Blue Archive

A Story-Driven anime adventure

Ratings

Age

16+

Roleplaying

Languages

English

Latest Version 1.87.417475

Mon Apr 06 2026

1. Takane & Yakumo Pick-Up (4/7 – 4/20)

2. "Winter Sky's Renaissance: Thesis on Cultural Exchange" Event Story Begins (4/7 – 4/20)

3. Total Assault: Kurokage (Urban Warfare) Begins (4/7 – 4/13)

4. Final Restriction Release: Chokmah (Heavy Armor) Begins (4/8 – 4/27)

Blue Archive is a tactical RPG where you take on the role of a Sensei in the academy city of Kivotos. Manage a squad of students, each with their own unique firearms and special abilities, in real-time 3D tactical battles. Beyond the combat, engage with students through the MomoTalk system to unlock personal stories and beautiful Live2D memories. With a bright, youthful art style and a catchy soundtrack, it’s a journey about miracles, friendship, and the everyday life of a hero.

Dinsun Expert Review

Our Expert Score

90/100

Blue Archive is a masterclass in 'vibes.' It manages to take the tactical RPG genre and infuse it with a bright, 'urban fantasy' aesthetic that is both cozy and compelling. You play as a Sensei guiding students through various tactical combat scenarios, but the real heart of the game lies in the relationship building (MomoTalk) and the incredibly high production values of its story segments.

The combat is auto-attacking but requires precise timing for skill deployment. It feels like directing a tactical operation rather than individual characters. The game is famous for its incredible soundtrack and its 'L2D' (Live 2D) backgrounds which make the characters feel alive. It strikes a rare balance: it’s a game you can play casually while enjoying the charming story, but the late-game 'Total Assault' raids provide a genuine challenge for hardcore strategists.

Dinsun reviewed on: Fri Feb 27 2026

Features

Stunning Live2D character interactions

Dynamic 3D tactical combat

Deeply emotional and humorous story

Generous daily rewards and events

Tips & Walkthrough

Understanding Terrain and Types

Before a mission, check the 'Terrain' (Urban, Outdoor, Indoor). Students have specific ratings for each; a student with an 'S' rank in Urban terrain will deal significantly more damage and take less than a 'D' rank student.

Gameplays

Skill Rotation Strategy

Use your 'Striker' skills to interrupt enemy bosses during their wind-up animations. Timing a stun or knockback skill perfectly can cancel a boss's ultimate attack, which is essential for 3-starring harder stages.

Screenshot

Q&A

The main story features full Japanese voice acting for an immersive experience.

Ratings & Reviews

Great game but one major disappointment.

Sat Nov 27 2021 Games i would play

Picked this game up, hoping it would get a global launch and it did. I always loved the visuals and i still do, the team behind them are amazing with their work! Loving the game and the gameplay but one mode stands out as a disappointment to me. The PVP system was a major turn-off. The very least they could do was let the players control their units and their skills. Its so bland just watching your team die because you either dont have meta characters, or the auto mode purposely targets the wrong enemy units when using ex skills. The pvp system could’ve been so much more, but alas, not at all. Its just lacking in all aspects of what would make a good, fun and enjoyable gacha pvp. Some things i could come up with that could fix this area of the game is the ability for the player to control the skills like in normal gameplay. Another idea to make the pvp mode more “in-depth” is to add a mechanic where the player can move units around, like one unit can take cover if they’re not already, using the player’s command. Another add-on to that idea is to have a little larger map area to play on, this way the player can control different angles to strike from, instead of just one way to play. This way enemy units that have aoe attacks they cannot decimate the whole team with one ex skill at a single moment. Im sure if the devs were to be put into the shoes of an average player, they would see how bad the pvp mode is, as it isnt fun at all. If this continues at this rate, i couldnt see myself and possibly others playing the game for a long time, as the longevity of the game wouldnt last as i hope it would.

