Sword Art Online Re Hollow Fragment Pc D Pad Sensitivity

abril 25, 2022 Postar um comentário

Of all the anime to attain mass popularity in the last few years, Sword Art Online is probably the worst. Say what you lot will about Assail on Titan, but at least that show has a personality. SAO's basic premise – people getting trapped in an MMO – is so clichéd that Bandai Namco (publisher of the licensed game we're talking well-nigh today) has made use of it in two different games (If you desire to run into the concept washed correct, cheque out Log Horizon). Initially, SAO differentiated itself with a dark pseudo-horror aesthetic, only that was apace pushed to the wayside in favor of harem anime nonsense and tentacle rape. Yet somehow, despite existence irredeemably awful, the show is strangely watchable (function of that may owe to the excellent animation and direction by superstar Sony division A-i Pictures). The same cannot be said for this game.

Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment takes place in an alternate version of the SAO universe where Kirito defeats Heathcliff without dying and a subsequent glitch prevents the game's players from logging out. With nothing else to practice, they decide to articulate the next 25 floors of the game and seek the go out, just along the way they're beset past further glitches and go aware of a strange conspiracy. That might seem like gibberish to you if you haven't seen the first half of the anime, simply don't worry, it makes even less sense if you know anything about SAO. Run across, the glitch also brings Kirito'due south sister Suguha and his time to come gunkata teacher Shino into the game, dressed as their corresponding avatars from different games in subsequently parts of the series (Alfheim Online and Gun Gale Online respectively). The trouble with this is that, canonically, Gun Gale didn't exist before Kirito obtained The Seed from the digital remnant of Kayaba Akihiko, and then Sinon wouldn't exist even so and oh god, why do I know this and not calculus? Someone please kill me.

This thin plot basically exists to propagate fan service and permit popular characters from later arcs to bounce off each other. For the life of me though, I can't imagine why anyone would want to see more than of these characters. Kirito, the protagonist, is a Mary Sue to end all Mary Sues, a perfect paragon of writer-insert wish fulfilment fantasy across reproach. At the tender age of 14, Kirito is i) a Kendo expert 2) a genius computer hacker, and 3) the greatest, fastest video gamer to ever video game. To Kirito, all games are unmarried-actor, and no trouble in this universe gets solved without his intervention. Kirito makes Superman await multifaceted. His only flaw is that he sometimes worries about not being flawed plenty.

Shockingly, the rest of the bandage is even worse. To a woman (for they are near all women) the supporting characters of SAO are simpering, indistinct moeblobs whose only – and I do hateful only – motivation is that they desire Kirito's dong. The expert blacksmith who managed to craft the finest sword in the earth? Did information technology all for the "D". The twelve twelvemonth old girl with a cute pet dragon? She'd chase it to the ends of the earth. His goddamn sister? Yous amend believe it. What's more than, y'all tin can unlock uncomfortably sexy CGI of all of them, even – no –especially the twelve year old and his sister. It's absolutely ridiculous. And if you lot retrieve I'm harping on this, you should know that effectually ninety% of the cutscenes in this game focus exclusively on these various girls pursuing him. Sometimes it's one at a time, sometimes all at once, and never, ever is it interesting or entertaining in the slightest.

Though it does feature gainsay (which I'll get to in a moment… information technology won't take long), Hollow Fragment is in large part a visual novel, and a particularly awful one at that. As I'k sure you tin can imagine, with nigh of the scenes devoted to "wacky" hijinks, the plot moves at a snail's pace, only even if it were practiced, you wouldn't know from Bandai Namco'south translation. It'southward not simply that they've washed a bad chore translating it, it'south that they haven't done anything resembling a job at all. Hollow Fragment reads like a Nigerian prince scam, riddled with cleaved English and typographical errors. If they'd put the game script through google translate the results would exist more coherent than what's hither. That sort of thing is understandable (though not actually, you know, understandable) in an independent game like Rainblood Chronicles: Delusion, but a big publisher like Bandai Namco has no excuse selling piece of work this sloppy. Even if information technology were well-translated, though, nobody ever needs to read a chapter's worth of dialogue about a agglomeration of girls eating bison steak and fawning over a guy.

