Many of us have watched the anime for Sword Art Online by this time. In fact, the show has received a cult following, and with good reason. After the first season, many were a bit disgusted at one of the details of the plot, and I also was one of them. There are a few games that follow the story line, and they have mixed reviews. This is a dive into the very first of them- Hollow Fragment, released on the Playstation Vita.
Hollow Fragment started what would be a series of 3 sword art games, and then a mashup title with Accel World vs. Sword Art. I don't count the initial Sword Art game on the PSP from 2013, due to the fact that it was a very low key, and limited release title, even by the series' standards, as well as the fact that its content is in Hollow Fragment. The storyline of Sword art follows one similar to the Dot Hack series from over a decade ago, with a community of online gamers being trapped in an online game, where death in-game translates to the real world. The difference, is that this plight was caused directly by the creator of the game itself, Akahiko Kayaba. Also, while Dot hack had a deep story behind a gaming system that turned on the players, Sword Art has what I feel is even more depth, with much of the conflict being swept up in government experimentation, with somewhat genuine, but sinister intentions. It really makes you pause with some of the arguments that occur.
The art style is some of the new age cel-shaded graphics, like other titles, such as Black Rock Shooter, God Eater Burst, Gravity Rush and Freedom Wars. I really like how technology has improved this. I remember the first Cel-shaded game, back near the turn of the millennium. It was a game called Cel Damage, that came out for all 3 major consoles at the time- Xbox, Gamecube, and PS2. It was literally rough around the edges, and it sucked somewhat as a game, but it intrigued gamers. Now, it has been polished so much, that it is used often for anime-based games, often looking better than using traditional sprites.
You spend much of your time in the one hub town of Arc Sophia, which is on the the 75th floor of the games over arching tower. The game starts with you completing the 74th floor, with the players left alive, and taking refuge in the town. In the anime story, it was just after the 75th floor, that Kirito- the main charater, and a few friends, were confronted unexpectedly by Kayabe and challenged to a duel. Kirito defeated him, which ended the game prematurely. In the game, you play out the remaining 25 floors before facing Kayaba and his constituents. There is a ton of dialogue and plot development, which is appreciated, but extraneous.
You have a main floor boss, that you try to gather intel on for each floor. Along the way, there will be 3 or so missions that allow you to gather materials, and intel on the way. You will face increasingly difficult enemies, and battle with a real time combat system, with customizable special attacks, and a Just system, that allows you to use well timed evasion, and techniques to boost attack, and replenish special meter. Mastering that is essential to beating the game. The combat system flowed very well, and never got overly stale. However, Kirito is naturally, a dual sword user. I chose to main the Rapier technique. I feel as if the game punished me for that. By the time I was near the end of the game, between the damage output, and the defensive liabilities, I had to switch back to the dual swords to be formidable against the field. You also start with techniques unlocked, and the game really turns you off with the fact that you are continuing a high powered character, rather than building your own.
Also, in the new trend of perversion, there seems to be a constant stream of needless dialogue leading to the girl characters hitting on Kirito in different ways. They all want him desperately, and try to act as if they are being coy, while fawning over him incessantly. It was nauseating at a point. And the thing about it all is that he is married in the game. In fact, that was one of the beauties. The relationship between him and his wife, and their struggles and passion, was very well translated into the game.There was an aspect of the anime that was kept at bay in the game. In the anime, Kirito's sister, who plays the character Leafa, wants him badly in real life. They are actually cousins in real life, which she doesn't think Kirito knows at first, although they are raised as siblings. Somehow, she not only justifies loving him, but actually attacks him in the anime, in disgust, that he won't drop his wife and love- Asuna, and take her instead. It was infuriating, especially considering the deep love Kirito and Asuna have. Many viewers complained about that annoying and disgusting debauchery after the first season. She never really gives up either. But eventually she accepts things to a degree. The game did a good job minimizing that nonsensical part of the story. I remember tear jerker moments in the anime series, and this game has its own as well. Sometimes, you will have a side quest that completes a mission that draws Kirito and Asuna closer. On one of them, you have to repair the wedding ritual that mysteriously gets deleted, effectively divorcing them. The mission confuses them, but ultimately draws them closer to each other. It was very romantic.
When it comes to aesthetics. the game was sorely lacking in the cutscene department. It was actually ridiculous for an RPG. In the very beginning, you got a couple, and at the end you got a couple. One huge issue with the game, is that during each and every cutscene, the game skips like crazy, as if it wasn't designed to run them. That was very off-putting. The game also felt a bit linear for my taste as well. You had just enough missions to advance the plot, with a few dialogue initiated sidequests. There wasn't much exploration to be done. Also the cutscenes of the game were 98% dialogue segments. They were extremely long, and annoying, and it seemed like the developers put the most time into that aspect of the game. The translation is also loaded with errors. At a point towards the end of the game, I started avoiding them like the plague, because you will literally spend over 20 minutes trying to get through the dialogue.
Ultimately, like the show's plot, I loved the intrigue, and the passion of the main protagonists. However, it was in a very rough casing. This game feels like a rushed title, that is bare bones, with nothing to offer an individual gamer. It feeds off of the namesake, and was meant to jump off of the shelves on that alone. It feels cheap, and under developed, which is sad, because it has a good gaming engine to work with. The will just wasn't there to do that. In fact, one thing that jumped out to me, was that certain aspects like cooking, and equipment augmentation, were relegated to cutscene talk and side-quest scenario shenanigans. None of those elements are in the game. This mimmicks the anime show, but completely disregards the fact that this is a game. In the game, those elements would exist, like they do in the Monster Hunter series. There were things like that which could have elevated the game, that were completely ignored. It literally felt like playing a show.
Good combat system aside, it was stale without the dialogue plot development. They were better off just making an interactive graphic novel like the Daganronpa series. Almost none of the bosses were very challenging. This is because as long as you did the 3 required mission between bosses, your squad was automatically more than strong enough to tackle them. And after the 3 missions were complete, there were no more for entire floor. And you could not grind too far, because the current enemies quickly become too weak to give much experience at all. There really wasn't any room to excel or fail in your own way. It just isn't a game that I would play for enjoyment. The great story, and very solid combat system carry the entire game. The rest is a glitch filled disappointment. To its credit, there is the Hollow area, which is one huge all-encompassing map, which can be explored and unlocked systematically, to complete missions that give perks to your powers if the requirements are met. I tried to explore it as much as I could, and got to a point where I was blocked by a gate, with no explanation on how to open it. It was a journey that took longer than expected. In fact, at one point, when I saw how long it took to clear 9 floors and get to floor 85, I began to think it might take over 100 hours to get to the last floors. I wasn't that far off. The dialogue expands the time quite a bit.
In all fairness, it was a captivating game experience in its own weird way. I even have the sequel- Lost Song, on tab to play in the future. I would have to say the game is at least serviceable. I would score it a 6.8/10
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