It’s very niche but, lovable

Wed Nov 17 2021 KIIDLAW

I really enjoy Blue Archive. I’m not really into people bashing games because of developers and I believe Nexon handled the global release very well. This is my first time playing anything like it. I love the Momotalk system and building relationships with your students. It makes the game feel a lot more personal and specialized for you specifically. Some three stars are farmable and I love that about this game. There’s always something to do and ways to form new team compositions. If you’re into anime-style graphics, gun-play, waifus, and visual novels you’ll enjoy this game highly. I really appreciate the little details the game adds like the Cafe and different ways to dig deep into the world, characters, and story. I’d recommend Blue Archive to ANYONE into anime, visual novels, and overall strategy based gachas! Also, re-rolling is INSANELY easy( which is a nice touch from Nexon <3) Although, going through the tutorial over and over can be a bit tedious, the process of being able to reset your data but keep your account linked just eases the pain just a bit. I’d say it’s worth it to get the characters you want and to make the most of your own experience. I’m looking forward to what Blue Archive Global has to offer later on down the line. I really want this to be a gacha I stick with. Thank you, if you made it to the end of this review. Honestly, I’d say give this game a shot. It’s a gacha and has its gripes like any other but, it’s no less of a great game!

I want to give this 5/5 stars but…

Tue May 23 2023 Sensei151

I love this game. Everything about it. The characters, gameplay, story, events everything is perfect. And the dev team behind this game really do care about the game and I thank them for that. I thank them for listening to the player base, most recently being a certain line about a princess being fixed, which made the fan base very happy. But the only thing that is stopping me from giving the game a 5 out of 5 is the issues with the English translation/localization that show up with new content added to the game. The most recent example is a character named Aris who describes her self as a “yuusha” a Japanese word for “hero”. But was translated to “warrior” in the global release, which is completely the wrong meaning for her character and actions she takes entirely. And is leaving a bad feeling amongst part of the player base. It has even reached the Japanese player base who are now confused that the JP server and the Global server are different versions of Aris, or that the regions have different meanings of the term “Yuusha” and has spread some confusion. I do hope they change the translation to “Hero” for the Aris we all know and love I do love this game and want it to be the best it can be and I know it can be. Thank you for your time reading this. If the dev team have fixed issues mentioned in this post, please see this review as 5 out of 5 stars. And Sensei’s, please enjoy Blue archive!

Cash grab that plays decent

Mon Nov 29 2021 Trulop

Honestly not a bad game. Put alot of work into the story (whether people like it or not), but the rates are trash. Honestly feels like they are baiting you with first few pulls getting decent rewards, then your next 15 x10 rolls you get nothing. Get rates like ML Adventure to be successful, they actually care about their players not just their wallets =\ EDIT: tried to continue playing and i just cant do it. Saved up a ton of gems to try pulling again to have same thing happen. The rates are the worst ive seen in a gatcha game >.< nexon lives up to its reputation unfortunately. Dropped from 2 to 1 star since u cant progress in game when u get no players to use. Raising back to 2 star due to active response team. As for a suggestion, put in a better system that increases rate of higher character the more you fail to pull the highest tier characters, then resets back after you gain one. Since gatcha is all about random chance, some people may still get many bad rolls in a row, but when a 10x roll costs a decent amount of money (for those who pay for cash shop items/gems), pulling 150 to get no higher tier characters is a severe let down as well as feeling like you just burned all your money you have nothing to show for it. ALL IN ALL, a better safety system for better chances of not getting screwed would be huge. That is the 1 fix that would bring a player like myself back to game. Thank you for the reply!

