Blue Protocol Preview – Find your role in this anime MMORPG

25.07.2023 - 13:43 / thesixthaxis.com / Bandai Namco

When consider the wide pantheon of fantasy settings and jargon, one of the last things you’d probably think of is something as administrative sounding as protocol, yet with its anime action RPG stylings and the potential within for MMORPG team ups, there’s plenty of reasons to be excited by Blue Protocol.

Blue Protocol’s opening moments deal in the distinctly abstract as you take control of the shimmering humanoid form of a white smoke creature confronted in a cavernous hall by wolf-like robotic foes before facing off against a human just prior to a mysterious voice from the heavens weakening you, causing you to explode in a cloud of light. Enigmatic isn’t the half of it, as the game kicks into a full-blown anime title cinematic that shows some of this game’s broader tone and cross-media aspirations.

Bandai Namco has taken an unusual approach with Blue Protocol; instead of publishing the free-to-play game in the West themselves, they’ve partnered with Amazon Games to see the game reach audiences outside of Japan. At the same time, this is Amazon spreading their wings with a new partnership that, while in the same overarching genre as previous MMORPG efforts like New World and Lost Ark, has a thoroughly different style to it.

Speaking about what drew Amazon into this partnership, Franchise Lead Mike Zadorojny said, ” lot of it is the excitement of the art style, the excitement of the combat… we basically fell in love with Blue Protocol the first time we played it. They have a rich world and are building a complicated tapestry in terms of the anime style, plus the story that they’re doing. Allowing us to build our own characters and be a part of that world was really exciting for us.”

With the very basics of combat under your belt before you create your custom character with a tool that’s just strikes the right balance for me of having enough options to be inviting to play with, but not so many that it’s totally overwhelming to create your avatar.

You also have that oh-so-important decision to make of which class to play as, except that this is where Blue Protocol takes a good few steps away from the usual MMORPG fare. There’s five character types to choose from: the frontline sword-bearing Blade Warden, the dual-wielding Twin Striker, ranged Keen Strider, magical Spell Weaver and the Foe Breaker with their awesome-looking cannon warhammer. Naturally I went for the Foe Breaker.

They’re all strongly contrasting character classes, but instead of being pigeonholed into a Tank, DPS or Support role by this initial choice, they’re more like picking a base weapon and then you can lean into a role as you party up and figure out what your team needs you to do.

“[The focus] is not necessarily the role that this class