Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization – game review

Sword Art Online is a great example of the fact that fifty-fifty a simple weblog with "some" stories tin hide the potential for a giant make that millions of people effectually the world will love! From the SAO serial nosotros already have novelties, anime, manga, upcoming movie and of course games. And we'll await at the latest i in this review.

As a huge fan of the series started by Reki Kawahara, I take to acknowledge that I was waiting for Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization with corking flushing , which turns out to be really very proficient and several classes better than its predecessors.

The latest adventures of Kirito and the visitor take place simply after the events of SAO: Hollow Fragment and Lost Song, constituting the tertiary installment of a dissever universe, which is based on novels and anime, simply tells a completely new story, unrelated to the main canon. This time, later two nightmares, we get to Sword Art: Origin , which is a rebuilt Sword Fine art Online virtually from scratch. Here, instead of Aincrad, we wander effectually Ainground , which has been deprived of the multi-storey castle building in favor of open up, single-level spaces. Despite bad memories with VR games, all the heroes decided to try to experience it again and this time to get maximum pleasure from the fun.

And so information technology promises to be an idyllic run a risk without major drama and fear – in a word, relaxation. Nevertheless, there is a little "but" to all of this, on which the whole storyline of Hollow Realization is based . Only before we delve into it, we must first create a character, don't we? We take at our disposal a quite all-encompassing character editor, which I did not consciously use. Why? Throughout the game, everyone will call us Kirito anyway, so for me, at least on the first endeavour, it's best to play as the default Black Swordsman advent. After a short introduction presenting the nuts of the combat system, the authors treat united states with scenes known from the trailers. The protagonist sees a mysterious girl and at the same time receives a bulletin from a stranger saying " I'm back in Aincrad, "and the fun starts.

Developers decided to dose us all the intrigue and emotions quite slowly, which fabricated the first 10-fifteen hours a simple tutorial and a very incomprehensible, but also addictive prologue to the plot. Nosotros learn that this daughter, like Yui and Strea, is an NPC, but completely devoid of whatever statistics that make upwards each such graphic symbol. The heroes think that since they are in the beta SA: Oh, it's definitely a issues, but fifty-fifty a certain Seven (known from Lost Song) who takes care of the production does not know why such someone appeared in this world. Yet, our skilful-natured heroes decided that they would give her a name and expect after her until the thing was cleared up. So we meet Premiere, who is really the most important person in the game!

Premiere initially offers one quest to leave of town, fight a few mobs and return, for which each gives 1 Col (currency), which is actually very foreign. Unfortunately, this situation repeats indefinitely, so our task is to push her quest forrad. How to do it? Well, no one has a clue, and then nosotros simply explore the earth until something happens. With time, nevertheless, we notice that our "Enpeck" begins to proceeds sensation, grapheme and intelligence. While at the beginning each of her statements ended with "…" and "yes", in the later stages she starts talking to u.s. like a real human being. It is only in the second act that it becomes clear what all these problems are actually most.

Remember Sword Fine art Online was a game of decease, right? Well, it is similar here, with the difference that instead of players, killed NPCs dice irretrievably and are replaced with new ones. And information technology wouldn't be anything special if it wasn't for the fact that in Origin enpece they are like people. They accept memories, families, characters, by, dreams, goals, then on. It makes us care even more than for our love Premiere and nosotros have even more determination to solve its mystery. So what is the news of Aincrad about? The story, although relatively simple, is extremely addictive, mysterious and more than once made me wonder what will happen next after leaving the console all 24-hour interval long.

Equally for the gameplay, Hollow Realization is a kind of a mix of Hollow Fragment and Lost Song – if these two items had a child, it would undoubtedly be HR. The work of Aquria studio tin be described equally a Japanese activeness RPG, which takes tactics from HF, and a very dynamic combat system with LS. Contrary to his predecessors, this time Kirito is accompanied by not one, but 3 friends at in one case, who actively help the hero in gainsay. The mechanics of the clashes is apparently unproblematic, simply as nosotros learn more than about it, we find that it has a lot of depth and complexity.

The whole thing is to operate with i button attack, numerous sword skills, buffs and dodges . The player has several types of weapons at his disposal, which have a peachy impact on the gameplay not merely due to minor differences in strikes, but most of all the skills assigned to them. As in any RPG, character development is all most increasing your statistics and learning new moves. Here it is like, but it has been divided into two or even iii paths. For reaching a new level, we become a few so-called "skill points", which are used to learn new buffs, spells and attacks. However, in order to be able to unlock them, we must kickoff get the appropriate level of the weapon to which these moves are assigned.

