Sword Art Online or Tales of Hearts R?
I can't decide... :/
I will link to posts I made in this and the sale thread to help you:
"-SAO is a great action JRPG that has hundreds of hours worth of content with some of the Vita's most colorful visuals. The combat system is quite deep and the level systems will lead you investing hours into your characters. Great game that suffers from a bad translation (that can be funny at times) and expectation that you saw the anime prior to playing (up to episode 13-14). Made a catch-up post in the sale thread that I will link here:
Regarding the story, look at the following:
-Takes place in a VR MMO, but the characters cannot log out due to that feature being locked out by the creator.
-Leads to everyone going into a panic, but coming to the realization that they need to beat the game to be free (which is 100 Floors of dungeons).
-Main character Kirtio was a beta tester for the game before its launch, so he is skilled with its systems
-He meets his harl....I mean, cast of female friends across the anime
-Gets close to a female player named Asuna and they become 'married' in-game.
-Their 'daughter' is a AI program that they encountered in one of the anime's episodes, who they took in as their 'real' kid
-Final battle in the anime was in Floor 75 and in the anime, after the fight with the creator of the game, it ended, with everyone going free
-This game (Hallow Fragment) takes place in an different reality, where the game DOESN'T end, it just goes on and glitches out
-The cast of the anime have to deal with this and continue through the floors until they beat the final boss on Floor 100
-Character introductions are very clouded, so I will explain them here: Sinon was bought to the world due to a glitch during VR therapy. Leafa (Sugu) was brought to the game on her own will; used a friends NerveGear (the things they use to play SAO) and loged in to see her brother/cousin. Strea is a 'new' player in the game world but is a AI program similar to Kirtio's daughter; originally a mental-health montaring program in the game but was brought out with the other players after the 'glitch'. Philla is a player affected by the 'glitch', who after 'killing' another player, is locked in the Hallow Area (the first playable area in the game you see) and you work with her to fine a way out for her
-Everyone knows Kirto is married to Asuna but they don't care because they all want him :l. Hey, the game creators couldn't fix everything from the anime XD.
Originally Posted by RK128
A point I forgot to mention is this; the Hallow Area (the large open part of the game) and Alcard (Floors 75-100) are segregated in terms of game progression.
Hallow Area is the 'hard' part of the game, with high level foes roaming about and is the place you go to for strong gear, powerful swords and just level grinding. It also has its own story with Phila you need to complete in order to have her be part of your party/unlock events in Alicard.
Alicard is the 'normal' part of the game; you go into the fields, take on side quests from the quest NPC, and fight through the dungeon until you find the place's boss. After you do all of that, you pair up with a party member and you join a 'raid' to fight the boss. You gain bonuses if you land the last hit and if no one dies (as 'death' is a real death; you can't revive anyone. That is a huge reason why that is a big deal in the anime).
It's best to do them one at a time; get your footing in Alicard first in understanding the core combat systems/controls/party system. Then, go to the Hallow Area again (by the time your each say, Floor 80-82) then focus strictly on clearing the story for that while also exploring it to find powerful gear for the final stretches of that area.
My last suggestion is taking advantage of the multiplayer mode system, where you, a party member and four AI players can go into the Hallow Area and fight it out. The best part is that any EXP and Levels these AI players get, caries over to the single player mode. Fast way to level grind honestly XD.
-Tales of Hearts R is a great time so far, and I made a long post on my reactions fo the game. So, will link that here as well:
Put an hour into Tales of Hearts R and its good so far
.
The visuals are solid; nothing that amazing but they look very colorful and clean. And with the game being native res (I think so?) and running at a very smooth frame rate, the visuals work great for the game
. Music wise, the game is good too, with the battle theme being cool.
Combat system here is great though; it feels a bit like Smash Bros. to me; you have the Up button the D-Pad to jump, the X button for basic attacks, O button for special attacks and you Square for blocking/dodging attacks. While it isn't exactly like Smash Bros., its close enough to it for me to really enjoy the combat system
. Once I fully grasp its mechanics, that should be the highlight of the game for me.
The leveling systems are also very interesting, as you have a lot of customization to play around with; you gain points when you level up (10+ points per level) and those points can be applied to one of five parts of your Spira (Heart). Each part covers a different thing and even you don't fully level a part, you still get something from each point you apply to it, leading to a lot of options for leveling up. You even get special gear if you do it well; I fully leveled to two parts, and they connected, leading to me gaining a very powerful sword for Kor (the main character) to use in combat.
The story is....generic, abet with some charm and personality thrown into the mix. Plot of 'main character fucks something up and goes on a quest to do things right' with a dash of 'parental figure dying at the beginning' and even the 'love interest' being shoved into the game not even 20 minutes in.
But that isn't a bad thing; with those 'core' things in place after the first half-hour, you can see the translator's efforts to make the game have character come though. Each character has there own little quarks and you do get a sense of growth. Even only an hour in, I'm starting to see that, so I'm interested to see what happens next
.
Overall, really glad I got this; great summer RPG to play through alongside VC2 (and I never played those types of games before....should be fun
)."