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Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment |OT| Now in English | #YOLO - You Only Live Online
- Thread starter Parakeetman
- Start date
Can't confirm myself because I'm miles away from NG+, but apparently everything except Liz Upgrade abilities, Sinon ability to use bows and Aincrad progress gets carried over.
Dunno about Hollow Area.
bobawesome
Member
Outside of this thread it's pretty mixed. Watch some gameplay videos first to see if the combat and exploration looks okay to you.
edit: As for my personal opinion, it's for only the hardcore fans of the series. Outside of the SAO skin it still has the trappings of a generic anime game.
Sweet. Thanks for the info!
Have to write a review for the game soon so I'm playing rather casually without minmaxing or worrying too much, but I do plan to make a nice run and try to unlock everything after this one, that's why I asked in case you were wondering
It really depends :l.
I mean, the core gameplay looks to be really fun
. It is action-based with the ability to link your main attack with sword skills (special attacks that use the SP gauge) and working with your party member (telling them to 'switch' out with them aka them taking your place for a bit, that they are doing a good job, ect). The worlds (both, Alciard and the Hallow Area) are humongous; filled with lots of places to explore, treasure to find, bosses to kill and lots more . The visuals and music seem to be very solid too; the former being really colorful and varied with its locations (with it mostly being very stable with a patch coming next month that improves upon that) and the latter fits the games world great.
The story....is where things start to get mixed :l. The original anime was so great due to a smart mix of character drama and damn good action, with the 'fan-service' stuff being very, very limited. Granted, you did have a romance in the anime but it was pulled off very well (I think at least
), so it only added to the conclusion of episode 14. The issue with the game though, the fan service takes up a large amount of the 'story' of the game, with the Kitaro being in either awkward situations with the girls, someone dragging him into the situation (Klen and Yui mainly XD!) and just doing something/walking into situations at the wrong time, making the fan service stuff largly played for laughs but can be a bother to those not being a huge fan of that stuff. Granted, there are some story parts in the game that is very well done
. The family scenes with Kitaro, Asuan and Yui are really well done and the core story (I think :l) seems good. The game is a tittle that is overflowing with content, has solid presentation and music, and a story while a bit too fan service-y, doesn't detract from the game in the slightest (you can largely ignore most of the events, only focusing on the Hollow Area events and the Floor clearing sections). If you like action-RPG's, love the show or like the design/structure of proper MMO's then you might love the game
. I know I can't wait to get this latter on
.You see, I can't really agree with the only for fans part, because as a "fan" (read all the Light Novel up to volume 14) of SAO I'm totally not satisfied by the "story" and massive Fanservice this game has.
I only skim over most events (even skipping some outright), the only interesting part so far were the Hollow Area events.
I actually bought the game for a semi-good Story because in all gameplay videos the combat looked really slow and totally not my liking. I thought I could stomach a combat system that's not my taste when there is a solid story.
Well turns out, I'm playing the game because of the gameplay (except the tedious and totally unnecessary "dating" part) and not the story.
I know it is more than just the way the map looks that is confusing at first, but this may help until we get the same link/pathing in patch 1.03 next month! It will at least give you and idea of how to get from Point A to Point B. Also if you didn't know, talking to Philia and choosing Chat shows the 'route' you need to take to get where she wants you to go.
I know it is more than just the way the map looks that is confusing at first, but this may help until we get the same link/pathing in patch 1.03 next month! It will at least give you and idea of how to get from Point A to Point B. Also if you didn't know, talking to Philia and choosing Chat shows the 'route' you need to take to get where she wants you to go.
I actually did and still was confused as hell lol
DaSorcerer7
Member
It really depends :l.
I mean, the core gameplay looks to be really fun
The visuals and music seem to be very solid too; the former being really colorful and varied with its locations (with it mostly being very stable with a patch coming next month that improves upon that) and the latter fits the games world great.
