We’re once again stuck staring wistfully at the Japanese version of Blue Protocol for update details since Bandai Namco and Amazon continue to be tight-lipped about the anime MMORPG’s fortunes here in the west. Last week saw the game get a chapter-sized update that brings new story quests, new levels to earn, and several new and updated gameplay features.
Chapter 5: Apostle of the Beast focuses on an upcoming Celestial Spirit Festival located at a new tropical region for players to explore known as Lawehara Cape, which sounds benign but appears to focus on the disappearance of an important festival mystic.
In addition to all of the festival-based mystery, the update has added 10 more levels for players to earn with new class skills to match, buffs to multiple magical attacks, tweaks to several status effects, and new class level bonuses that unlock after level 50. There’s also new rare named enemy spawns, a caravan system that lets players send out mounts to gather materials, an in-game training dummy that works like a DPS parser, and several UI updates.
To celebrate Chapter 5’s launch, BP has kicked off multiple events including login rewards, bonus quests, and freebies to new and returning players. The game has also engaged a not-insignificant number of shop sales, gacha events and “payment campaign” events, all of which arguably have a new hint of desperation considering the studio admitting the MMORPG has fallen short of sales expectations. So maybe it’s a case of no news is good news in terms of the western version.
