In all honesty the single player experience simulates the MMO feel perfectly via its 100+ recruit-able NPC players that all have their own personalities just fine. While the PlayStation 4 version has a more in-depth online play function that the Vita version did not have (though you could play up to 4 player ad-hoc matches), RE: Hollow Fragment offered true online play but between massive framerate loss due to technical issues and constant lag spikes, I found that playing during non-peak hours (middle of the week during the day or on the weekends in the morning) resulted in the best play though it was still not quite up-to-snuff. RE: Hollow Fragment stays true to the anime and manga that spawned it in the fact that it is grounded in MMO rules. RE: Hollow Fragment also allowed me to change relationships to a point, which was both titillating and terrifying in some ways, though I will elaborate more on that in a moment. This time though, I was directly in charge of their fate and able to direct them through the various dungeons and provide them guidance and compassion (this is where the wish fulfillment aspect comes into play). It truly touched me and when RE: Hollow Fragment was released I was able to rejoin my old friends and struggle with them as they worked to clear the hundred floors in Aincrad. To me, Kirito, Asuna, Lisbeth, Klein, Silica, Yui, and the rest of the SAO cast became close friends that I watched grow from struggling adolescents to young adults standing against overwhelming odds.
The story of Kirito and his band of friends touched me and gave me hope and helped me through troubled times.
When the anime was first released I was in a very dark time in my life and on a whim I selected Sword Art Online out of the recommended anime on and began watching it. Technical issues aside where RE: Hollow Fragment excels is in its storytelling, character development, and for those of you like me, wish fulfillment. Needless to say the port is not all that optimized for the PlayStation 4, which is a shame as it is without a doubt otherwise a fantastic game. When you clear out an area, or you are heading up to the boss room, Kirito will suddenly get a massive boost in speed and that is when it appears that the game is running close to 60 FPS and it is a very odd behavior, though oft-repeated. On top of the framerate loss in combat and Arc Sophia, you will find sudden and incredible boosts in game speed and framerate in a handful of locations. The other thing that will happen is that the timer will continue on in real-time while the rest of the game will move at 10-15 frames per second. Whether that is planned or not is hard to tell, as you will have various Event Missions that are timed and during these slow-mo periods the timer will do one of two things, either freeze completely then reduce the time by a handful of seconds. In truth, the framerate is all over the place, as using skills can also trigger a drastic drop in frames, forcing the game into an unnecessary slow motion-esque appearance. In some cases I would hazard that the game runs closer to the 15 FPS mark rather than 30. While walking through some spots in Arc Sophia, the primary hub town where you will spend the majority of your time, you will happen upon dozens of other NPC players which will absolutely kill the framerate. Trust me, it is worth it.Īs Sword Art Online RE: Hollow Fragment is a port from the far less powerful Vita (when compared to the PlayStation 4) one would hope that there would be few technical issues however that is not the case with RE: Hollow Fragment. It is strongly recommended that you head over to your favorite anime streaming sites to watch the first season (both Crunchyroll and Netflix currently have Sword Art Online available for viewing) prior to playing. While the game does go through and bring players up to speed, RE: Hollow Fragment is far more meaningful and fulfilling as a title for gamers that have seen the anime (or read the manga). Prior to moving forward I would like to toss in a bit of a service announcement Sword Art Online RE: Hollow Fragment takes place immediately after the events of the first arc of the anime, Sword Art Online.
0 kommentar(er)
