A few months ago Bandai Namco announced that they were hosting a closed beta testing for one of the games they’ve been working on called Blue Protocol. Blue Protocol is an MMORPG where players complete various quests and clear dungeons. Last weekend, the closed beta started and lots of gameplay has already been recorded and livestreamed. This week, I’ll be writing about what I think of Bandai Namco’s Blue Protocol.
When the closed beta was first announced I was interested because compared to other MMORPGs I’ve seen, the visuals seemed less tiring on the eyes which I’d had a problem with in other games. For example, in Black Desert Online, the UI had a lot of things going on and it was really difficult to figure out what all the different things on the screen were. Additionally, the overall environment was very detailed and although everything looked nice, it was hard to find things like monsters from far away.
While I didn’t make it into the closed beta, the storyline of the game seems really easy to follow at the start of the game from what I’ve seen on livestreams. At the beginning of the game, the main quest line is focused on a lot and the introductory NPCs have their own voice lines which makes them memorable. I think that helps players get more involved with the story instead of going off on their own doing random quests at the beginning of the game.
Like most MMORPGs, Blue Protocol has classes that you can choose in the game. I’m not sure if Bandai Namco plans on adding more, but at the moment there are only four playable classes in the game. However, it looks like you’ll be able to switch between classes later on. The four classes are a shield an sword user called the Aegis Fighter, an axe duel wielder called the Twin Striker, a bow user called the Blast Archer, and a wizard/witch type class called the Spell Caster. Personally, after seeing how all of the classes play, they all seem pretty familiar. The only thing that I find interesting between these classes is how the Blast Archer’s targeting mechanic works. When firing at an enemy, a Blast Archer user can either lock on to the enemy or use their own aim to attack their target. In my opinion, it seems like the lock on would be way more advantageous. I guess it would make sense that if you used your own aim you’d have better visibility since the centre of your screen wouldn’t be focused on one enemy. Other than that though, I don’t really see too many issues with the classes.
In addition to the different classes, each class has their own skill trees with plenty of different skill points. I’m not too sure if you’ll be able to unlock every single skill for each class though because if skill points have a limit then you’d have to choose which types of skills you wanted to level up. There are definitely quite a few different skills, so it will probably take some time before people come up with the most effective skill combos for each class.
Overall, Blue Protocol is looking like a really promising game and the people playing the closed beta seem to be enjoying it. I’ll continue watching more closed beta content for the time being. Whenever the game hosts its next closed beta I’ll definitely register again, but for the time being, waiting for the official release is most likely what’s going to happen.