The story....is where things start to get mixed :l. The original anime was so great due to a smart mix of character drama and damn good action, with the 'fan-service' stuff being very, very limited. Granted, you did have a romance in the anime but it was pulled off very well (I think at least
Granted, there are some story parts in the game that is very well done
The game is a tittle that is overflowing with content, has solid presentation and music, and a story while a bit too fan service-y, doesn't detract from the game in the slightest (you can largely ignore most of the events, only focusing on the Hollow Area events and the Floor clearing sections). If you like action-RPG's, love the show or like the design/structure of proper MMO's then you might love the game
I know I can't wait to get this latter on
Alright thanks for the breakdown much appreciated.
You are a saint for this.I know it is more than just the way the map looks that is confusing at first, but this may help until we get the same link/pathing in patch 1.03 next month! It will at least give you and idea of how to get from Point A to Point B. Also if you didn't know, talking to Philia and choosing Chat shows the 'route' you need to take to get where she wants you to go.
The actual exits in any given map are often not completely accurate to the overall hollow map. Like exiting a west-facing exit on a map could actually bring you south of where you were on the hollow map. Just gotta check the hollow map every time you transition areas to make sure you're on the right track.
Man the camera sucks in this occasionally. Fighting the Dragon NMs in the tower of the second hollow area and the camera just goes wild, swimming back and forth so much that I can't see myself half the time and it makes it impossible to dodge every attack. Kinda annoying really, still beat them lol.
For those that have played a bit, what are your go to skills? Id love to hear your favorite battle skills and sword skills.
So far i have just leveled whatever weapon i get that is the best and use some random sword skills they have. Im using a spear now that i have +3 with hit and its glorious. The sword skills i use are:
- Twin Thrust
- Revolve arts (ive gotten one star in this, dont know what that means)
- Trip Expand
Battle skills i use now are:
- Gain exp
- Enemy search
- Charge SP
- Lightning ATK
- PRT Prayer
So far i have just leveled whatever weapon i get that is the best and use some random sword skills they have. Im using a spear now that i have +3 with hit and its glorious. The sword skills i use are:
- Twin Thrust
- Revolve arts (ive gotten one star in this, dont know what that means)
- Trip Expand
Battle skills i use now are:
- Gain exp
- Enemy search
- Charge SP
- Lightning ATK
- PRT Prayer
Finally had the time to play this game for several hours. I didn't want to play too much before in smaller doses with all the tutorials at the beginning.
So far I'm enjoying the game a lot
Maxed out the relationship bar with Asuna. Cute pillow talk but unfortunately nothing happened with a maxed bar. And a bit of a wasted opportunity with the dialogue system. Just some random lines that don't even necessarily fit to the character. I talked with Sinon afterwards and the very first line was something like I'm confessing my love now. Feels a bit out of character. But at least I like her bed image and dialogue
I got lost in the hollow area. I was searching the garden for the first event but the game doesn't give any clues. A general direction would have been nice. I assume this gets easier the more you explore and know the area.
Besides that I really enjoyed the time in the area. Especially once I stopped just spamming the circle button and removing the one skill on the burst setting and actively using skills instead the battle system got immensely more enjoyable.
Seems like a really cool battle system. I'm looking forward playing more later today.
The skill system is still overwhelming though. So many skills and no idea what I want. I think I have ~50 skill points by now and not a single one spend.
Maybe I should try some other weapons to get a better feel on what I like. I will try some next time.
I screwed up one hollow mission. Reach something without getting detected. I hope that's not too bad. I tried to exit and re-enter the area but the quest didn't start over.
Found another quest to kill some ladybugs. That went fine.
So far I'm enjoying the game a lot
Maxed out the relationship bar with Asuna. Cute pillow talk but unfortunately nothing happened with a maxed bar. And a bit of a wasted opportunity with the dialogue system. Just some random lines that don't even necessarily fit to the character. I talked with Sinon afterwards and the very first line was something like I'm confessing my love now. Feels a bit out of character. But at least I like her bed image and dialogue
I got lost in the hollow area. I was searching the garden for the first event but the game doesn't give any clues. A general direction would have been nice. I assume this gets easier the more you explore and know the area.
