series of artwork compilation book of the game titled Blue Archive Official Artworks is published by Ichijinsha under its DNA Media Comics label with its first volume releases on October 5, 2022. The first volume contains various designs concepts and profile of the characters and other related art materials throughout the first year events of the game, as well as guest artworks and staff interviews. The second volume which covers materials from the second year of the game was released on December 19, 2023.

The book is also published in Traditional Chinese and Korean by Nexon.

Anthology comics
An anthology comic series named Blue Archive Anthology Comic, consisting of various short story comic from various artists, has been announced in production on July 24, 2021, and the first volume of the comic is released on July 26, 2021, by Ichijinsha. The manga has been released up to Volume 3 on July 25, 2023.

Another anthology comic series named Blue Archive Dengeki Anthology Comic is released by Kadokawa Corporation under Dengeki Comics EX label on February 3, 2023.

Problem Solver 68 Business Diary
A spinoff manga titled Blue Archive: Problem Solver 68 Business Diary (ブルーアーカイブ 便利屋68業務日誌), focusing on the characters from the group Problem Solver 68. The manga is released monthly by Bushiroad in their website Comic Bushiroad Web starting on October 14, 2022, with Kaede Nogiwa as the artist. The first volume of the manga has been released on June 8, 2023.

The Great Adventure of Game Development Department!
Another spinoff manga titled Blue Archive: The Great Adventure of Game Development Department! (ブルーアーカイブ ゲーム開発部だいぼうけん！) has been announced in production during the live stream on October 20, 2023, focusing on the characters from the group Game Development Department. Asato Mizu illustrated the manga and began serialization on Square Enix's Gangan Online manga website on December 31, 2023. The first volume of the manga has been published by Gangan Comics on June 12, 2024.

Theme songs
A few songs have been used throughout the game versions. "Clear Morning", by Yui Ogura is used as the main theme song for the Japanese version of the game, with the single is released on March 31, 2021. "Target for love" by Lee Jin-ah is selected as the worldwide version theme song of the game, with separate versions of Korean and English is used for Korea version and rest of the regions respectively. For Chinese version, "Blue Canvas" by ClariS is used as a regional theme song.

Other themes used in the game are "Kagayaki Summer Days" and "Our Quest", which are used in their short animation titles and sung by various voice actors of the game, "Memories of Kindness", the theme for Volume F ending sung by Kano in Japanese and Younha for its Korean and English versions. Younha also sings "Thanks to", which is a special theme song for its 1.5 anniversary event in South Korea in English and Korean.

Original soundtracks
The original soundtracks of the game are composed mostly by Mitsukiyo, Karut and Nor. Other composers do periodically contribute to its tracks such as Aiobahn for the collaboration event with A Certain Scientific Railgun series.

The official soundtracks in sets of albums titled Blue Archive Original Soundtrack, with first volume released on March 24, 2022. The latest volume, Vol. 5, was released on January 21, 2024.

Popularity
While originally criticized due to lack of content and various in-game bugs that hampered the initial experience, the game has marked spikes in popularity later on with their improvements, with it now enjoying a huge successful fanbase especially in the Asia–Pacific region (such as Southeast Asia, Japan and South Korea).

The game has been a recent big hit at Comiket, with the data for its C102 event in Summer 2023 showing the game had the highest number of circles participating in the general net social games section, with 894 circles selling doujinshi products for the game alone. This is a spike of increase from 446 circles for their Winter 2022 event (C101). Due to its reception, the game moves from the general net social games section to their own section in the Winter 2023 Comiket (C103) onwards, with genre code 336. The numbers twinfolds to 1718 circles in C103 and expands to 1922 circles in C104. It was reported that some prominent staff like chief developer PD Kim Yong Ha and sound composer Mitsukiyo also visited the booths in the events and met the artists as a form of support. Based on a December 16, 2023 survey conducted by Nikkei Entertainment, the fanbase of Blue Archive within Japan has an average age of 24 years, and a male-to-female ratio that skews 80:20.

The game also has attracted some well-known manga artists and animators to become a fan and also produces fan arts for the game. One of the most notable is Aki Hamaji, the author of Bocchi the Rock!, who participates in the C101 event with her own circle producing Blue Archive doujinshi. As her own work recently became much more popular, with the anime adaptation finished airing a week before the event, her activity attracted a lot of fans to line up at her booth. This prompted the organiser to move her booth outside the hall to avoid congestion and her booth quickly sold out just noon of the first day of the event. She continued her involvement in the next Comiket with Blue Archive doujinshi and has also contributed to some official promotional art of the game.

Award(s)
Blue Archive has won an award from market research firm Sensor Tower for best storytelling, beating out other contemporary competitions such as Fate/Grand Order, Goddess of Victory: Nikke, and Honkai: Star Rail.

Revenue
Their total revenue until October 2023 has reached over $400 million for all their versions. The Japanese version of the game contributed 75% of it. In August 2023, the game recorded $19 million for the Japanese version, and $4 million for their global version, the total revenue was $24 million.

According to Nexon, Blue Archive has been considered one of their most-grossing games in their quarterly financial report, with remarkably being one of the dominant contributors of revenue in Japan in their Q2 Financial Report 2023.

Controversies
The global version received censorship in some of their scenes in comparison of their Japanese version. In response to this, chief developer PD Kim Yong Ha stated that they needed to abide by "external requests" to be able to market their game in other regions, apologizing to the players for not keeping his promises. Censorship efforts at the time have since been reversed with the introduction of two separately rated versions in their Global version.

In October 2022, the South Korea rating board, Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC), increased the age rating of Blue Archive from 15+ to 18+. GRAC was later audited by Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and was found to be guilty in June 2023 for embezzlement worth of KR₩700 million (US$500,000) in taxpayer money. A few presses claimed this is an indirect result of Blue Archive players lauching a petition calling for the rating board's investigation prior, which allegedly instigated Lee Sang-Heon of the Democratic Party of Korea to demand Korean National Audit to inspect the board independently.