Azur Lane: Crosswave Critic Reviews

It's a clean, snappy, hugely entertaining game, and an excellent next step forward for the emerging property. You'll want to have a high tolerance for fan service, but it's a Compile Heart game and you should already know full well what to expect going in. What's important is that it's all executed so well that Azur Lane ends up being too charming to put down, and there's more waifu bait in this one than any other game you'll play in 2020.

Azur Lane: Crosswave has plenty of fun elements about it, but know that this is simply the mobile game brought to a 3D space. There are aspects of the game that I feel fell short, but I did enjoy the challenge, and the after story offerings are enough to want to continue playing. Plus, I never had to worry about burning money on gacha rolls.

Your enjoyment of Azur Lane: Crosswave will almost entirely rely on your affinity for gawking at anime girls. If that doesn't align with your tastes then you'll likely be disappointed by the mostly tedious and repetitive experience offered here.

There is enough variance to make sure for a large majority of story battles you have a way of coming in with a fresh look, but the battles kind of always play out the same way, so it’s frustrating when the build you brought isn’t good enough and you struggle to get through what you were clearing before without any problems.

Your reaction to it will likely depend on how receptive you are to Azur Lane itself. Existing fans and open-minded lovers of cute anime girls gabbing will find much to dive deep into, but everyone else is probably better off taking some shore leave.

Azur Lane: Crosswave doesn’t harbour ambitions to be more than it really is and, though it may be a bit underwhelming, it at least doesn’t outstay its welcome. It’s perfectly happy to just provide some hours of mild entertainment without trying to reinvent the wheel and that may be enough for some, but certainly not all.

Azure Lane Crosswave is a poor 3D shooter, with a lot of grind to unlock everything, and poor visual novel sections. Even though the game is quite sexy, some characters look too young to appear in it. A shame.

Azur Lane: Crosswave is essentially a visual novel with some brief moments of action. Everything works as intended, and there's no need for a combat strategy, but the equipment and upgrades systems are cryptic. The visuals look good, and the chibi characters are adorable. The game can be a decent way to pass a weekend. However, Crosswave and all games under the Azur Lane banner espouse views on females — especially young girls — that I cannot look past, and it's troubling to me that this title is deemed appropriate for teenagers.