Azur Lane Crosswave

I'm giving this game a recommendation on the basis of enjoying it as a player of the Azur Lane mobile game. While being a well contained and lighthearted story that can be enjoyed by newcomers, there are quite a few references to events and themes of the mobile game, and already having an investment in the characters made the dialogue-to-gameplay ratio (which I should emphasize is split about 75/25 in story mode, on par with visual novels that include gameplay elements) a non-issue. One of the things I enjoyed most about the game were the interactions between ships who would ordinarily not have occasion to do so, made more entertaining by the fact that not only included were many veteran fans' long time favorites, but also a few that have frankly never received much attention or development at all. So for someone who isn't an existing Azur Lane fan, or is the kind of player liable to skip dialogue anyways, I believe there is going to be a lot less to immediately grab your attention, though the battles can be a lot of fun, especially if you play a speedy destroyer on high difficulty, and I can definitely point to the music as something everyone will enjoy whether they like the game or not. One of the biggest problems this game has is the grind if you're going for completion, something of a staple to both Idea Factory's library and Azur Lane itself. If you are the one-and-done kind of player who just wants to experience the story, it's not going to be a big deal. However, collecting all of the achievements requires a tremendous amount of grinding after you've cleared the game, or otherwise knowing what parameters you need to reach from the very beginning and optimizing your grinding as you go (which actually breaks up the aforementioned dialogue-to-gameplay ratio issue, but browsing achievements and optimizing play around them isn't something a player normally does on the first playthrough). Battles themselves are really fun in small bursts, but lose their appeal when they're all you've got left and still need to do around 600+ of them because you didn't swap your ships and secretary often enough to raise their affection as you went along the story. As a quick aside regarding the five character DLCs, I believe they are all worth playing and add a lot of value for a story and character focused player, and the ships they chose to showcase for these DLCs were really solid picks. Each comes with their eponymous playable ship, along with a few supports, and a new story chapter. Continuity and difficulty suggest that these are postgame content, and none are required for achievements, so feel free to wait on these unless you want a specific ship as you play through the game, or want more story when you're done. Bottom line, I'd say the game has its merits, but unfortunately isn't worth full price. Even if you enjoy it, it's not so good as to be a game you'll likely think back on and be compelled to play again. If you're an Azur Lane fan, I'd definitely say pick it up on sale along with the character DLCs. If you're not, it's a riskier purchase, and I'd be remiss if it was your first exposure to the franchise and you ended up not liking it, but it still might be worth a try.