My Photos Are Not Hurting Monster Sword Art Online Lost Song

April 27, 2022 Post a Comment

Familiar Tune

Ask most folks who watched the Sword Art Online anime series, and they'll likely tell yous that the show's weaker moments usually coincided with events fix in ALfheim Online (ALO), a fairy-themed virtual reality MMO that protagonist Kirito and his friends move to afterwards the titular Sword Fine art Online game is shut downward.

That sentiment's generally held true throughout both of the anime's seasons so far, marking ALO as a expletive of sorts for the franchise'south narrative integrity. This puts Sword Art Online: Lost Song in a fleck of a pickle since the whole damn thing is set exclusively within ALO. Can Sword Fine art Online's second game outing survive the bad omens and prove itself where its cousins in impress and on Tv set stumbled?

Sword Art Online: Lost Song (PS4, PS3, PS Vita [reviewed])
Programmer: Artdink
Publisher: Bandai Namco Games
MSRP: $39.99 (Vita), $59.99 (PS4)
Released: November 17, 2015 (NA), November 13, 2015 (EU), April 28, 2015 (SEA), March 26, 2015 (JP)

_{[Notation: This review is based on the English-language version of Lost Songreleased in Southeast Asia on Apr 28, 2015. While there may exist some differences between this version and the North American/European union ones, we expect the core experience will be highly similar, if not identical.]}

Let's not mince words: Like its predecessorSword Fine art Online: Hollow Fragment, Lost Song is meant for existing fans of Sword Art Online (or at least of Hollow Fragment), and few else outside that sphere. In fact, Lost Song'south main plot virtually ensures that simply those invested Kirito and the gang'southward adventures and interactions will detect fulfillment from the game'south narrative.

Simply showtime, an aside: When information technology came to the anime and novels, the reason the ALO-set story arcs felt so weak was the overriding sense that the prove was treading water. In contrast to original's one thousand claw of "dying in the game means death for existent", the goal of Kirito playing ALO to search for Asuna carried non nearly as much weight. This was exacerbated in the 2nd season, which followed up an excellent murder mystery prepare in Gun Gale Online with Kirito and his pals literally merely doing a raid and some quests in ALO for a dainty sword. Information technology came to laissez passer that when ALO was onscreen, Sword Fine art Online became less about heady adventures and speculative hereafter game design than substantially watching a bunch of nonexistent Allow's Players play a nonexistent game.

Lost Vocalfalls afoul of ALO'southward curse likewise, with fifty-fifty its cardinal story afflicted with the same sense of meandering and lack of stakes. However placed inHollow Fragment's alternative timeline (which saw the cast stuck in SAO for much longer than in the "catechism", and adding characters like Sinon under unlike circumstances),Lost Song sees Kirito and his posse moving toALfheim Online correct on time for the game to debut "Svart ALfheim", its showtime expansion, consisting of five massive floating islands. Being the meridian-class gamers they are, the crew resolves to be the first to burn through it.

The quest for "world-showtime" (a motivation familiar to anyone who'south played an MMO) somewhen brings them into disharmonize with Shamrock, a massive social club run by Seven, an idol/scientist (!) who's taking the opportunity run a big social experiment within ALO. If the whole premise of Lost Song's plot sounds like the kind of inter-society "drama" that plays out on forums and social media feeds for bodily games today, ane wouldn't be too far off.

This puts the majority of the game's narrative appeal in the interactions between cast members new and old, told via entertaining Tales of-style vignettes, in-game events, and lengthy personal quests, some of which arrange storylines from the canon like the well-received "Mother'due south Rosario" arc. In a nice touch, these events are mostly encountered semi-randomly and oft without explicit prompting. A minor thing, to be sure, only one that channels the "live" qualities of MMO play, where impromptu encounters and stories grow even against otherwise static environs and content. Ultimately, though, those invested in seeing the characters of Sword Art Online again, sporting their ALO-styled redesigns and touting long-running in-jokes, will get their fill, merely players seeking ballsy run a risk or the kind of JRPG saga that ends with the heroes saving the world will come away disappointed.

