What’s the next step in the process of making a successful anime about a video game? Obviously, you would make a video game about it! Sword Art Online has built up a large following by engrossing anime fans in an MMORPG where death in the game means death in real life. But with bringing the series into a real video game, the challenge is to create the same feeling while keeping the game fun. In many ways, Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment succeeds, simulating a massive multiplayer experience with single player in mind. In this sense, it succeeds, for better and for worse.
Thrust into the world of the anime, Hollow Fragment takes place at the conclusion of episode 15 of the anime, (so you should AT LEAST watch that for unless you’re immune to spoilers). After clearing the 75th floor of the 100 stage tower of Aincrad, the lead character, Kirito, triggers a glitch in the system that locks away the previous floors, forcing the survivors up to this point to keep climbing to the 100th floor, hoping that the deadly game will finally come to an end.
Acting as a “what-if” scenario that pushes the story past the original events of the series, fans of the anime will be pleased to be able to explore the floors beyond 75. Playing as Kirito, you’ll be able to customize his appearance, voice and name to your liking, (the latter option only being available in the beginning), but that won’t stop everyone in the world from calling you by his original name, making the creation tool somewhat of an empty gesture.
Accompanying you on your quests are nearly every female from the anime and manga, (and Klein). Being able to adventure with the likes of Asuna, Silica and Lisbeth is sure to get that fanboy/fangirl side giggling. Even characters who are supposed to appear later in the timeline such as Leafa and Sinon there way in here, because “what-if” is another way of saying, “screw continuity”.
After agreeing to partner up in the HUB world of Arc Sophia, the world is yours to do what you want with. Did you want to spend that three million plus COL that you start with on some new armor or weapons? Go for it! Maybe buy a present for your party member? Knock yourself out! Want to go on an awkward date by leading them to specific parts of the map? Umm… Sure! In this strange mini game, these “dates” consist of the tried and true technique of pretending to listen and agreeing when necessary. With the only social options available consisting of agreeing or disagreeing, is it any wonder how Kirito has so many admirers? Your cool indifference can even lead to you “sharing a bed” with your partner of choice. Did we mention he’s married?
Once your gear is set and you decide on whatever waifu you want to bring on your adventure, your two person party begins taking quests, exploring the floors and fighting through dungeons before reaching the boss. Like what you would expect from a real MMO, some of these missions include killing a certain amount of monsters, collecting items or defeating sub bosses. At times, your in game friends list will send out requests to help them level up or defeat tough enemies, boosting them and yourself in the process.
On that subject, team building is important in the world of SAO. The battle system revolves around the use of an agro system, where enemies only focus on one person at a time. Manipulating this system is the key to victory in Hollow Fragment, since different actions affect their attention in different ways. Primarily, you’ll be able to replace your slow paced auto attack, which builds no agro, (or “Risk”, in this case), with a burst attack. Burst triggers stronger versions of the standard auto combos at will, rewarding the player with boosted damage output and even an extended time frame to use the ability if attacks are timed right. However, the lower the Burst Meter drops, the less damage it does, eventually leading to the loss of your dodge ability. When considering that boost attacking quickly maxes out your Risk, switching with your AI partner to take the heat off is a must, making it especially important to keep their strength up for those hard fought boss battles.
Outside of standard attacks, Kirito can switch between sword abilities that do heavy damage, abilities that boost party members or weaken foes, or issue commands to his teammate. The unique atmosphere of the MMO experience comes fully into play here, where praising your partner, issuing team attacks and answering their requests lead to various buffs during battle. And much like the show, after discovering a boss room, special missions that focus on gathering information on defeating it or strengthening your in game guild’s power must be completed to give your party a fighting chance. You don’t want to carry the guilt of all those dead players on your heart, do you?
But what if you want a break from climbing the floors of Aincrad and just want to kill stuff? That’s where the Hollow Area comes in. Acting as a separate section of the SAO world, this unbelievably large world features a slew of extra missions, powerful monsters and exclusive loot to carry back into the main game. Featuring the option to play with up to four real life friends locally, an already huge game becomes so much bigger thanks to this expanded land. But if you have trouble finding friends with SAO, friends with Vitas, or just friends in general, you can always team up with Philia, a new character with mysterious ties to the new land.
