Should I play this?

[Shurax_Urden]

Hello

 

I bought this a couple of months ago in sales because I wanted to played it (I saw the anime and like it) but then I read some reviews saying that it was not so good.

After a couple of months I still don't know if I should play this or not. What should I expect?

 

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

 

[Dragon-Archon]

2 minutes ago, Shurax_Urden said:

Hello

 

I bought this a couple of months ago in sales because I wanted to played it (I saw the anime and like it) but then I read some reviews saying that it was not so good.

After a couple of months I still don't know if I should play this or not. What should I expect?

 

Thanks a lot in advance!

I enjoyed the game a lot, so if you like the anime give it a try. The only things I didn't like were the affection trophies and doing the implements. I'll just copy the post from my checklist here for a more detailed response:

Quote

This game has an alternate story and takes place shortly after beating floor 75 in Aincrad. When Kirito won the duel, the game didn't end. Instead they all have to clear the remaining 25 floors to end it. This game depicts the floor-clearing aspect well and also has a MMO feel to it. To clear a floor players need to explore it first, then find the boss room. Along the way they can also gather information about the boss, which will help NPCs during the boss raid. It's also possible to help NPCs when they send a request to help them level up. During a boss raid 6 NPCs will fight with Kirito and whoever he partners up with. Keeping all of them alive during all 25 floors is challenging at first, but becomes much easier after Kirito has leveled up a bit and learned OSS combos (chaining sword skills), but more about that later. Floor bosses also have a last hit bonus, meaning the the one who kills the boss gets a unique piece of equipment. There's also a trophy for getting them all. Besides Aincrad, there's the Hollow Area. This is a testing area that was used to test stuff for the main game and has its own story mode. After completing it, Phillia can move to Aincrad and will be available when clearing floors.

 

The Hollow Area also has a mechanic called implements. These are basically items, equipment, and skills that Kirito can test. Once the tests are complete, they can be implemented into the game and will be available to use freely in Aincrad and the Hollow Area. The idea behind this is great, but they're way too grindy. Completing 100 out of 114 takes a long time. To make things worse, implements can only be tested during a Hollow Mission. These are timed missions that appear in the Hollow Area and requires players to beat certain enemies or reach a specific place before the timer runs out. These missions respawn after a certain time and can be done over and over. Doing 80 unique Hollow Missions is quite a lot, so keeping a checklist is recommended. Of course I didn't do that at first. Also on the Vita version the Hollow Missions in the Discard Area (which was added to the Hollow Area in a patch) don't count for the trophy, so I had to do about 23 Hollow Missions in the other 5 areas. Another grindy trophy is to kill 100 Hollow Named Monsters (HNM). These only spawn when an area rank has reached lvl 3 and are stronger versions of bosses from the Hollow Area. An area rank will increase when doing Hollow Missions. Killing 100 is a bit too much, but it wasn't so bad. It's also a great opportunity to work on implements. The last (and IMO the worst) grind are the affection trophies. Every main heroine needs to have a maxed out affection. There are several ways to do that: talk to them or spam Good during fights. I used the latter until they were lvl 4, then talked to them for 90 minutes to 2 hours to get them to level 5. This had to be done for Asuna, Phillia, Strea, Leafa, Sinon, Lisbeth, and Silica.

 

The combat system is nicely done too. At first it seems very simple to attack, use a buff or sword skill, dodge, and parry. But the more you play, the more mechanics will be discovered. For example timing dodges/parries will result in bonuses. fighting styles and sword skills also level up through usage. Later it becomes possible to create an Original Sword Skill (OSS). Chaining sword skills will increase the damage for the next sword skill, provided sword skills aren't used more than once during the combo. Using a finisher skill ends the combo immediately and these can get a 300% increase in damage. Doing the Grand Quest in the Discard Area also rewards Kirito and his partner with an OP sword skill finisher depending on the weapon he has equipped. This one is very useful when defeating floor bosses and HNMs. Kirito can equip a variety of weapons and my favourites are dual-wielding, rapier, and katana. Dual-wield does lots of damage against single enemies, rapier has fast attacks, and the katana has lots of AoE skills to deal with mobs. After completing the Grand Quest, the Ultra Hard Quest becomes available. There are 9 quests to defeat extremely powerful bosses and getting the last hit bonus on them rewards a legendary weapon. There's one weapon for each fighting style.

