For example, throwing more skills into the mix requires you to re-map controls and press combinations on the fly. To really advance though, the game demands you master its intricate and myriad combination of button presses to get going. And it’s perfectly possible (if difficult) to play the entire game this way. AI party members (up to three more) attack or defend based on their own internal script or follow commands you issue to them. One button uses your main attack skill, another controls the secondary skill, the third makes your character jump and so on. Combine it with abilities such as “switch”, which has characters trade positions to land extra special attacks, and fighting in SAO:HR takes on an almost ballet quality of darting in, landing blows, evading/blocking, switching and initiating lengthy chains of special attacks. The game design inherently wants you to have a measured pace rather than blindly mashing the attack buttons. Combos on foes slowly build a combo meter gauge which dramatically increases damage dealt. The game takes on both the pace and style of an action-RPG, with real-time movement and fighting, while also offering a mimicry of old-school MMORPG ability bloat.Ĭombat for the most part is fluid and well-thought out. SAO:HR’s combat system is where we see the real guts of a single-player game trying to emulate an MMORPG. Is this really worth your time? Maybe not. Sure, main party folks like Asuna, Yui and Leafa have their own unique side-stories, but the plethora of no-name grunts will do little more than smile prettily and thank you. Problem is, this never really feels very useful – you’re much better off leveling allies up in terms of actual character levels, rather than relationship levels. To get better rapport, some stronger passive buffs and more, you can take them on dates around the main town, chat them up, offer gifts, and eventually move on to such titillating content as holding their hands or leaning in for a kiss. Besides main party characters, players can befriend other “real life” characters and get them to join the party. SAO:HR offers a relationship system which can become tediously long and annoying. While the main storyline offers a great time (and some might say lengthy), the same can’t be said for its optional content. The translators did a great job evoking emotion with only plain text and the set of static images. Wading through the dozens and dozens (and dozens) of pages of static text from chatting up allies, while eventually tiresome, is at least not jarring. Practically everything is voiced with the original voice actors, and the English translations in general are top notch. ![]() Props go to the amount of work developers Aquiria and publisher Bandai Namco clearly put into this. SAO:HR’s new goals are to understand the mystery of the AI Premier, as well as explore the hidden side of the revamped MMO Kirito and friends are playing – a new MMO universe called Ainground, based partially on SAO’s Aincrad world.Īs stories go, it’s par for the course. ![]() But if you haven’t kept up with the past titles or only followed the novel/anime, expect a bit of mental reconfiguration. The game gives a good – if basic – recap of events leading up to SAO:HR, so those diving in aren’t completely lost. As the fourth game in the in-game universe, game-only characters such as Philia, Strea and more have joined the main character Kirito’s harem party, with alternate events occurring during the original “death game” of the MMO Sword Art Online to make this all plausible. Premised on the original light novel/smash-hit anime Sword Art Online, SAO:HR (and its previous titles) takes off in a different direction. Let’s start with the story, which is what probably attracts gamers to the title in the first place. If the answer to the above is “lots!”, “I’ve had some experience” and “bring it on” then great, you’re in luck. Firstly, how much do you really like the Sword Art Online series? Secondly, how much of an old-school MMORPG player are you? And thirdly, how much mindless grinding can you take before your eyeballs melt out of your sockets? Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization (SAO:HR) is one of those games which requires you to ask yourself a few questions before you pick it up.
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