Besides that I really enjoyed the time in the area. Especially once I stopped just spamming the circle button and removing the one skill on the burst setting and actively using skills instead the battle system got immensely more enjoyable.
Seems like a really cool battle system. I'm looking forward playing more later today.
The skill system is still overwhelming though. So many skills and no idea what I want. I think I have ~50 skill points by now and not a single one spend.
Maybe I should try some other weapons to get a better feel on what I like. I will try some next time.
I screwed up one hollow mission. Reach something without getting detected. I hope that's not too bad. I tried to exit and re-enter the area but the quest didn't start over.
Found another quest to kill some ladybugs. That went fine.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
dont worry if you mess up hollow missions as you can do them again after a certain amount of time.
haven't been to the hollow mission yet, just going through Aincrad, the character interactions are great if you love the anime
Basically, any time you do a mission in the Hollow Area you want to talk to Philia who will give you an approximate "map" (I use this term loosely because it just shows you the area names and the direction you should travel).
Once you talk to Philia and decide which direction to travel in, use your compass and on screen map and start heading in that direction. Every time you change areas, check with Philia again to see if it looks like you are on track or at least heading in the right direction. Also use the Hollow Map as it will show you where you are in relation to the other zones around you.
For example, last night I had a mission that was approximately West from the control room. I ended up getting off track several times but as long as I kept checking with Philia and using the Hollow Map I was eventually able to find the correct destination. On the way I managed to score a very nice spear, two nice one-handed swords and a nice rapier so even the detours and backtracking were beneficial.
Once you talk to Philia and decide which direction to travel in, use your compass and on screen map and start heading in that direction. Every time you change areas, check with Philia again to see if it looks like you are on track or at least heading in the right direction. Also use the Hollow Map as it will show you where you are in relation to the other zones around you.
For example, last night I had a mission that was approximately West from the control room. I ended up getting off track several times but as long as I kept checking with Philia and using the Hollow Map I was eventually able to find the correct destination. On the way I managed to score a very nice spear, two nice one-handed swords and a nice rapier so even the detours and backtracking were beneficial.
Mendax
Member
Not alone, but you have to be in singleplayer (with Philia) to do the hollow story instead of in multiplayer
Mendax
Member
Yeah, Philia's story with
laughing coffin
darkblade77
Member
I'm not sure if this has been brought up already, but I was grinding out the sword skills to unlock OSS and I noticed a few things:
-Stunning counts as a sword skill for the Implement quest, even when not fully charged
-If you are hit out of a stun attempt, you get credit for performing it(as a sword skill)
-You can spam the stun button when you're hit out of a stun attempt a few times and your character will flash multiple times(each worth credit); attempting to stun but cancelling out of it counts
You can speed up your progress on the unlock quite a bit by taking advantage of this
-Stunning counts as a sword skill for the Implement quest, even when not fully charged
-If you are hit out of a stun attempt, you get credit for performing it(as a sword skill)
-You can spam the stun button when you're hit out of a stun attempt a few times and your character will flash multiple times(each worth credit); attempting to stun but cancelling out of it counts
You can speed up your progress on the unlock quite a bit by taking advantage of this
ok, this game is huge
mgs2master2
Banned
So I think I am patiently waiting for the patch before I resume the game.
There's even more if you go into the concealed area in MP mode which has 125 floors + bosses to fight through. That part alone could've been a lower budget PSP game on its own.
How can I change costumes back? I unlocked Asuna's attack equipment and wanted to see how it looks.
I tried 'change to default initial equipment' but that's not the default outfit she had before. It looks similar but has additional shoulder pads and the cape-thing is missing.
Any way to get her actual default outfit?
edit: seems to be a glitch :/ luckily I made a backup of my save earlier and only lost one hour of gameplay.
I tried 'change to default initial equipment' but that's not the default outfit she had before. It looks similar but has additional shoulder pads and the cape-thing is missing.
