Sword Art Online Hollow Realization How to Get Past the Guardian of the Broken Pass

Sword Fine art Online: Hollow Realization seems an apt subtitle for this game, full of half-baked ideas that don't live upward to their potential. There are no objections to the visual aesthetic of the game, which seems to exist the only fully realized role of this game. It is in fact the main draws, the fake-MMO style gameplay and a lackluster storyline, that troubles this game. Not only that, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization seems to pander to long-time fans, while at the same time trying to be inclusive to newcomers. Unfortunately, this leads to a game which feels hollow and not fully realized as a game worthy of sinking hundreds of hours into.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization drops yous into the globe of Aincrad. Merely wait, it isn't Aincrad? You lot are instead reintroduced to a familiar only different world which is known equally Ainground. This new setting for the game reintroduces the whole cast of the first story arc of Sword Art Online and allows the introduction of characters in other story arcs. However, it immediately feels like a poor alibi to lump together every single grapheme in the series universe into a 'greatest hits collection' for Sword Art Online.

Ainground!? What the…

Veterans of the serial might feel aggrieved that there is no motivation in the story. You aren't placed in a death game like in the original Aincrad, nor are y'all tasked to investigate mysterious deaths in the VR world existence linked to the real world like the Alfheim online arc. Instead, the game has you lot placed into the beta examination of a normal MMORPG, which is precisely why the new setting for the game does non have the same urgency as past Sword Art Online stories. There is no sense of impending danger to motivate y'all into advancing the principal story quest. Instead, the motivation for the next quest is in the latest add-on, an NPC named Premier. The question is, why are nosotros even helping this NPC? Just because she's broken and just seems to give you a mere coin as the quest reward? This just seems similar a very lame excuse for another adventure in the Sword Art Online world.

On your adventures to help this broken NPC 'realize' who she is, you will don your armor, unsheathe your sword and set up out into the many areas of Ainground. On your adventures, you'll assemble new equipment to level up yourself and your companions. In games like these, you are encouraged to find equipment to make you feel stronger and wait cooler. Nonetheless, equipment in this game does neither of these things. The weapons are the only saving grace, boasting a skill tree for each type of weapon allowing yous to gain new skills and boosts for the weapon you lot choose to apply.

Oh look! He's still wearing the starting gear!

The weapons definitely make yous feel as though y'all are progressing and getting stronger. However, the armor is where things fall brusque of the mark; it adds stats that don't feel important. A skilled histrion could probably stick with the default armor and power through the game past dodging and parrying with precise timing. So, the armor should add some aesthetic value, correct? Wrong! If you desire to equip the armor with the all-time stats, be prepared to wear some pretty silly outfits. You might be wearing some badass gauntlets with a nifty looking belt and boots, so your chest armor is a leopard impress battledress with the midriff exposed. Information technology certainly does not brand you feel stronger or cooler as you progress through the game, sometimes making you wonder if yous fifty-fifty desire to alter from the default armor given at the get-go.

When you've gotten over the fact that Kirito will be wearing a skimpy looking leopard print boxing wearing apparel to a fight, y'all will get into the nitty gritty of the actual sword fighting. While it can fun at showtime, it soon becomes abrasive as the inputs don't experience responsive at all. You lot might exist up against a high-level monster for a quest, and while you hack away at it, it lunges at you with 1 of its skills. If yous want to dodge while attacking, that's going to be a chip difficult as you accept to wait for the animation to terminate before beingness allowed to contrivance out of the way. This is very frustrating as dodging is an integral role of the gameplay, and without it you will die in trickier portions.

The finicky gameplay seems to be what it is because the game focuses more than on social aspects with the cast of characters. Unlike a traditional MMORPG which encourages progression through gear, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization seems to encourage edifice relationships with the vast corporeality of characters in-game. You are given boosts for interacting with the different characters that are in your party, and this can be done during boxing. While you are fighting, the game encourages you to give a 'like' to characters who use skills based on gear up personality traits that you also select. This emulates some characteristics of social media, and it's as disruptive as it sounds. Even now, I don't feel as giving likes to the specific trait gives the characters in my party an upgrade or even if information technology encourages them to use skills nether that trait more frequently; it doesn't seem apparent.

NSF…W!?

Outside of combat, relationship building comes in the form of dating and pressing push prompts to the specific character'due south approval. Then, after yous proceed more dates and start to build a rapport with the grapheme, you lot tin can take then to the sleeping room where you stare at each other and talk. Even though canonically your girlfriend/virtual wife is Asuna, you tin can have the whole female cast to bed if you're male and the express male cast if your female (although I practise wonder if y'all can bed Agil every bit a male character). The prize for bedding a daughter is a shot of fanservice where you lot see the girl in their bedroom attire. Ultimately, the dating sim element is just another feature that keeps you in the globe without adding much to it. For fans nevertheless, this seems to be the perfect take a chance to realize your harem of Sword Art Online girls.

On paper, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization should be a decent RPG. Instead, information technology focuses too much on relationship edifice with a cast of characters that feels as well big. Instead of working on refining the gameplay systems and gear progression, there seems to exist too much emphasis on fanservice. The accent on relationships and fanservice seems to have also detracted from the story which tries to motivate you into helping an NPC detect her true purpose within the world, but instead sucks away motivation to assistance this graphic symbol and also the progress through the story. This game seems to focus too much on hardcore fans of the series with its emphasis on the dating sim elements potentially putting off series newcomers.

Sword Fine art Online: Hollow Realization is a game that places as well much of its emphasis on its dating sim mechanics rather than a polished RPG experience. Dodgy armor designs mar the progression that the weapons add to the game, and a rather stale storyline does non give enough motivation to want to progress through the game.

PROS

• Weapon diversity and skill tree
• Lots of fanservice...

CONS

• ...maybe too much fanservice
• Accent on dating sim over gameplay
• Story lacks strong motivation

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Source: https://gamingtrend.com/feature/reviews/not-so-realized-sword-art-online-hollow-fragment-review/

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