Asuka Langley Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 INITIAL ANALYSIS SCORE: 7/10 PRO'S: - Well Built Game - Great Character Interaction - Constantly Challenging Bosses - Great Story - Ecchi Art Online - Excellent Multiplayer Potential CONS: - ENGRISH ISH STLONG - Bonding Minigame is Lacking - Most weapons OP = Shorter boss battles - No instant "Party Customization" - Equipment given to party members cannot be returned - Ecchi Art Online - ADHOC MP only REVIEW (NSFW): (This is my first review for a Video game so any hints/tips would be appreciated, plus I'm aware of the swearing, It's a ranty review) Sword Art Online. A world that I myself have only just delved into, one of mystery, violence and... PANTSU!! Yeah, that's the first thing I'm touching on in this review, the Ecchi. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have the Ecchi scene every now and then, but the frequency of scenes you can unlock in SAO are a little too many. Take for example the Asuna Nude Apron scene, completely needless Ecchi, even better, let's take the DLC costume pack, including a Navy School Swimsuit, a Nightie and a dress shirt - which is more than open to see the cleavage of your chosen hero, Do we really need breasts to be teased in a game that has so much potential without? Even so there are scenes which even I couldn't comprehend regarding Yui. Especially where she goes and feels the breasts of EACH heroine in "Sofia Arc" (Phillia Excluded because she's Hollow Exclusive) In fact that leads to my next issue with the game. Who the Fuck decided to put this on PSN without a full English check? I mean seriously this entire segment is the reason I've tagged the review as NSFW. The mini-game for building a relationship is based on shitty grammar conversation mini-games!! URGH Not even the Trophies are grammar checked "The queen of Ant" makes no sense whatsoever as there is no place called "Ant" in the game!! It's meant to be "The Queen of Ants"! Jesus, somebody find the guys who checked the translation and throw them into the flames before they reproduce!! I mean seriously, after the bed scene with Lisbeth, people are still confused on whether she has a boyfriend or not!!!! Now onto the...lighter side. The Hollow Area, one big-ass MP map for you to do as you please with, just take some Teleport Crystals if you go solo (you should have a bundle by the time you're a high enough level to actually go) because not every location inside the game can be escaped on foot, especially those in the floating city ruins (the second major area if you're playing it solo.) However, the major fuck up here is the lack of PSN connectivity, something that will hopefully drop in a later update, keyword for Bandai here being "MONEY MONEY MONEY, CASH CASH CASH". But without the availability of PSN for the MP, it feels as if the "Online" in "Sword Art Online" shouldn't be there. Essentially the Bosses are a piece of cake, but that's only thanks to the Equipment system. Higher level equipment deals more damage and have more stats that you can add to in Lisbeth's Shop (Version 2.0) but don't forget to take EXTRA ores, it turns out that you need to wait until floor 85 to even have a 100% chance of getting your first enhancement without her fucking the whole thing up and changing your weapons stats as if you fucking wanted her to, take for example you're going for a +40 STR boost, She'll fail and then there's the high probability that she'll think "Fuck it, Lets mess up their stats, not like they've put most their stones into trying to enchance this weapon, is it?" Things get better with the storyline... A hell of a lot better, although I suggest you watch the first Arc of SAO to even understand what the hell is going on in the game (Pun-Intended). Hollow Fragment takes place in an alternate reality to the SAO world, where you kill Kayuba without Kirito being killed or Asuna (as in the Anime both were killed) but this also shows a tear in the entire battle, the reality's changed (Kinda reminded me of FF 13-2 for some reason) as Kirito finishes off Kayuba, the game continues!! Your first controlled battle however is in the Hollow World, where you meet Phillia. You become acquaintances through battle and after leaving her in the Hollow Console room, find yourself confronted by the games main heroines who have a good fight with you about meeting Phillia and disappearing off the map for the amount of time that you did, which is completely reasonable seeing as that's the usual sign that you've died. After the fight, you have a quick flashback to the fight against Kayuba, obviously, Hollow System Glitch, you kill Kayuba, Brief scene with Agil, Klein and Asuna, before you move to floor 76, find out that you can't go back and BOOM: Crossing Fields OP plays - without credits. It's as if it's all coming together as one...long....100+ hour grind....Episode. After the OP you meet Leafa (Yes i know who she really is but minimal spoilers) followed by you catching Sinon out of the sky and I believe after you find Strea, a mysterious woman who'd been trailing you but she has big bazingas anyway so her purpose doesn't matter until later on (*ECCHI LOGIC!!!*) anyway, you all meet, joke around a bit and then FLOOR CLEARING TIME. AT LAS- Fucking. Cutscenes. Short ones yes, but cutscenes nevertheless, the one thing that slows down everyone's progress . Though... there is still a lot of content from then on that substitutes itself for the cutscenes which are... cutscenes too but that's against the point!! It's time for the final question... SHOULD I BUY THIS GAME?! MAYBE. It's true that there's a lot of things that could be fixed, but essentially you should only get this game right now if you're a SAO fan as it heavily reflects on the First Arc (the one people actually wanted to watch). Though you could also wait until the price has dropped or until any important updates are released that could fix things like the shitty "engrish". 