Having wrapped up the exclusive content in Blue Reflection Quartet, I have to admit it’s tough to look at the package with complete objectivity. I say that with genuine sadness, too, considering how much I enjoyed 2021’s solid Blue Reflection: Second Light back when it launched on PC, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4.
But reality demands a clear-eyed view: the Blue Reflection project, which started with the original 2017 title to round out developer Gust’s “Beautiful Girls Festival” trilogy, remains a frustratingly fragmented franchise with wildly inconsistent quality. That remains true even now, with all four entries gathered under the Blue Reflection Quartet umbrella.
For context, Blue Reflection is a JRPG series built on a distinctly feminine identity. That focus shapes everything from its narrative tone to the graceful character designs of illustrator Mel Kishida. The cast’s gentle charm comes alive in settings designed around realistic interactions between young women, exploring their inner struggles, insecurities, and self-discovery through a majokko (magical girl) lens. Granted, despite those intentions, the series has always leaned into an idealized femininity straight out of shojo manga, complete with familiar tropes. Still, Blue Reflection always grounded itself in the genuine emotions of its cast, framed by quiet everyday moments between magical escapades.
Beyond turn-based combat and unspeakable tragedies to avert, the greatness of Blue Reflection has always been measured by how effectively it sketched the psychology of its heroines through means unconventional for video games, pulling off the difficult task of translating the language and codes of shojo and shojo-ai manga into its storytelling — always backed by memorable, finely drawn casts.
On paper, Blue Reflection Quartet is a compilation that houses two RPGs released between 2017 and 2021 (Blue Reflection and Blue Reflection: Second Light) on PC and consoles, presented here in remastered form. The package is enriched by two adaptations: a playable version of Blue Reflection Ray, the anime series that aired in Japan between April and September 2021, and a single-player RPG conversion of Blue Reflection Sun, a mobile title released only in Japan in 2023.
As an “all-in-one” operation akin to Square Enix’s past efforts to piece the Kingdom Hearts series back together through the various collections recently published on consoles and PC, Quartet had the task of presenting every piece of the Blue Reflection story at its best, remedying the fragmentation caused by its release across different media. And, logically, from a new edition of older titles, you would expect what’s on offer to honour the logic of a franchise “celebration.” After all, Gust has long been known for its Atelier series, whose entries often reappear in Deluxe or Plus editions that bundle paid DLC and assorted improvements, making them definitively superior to the original releases.
Somewhere along the line with Blue Reflection, though, things went off the rails. But let’s take it step by step, there are four games to work through here.