Reading this, it’s clear that there is an insane amount of mechanics to explore, relationships to build, and space to explore. Yet, while it does a great job of creating the feeling of a limitless MMO world, it doesn’t translate as well when the real game is focused on single player. Primarily, accomplishing even the smallest task takes an absurdly long amount of time. This might be great for a real online game that is supposed to last for years, (all while sapping your monthly fee from your wallet), but when playing in a simulation of a social game, it essentially just breaks down to you grinding for hours to gain the smallest amount of strength.
This isn’t helped by the fact that the game literally wants you to be Kirito. With that, comes a character who is already far advanced in level, money and sword skill, making level grinding even more of a pain when every enemy starts off 20 or so levels under him. But what if you want to use a rapier, a dagger or a two handed sword as your primary weapon? Well, then it’s back to square one, forcing players to take level grinding to a whole new level with weapon skill grinding. Be prepared to be taken to the brink of death against dangerous foes like a giant bee, a wild boar and the dreaded snail, because your new weapon will be weak. It will miss A LOT. And in some cases, it won’t have any skills unless you’re willing to grind out a few hours to build up skill points.
All of these problems could have been aliviated if we were allowed to create our own character, at least in the Hollow Area, which is completely seperate from the main narritive. If we were allowed to create our own guy, (or girl, which isn’t possible here), and start from scratch, maybe even fight WITH Kirito and friends instead of AS Kirito, then this could have really been our experience. Instead, we have a situation where I felt like I was picking up in the middle of someone else’s game, having to go out of my way to ignore the stronger, pre-established skills that the previous player upgraded. In a game that’s looking to simulate a customizable RPG, there’s no excuse for this.
Aside from these issues, other nagging problems include the pace of the battle system, the graphics, and the poor translation. Sword Art Online is a fast paced affair on TV, but while the game lets you stack abilities for quick attacks and dodging, it’s still slower than you’d expect considering the source material. Visually, most of the environments look bland, with characters that lack detail outside of the gorgeous 3D cutscenes. Aside from the Hollow Area, the title is actually a Vita port of a PSP release, and it definitely shows. And lastly, while the text gave me some incredible gems like “annoying makes people hated”, and “… lack supporting evidences”, it’s technically not a good thing that the text is filled with so many errors. On the plus side, I never knew that a slash, (as in “/”), could replace alphanumeric symbols.
Yet, despite its flaws, I still had a ton of fun playing Hollow Fragment. Being able to tackle huge boss fights, party up with my favorite characters from the show, and even explore new areas with my friends while my character gets progressively stronger is incredibly rewarding. It’s just too bad that it tries to be too many things to too many people, making it ultimately falter. Not quite MMO, but not quite single player. Not quite anime adaptation, but not quite a standalone experience. Not quite a turn based RPG, but not quite an action RPG. It’s good at what it sets out to do, but is great at none of them, with numerous flaws, keeping SAO from becoming the next must own Vita game. With that said, if you’re a fan of the series, loot grinding, or hundred plus hour RPGs, you can’t go wrong with Sword Art Online.
TL;DR
+ A huge world to explore with countless hours of content.
+ Rewarding boss fights
+ A sense of community with the game’s NPC’s, making you feel invested in their progress.
+ More customizable abilities, techniques and attacks than you’ll know what to do with.
+ A fun, fast-ish paced battle system that rewards team based actions, but…
– It’s still too slow for the action RPG mechanics it tries to impliment.
– Being unable to create your own character rather than a customizable Kirito undermines the customization factor.
– The game seemingly punishes you for wanting to fight with anything other than the signature dual swords.
– Dated graphics and a poor localization job hurt the overall presentation.
– An game based on an online game with no online. Good luck finding local friends with the game and a Vita.
Final Score: 3/5