Sword Art Online Re Hollow Fragment Will Beating the Hollow Area Beat the Game

Aquria'southward interesting take on the ever-popular anime IP proves to be a fun, if grindy, action-RPG with an absolute tonne of content.

Developer	Aquria
Publisher	Bandai-Namco
Franchise	Dengeki Bunko; Sword Art Online
Genre	Action; Role-playing
PSTV	Yeah
Physical English	Yep – Every bit but

World-building & Story

Anime necktie-ins ordinarily take one of 2 types of plot – they either re-tell the events of series in video-game format or have a side-plot that'due south fairly inconsequential to the overall story. Hollow Fragment does neither of these things, instead following an alternative continuity based after the events of the fourteenth episode of the anime that veers off in new directions. It's an inspired thought that serves to feel familiar enough for players returning to Aincrad yet makes perfect sense as a manner of adapting the IP for gaming.

I would suggest at least watching the starting time 14 episodes of the anime earlier playing as information technology'll requite you a expert background for the events hither, just if non then y'all at least demand to know the following – Sword Fine art Online follows a group of VR gamers who find themselves trapped in a virtual earth (Aincrad) and told that if they die in the game, they die in existent life. To escape they need to make it to the 100th floor and beat the boss – after immigration 75 floors, the hero Kirito challenges a human known as Heathcliff to a dual only to find he is in fact the game'due south creator Akihiko Kayaba and – after besting him in combat – frees those trapped in Aincrad and ends the virtual world early.

Hollow Fragment splinters off just before this role and imagines that a foreign virus striking just before Kirito trounce Kayaba and as such the players have to clear the remaining 25 floors to gratuitous themselves. It'south such a simple idea that slots perfectly into the narrative, feeling like an essential continuation of the plot rather than a poor excuse to revisit the anime's world as seen in some of its contemporaries.

The bodily story across this is fairly interesting – at to the lowest degree once it gets going. The mystery is centred around a new character named Strea and her connection to the events that occurred on the 75th floor – in that location's too a storyline involving a new place called the 'Hollow Surface area' and a woman named Philia who is trapped there and you'll work to unravel the secrets of both of these newcomers.

That is, when the game lets you. A lot of your fourth dimension in Hollow Fragment will be spend in mundane conversations involving clearing floors to accomplish the pinnacle level of Aincrad. While at that place tin exist some interesting character development in these parts, the majority of the time is spent in weird pandering chats – SAO is undoubtedly a harem anime and a big clamper of the game is spent flirting with the many, many women who want Kirito. Yous'll feel a better connection to them if y'all've watched the anime, simply fifty-fifty then it's not the well-nigh stimulating of chats.

I get the feeling these conversations are just ho-hum in general but they're not helped by Hollow Fragment's god-awful translation that has become the stuff of infamy at this bespeak. The corporeality of times I was asked to help with 'penetration' (meaning floor-immigration) was frankly hilarious and other chats flat-out don't make sense unless you really terminate and focus on what is trying to exist said, the language is simply that garbled.

Which is a shame, because the world constructed here is both true-blue to the anime and fantastic in general. You get a real feeling of being part of a living, breathing community – the game's chief boondocks (Arc Sofia) is total of people busying around and this extends to the fields, where you'll come across gamers just out completing quests. Each surface area is quite well crafted too and at times I was reminded of my experience of playing Globe of Warcraft and running through a diverseness of different zones, meaning Hollow Fragment really does succeed at bringing its source fabric to life.

Presentation & Audio

Creating a dynamic world that evokes the feeling of an MMO tin't be an piece of cake job, yet somehow Aquria managed to become awfully close with Hollow Fragment – each mural is unique and a joy to explore, meaning that clearing flooring after flooring remains an aesthetically enjoyable task.

This positivity extends to the grapheme models – they're what I'd describe as 'acceptable' in the sense that they practice nothing spectacular and don't characteristic a tonne of detail but wait fine for the most part. Like to other Vita games like Tales of Hearts R, they don't feature mouth animations and things like clothes and hair are somewhat blocky, simply they animate well (particularly in combat where each has unique movements for each dissimilar special attack).