How it's working? Each weapon category has its own mastery level, which increases with the utilise of it – the maximum rank for all of them is one,000 points. The more we progress, the better skills and spells we unlock. At some point, the pick to choose a class for our graphic symbol is also activated. They are simply such bully skills with their own development tree. So in that location are classes like Tank, Healer, Buffer, Attacker, and Scout . When nosotros activate it, we also increment its mastery level, the evolution of which is calculated in the aforementioned mode as in the previous case. Of course, we tin move freely between them, as long every bit we take them unlocked. I was Buffer first, and then Healer, and finally switched to Assaulter.

The square is responsible for the basic combo, while the triangle and the circle are buttons to which we tin assign 4 abilities – each of them consumes a certain amount of points from the SP bar (stamina). Past default, the green push is responsible for combat skills, while the red button is for parrying and other defense skills. However, the game allows usa to brand various combinations. In improver, with the right side of the impact pad we open a grid in which we tin can place whatever we desire – items, attacks, spells, taunts and gestures. And to make it not plenty, nether L1, we open new windows presenting an alternative use to arrows and buttons with figures – there are all kinds of commands for our companions, such as the famous switch, set on, dodge, taunt, healing and the like. Everything described above is divers in the menu in the Fix Pallete tab.

So how can all this be put into practice? When we attack an enemy, we activate the combat sequence. Past infusing the basic assail, we increase the impairment multiplier that we deal him, and so when the given value satisfies us, we activate the skill sword, for example past rotating the left k**b and pressing the triangle, then Kirito will kickoff the attack animation. Almost every hit of the monsters tin exist blocked by parrying (the stronger ones require a special spell) – if we succeed, we volition stun the enemy, if not, nosotros tin quickly dodge to the side.

By ordering our partners to perform a series of their skills, we can support them with ours at the right moment by activating special combos that increase damage. In addition, we throw buffs, heal, pick up fallen comrades and ask for a switch. There are literally hundreds of tactical possibilities, and the combat organization, despite its relatively high complexity, is intuitive and extremely satisfying. The simply thing you can complain about is the switch serial known from the serial . In previous versions, they worked and so that after saying this slogan, we changed places with our companion equally many times as nosotros want. This created great opportunities for cooperation, where equally one character had trivial life, the other jumped in and vice versa. Here it got desperately broken. Why? When Kirito is the target, the switch will work, but when, for example, the monster attacks, say Asuna, and she has little HP and we intuitively want to commutation with her, it volition not be possible. No, no and that's it.

Throughout the game, we volition travel through equally many equally half-dozen dissimilar regions representing, amongst others, forests, deserts and lakes. The whole world has been designed so that we cannot get bored in it, and even after losing hundreds of hours, they were able to return to the start location and notice a big challenge there. First, all "continents" are divided into smaller "rooms" with a somewhat corridor, albeit much more than open structure than in Hollow Fragment. In each such sector, yous will find small collectibles scattered on the footing, which renew each fourth dimension you re-enter, and in that location are also dark-brown, blueish and ruby chests.

The first of them are disposable and have some weak or medium particular in them, the other two are equally renewable as the ingredients from the ground, with the deviation that to open them y'all have to defeat several strong opponents or ane large boss. Additionally, there are immediate missions attack the map that will actuate afterward entering the circle – there are likewise three types of them. The light-green ones are about killing a few creatures, for which we get feel and minerals, the blueish ones are the aforementioned but related to the plot, and the red ones are called "event quests" and they put a b*****d at over 100 level in front end of usa! And no, yous can't exist turbo boots and approach them on level 1 because yous won't fifty-fifty deal one impairment to them.

The bestiary itself is quite rich. On our fashion in that location will be hornets, turtles, crabs, mutated sundews, strange jellies with poison, slightly fantastic versions of buffalo, skeletons, flying eyes, ents, dragons, golems and many, many other very interesting creatures. Unfortunately, on the ane hand, there are quite a few of them, and on the other paw, they will frequently be repeated in diverse variations during our travels. At the beginning you volition meet an ent called "Wild Tree" and another time a pinkish ent called "Evil Tree". Only the so-called Named Monster and HNM are unique . Each of them, of course, has its ain characteristics, attack forms, strategies and weaknesses – but they are usually incredibly powerful and big versions of normal monsters. I fought the hardest with skeletons who have weapons like players and perform quick attacks like bosses in Night Souls. If you fall into a series of them, you can lose some nerves and life – the best method against them is to parry and counterattack.

The level of difficulty of the game itself cannot exist clearly defined. At the starting time, if we want to dart through the story, there is no obstacle to information technology, because the rivals placed in front of us on the path to discovering the secret of Premiere are just ridiculously easy. In addition, it is facilitated by the combat system. Sometimes I died, merely it was more of stupidity and the want to "take on the breast" too many enemies at once. Moreover, if you spend about two-three hours on the grind like me, it volition be plenty for several dozen hours. On the other hand, in that location are NM and HNM and the "event quests" that I mentioned, which are the final examination of our skills caused during the game.

