This anime game is dominating Steam charts despite players absolutely trashing it

It's hard to imagine 90,000 people playing a video game while most of them also trash-talk it. That's what's happening to Blue Protocol: Star Resonance on Steam, which became the ninth game with the most online players on the platform this Thursday, in the afternoon of its release, while having 34% positive reviews.

Curiosity and no cost are probably the two reasons that drove players to try out Blue Protocol. This action MMORPG has a 3D anime art style that resembles many other games of the same genre, like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. And just like these two, Blue Protocol is a gacha game, but that's not what's driving all the negative comments.

According to player reviews, Blue Protocol locks player progression behind time gates, has bad frame rate drops, and feels overwhelming with dozens of different currencies used for multiple events. Cutscenes are bugged with some characters having no animation or voiceover. The autobattle and auto-walk systems essentially play the game for you, which sparked comments of the title being "shallow" and having "zero depth."

Comments get harsher, though. In the r/MMORPG subreddit, some users say the game is an "asset flip," which means the developers made a new game by just reusing existing assets. "The new characters' art style clash with the original one, you can see it on the NPCs and Player characters," one player wrote. "Cutscenes are really weird, animations are bad, expressions are bad," another added.

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Predatory microtransactions are near the top of players' complaints, too. Despite the game being out for less than 24 hours in the West, it's been out since July 17 in China, where this issue is reportedly visible in the late game. "It's undeniable that it's pay-to-win," one player wrote. "It is the epitome of soon-to-be-shuttered cash grab slop, and it will be dead within a year," a disgruntled fan concluded.

Adding insult to injury, performance issues are plaguing people in Europe and regions far from North America. "I’m on EU and I’ve had a lot of trouble dodging basic attacks," a struggling user explained. "No EU server so I am out," a second European giving up on the game commented.

The few defenders highlight the character creation system, which appeals to fans of role-playing customization, but it doesn't seem enough to make their voices heard on Steam and Reddit's endless streams of bad reviews.

If you're looking for the next great action MMO, Blue Protocol: Star Resonance might not be it. And if all the negativity holds, the player peak the game is seeing on Steam shouldn't last too long.

The post This anime game is dominating Steam charts despite players absolutely trashing it appeared first on Destructoid.

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