Azur Lane: Crosswave

In the end, that's the real draw of Azur Lane: Crosswave, rather than its gameplay, which is more of a formality. As such, your reaction to it will likely depend on your on how receptive you are to Azur Lane itself. Existing fans and open-minded lovers of cute anime girls gabbing will find much to dive deep into, but everyone else is probably better off taking some shore leave.

Azur Lane: Crosswave is a game that was best left on smartphones. The visual novel sequences are perfectly fine, and the story itself – while utterly bonkers – is interesting enough to keep you engaged, while the characters are both charming and unique. Sadly, the naval combat sequences bring down the entire experience. They're slow, repetitive, rarely require much strategic thought, and look incredibly bland all at once. This is a game for hardcore fans of the genre only; everyone else ought to look elsewhere for their naval combat needs.

Regardless, the gameplay is just too dull and boring for me to keep my interest, and when the other half of the game (the story sequences) are so agonizing that I found myself skipping through some and literally missing nothing when going back to check if I missed anyway, that’s not a good sign of a fun game at all, regardless of platform.

At first glance, Azur Lane: Crosswave may look like a fan service-filled experience, and while there is a bit of truth to that in both character design and some conversations in the story, it is also a title filled with intrigue, rivalry, and cooperation. The depth of the story and character growth coupled with the easy to pick up, hard-to-master gameplay make it perfect for the portability of the Nintendo Switch. Post-game content is just as important as the main story, whereafter dozens of hours can be put into creating a dream team whose power is unstoppable against the Sirens.

Azur Lane: Crosswave is adamant about staying close to the mobile experience and pleasing this dedicated niche. It is not a blockbuster game and it doesn’t even intend to be, but it proposes dozens of light and fun hours. It is recommended for ecchi, harem or all-are-girls fans.

On the other hand, Crosswave already features Neptune from the Neptunia franchise--and I have to assume that the other Goddesses will move in eventually. That's probably not enough to keep me coming back, though. If you like anime-based visual novels, you might get something out of Azur Lane: Crosswave. For me, though? I like a little more "game" in my video games.

Azur Lane: Crosswave is essentially a visual novel with some brief moments of action. Everything works as intended, and there's no need for a combat strategy, but the equipment and upgrades systems are cryptic. The visuals look good, and the chibi characters are adorable. The game can be a decent way to pass a weekend. However, Crosswave and all games under the Azur Lane banner espouse views on females — especially young girls — that I cannot look past, and it's troubling to me that this title is deemed appropriate for teenagers.

Fans of the mobile title will enjoy this, if you have a dislike of anime style games with fully voiced Japanese dialogue, you won't get any enjoyment out of this.

It’s not a game you will want to burn through in a single session, which while it sounds tempting, isn’t near as tempting as it might seem, isn’t beneficial and only will lead to some mildly induced irritation the further in you get.

Azure Lane Crosswave is a poor 3D shooter, with a lot of grind to unlock everything, and poor visual novel sections. Despite the game is quite sexy, some caracters look too young to appear in it. A shame.