 

All in all this game is a perfect adaptation of the anime and if you like that, you'll like this game. It's quite a time sink, so people who haven't seen or don't like the anime should think twice before getting it.

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

8 minutes ago, Shurax_Urden said:

I saw the anime

 

9 minutes ago, Shurax_Urden said:

and like it

Nothing more is needed.

Yes, play it.

[Shurax_Urden]

@Dragon-Archon @Satoshi Ookami Thank you both for the quick response!!

I will play it then

 

[EternalChaos72]

If your nervous about playing it you can try it on a different account first so the trophies won't be loaded onto your profile.

[Shurax_Urden]

14 hours ago, EternalChaos72 said:

If your nervous about playing it you can try it on a different account first so the trophies won't be loaded onto your profile.

It was more like what to expect than about trophies. If you take a look to my profile I don't have a high completion rate (about 40%) so having unfinished games is not a problem (although I am trying to boost that ) Anyway, I really appreciate your advice, thanks!

 

15 hours ago, Dragon-Archon said:

I enjoyed the game a lot, so if you like the anime give it a try. The only things I didn't like were the affection trophies and doing the implements. I'll just copy the post from my checklist here for a more detailed response:

 

 

15 hours ago, Satoshi Ookami said:

 

Nothing more is needed.

Yes, play it.

 

Thanks to your advices I played this yesterday and I wanted to share with you two my thoughts: At first I was a little lost, to be honest I already are hahaha, there were so many mini tutorials and so many actions that I don't really understand everything and there is a lot to read, I don't really understand why so many Japanese games rely on an image of a character and some text below instead of full conversations (with cinematic or in game) BUT I spent like 5 hours playing without noticing, I even forgot to have dinner hahahaha So I guess I will be playing this the next couple of days!

[Satoshi Ookami]

27 minutes ago, Shurax_Urden said:

I don't really understand why so many Japanese games rely on an image of a character and some text below instead of full conversations (with cinematic or in game)

Because VN style is the best way to convey story and Japan knows it  

 

27 minutes ago, Shurax_Urden said:

I spent like 5 hours playing without noticing, I even forgot to have dinner hahahaha So I guess I will be playing this the next couple of days!

Of course you forgot, you can't log out  

[Shurax_Urden]

7 minutes ago, Satoshi Ookami said:

Of course you forgot, you can't log out  

I wish there was a way in the site to tell you precisely how much I laugh because of this. 

 

You made my day.  

 

[Satoshi Ookami]

31 minutes ago, Shurax_Urden said:

I wish there was a way in the site to tell you precisely how much I laugh because of this. 

 

You made my day.  

 

At your service =D

5 hours, 150 left to go, go for it  

[Shurax_Urden]

4 minutes ago, Satoshi Ookami said:

At your service =D

5 hours, 150 left to go, go for it  

I think that the last time I play the same game for over 100 hours was The Witcher 3 

Let see If I am able to play that 150 hours hahahahaha

[Dragon-Archon]

4 hours ago, Shurax_Urden said:

Thanks to your advices I played this yesterday and I wanted to share with you two my thoughts: At first I was a little lost, to be honest I already are hahaha, there were so many mini tutorials and so many actions that I don't really understand everything and there is a lot to read, I don't really understand why so many Japanese games rely on an image of a character and some text below instead of full conversations (with cinematic or in game) BUT I spent like 5 hours playing without noticing, I even forgot to have dinner hahahaha So I guess I will be playing this the next couple of days!

Nice, I felt lost too when starting the game, but you'll get familiar with it over time. IIRC that's it for the tutorials, so don't worry about that anymore. And yeah, it's a lot of info the game throws at you when starting the game. At least you can re-read the tutorials after getting familiar with the controls. Have fun exploring Aincrad and the Hollow Area  .

[Alantor32]

If you're a fan of SAO (Both the Light Novels and anime), then this game is for you. Be warned though that this game is non-canon and is its own series with sequels like Lost Song and Hollow Realzation. Plus, this game along with its sequels have new characters that aren't related to either the anime or the light novels but are part of the SAO franchise.

[BlueBerry_1337]

On 3/23/2017 at 11:28 AM, Shurax_Urden said:

 

Let see If I am able to play that 150 hours hahahahaha

 

I finished mine in around 120h. Just followed the story without any grinding or anything