Enemies are also good – there'south a large variety of foes you'll come up beyond ranging from bees and rats to more terrifying skeletal soldiers or gryphon-knights. They all expect pretty impressive at first glance and also take unique animations – best of all, they're not repeated too often when exploring (except in the maze areas) meaning you're unlikely to get ill of seeing the aforementioned thing over and over.

The environments are arguably the best and worst aspect of the presentation, which has to do with how the game was fabricated. The new content created specifically for Hollow Fragment is gorgeous – the whole of the Hollow Area is full of sweeping vistas with gorgeous views; light-green fields that extend outwards into the skyline and ancient ruins overgrown with flora and creature. There's a few slow corridor-forests in at that place but nothing to backbite too much overall as you'll always be apace moving on to something else.

Conversely, the content ported across from the PSP game Infinity Moment is incomparably less pretty – areas are smaller and more enclosed, there'southward more browns and greys rather than bright colours and less inventive zones to run through. Each flooring ends with a 'maze' that is effectively only a series of stone corridors with very little personality, which is a disappointing way to advantage player progress and fairly ugly to look at.

Elsewhere, you lot'll spend a fair amount of time in menus which aren't the nearly intuitive I've come across. In fact, the game'due south UI in full general is a bit of a mess with information and icons everywhere and information technology is difficult to keep upwardly with – which is more a pitfall of the way the combat has been designed than anything else, although small-scale text doesn't assistance. At least the visual novel manner chat scenes are fairly nice – although they're merely animated in a handful of circumstances, each grapheme is well drawn and looks just similar their anime analogue.

Voice acting is Japanese-only, which is fine and each cast member puts in a decent functioning (even if many of the women simply take turns in exclaiming "Kirito!" virtually of the time). Music is a mixed pocketbook – a lot of the time it's simply background noise, yet there were times I was reminded of my time playing World of Warcraft where the soundtrack composite perfectly with the action on screen, creating a bright temper (there were definitely elements of the soothing 'Nagrand Dark' theme at points).

Soundtrack highlight – Abased Expanse Theme

Gameplay & Content

Hollow Fragment attempts to capture the feel of an online MMO and succeeds in many ways – a varied combat system; a big explorable earth and a hub full of NPC's aid to immerse yous into the experience. Some of its systems are a chip obtuse and overall information technology can get a bit repetitive at times, only otherwise there's a actually solid game hither.

You lot'll kickoff out in the hub city – Arc Sofia – which acts as your base of operations. There are a few areas to explore but it's by and large pretty minor – however, it provides everything you demand to prepare for your adventure with item shops, blacksmiths and a quest board. You'll also come across a diverseness of NPC's – many story-related such every bit Asuna and Klein that you tin can partner upwardly with in battle, while others are there only to help the world experience like a living, breathing identify.

Indeed, Hollow Fragment does a really good chore of making you experience like you lot're really playing an online game at times. A mail service system ways other characters can send you messages and you'll often hear from the side-cast who inquire you lot to help with a certain quest on a certain floor – it'south prissy to know that there'due south things happening exterior of your ain actions. Indeed, when you lot venture out into the world you'll oft come across groups of players fighting monsters and this likewise helps with immersion.

When yous're set to leave Arc Sofia, y'all but head to the teleport stone and choose which floor y'all'd want to go to. Each has a different theme – some might be green open up fields; others might exist waterside swamps meaning it's always interesting to explore them. That said, each floor you spawn on is fairly linear – the zones are adequately small and generally have only one route through, with the odd hidden cave or tunnel with a bonus monster along the manner.

You'll have ii different tasks when out in the field – a diversity of side quests exist which usually involve killing certain foes or collecting a specific item, but the main task is to find the maze expanse at the end of the floor and progress to the boss room where you'll challenge an almighty beast which – when beaten – grants access to the next floor, which you rinse and repeat until you reach floor 100 and articulate the game.

This brings me on to the gainsay arrangement which is very unique in its implementation. For starters, you can opt to always travel around with a partner and a clever 'switch' mechanic means yous can bandy roles at any fourth dimension with one of you taking the damage and the other providing support. This provides a lot of tactical opportunity which really is the theme of Hollow Fragment – a lot of options exist, which can become somewhat overwhelming at times.