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Ookami Posted August 24, 2014 Share Posted August 24, 2014 Why is Ecchi Art Online in both pros and cons? And... ENGRISH FTW! ENGRISH IS THE PUREST LANGUAGE! Anyways, I know you talk about game, but the fight with KayAba and the whole beginning of Hollow Fragment as game is actually Infinity Moment incorporated into HF =) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cloudstrife192 Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 (edited) I agree that the translation is an issue. Even a middle-school student could have done a better job at structuring and doing a spelling check than Bandai. Hell, I'm sure they could have found someone to do it for free. It seems to me they might have taken the R3 translation and just spruced it up rather than do an entire check. Either way it isn't too much of an issue to warrant not getting the game or asking a refund (in my opinion), but it does break immersion for me and it really is awful considering it is an official translation. May have been nice for a fan translation. Hopefully a patch might fix it, but highly unlikely. I urge anyone to avoid GameFAQs on this topic though lest they witness a flame-war. As for ecchi factor, I don't really mind since I consider myself a pervert lol. That and I've seen worse. In terms of recommending others to buy it, I would only recommend it for heavy SAO fans. The game itself is a heavy grind in some portions and unless you have a good attachment to the SAO universe I feel you may become bored easily. Edited August 25, 2014 by Cloudstrife192 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
damon8r351 Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 Engrish is part of the whole charm of playing a game localized from Japan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asuka Langley Posted August 25, 2014 Author Share Posted August 25, 2014 In addition, if someone doesn't patch the research to be done outside of hollow missions I'm going to go fucking mental. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkPirate2007 Posted August 25, 2014 Share Posted August 25, 2014 Yeah, I'll definitely wait on this game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asuka Langley Posted August 26, 2014 Author Share Posted August 26, 2014 (edited) Yeah, I'll definitely wait on this game. Smartest decision ever. Further into the research tree I discovered a research which requires 1000 separate sword skills to be used within missions, take into note most cost 100 SP and your limit is 300 with the slowest recharge IN THE WORLD unless you Auto which is useless anyway, god. So much wrong but it's still a 7 EDIT: I fucking take it back. Squirrel Rape just occurred. Edited August 26, 2014 by Alice_Kuma Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSkyKing Posted August 26, 2014 Share Posted August 26, 2014 What really ruins the game for me is all the stupid pointless "scenes" (and not just the ecchi ones) with Kirito and the other heroines. They all annoy the hell out of me (except for Asuna, she seems to be normal) because of there stupidity, like why the hell do they care if Kirito accidentally touched their boobs when he saved your freaking life?? Who cares about them anyways? Isn't this supposed to be about Kirito and Asuna? I mean they're freaking married and it never really focuses on that, and Kirito even acts embarrassed that they're together. What is wrong with him?!? If it were me I'd act completely opposite. Oh and when they all make a big deal that Kirito helped another girl. Why, why is that such a bad thing when he's helping them train or fighting along side them or even saving their life. And why do the other girls care about what Kirito does anyways?? Shouldn't his wife be more concerned since oh I don't know, THEY'RE MARRIED?? It pisses me off because this games story revolves around what's noted above pretty much 90% of the time. The only scene I found funny so far was when they all were eating the slices of pizza to see who would get the hot piece. The story is lacking for me and it could've been a LOT better if the heroines weren't brainless and thought that everything Kirito dose involving them means they're on a date or that he likes them. I can pretty much predict what's going to happen because this crap happens all the time. Am I the only one who thinks this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vivan000 Posted August 26, 2014 Share Posted August 26, 2014 Nope, such childish "romance" and lack of any character development are the most obvious SAO failures (as franchise). In this game, however, they made it even more ridiculous by adding other harem members and using dumb excuse "alternative version". