Blue Protocol, Online Action RPG for PC from Bandai Namco

Wow this is pretty unexpected. Bandai Namco making a PC game when nearly everything they make is mobile or console with PC ports. Not sure if it is an MMO or simply an Online game as a lot of sites call it either an MMORPG or Online RPG (yes there is a difference). From looks of early reports its said to be PC only. Seems like Japan is becoming more PC centric.

The game runs on Unreal Engine 4 and aims for anime aesthetics similar to that of animated movies. It's based off a new IP created by the Project Blue Sky Team.

The game is going to have a closed alpha phase test with character creation and 4 classes starting July 26 for Japanese gamers. The game's website also has system requirements listed.

The game looks nice visually but what they're asking for to run it seems a bit too much. Then again Japanese devs were never really that good at optimizing to begin with. Makes sense why they skipped current gen consoles with this game.

The recommended requirements for medium graphics is

OS: Windows 7/8.1/10

CPU: Intel Core i5 750

RAM: 8GB RAM

Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 960 (4GB) or AMD Radeon R9 380 (4GB)

Storage: HDD 20GB

Resolution: 1280x720

API: DirectX 11

The Recommended requirements for highest graphics preset

OS: Windows 7/8.1/10

CPU: Intel Core i7-7700

RAM: 16GB RAM

Graphics Card: Nvidia Geforce GTX 1060 (6GB) or AMD Radeon RX 580 (8GB)

Storage: 20GB SSD

Resolution: 1920x1080

API: DirectX 11

You can see trailer for game here

screenshots are below

Graphics

Take control, if a spectacle.

Character creation systems that enables you to make the character you desire, and “control” graphics akin to an animated film. Pursuing a spectacle that moves your heart more than any realistic artstyle.

Multiplayer Action

Fight unique, band together.

Fend off hoards of monsters alongside others with coordinated strikes. The multiple classes and weapons accelerates the thrill of forming a united front with friends.

Story

Regnus, a planet once ruled by a divine tribe, thrived using a mystical light. Many millennia later, what remains are their ruins, treasures, and a dark secret. Start your journey in this forsaken paradise, uncover its truth, and become part of its history.

—This planet used to be a paradise inhabited by gods.

Regnus, a planet full of a mystical light called the “Engram,” was prosperously ruled by ones called the “Bapharian Divines.” The Bapharian civilization they established covered the planet and even enabled them to harness the power of time.

Many centuries and millennia later, the divines have left for the heavens and an era of human rule arrived. In search of the remaining light, people stepped foot into the ruins of the Bapharia. Lost technologies. Shining treasures. Monsters attacking. Towering ancient structures.

—And a power to destroy all civilization, the “Planetary Beast.”

Fighting for the fate of the planet, a new page in Regnus’ history is about to be written.

Looks like it's trying to be SAO with online gaming in my opinion. I'll keep an eye on this one. (Also, I'm not a fan of SAO)

Looks actually decent. Probably anime Monster Hunter. But if this is a F2P MMO, pass.

Nice and clean graphics. Hopefully this is better than the other million games that look pretty much the same and suck.

Cool graphics. But MMO means time/money-sink, right?

Not surprising because consoles are dying.

I hope it is something similar to Monster Hunter and/or Phantasy Star Online as the gameplay seems to show it. It could also be similar to the upcoming Genshin Impact which is an online game but a player can play the entire game alone with no other players in the world as they can create their own sessions and chose to make them public or private. So it could be an Online open world game but with a very small player count. To be honest I probably wouldn't be bothered by it being an MMO though.

SAO had potential but was destroyed by it being another generic harem power fantasy. The first couple of episodes were actually very entertaining though in my opinion. I don't really see the SAO influence but then again SAO uses a pretty standard Japanese fantasy setting. I've seen some people compare it to Xenoblade Chronicles and even Attack On Titan.

Yeah they definitely nailed the anime art style in the graphics. It stands out from all the other cel shaded games that are mostly basic in their level of implementation. The only devs that nailed cel shading actually looking like 2D animations are Arc System Works. Blue Protocol looks to come close as the characters in the game look very 2D too which is impressive because it's a fully 3D game and Arc System Works stated they were able to nail the look due to their fighting games being on a 2.5D plane thus they can control the angles people see things at and manipulate lighting to give it that 2D look.

