Today Azur Lane publisher Yostar and developer Manju hosted a livestream to celebrate the second anniversary of the release of the western version.
Plenty of news was shared, including the two parts of the anniversary event.
The first part starts with today’s maintenance and ends on August 19.
It features party skins for Georgia, U-47, Seattle, Indianapolis, and Independence. On top of that, Indianapolis’ skin can be obtained for free via the “Lights of Circle City” event.
Previous events The Warrior’s Special Training and Z23’s Picture Report will return alongside a Double Gem reset, a new Laffey Theme Portrait, a new round of Wishing Well Construction, a new Memory focusing on Portland, and World 11’s hard mode.
The second part of the anniversary event starts on August 20 and ends on August 27.
Scherzo of Iron and Blood will be rerun giving fans another chance to draw Bismark, with the addition of two new shipgirls, submarine U96 and destroyer Z26.
Cheshire and Drake will also get swimsuit skins.
More content “coming soon” has also been announced including the Guild 2.0 system, new and powerful siren bosses, and the “Operation Siren.”
Operation Siren includes a new storyline, new campaign content, an open-world, free exploration, and random events and puzzles.
On top of that, a new playable faction has been revealed, named “Ashes.” Veteran Azur Lane players likely already know who they are, and we get to see the ashen version of Ark Royal.
Yet, that’s not all, a collaboration with the free-to-play PC game Dead or Alive Xtreme: Venus Vacation has been announced.
We also learn that the event “Sars of the Shimmering Fjord” will come in September finally bringing Hunter, Hardy, and Z2 to the west.
Yostar also revealed that 2,858,565 new players new players have joined the game between August 2019 and the end of June 2020.
Those new players come primarily from the United States, Indonesia, Thailand, Russia, and Germany.
The livestream ended with the reveal of the following skin for Amagi alongside a much-awaited oath skin for Z23.
If you’re unfamiliar with Azur Lane, it’s is a free-to-play mobile horizontal scrolling shooter/RPG hybrid currently available for iOS and Android.
If you’re not into mobile games, Idea Factory International recently launched Azur Lane: Crosswave for PS4 and PC, with a Nintendo Switch version coming down the line. The western version will soon finally get the DLC shipgirls.
If you’re curious about the franchise’s popularity in Japan, you can check out my report about the recent anniversary event that pretty much literally invaded Akihabara.
