I mentioned earlier that Azur Lane: Crosswave was like other licensed anime games, but perhaps the game it’s most like along that diverse spectrum is an entry from the Neptunia franchise. It’s a pleasant game to look at, provided you can overlook the fact that Azur Lane‘s character design sensibilities have always trended towards “unsettlingly horny.” That said, many of the fan favorites, like Eagle Union’s Enterprise, the Royal Navy’s Hood, and more do appear in the game.īetter still, all the Kansen included have full voice acting, and the outfits they practically spill out of are rendered in high resolution. Further, the narrative focus on Sakura Empire characters, led by Suruga and Shimakaze, results in a somewhat unbalanced roster in their favor, with the German-based Kansen of the Iron Blood getting a paltry three playable characters at launch (Prinz Eugen, Z23, and Bismarck). Of course, given that Azur Lane‘s roster of Kansen is more than four hundred strong at this point, a good many girls aren’t included. It’s a fairly thin excuse to get a ton of characters together and interact, and it does the work: Azur Lane: Crosswave features 29 playable Kansen from all four factions, with 35 more selectable as “support” units in battle, with more still planned via downloadable add-on. Enemies range from normal-sized ships to flying fighter planes to other Kansen themselves, and they lay down patterns of fire that need to be avoided. Players select battle encounters from an overworld map, then control a party of three “Kansen” – the in-game term for the ship girl characters – on a 3D field, firing their weapons in all directions at enemies coming from every which way. Players maneuver their characters through patterns of enemy fire and destroy hordes of enemy sprites.Ĭrosswave opts to ditch the turn-based strategy aspects for something more akin to a visual novel that has a battle system. Actual combat encounters are done via 2D shoot-’em-up-style scrolling-screen encounters. In the core mobile game, Azur Lane, battles are conducted via a turn-based strategic grid.

Azur Lane: Crosswave belongs to a fine game industry tradition: Taking a popular IP and adapting it into a 3D action game of some sort, not unlike what was done for Hyrule Warriorsor Girls und Panzer: Dream Tank Match.

Free download azur lane gameplay