It doesn't help, either, that Lost Song doesn't work very difficult to innovate players to the characters themselves. In some means that'due south to be expected, seeing as this is a sequel to Hollow Fragment and generally features the same faces (with a few more added), but curious folks who simply want to know what the fuss over Sword Fine art Online is all about would exist better served past picking up Re: Hollow Fragment (the "Director's Cut" PS4 port of Hollow Fragment), or just watching the anime.

Narrative pitfalls bated, Lost Song is at least less of a slog to play, mechanically, bringing some new, entertaining gimmicks to the table. The gainsay system ditches the machine-attacks, casting times, and menus of Hollow Fragment for a straightforward, directly-controlled action-RPG setup.

Players tin can string together combos of calorie-free and heavy attacks, decision-making any three of upwardly to seventeen playable characters (they can even replace Kirito every bit the leader!), each wielding a number of weapons with signature skills and magic. Special moves and magic tin can exist triggered by combining shoulder and face buttons. New attacks, spells, and passive furnishings can be unlocked by leveling up their weapon skills through employ, and assigning them to preferred button combinations. A Union judge fills up in battle, and when triggered enables devastating "Switch" attacks involving the whole party.

While simpler and arguably less deep than Hollow Fragment, the new system is more engaging and wastes less time. About low-level foes can be dispatched in seconds, and fighting large bosses rewards mobility and effective use of buffs and debuffs to chop away at their massive, stacked health bars. AI companions fight and back up finer, and need little in the way of handholding unless severely under-leveled.

New gear can be establish in the field, or bought, identified, and upgraded at Agil and Lisbeth's shops while Side Quests and Extra Quests can be accepted at the hub town'south tavern. Side Quests usually autumn into the "Kill X number of Y enemy" category, but Actress Quests usually pose an additional claiming, involving big takedowns of ane or more boss-class foes for better rewards.

And then there'south the flying. Existence a fairy-themed game, ALO plants wings on all its characters to enable long-altitude travel and a level of verticality rarely embraced in the RPG space. Lost Song gladly obliges, featuring huge, open-world maps populated by roaming enemies and dotted with dungeons at varying altitudes. Players can switch from running on the ground to hovering to racing through the air with a pic of the D-pad. While a bit fiddly at first, this mobility chop-chop becomes 2d nature and makes a genuine divergence when fighting outdoors, as aerial dashes tin can be used to set up powerful charging attacks, and hovering up high can put safe distances between players and ground-bound foes.

Fighting indoors, however, is more of a chore, every bit almost dungeons prohibit flight and often take identify against large numbers of enemies spawning in ways that cause the combat camera and lock-on function to freak out unpleasantly. Worse still, the dungeons themselves are so bland and unimaginative that I initially mistook them for being procedurally generated. Having players visit these dungeons in society to progress only hammers dwelling house the blah level design.

And there's fifty-fifty multiplayer, making Lost Song the only Sword Art Online game that'southward actually, well, online. Local and online play sessions are available, including a PVP versus mode, and squad battles against roided-out versions of the single-thespian bosses. It'south an alright option to have, but there's little compelling reason to appoint with it. Players can use custom characters, but the customization options are and then limited that annihilation created simply resembles the generic NPC characters littering the hub world.

For ameliorate or worse, Sword Fine art Online: Lost Song replicates both the highs and lows of its predecessors. Existing fans of the series will notice plenty to similar in the farther adventures of Kirito and his MMO pals, despite a dull main story. The revamped mechanics also support a steady baste-feed of Sword Fine art Online fan service mainly by not getting in the manner besides much.

Unfortunately, Lost Song stumbles hardest when trying to appoint players outside that sphere of pre-existing investment, and in some ways ends up an fifty-fifty less suitable jumping-off point for newbies who want to arrive on enjoying the franchise. My advice to those folks would be to lookout the anime or try out Hollow Fragment first. If they're nonetheless jonesing for some more of this motley crew of irredeemable MMO nerds when they're washed, then Lost Song will exist music to their ears.

_{[This review is based on a retail copy of the game acquired by the reviewer.]}

Fallout 4 (PC, PS4, Xbox I [reviewed])
Developer: Bethesda Game Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
MSRP: $59.99
Released: November 10, 2015