When y'all're non reading the atrocious, awful dialogue, you'll be reading something else while the battles finish. I wish I was kidding nigh that, just by and big Hollow Fragment plays itself. The game makes utilize of an auto-gainsay organization straight out of an MMO (despite SAO in the anime being based solely around skill and reflexes), and while that'due south not an inherently awful thought for a single-role player JRPG (Xenoblade Chronicles made masterful use of such mechanics), here it'due south done virtually as poorly as anyone could possibly do it. Kirito starts off so ridiculously over-leveled that virtually early enemies can't fifty-fifty hit him, so yous can literally exit your Vita on the ground and become do something else while he fights. You could use pause attacks (which permit y'all to trigger auto-attacks at whatever fourth dimension with the circumvolve button) and special moves to make the battles movement faster, simply yous don't need to, and in fact some of the special attacks accept such ridiculously overwrought animations that it's faster non to use them. Also, Kirito comes into battle with a companion who deals damage on their own, making the fights even easier.

The only fourth dimension when y'all'll demand annihilation resembling a strategy is in boss fights, and even then I use the term loosely. For the most part, all y'all'll demand to exercise is trigger specials whenever you have enough SP to whittle down the boss's health, though you might also need to cast buffs and healing spells to bargain with effects like poisonous substance. It's even so almost entirely a numbers game though, then if the boss has bigger numbers than yours your only option is to go level up or come back with a higher-level companion.

Should you lot choose to adjust your numbers, y'all'll find yourself staring at an incomprehensible skill tree that'south packed with virtually identical options. Ane of the few things I really liked about the anime was the elegant pattern of its VR interface, so information technology's overnice to see that Bandai Namco accept completely screwed that up in turning information technology into an actual game. The only thing worse than navigating the menus is staring at the boxing screen, which is admittedly cluttered with icons and prompts. I commend the endeavour to emulate the cluttered interface of a real MMO, but it doesn't work very well on a small screen.

The game likewise perfectly emulates your average MMO photographic camera, which is either zoomed in also close or zoomed out too far. The best part is that zooming is mapped to the back touch pad, meaning that in the procedure of property your Vita ordinarily you lot will likely end up zooming in so close as to lose sight of your character. It should be noted that this is the game'due south sole useful affect input. That means you must navigate a largely icon and carte-based interface using but the buttons and analog nubs. The team that adult this game aren't exactly masters of interface design.

Information technology'southward only at floor bosses that things get remotely interesting – another term I'm using loosely – because y'all have to fight them with a larger political party. These NPCs don't actually seem to contribute anything to the fight (their impairment output is negligible), merely they can dice. The only challenge in the game comes from trying to keep them alive, which is specially challenging when your partner'south character portrait is pasted over their health confined and you tin't proceed track of their stats. It's also possible for your partner to die, at which point you get a game-over just the same every bit you would if Kirito chip it. This means that the entire game is, effectively, a giant escort quest. The PSP version of this game was chosen "Infinity Moment," and I can't recall of a more than perfect clarification of how it feels to play it without invoking Purgatory.

For its Vita incarnation, Hollow Fragment adds an boosted layer of nonsensical retcons and slow grinding to the mix. At whatever time players can take a suspension from their primary quest to explore the Hollow Surface area, a underground zone within Sword Art Online that only Kirito tin admission because he's the near specialest protagonist at that place ever was. The Hollow Surface area contains special gear that ostensibly makes it easier to progress through the main story, though since the primary obstacle in that location is making it through the cutscenes it doesn't actually help much. Optimists might say it's nice of the developers to add what amounts to a 2d campaign's worth of content, only information technology would be more authentic to say information technology'south roughshod of them to field of study you to it.

The merely matter this game does right is capturing the expect and sound of A-1 Pictures' anime, which as I've said before is gorgeous. The blend of digital and fantasy elements is nothing short of artful, and blandly as the characters are written, they have outstanding, colorful designs. This is specially true of the slick pre-rendered cut scenes that punctuate the most important (and fanservicey) plot points. The sprites in the visual novel sections accept very detailed animations likewise. In-game, each piece of equipment you give to Kirito changes his appearance, which is ever a nice affect in an RPG. The music, likewise, is an pleasant mix of orchestral and choral tracks and synth sounds. It may barely qualify every bit interactive, but Hollow Fragment makes an awfully nice screensaver for your Vita.

Closing Comments:

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment isn't just a bad game. With its awful story, irksome combat, and inexcusable translation, it's an out and out insult to anyone who might buy information technology – fans of the serial especially. These are people who can put up with – and even bask – the most debased, pandering garbage Nihon has to offer, merely I have a hard time believing that fifty-fifty they could accept this rushed, broken, and imbecilic excuse for software.

Platform: PS Vita