Fantastic Game, Currently Unplayable

Wed Feb 08 2023 vooiiy

Let me begin by saying that Blue Archive is in my top 3 mobile games of all time and I thoroughly enjoy this game so this review comes from a place of love. Just like others in these reviews and on Reddit, since the January update, this game has become virtually unplayable. For specs., I have an iPhone 11 Pro Max and prior to this update, my game rarely crashed. I would say MAYBE once during an hour of playtime. After the January update, the game consistently crashes over short periods of time. Just yesterday, over the course of a 30 minute period, the game crashed 5 time. This is absolutely unacceptable. I have plenty of free space on my phone, I have zero apps running in the background and I have tried every single fix the developers and other players have posted in the reviews and on Reddit etc. At this point, I could not recommend this game to anyone until the crashing is fixed. Maybe it really is that my phone is incapable of running the game, but as a developer, I would be very concerned if a phone that was released 3 years ago was unable to consistently run my game for more than 10 minutes at a time. As I said previously, I love this game and I hate that I cannot give Blue Archive a 5 star review. Hopefully a fix is released soon. Thank you.

The game is fun but the gacha setup is outdated and exploitive

Tue Apr 30 2024 cinvgam

Some have made reviews talking about it being gacha and people shouldn’t complain about rates. They have completely missed the whole picture. The rates are pretty bad, which isn’t an issue on its own, but when you combine it with a terrible pity system and short cycle rotation it becomes completely a problem. When banners are often a week and the pity resets every banner, the rates become a major factor. You can in a sense do 100 pulls get nothing and it resets for the next banner. That is a system that has long become outdated with games utilizing a better pity system that doesn’t reset. The game also gives low premium currency rewards for regular play. Completing enough dailies gives 20 when you need 120 for a single pull is kind of a joke. They do though give much more for events, etc. For the game itself, it is fun and dailies can be quick and easy to complete. There is a nice set up for maxing characters Atleast once you get one. There are lots of characters in the game. The game also has some strategy to it while also being simple enough to not become overwhelming. All in all I’d say the game is enjoyable but the gacha/pity system setup is outdated and more predatory than others nowadays.

Pulling rate is a scam

Tue Mar 11 2025 SqueegeeSquad1

I started the game saving up all my currency for a pull to come around that I liked to literally not get 1 out of the 5 characters out of 100 pulls. I’ve been playing nikke alongside this and even summoners war in which I got all the event characters I wanted despite just starting. This game is nexon greed at its finest, which is a dealbreaker is not actually being able to participate for free and and even get a chance to get atleast one character I wanted. Oh also you have to get the same character like 100 times for the first upgrade instead of you know once or twice, Nexon said “nah”. I’m confused on where the reward is since 8000(after looking in to it 24,0000 is the safe bet to get a garuntee,which makes the “rate up” just a scam) gems is expensive when it comes to real money and I can’t help but feel bad unless the game has an ACTUAL pity system for those who spent money on this disappointing game. I want to love this game but literally getting nothing for my first pulls is literally “gacha 101” to get people hooked and I want to be hooked but then see that my time will not be rewarded with them taking the raid shadow legends route and decided to make so your chances of pulling someone good if your f2p as least likely as possible.

Okay game

Fri Jan 14 2022 Mooo66

Giving it three stars because the art is very gorgeous and a lot of it is animated, and a lot of voice acting. The little system where some characters actually say the name you put is also neat, first game I’ve played that had that. Character designs are also nice but as far as the story and characters personality goes… just another average gacha game pushing for you to like the latest tsundere girl and roll for her. I’ve rolled like only twice so I can’t say anything about the rates and why everyone is complaining about them, but what I can say is that the art is really the only thing this game has. I tried to give it a chance and I found myself forgetting I even have this downloaded. Really pretty art and amazing character designs, but a boring story and stale, typical personalities. I guess if you just wanna look at pretty characters then this is your game, because the story and gameplay is definitely not worth it. Maybe I’m just too picky, but genshin and arknights have far better stories. In fact, I’d recommend arknights over this to anyone any day (and if you’re like me and don’t like games that limit to one gender, arknights will definitely be a better fit. It’s this game but better and not afraid to have some men thrown in)