When faced with an enemy, you'll auto-attack if you're in range. Pressing 'o' will start a high-threat-level attack, which causes a lot of damage merely makes the monster more likely to target you (a bar will tell y'all how much threat you're creating). You take 2 skill palettes which are activated by holding a shoulder button and pressing one of the face buttons – these tin can exist loaded with flashy sword skills or buffs and heals, all of which consume SP which is refilled by auto-attacking.

On top of this, you lot can result commands to your AI partner past property the shoulder buttons and pressing a directional key. They will act on their own yet and y'all tin can praise their actions if they do something you like, which will help shape their personality traits and make them more likely to take the same activity again in future combat. They're as well capable of making requests of you, which will assistance strengthen your bond if you lot practise the action they're asking for.

If that all sounds similar a lot to take in… it is. In that location are so many systems at play — across this there are skill trees, equipment grinding, weapon tempering etc. It tin can be overwhelming to keep on top of everything that's happening, merely this level of complication creates an often enthralling title where there's ever something to monitor. The dominate battles are easily the highlight of Hollow Fragment as you'll be in a fight with dozens of other players (likewise as your AI partner) against a massive foe and it really encourages you to test all your skills and ensure yous're playing at the top of your game.

Exterior of gainsay, there's a adequately juvenile dating mini-game that you can undertake with whatever of the heroines (and oddly, too Klein). If you take any of these characters to a romantic spot, yous'll engage them in conversation and have to cull the correct response to what they say to raise your bond. Do this enough times and yous'll proceeds the opportunity to carry them up to your room and witness a short CG scene in bed with them earlier falling comatose (which are clearly pandering, but luckily nothing too bad). Sadly, this system is let down by the bottomless localization which means your responses will be by and large guesswork unless you use a guide.

The principal thing that lets Hollow Fragment down aside from this is repetition – after a while, the process of clearing floors and fighting bosses gets tiring and yous'll want to move on to something else. To alleviate this, Aquria included the 'Hollow Area' – an entirely new department that plays somewhat differently than the majority of Aincrad. Corridors are swapped for much larger fields and you're given a winding earth map to explore with plenty of variety institute between each of the zones.

The Hollow Area also introduces 'Hollow Quests' – missions that appear on the fly equally you lot're exploring and introduce new tasks such as stealthily making information technology through an expanse without beingness spotted or finding out how to open a locked door. They serve nicely to shake things upwards and combined with the more than open zones, assistance stave off some of the colorlessness that might come with Aincrad's floor-immigration.

Clearing enough Hollow Quests will aid unlock each sub-area's boss, which offering a like claiming to those found in Aincrad except without the army of other players to assistance bargain impairment. The trouble with the Hollow Area content in full general is merely how unfocused information technology is – while Aincrad was linear to the extreme but you lot at least always know what to practice, the new content offers you complete freedom to go about anywhere and do anything y'all want – which is overwhelming, especially when systems such as levelling upward the console aren't actually explained.

What you're left with and then is one of the most content-rich games on Vita – there's well over 100 hours worth of stuff to do hither and I'd barely scratched the surface later 40 hours. With that said, in that location's a lot of grinding and repetition and inevitably yous'll end up dropping it to play something else – but I found myself continually coming back toHollow Fragment after a bit of time abroad, which worked really well. I can see myself returning to it enough in future to chip away at quests and level up my character also, making it one of the all-time games on Vita for getting your money's worth.

DLC

In that location is DLC forHollow Fragment, but this is mostly free costume packs. The majority of the of import new content was added equally a patch, meaning that everyone will accept admission to it without the need to purchase anything.

Conclusion

In taking on the mammoth chore of creating a video-game that captures all the elements of theSword Art Online anime, Aquria managed to create an enjoyable title literally teeming with content that somehow feels like a big online globe despite the Vita's limitations. There are problems with repetition and grinding while the story veers off at points over the incredibly long run-fourth dimension, but if you know what you're getting into before you start playing,Hollow Fragment offers a very enjoyable experience on the handheld and ane y'all'll likely keep coming back to.

vii.5/10

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Source: https://kresnik258gaming.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/vita-sword-art-online-hollow-fragment-review/

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