Got my first physical retail Vita game in years; Sword Art Online Lost Song
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Personally been looking forward to playing this and finally dived into the game for a good....four or so hours at this point.
The story and set-up is something I always wanted from the series as a whole; just Kirito and his friends having a fun time playing some MMORPG. And while the second half of S2 covered this, there was a lot of potential with the set up Hollow Fragment had with how it fixed up the story the anime fumbled up a bit with S1 (in my personal opinion; outright loathed the second of S1). But it wasn't because of ALO; the world itself looked amazing, the concept of flying around is a fantastic one and I loved how it uses Norse mythology as a basis for its location/myths/NPC's/ect.
So having a game focused on this section of the anime all the while continuing the story I personally enjoyed from first half of S1 & Hollow Fragment, I was very excited to see what the story offered.
And so far, its good. I like the character interactions, the translation is great (thank got the Engerish is gone.....), and Kirito isn't an idiot when interacting with his female friends (which was an element I really didn't like about Hollow Fragment). The second-half S2 characters get some screen time, and new characters are introduced and this was nice to see; new takes on fimilar faces alongside three new faces that have signifcant story roles.
The gameplay itself is the one area I don't know how to comment on. I loved the combat system of Hollow Fragment and I will say right now that I prefer that over Lost Song's combat. But, I love how dynamic and mobile you are now; flying opens the door to some great fights, the stronger dashing mechanics and having the ability to jump does a lot to make the pace and speed of the combat better.
It sacrifices the depth Hollow Fragment had sadly, but considering how fun it is to fly around, I honestly don't mind the combat changes. The dungeons were good in Hollow Fragment but nothing amazing. That seems to be the case with Lost Song too so far; every dungeon feels the 'same' and they are far shorter then the ones in Hollow Fragment (both in comparison to the Floor ones AND the Hollow Area ones). That is okay as its fun exploring the overworlds but its a shame that they didn't mix those up. Espcally with the flying mechanics, you can have some really creative dungeon designs. There are signs of that though; switches that activate launch pads, switches that do different things, ect.
The biggest thing I have to commend the game on is giving us the option to play as any of the party members in the game. Granted, this more or less an replacement for Kritio having the ability to use all the weapon types from Hollow Fragment, but its nice to play as Asuna, Kline, Leafa, and others.
The visuals and music are my last take away and personally, was very impressed when I booted the game up and played for the first hour or so. The game runs very well and it has some great lighting effects. Shadows casting over the ground, the grass and texture work in the world being great when flying around, the character models looking closer to the anime then Hollow Fragment and little touches during the cut-scenes (character stills moving around, text boxes shaking, lips moving when characters are talking, ect) really make it a step up visually compared to Hollow Fragment (which was a mix between HD PSP Remaster and Original PS Vita game).
Overall, really enjoying Lost Song so far and I am hopeful that we will get Hollow Realization next year on Vita
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