Fall in Love with these Historical Battleships!

(Image credit: Idea Factory)

Valentine’s Day is around the corner, but why get flowers and chocolate when you can have anime girl battleships and frenetic shooter battles? Now you can with Azur Lane: Crosswave, out today on PlayStation®4 and Steam! You can also pick up Azur Lane: Crosswave at Idea Factory International’s official store now. We've got you covered with both the Standard Edition and a Limited Edition for either the PS4 or Steam.

(Image credit: Idea Factory)

The game is brought to you by Idea Factory International, which localizes and publishes niche Japanese titles for PlayStation, Nintendo, and Steam for the West. Our biggest series is the RPG Neptunia, though we've also done visual novels like Hakuoki, and many other genres.

So what’s all this about anime girl battleships? Azur Lane: Crosswave is based on the popular mobile game Azur Lane, in which you recruit historical battleships to fight in side-scrolling battles. Each character is based on an actual historical battleship, with personalities and stories that reference their individual histories, each character is a charming distillation of actual history and anime tropes!

While the original mobile game was a side-scrolling shooter, Azur Lane: Crosswave brings these characters into a 3D action shooter/visual novel game. You’ll play as new recruits, Shimakaze and Suruga, who have just joined the ranks of the Sakura Empire – one of the four Nations. In a time of peace with the other four Nations, including Eagle Union, Iron Blood, and Royal Navy, they’ve come together for a Joint Military Exercise. Standard stuff, until an otherworldly menace appears… How will Shimakaze and Suruga fend off this new threat and restore peace amongst the four Nations?

(Image credit: Idea Factory)

They’ll have to band together with other ships! Recruit from 25+ characters ranging across 4 ship classes to join your 3-person battle fleet. Plus 30+ more characters can be recruited in support roles. Depending on the ships’ histories and traits, you can also unlock Fleet Effect stat bonuses. Boost your HP and reload time by having 3 Yorktown-class characters in the party, or increase your torpedo power by having 3 ships with ribbons in their hair. The combinations are nearly endless! 

(Image credit: Idea Factory)

Once you’ve taken your fleet into battle, you can switch between the 3 main ships. Zip around with a fast Destroyer like Shimakaze, bring in a Heavy Cruiser like Bismarck for more damage, then summon aircraft with an Aircraft Carrier like Enterprise. You’ll need to balance these types out to take down enemy characters, boats, and aircraft. As you fight and fulfill certain conditions, your support characters can heal, or offer secondary attacks and party boosts.

And did I mention there are four game modes? Fight through the main story, then grind it out in Extreme Battle Mode with 150+ preset battles that’ll really test your mettle. And if you ever get weary from the battle, you can get to know characters in Episode Mode or get some cute shots in Photo Mode.

With all these characters and game modes, the gameplay is endless as the sea!

Also available from Idea Factory International…

The free-roaming adventure Arc of Alchemist out now on PlayStation®4 and Nintendo Switch! In this post-apocalyptic hack ‘n’ slash, you’ll lead an expedition into the Great Desert to find the legendary Orbs that will help restore life to a barren world again.

Choose from an array of unique characters with individual classes and abilities, harness the power of the elements, and build and improve your base to rescue humanity!

Mary Skelter 2, is a horror-influenced, first-person dungeon-crawler RPG, a prequel of sorts to the PlayStation®Vita game Mary Skelter: Nightmares and features real-time Nightmare chases, all sorts of customization, and a ton of blood. This game includes a revamp of the original as well, so you get two games for the price of one.

(Image credit: Idea Factory)

You’ll need to figure out how to weaken and defeat the Nightmares by using dungeon abilities, character classes, and character transformations to survive each dungeon. Can you make it out in one piece?

We’ve definitely got more where that came from, so keep up to date on our games by signing up for our newsletter and following us on social media!

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