GAMEPLAY

Menu Interface with character Laffey. Image provided by Astro74

Azur Lane is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up, simulation and role-playing video game. Players collect characters that are moe anthropomorphic interpretations of World War II warships ("shipgirls"), mainly from the United States Navy, Royal Navy, Imperial Japanese Navy and Kriegsmarine, with other ships from French Navy (both Vichy and Free France flavors), Repu

blic of China Navy, People's Liberation Army Navy, Regia Marina and Imperial Russian Navy were added later. Players organize them into fleets of six and confront AI-controlled enemies or other players' fleets. Personifications of American destroyer USS Laffey (DD-459), British destroyer HMS Javelin and German destroyer Z23 (Chinese, English release) or Japanese destroyer Ayanami (Japanese, Korean release) are available for players to select as a starter ship. They are referred to as protagonists in-game. As of May 2019, more than 330 characters have been introduced to the game, representing ships from nine countries that participated in the war.. The game is also notable for including preserved museum ships as its characters such as Japanese Mikasa and Russian Avrora.