Any way to get her actual default outfit?
edit: seems to be a glitch :/ luckily I made a backup of my save earlier and only lost one hour of gameplay.
bobawesome
Member
Well, I threw in the bit about "hardcore" fans because they're more likely to overlook a game's flaws if it's a series they like. I'm not saying that's necessarily the case with most people in this thread, though. I'll eventually come back to it since I've already bought it and everyone praises the gameplay on a consistent basis. I can't help but feel that I'm doing something wrong or haven't played long enough to discover its depth.
RedHotChimiChanga
Banned
Just started the game. The initial fight made it confusing, so I started reading the manual.
Dating sim? Fuck yeah.
Dating sim? Fuck yeah.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Get ready for disappointment as its not really a dating sim at all. So you might as well throw that excitement right out of the window.
Most def the team behind this title were real gamers seeing how much content they threw into it plus its obviously designed as a game they would want to play and spend time with. Rather than designing something to make $$$ first and gameplay later.
You might as well level up yourself and partner characters in the mean time as the newer content is geared towards higher level players anyways.
RedHotChimiChanga
Banned
Get ready for disappointment as its not really a dating sim at all. So you might as well throw that excitement right out of the window.
But... it says you can sleep in bed together. =(
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Thats if you take the time to press buttons to nonsensical text quips to raise their affection level to a certain point.
names2hard4you
Member
*Presses R1* "Indeed"
Sorry folks I was at Fan Expo all day today. Managed to snag myself a bunch of artwork from fan artists, and amongst the haul, I got a little Kirito figure, even though I'm not into the whole figure scene. Just thought why not, looks cool, and I love the series. It was cheap, so might as well
There is not, and it is kind of funny playing this for hours on end and then switching back to Dark Souls II DLC and being unable to do anything because my brain still thinks O is X. =)
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Unfortunately not as thats a coding issue on the development side. Which they did not do properly since its quite apparent they used the Asia regions game code or else that X / O mapping would not be the "Asia" region mapping.
The Last Wizard
Member
I was trying to hold out for the September patch but I beat tox2 and need something to play now
I think I'm gonna do it...
I think I'm gonna do it...
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
I was trying to hold out for the September patch but I beat tox2 and need something to play now
I think I'm gonna do it...
As stated multiple times the game without the patch is perfectly functional, plus the content is geared towards higher level players.
And there is the community here to talk to incase of anything comes up in the mean time lol
The Last Wizard
Member
Oh the patch isn't for the translation?
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
How do I sleep with Philia?
Skyfireblaze
Member
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Truthfully we have zero idea of whats going on with any sort of translation patch. The supposed September update is for the massive content update which adds new areas, quests, dungeons, bosses etc able to drag along Argo and some other stuff besides balancing and tweaks to the game itself.
names2hard4you
Member
I don't think you will see any major changes in the script to be honest. The Asian version however DID have a few typos cleaned up, but the sentence structure was left the same.
The patch does bring a whole bunch of improvements to the gameplay, and close to 30hrs of more content, that just like Parakeet said, is there for higher level players. You are welcome to play it lower leveled, since that's part of the fun in this game, beating stuff 10,20,30,40 lvls above you.
You might have a tough time in these new areas if you don't at least have some good skills and have a good understanding of the game's systems, if you do decide to tackle it with a low level.
The patch does bring a whole bunch of improvements to the gameplay, and close to 30hrs of more content, that just like Parakeet said, is there for higher level players. You are welcome to play it lower leveled, since that's part of the fun in this game, beating stuff 10,20,30,40 lvls above you.
You might have a tough time in these new areas if you don't at least have some good skills and have a good understanding of the game's systems, if you do decide to tackle it with a low level.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Not to mention some decent equipment.
names2hard4you
Member
Oh yeah. And a decently trained Heroine too. If you yourself have a low level, I can only guess that the Heroine will most likely have an even lower level than yourself.
Parakeetman
No one wants a throne you've been sitting on!
Yeah, there is way more than enough to do without the content update and all that does is give players who have pressed on far into the game more things to do end gamewise.
Which is why new players really shouldnt worry too much about it yet.
Sure there are fixes and improvements, but the game is perfectly functional even without them.