With the way the game industry is now being a time/money-sink is no longer exclusive to MMOs. Considering this is a Japanese game I don't think the monetization methods assuming it goes F2P will be that bad. Even Chinese and Korean gamers are starting to get fed up with aggressive monetization methods. One of the main things that destroyed the MMO market was them being time/money sinks, everyone and their mother tried to get in on it thinking their game will print money regardless of quality. They did not realize that with MMOs people tend to stick with one or two at most since after all time and money investment this resulted in many MMOs being failure and shut down. Which is why there aren't nearly as many MMOs now as there was in the past. However the MMO crash did lead to some sort of quality filter as nowadays instead of just getting dozens of mediocre MMOs we get a smaller but higher quality amount actually trying to rival AAA non MMO games. Most of the mediocre MMOs just go mobile nowadays. With how few and far in-between there is with true MMOs you can't just crap an online game out with pay to win monetization methods and expect to last long especially if you invest a lot of money into a game of this caliber. Lost Ark for example is pretty huge MMO in South Korea right now and its monetization methods are actually very fair as almost everything in the game can be obtained by free in a timely manner. It's similar to Warframe where you don't pay to get things but have the option to pay to get it sooner.

@NoodleFighter: It's not that I hate MMOs, just that, my time for it wouldn't be enough

@pc_rocks: Yawn...you need a new gimmick.

@vfighter:

Yup, we definitely needs a new gimmick for casuals after consoles die. On a second thought, nope, streaming is already here.

lol if this was Chinese game people would have called rip off.

Why is that bad?

World of Warcraft: Classic is about the ONLY upcoming MMO being hyped, because Modern WoW took away all the MEANINGFUL time sinks ... every game you play now is instant gratification, nothing is worth investing in and aspects forcing you to communicate with other HUMANs is DOWNPLAYED in ALL modern MMO's including Modern World of Warcraft.

Intanst Gratification fools literally killed the genre off. All you have left now is instant-gratification WoW, FFXIV and ESO ... all of which mayaswell be single player games.

I'll be a lot more interested in the game if it's NOT an MMO, but i think i'm gonna throw money at it regardless since it's from the same studio behind Tales, Ace Combat and God Eater.

I still have my fingers crossed for a 2V2 Gundam game on PC, by the way.

lol quiet a few console gamers are mad that this game isn't on consoles and find it weird that Japanese company of all is doing this. They seem to be unaware of the changing demographics in Japan as the console market has greatly decreased from what it use to be and a PC gaming demographic is slowly starting to build up.

Yeah I get that but even non MMOs can still demand a lot of time. Monster Hunter World for example does that. But if I have fun doing it like in MHW then I am not really bothered with it. Warframe is a pretty big time sink I'm struggling to break away from since I love it so much.

I agree in fact there are very few true MMOs coming out nowadays as well.

I am unsure about this. Having payed attention to the Japanese PC scene for the past 6 years, it seems to me that Japan still has a strong dislike to PC gaming. The only reason why we are seeing so much Japanese games on PC is because Steam is too big for them to ignore. However, the relevant developers only support the PC platform begrudgingly, maintaining an expectation that fans of all their franchises to like their most immediate release just because they chose to game on PC, because it really only takes one failed game to tell a developer to drop their PC support (and in the case of Nihon Falcom, it doesn't matter how deep their history with PC gaming runs)

A lot has changed in just the last 2 years in Japan with PC gaming. PUBG and the Esports scene has gotten a lot of Japanese people willing to try out PC gaming. PC gaming makes actual appearances in the Tokyo Game Show when before it was just consoles and mobile. A Japanese PC store ran by Unitcom last year stated that they were having 180% YoY growth in the sales of gaming PCs in comparison to previous year and a lot of people were buying gaming PCs to play PUBG. More and more Japanese indie games that aren't doujins or visual novels are appearing on Steam. I doubt Japanese companies are begrudgingly supporting PC at this point considering they're being impressed with how well the games are selling on the platform and are trying to port as many games as they can to it. PS4 at this point barely has any 3rd party Japanese exclusives because they're all being put on PC. In fact they're likely to like PC even more as PlayStation's censorship policy with no objective rules or standards is giving Japanese devs the finger because Sony are now pandering to over sensitive Westerners even if some of these Japanese games are Japan only.

There is also Japan's interaction with China and South Korea both of which are not only mobile centric but PC centric countries. PC is the only platform that can effectively coexist with mobile unlike consoles. Consoles in general are losing Asia to mobile but PC gaming is able to remain strong there and grow. A lot of Chinese and Korean mobile games are hits in Japan and vice versa. A lot of people in Asia already emulate mobile games on their PC but with mobile games now getting actual PC ports or being codeveloped with PC in mind it makes it more attractive for Japanese people to try out PC. Japan already has an MMO/online PC game market and Korean online games are starting to cater to them more by making anime/manga adaptions and hiring prominent Japanese voice actors.

First day buy when I get the ps5

https://twitter.com/InkyoGPG/status/1113569903909322752

Japanese PC exclusives from left and right.

https://twitter.com/UMA_Hero_16/status/1123188731597352960

@vaeh: Oh cool nice finds I only knew about Assault Spy in that list

@NoodleFighter: Kojima retweeted superhero game Undefeated. If it was PS4 exclusive cows would have spammed the forums like hell.