Sword Art Online Lost Song Ps4 How to Put Away Weapon

Familiar Tune

Inquire well-nigh folks who watched the Sword Art Online anime series, and they'll likely tell you that the show'due south weaker moments usually coincided with events set in ALfheim Online (ALO), a fairy-themed virtual reality MMO that protagonist Kirito and his friends motility to subsequently the titular Sword Art Online game is shut down.

That sentiment'south by and large held true throughout both of the anime's seasons and then far, marker ALO as a curse of sorts for the franchise'southward narrative integrity. This puts Sword Art Online: Lost Vocal in a fleck of a pickle since the whole damn thing is gear up exclusively within ALO. Can Sword Fine art Online's second game outing survive the bad omens and prove itself where its cousins in print and on Boob tube stumbled?

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

_{[Annotation: This review is based on the English-linguistic communication version of Lost Songreleased in Southeast Asia on Apr 28, 2015. While there may be some differences betwixt this version and the Northward American/EU ones, nosotros expect the core experience will be highly similar, if not identical.]}

Let's not mince words: Similar its predecessorSword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, Lost Vocal is meant for existing fans of Sword Art Online (or at least of Hollow Fragment), and few else exterior that sphere. In fact, Lost Song'due south principal plot well-nigh ensures that just those invested Kirito and the gang'due south adventures and interactions will find fulfillment from the game's narrative.

Simply start, an aside: When it came to the anime and novels, the reason the ALO-set story arcs felt then weak was the overriding sense that the show was treading water. In contrast to original'due south grand hook of "dying in the game means decease for existent", the goal of Kirito playing ALO to search for Asuna carried not virtually equally much weight. This was exacerbated in the second flavour, which followed upwardly an excellent murder mystery set in Gun Gale Online with Kirito and his pals literally simply doing a raid and some quests in ALO for a nice sword. It came to laissez passer that when ALO was onscreen, Sword Art Online became less about exciting adventures and speculative hereafter game blueprint than essentially watching a bunch of nonexistent Allow'southward Players play a nonexistent game.

Lost Songfalls afoul of ALO'south curse equally well, with even its cardinal story affected with the same sense of meandering and lack of stakes. However placed inHollow Fragment's alternative timeline (which saw the bandage stuck in SAO for much longer than in the "canon", and adding characters like Sinon nether different circumstances),Lost Vocal sees Kirito and his posse moving toALfheim Online correct on time for the game to debut "Svart ALfheim", its showtime expansion, consisting of 5 massive floating islands. Being the elevation-class gamers they are, the crew resolves to be the beginning to burn through it.

The quest for "world-get-go" (a motivation familiar to anyone who'south played an MMO) eventually brings them into conflict with Shamrock, a massive guild run by 7, an idol/scientist (!) who'southward taking the opportunity run a big social experiment within ALO. If the whole premise of Lost Vocal's plot sounds similar the kind of inter-guild "drama" that plays out on forums and social media feeds for bodily games today, one wouldn't be too far off.

This puts the bulk 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 adapt storylines from the canon similar the well-received "Female parent's Rosario" arc. In a overnice touch on, these events are generally encountered semi-randomly and often without explicit prompting. A small thing, to be sure, but ane 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, volition get their fill, but players seeking ballsy adventure or the kind of JRPG saga that ends with the heroes saving the world volition come away disappointed.

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

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

Players can string together combos of low-cal and heavy attacks, controlling any iii of up to seventeen playable characters (they can even supplant Kirito equally the leader!), each wielding a number of weapons with signature skills and magic. Special moves and magic can exist triggered by combining shoulder and face buttons. New attacks, spells, and passive effects tin can exist unlocked by leveling upwardly their weapon skills through use, and assigning them to preferred button combinations. A Union approximate fills upward 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 fourth dimension. Most depression-level foes tin can exist dispatched in seconds, and fighting large bosses rewards mobility and effective employ of buffs and debuffs to chop away at their massive, stacked health bars. AI companions fight and back up finer, and need picayune in the style of handholding unless severely under-leveled.

New gear can be found in the field, or bought, identified, and upgraded at Agil and Lisbeth'south shops while Side Quests and Extra Quests can be accustomed at the hub town'due south tavern. Side Quests unremarkably fall into the "Kill X number of Y enemy" category, but Extra Quests normally pose an additional challenge, involving big takedowns of one or more than boss-course foes for better rewards.

And so there's the flight. Being a fairy-themed game, ALO plants wings on all its characters to enable long-distance 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 basis to hovering to racing through the air with a flick of the D-pad. While a bit fiddly at first, this mobility quickly becomes second nature and makes a genuine difference when fighting outdoors, as aerial dashes can exist used to prepare powerful charging attacks, and hovering upwards high can put safe distances between players and footing-spring foes.

Fighting indoors, however, is more of a task, as most dungeons prohibit flying and often accept place against big numbers of enemies spawning in ways that cause the gainsay camera and lock-on part to freak out unpleasantly. Worse still, the dungeons themselves are and then bland and unimaginative that I initially mistook them for being procedurally generated. Having players visit these dungeons in order to progress just hammers dwelling house the apathetic level pattern.

And there's even multiplayer, making Lost Song the only Sword Art Online game that's really, well, online. Local and online play sessions are bachelor, including a PVP versus mode, and squad battles against roided-out versions of the single-player bosses. Information technology's an alright option to have, but there'south niggling compelling reason to engage with it. Players can employ custom characters, merely the customization options are so limited that anything created only resembles the generic NPC characters littering the hub world.

For better or worse, Sword Art Online: Lost Song replicates both the highs and lows of its predecessors. Existing fans of the serial will observe plenty to similar in the further adventures of Kirito and his MMO pals, despite a dull principal story. The revamped mechanics also back up a steady baste-feed of Sword Art Online fan service mainly by not getting in the manner besides much.

Unfortunately, Lost Song stumbles hardest when trying to engage players outside that sphere of pre-existing investment, and in some ways ends up an even less suitable jumping-off point for newbies who desire to make it on enjoying the franchise. My advice to those folks would be to scout the anime or try out Hollow Fragment first. If they're still jonesing for some more of this motley crew of irredeemable MMO nerds when they're done, so Lost Vocal will be music to their ears.

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

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

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Source: https://www.destructoid.com/reviews/review-sword-art-online-lost-song/

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