If I have to be honest, I knew next to nothing about Nights of Azure when I was assigned this preview. Even finding information about it was trickier than expected (well, information in English, anyway), although I did notice the description for the game's trailer mentions that "Nights of Azure marks a new, darker direction for GUST studios," Gust being the developers of the successful Atelier and Ar tonelico RPGs. After this, I decided to look up the recent news of the game's Limited Edition to learn more and see exactly what this "darker direction" seemed to consist of...

...Ah. So we're going with that kind of a "mature" direction.

Okay, I'm obviously not going to judge a game like this simply because of a few fanservice-y shots. But I couldn't help but notice one of the lines summarizing it on the Limited Edition's official site...

"This is a love story of two star-crossed women who lived, fought, and were ultimately lost to the annals of history."

Yeah, it's kind of hard to read that and not imagine a surprisingly progressive JRPG about two female friends falling in love with each other. And indeed, a lot of people imagined that as well when it came to the original Japanese version's pre-release hype that apparently played it up. And they had to keep imagining that, because no, it turns out there doesn't appear to be any actual same-sex relationships at the core of this game. I know it seems petty of me to focus on that, but when you advertise your game with images and quotes as seen above (and several of the game's other promo shots, similar descriptions, and taglines play up that angle as well), it comes across as feeling a tad exploitative. It's like the gaming equivalent of that horrible Little Big Town song.

Which is odd, because Nights of Azure looks perfectly fine on its own. The tale of "The Land Without Night," a place where people turn into monsters during the night after a slain demon's Blue Blood cursed everyone who touched it, sounds like it has to potential to be rich in unique story and gameplay elements. Main character Arnice, assisted by her priestess friend Lilysse, is one of the cursed inhabitants, but also happens to have the ability to transform into more powerful monster forms during battle. She also has the ability to form weapons out of her own blood, which is never not awesomely metal, and can contract and train various demon subordinates to assist her in combat, so there's room for a lot of strategy with a mechanic like that.

Visually, the game also looks quite impressive. The monster designs are quite eye-catching, ranging from mandrake-style plant monsters and clockwork soldiers to full-fledged demons, creating a nice and colorful contrast. The action-RPG combat also seems to flow quite nicely, from what I've seen, and it looks like battles can get nicely chaotic without being annoying.

So while I went in knowing little about Nights of Azure, I have to say that I came out intrigued by what I did see. I still say that putting up a front of faux lesbianism makes things iffy, to say the least, but thankfully the game's darker setting and intriguing action should hopefully more than make up for that. Nights of Azure is due out March 29 for the PS4.