An anticipated massively multiplayer online RPG is set to launch in early October — more than a year after it was initially cancelled. Blue Protocol: Star Resonance, a reworked version of the now-defunct Blue Protocol, is coming to PC and mobile soon, while there’s no word yet on whether previously announced console versions will ever see the light of day.
Blue Protocol: Star Resonance is launching on October 9, with pre-registrations available now the iOS App Store and Google Play and opening soon on Steam, Epic Games Store. Subscribers to anime streaming service Crunchyroll will also receive a few in-game bonuses at launch, including a skin for their mount and other cosmetic items. After launch, many of the game’s cosmetic items will only be available through a gacha system, in a big change from the original Blue Protocol that could either help it stay afloat or turn players off entirely.
When Blue Protocol was announced, it quickly drew comparisons to Genshin Impact, which was also gaining popularity around the same time. Both share a similar anime-inspired art style and action combat, but where Genshin Impact is primarily a single-player game, Blue Protocol was a full MMORPG. Blue Protocol had a long development period with multiple closed beta tests, which gave the game plenty of time to build up anticipation among potential players. It finally released in Japan in 2023, with a Western release by Amazon Games promised for 2024. However, while the game did draw its fair share of devoted fans, it didn’t reach a large enough audience for developer Bandai Namco, which shut down the Japanese version in early 2025 and cancelled the Western launch entirely.
While that would seem like the end for the game, following Blue Protocol’s shutdown, Tencent acquired the rights to the game from Bandai Namco. Tencent has since formed a new studio to rebuild it from the ground up under its new Star Resonance moniker.
That means that while Blue Protocol: Star Resonance has a familiar name, it’s an entirely different game from the one that potential players spent years getting excited about, albeit one that clearly draws heavily from the original version. Early impressions from closed beta players have been mixed, with a good amount of praise for its graphics and the feel of its combat, mixed with criticism of its open world, quest design, and dungeons.
For anyone who still wants to check out the resurrected MMORPG, figuring out for yourself whether it’s for you is made easier by the fact that it’s free to play. However, that’s because unlike the original Blue Protocol, the relaunched Star Resonance is a gacha game. Previews say that the gacha system and other in-game monetization is largely limited to cosmetics and convenience items like crafting resources, but since staying competitive in a gacha game tends to demand more and more spending the longer the game goes on, that could all change after its launch.
On the plus side, Star Resonance is leaning harder into its MMO aspects, with multiplayer-only encounters and community events held in the game’s cities. It will even include player housing, a feature that even long-running MMORPG World of Warcraft only recently added. All in all, it seems to be aiming to merge the action combat of Genshin Impact with the social side of games like Final Fantasy XIV, but whether it can pull all of that off without burying it under an avalanche of in-game purchases is still up in the air.
So to all the people who spent years watching Blue Protocol’s development, Star Resonance is less of a revival of the game they were waiting for and more of a spiritual successor. It’s undoubtedly had an interesting path to launch, and whether all the waiting and changing hands was worth it will be clear soon, with its launch just weeks away.