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Ookami Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 What really ruins the game for me is all the stupid pointless "scenes" (and not just the ecchi ones) with Kirito and the other heroines. They all annoy the hell out of me (except for Asuna, she seems to be normal) because of there stupidity, like why the hell do they care if Kirito accidentally touched their boobs when he saved your freaking life?? Who cares about them anyways? Isn't this supposed to be about Kirito and Asuna? I mean they're freaking married and it never really focuses on that, and Kirito even acts embarrassed that they're together. What is wrong with him?!? If it were me I'd act completely opposite. Oh and when they all make a big deal that Kirito helped another girl. Why, why is that such a bad thing when he's helping them train or fighting along side them or even saving their life. And why do the other girls care about what Kirito does anyways?? Shouldn't his wife be more concerned since oh I don't know, THEY'RE MARRIED?? It pisses me off because this games story revolves around what's noted above pretty much 90% of the time. The only scene I found funny so far was when they all were eating the slices of pizza to see who would get the hot piece. The story is lacking for me and it could've been a LOT better if the heroines weren't brainless and thought that everything Kirito dose involving them means they're on a date or that he likes them. I can pretty much predict what's going to happen because this crap happens all the time. Am I the only one who thinks this? Because not everyone likes Asuna the most. And waifus are the most important aspect of this game You can be faithful to Asuna if you want, but the point of this alternate story is that you don't need to =D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RedSkyKing Posted August 27, 2014 Share Posted August 27, 2014 Because not everyone likes Asuna the most. And waifus are the most important aspect of this game You can be faithful to Asuna if you want, but the point of this alternate story is that you don't need to =D I just don't like the whole "you can be faithful or cheat" but you're right I can just ignore that part (Damn trophies ) I do wish Kirito had more of a personality though, beggars can't be choosers I suppose. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asuka Langley Posted August 27, 2014 Author Share Posted August 27, 2014 Don't worry, Yui gets on the case of you cheating after an event partaking around floor 90 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Ookami Posted August 28, 2014 Share Posted August 28, 2014 Don't worry, Yui gets on the case of you cheating after an event partaking around floor 90 There wouldn't be trophy called "Don't cheat, Papa" if she didn't know that =D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asuka Langley Posted August 28, 2014 Author Share Posted August 28, 2014 There wouldn't be trophy called "Don't cheat, Papa" if she didn't know that =D Strea taught her what cheating meant they fight over the dominance of Kirito too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeroMAXD Posted September 6, 2014 Share Posted September 6, 2014 SAO<<<.Hack The game's UI is dreadful. The fact that you have to push L and/or R to open a Gigantic Menu then press L or R to scroll through the 3 other tabs is just silly. Attacks are all boring and don't have any impact, they all act and feel the same so what's the point of giving us like 50 different ones? Another problem I have with this game is that there is just too much stuff thrown at you at the tutorial and I can guarantee that half of it is pointless. Also characters are all dreadful, I know this is supposed to be a harem anime and what not(or some white wash action anime, whatever) they are all supposed to be dreadful. I guess I'm a glutton for punishment cause I've been buying so many dull games for the Vita as of late. Also if you want to make a game based on an anime(I don't care if it's pandering to only the fans) you should make a glossary of terms and events for people who are unfamiliar with this anime(though playing the first 10 minutes I wish I could forget all of it), I'm gonna keep going and see if my opinion changes, but this is really starting to feel like Valhalla Knights 3. Though that lag bug is really making the game unplayable(where even if you only use the action button it takes 5 seconds for the attack to actually commence or you're 20 ft away from the enemy yet they still manage to hit you with a short sword). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asuka Langley Posted September 29, 2014 Author Share Posted September 29, 2014 The fact that you have to push L and/or R to open a Gigantic Menu then press L or R to scroll through the 3 other tabs is just silly. Attacks are all boring and don't have any impact, they all act and feel the same so what's the point of giving us like 50 different ones? You do realize you can change the preset shortcuts so you have access to the attacks you want, formerly the ones that are most effective against your enemy, there's a lot more dynamic in it than people realize tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryumoau Posted September 29, 2014 Share Posted September 29, 2014 great review. i wasn't a big fan of the anime, mainly because it felt like a watered down version of the .//hack show. But i was interested to see if the game would at least be fun. It looks like i'll wait for a severe price drop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Satoshi Ookami Posted September 30, 2014 Share Posted September 30, 2014 Attacks are all boring and don't have any impact, they all act and feel the same so what's the point of giving us like 50 different ones? Because you can only upgrade weapons so you only have 2 dominant stats. (or better said 1, because 1 needs to be agility for Eclipse). That's why you have many skills to find the ones that are most useful to your build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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