Of course, as befits an MMO false, we will collect hundreds or even thousands of side quests along the way. And I really am not exaggerating with these numbers. There are ii notice boards in the local boondocks (with the aforementioned content), from which we collect every bit the task is going, divided into two categories – impale and bring. When at some point I started collecting them massively and ignored their functioning, leaving this pleasure for the post-fiction phase, I realized that my list had already exceeded a hundred. And if that was not plenty, additional missions are commissioned by NPC characters from the NPC category and NPC characters from the pretend players category – Yes, I know, information technology sounds weird. The "City of the Beginning" itself is quite a cozy place where y'all can relax. When we want to take a suspension from the abiding fight, we tin take someone on a date and sit together in a park, in a cafe, by the h2o or go and purchase something prissy to consume. The urban center was divided into a shopping street, a park, a small entertainment sector and a teleportation gate.

A very cool content for the biggest fans of the serial will be the strengthening of the ties betwixt the characters and Kirito. You know, sometimes there are little events like "take a walk with Yui", "talk to Klein" or "spend the day with Asuna". When we actuate such a pocket-sized mission, we will coil through trillions of dialogues about nothing that innovate such an idyllic atmosphere of friendly chats about flowers, the past, challenges, jokes, dinners, duperelies and other c**p. As I am such a little psychophane of the universe, I was enjoying such conversations with great joy. For those who like more than intimate meetings and desire to accept fun in dating, for case with Asuna, they will also exist very pleased. Why? And when we reach a high level of familiarity with a given character, we tin can go for walks with her, purchase yourself an orange juice and indulge in romantic conversations on the bench in front of the lake. Nosotros still have the option of property hands and even carrying the heroine in our hands. The last step is inviting your fugitive to Kirito'due south room in the inn and gossiping with her while lying on the bed, staring at each other'south eyes. . A real paradise for lovers of such things.

The system of improving your possessions is also of import, which we tin can practice at 1 of the dozen or then blacksmiths scattered around the game world. Each of them has different skills that affect how they better or transform our things, and the percentage of success in this procedure. The more we use the services of a given blacksmith, the meliorate he becomes in his profession. I highly recommend going to the Lizbeth booth on Market place Street from the middle of the second act. As yous might have expected, to upgrade our equipment, you demand the right materials that tin only exist found while exploring the world – so don't count on the easy way. Just one ingredient is required at beginning, then some other, rarer, even more rare, and finally one that is actually difficult to hunt.

After passing the first act of the story, a multiplayer mode is unlocked, which will diversify the fun for those who go bored with wearisome grinding to max out their statistics. In multi, we can create a iv-person room or join i. Each player chooses ane friend from among the NPCs – this creates an exploration team of eight people. Notwithstanding, I recommend it only to those who actually like it or they take a nice crew, because in public rooms other people run like knocked downward and leave slower people backside, deeply respecting what is happening to them. And you demand to know that we collect exp only for self-killed enemies, so in such weather condition it'due south difficult to experience. When we create an on-line session ourselves, nosotros tin can prepare the preferences of players, the difficulty level to the usual, higher up 50 and 70 character experience level.

When it comes to purely technical issues, I tin can say that the game is running really well. Sometimes at that place are occasional animation drops, but otherwise everything runs smoothly. As in near low-budget jRPGs, there are errors with the interpenetration of characters, objects, and fifty-fifty gibberish such as the fact that Kirito can sit in a locked breast. Information technology fabricated me a fleck sorry that the FPP view, which I liked and so much in "one", is only present here in the city.

In other matters, you can encounter a huge progress of developers and the fact that the default production platform was not Vita, but the solid PS4. The graphics are much nicer, richer in details, and the areas to be explored are no longer dry earth textures. Flowers, grass, pebbles, branches and other things grow on it. It all becomes more cute at dark! The music is at a very high level. The melody in places such as a park or the entertainment sector is very soothing and positive, in moments of terror, music adds adrenaline to the whole activeness, and when exploring the world, each region has its theme. They were well chosen to such an extent that fifty-fifty when I closed my eyes as part of the experiment, I could experience the atmosphere represented by a given location.

As for the bonus stuff, it's worth mentioning that if you take a Hollow Fragment save, you can upload information technology via the servers (like shooting fish in a barrel process) to Hollow Realization and receive various rewards for it. And virtually importantly … there is a flake of fan-service .

Generally speaking, the newest Sword Art Online is much more attainable to new players who practice not necessarily know the previous editions, because the game explains them thoroughly. Information technology is as well a brilliant action game with a fantastic gainsay system and a very mysterious storyline that volition non let yous forget about yourself. However, information technology is nevertheless a title aimed primarily at die-hard fans of the series who know past eye the legends of Aincrad, the history of ALFheim, who know who Klein, Strea and Yuuki are. Information technology is these people who will relish indescribable joy in such c**p equally having a romantic conversation with Asuna, teasing Lisa, competing with Sinon, and even a parent's walk with Yui.