E3 2015: ‘Sword Art Online: Re Hollow Fragment’ Takes Fan Feedback To Heart
Back in August, when Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment released for the PS Vita, it was generally agreed that the game was serviceable for fans of the popular anime and manga series, but its slow battle speed, grind heavy game play, and poor translation ultimately kept it from being as great as it could have been. With that in mind, Namco Bandai has gone back to the drawing board with Sword Art Online: Re Hollow Fragment, taking fan feedback to make an improved version of the game. Joining many other popular Vita exclusives and jumping ship to the PS4, our hands on time showed that in this case, the move to consoles is like night and day.
If you missed our review of the original game, Hollow Fragment picks up at the end of the first half of the anime, branching off into its own “what if” scenario as Kirito and his friends continue to climb the 100 floors of Aincrad. Still stuck within an MMORPG where players who die in the game die in real life, the group must fight to survive long enough to complete the game, which will set all of the survivors free.
With the ability to team up with characters from the show, (some of which haven’t appeared yet at this point in the story,) level up abilities and weapon skills and build relationships with those around you, each floor has its own set of challenges and bosses before you can proceed to the top. The second part of the game is the game exclusive Hollow Area, where the meat of the game lies. Here, players can explore its huge environments with a friend through co-op play, or pair up with another CPU teammate to tackle its challenges. Featuring over 100 hours of game play if you were to complete everything this massive game offers, that time is likely going to be cut down thanks to the sped up battles.
While playing, it was instantly noticeable how much faster the game moved. In what felt like it was close to twice the speed, each one of Kirito’s attacks took much less time to cast and execute. Considering the game plays similar to what you’d expect from KOTOR or the original Dragon Age, the real time turn based combat never felt plodding like it did before. Naturally, this change applied to your teammate as well, forcing you to stay on your toes with a larger sense of urgency, especially when taking the praise mechanic into account. Trying to send the appropriate message to your partner to boost their morale mid fight was as important as ever, while managing your aggro, skills and health to take down tough enemies.
Thankfully for us, the game play wasn’t the only feature to get a boost from the new hardware. After being reformatted for big screen HD gaming, the world of Sword Art looks much more vibrant with its brighter colors and smoother frame rate. While cycling through the battle banter, the new translation was immediately noticeable, replacing the awkward wording and sentence structure with something that resembles functional English! It’s obvious that the localization team and developers learned from our complaints of the original, which will hopefully leave us with a more enjoyable SAO experience.
From what we’ve seen so far, Sword Art Online: Re Hollow Fragment seems to improve on the Vita version in nearly every way. If you missed out on the original or want an excuse to run through the game again, this is looking like your best chance to experience the definitive version of the game. With a second game, Lost Song, also launching this year, it’s clear to see why this is a good time to be a Sword Art fan.
Look for both games for PS4, with Lost Song returning to the Vita this fall.
