Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment

SAO:HF, a game the west, SURPRISINGLY, got, but with google translate instead of translation(thank gods, west deserved it).

A lot of people just skipped it, because it’s related to SAO franchise. Not me here. I didn’t read SAO light novels, neither I watched the animated series. I knew absolutely NOTHING about the series, and yet my sixth sense said “GET THIS GAME AT RELEASE!” and I did.

I said my sixth sense is the only friend I can trust in terms of games? Yep, I did, probably.

It wasn’t wrong. SAO: HF offered me a lot of what games in present world lost – tons of content, over 100 hours of gameplay for FIRST playthrough(I finished first in 200 hours), a lot of events to see and trigger,massive large locations to explore, real-MMO-style Raid battles, terrifying bosses and, of course, cuties.

A lot of people would say last is NOT a good thing, because the girls are this, that, another that, and awful because of that. I did NOT know it, and I DO NOT know it even now, so the game is still awesome for me.

Also, a common misunderstanding is that Hollow Fragment is a sequel to Infinity Moment. No, no and no again. Hollow Fragment is an expansion to Infinity Moment, offering better battle system, a whole new location to explore(with new events to see) – Hollow Area, a debuggers/developers zone of SAO, a long new story revolving around the new girl called Philia and a lot more.

The story of HF happens in PARALLEL with IM, and the game leaves the choice which to finish first to  the player, however finishing HF story BEFORE IM has it’s benefits. Like if you finish HF before IM, after last battle of IM, you will have a battle with Konno Yuuki(a girl from ALO arc, as I knew from forums and twitter). In case you win, she will join the harem on second cycle.  I’d advise to read her background first, though. Doubt many would call her their waifu, after knowing she has A… ah, well, learn about it yourself.

A complete surprise was finding Sachi in the Hollow Area(well, I didn’t know who she is, but I was aware of such a person existing, due to her “last message” stored in my inventory). She has a pretty sad and dramatic story in Hollow Fragment, and after the big update the game got in July(in Japan), you can date her in the new location. A bit of a spoiler – she’s not the real Sachi who is dead.

The game has what a lot of games in present world have lost: 

World. The world in Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment is vast and massive. It takes A LOT of time just to run through it.

Exploration. No game made after like 2004 was truly enjoyable and interesting to explore, be it MMO or  an offline game. Or had much to explore, for this matter.

Battle system. The Infinity Moment Battle System was quite interesting as it is, and it reminded of real Asian MMOs a whole lot, but, as much as it did, it had the same fallback – it was slow, and had no dynamic. Hollow Fragment made it much better, and it really reminded me of years I played…a non-Asian MMO called World of Warcraft. Playing as a tank was really similar to how it happens in Hollow Fragment. And since I enjoyed MMOs(a long time ago, though) I couldn’t dislike Hollow Fragment in any possible way

Characters. Again, an arguable point, but to a person who picked the game up randomly, I would assume characters are easily likeable. That is, however, for people who do not have particular dislike for harem settings, as SAO is ultimately one of them, even though Kirito x Asuna is being prioritized.

Play time. This is a game I didn’t feel bad about spending a lot of time on.

Story. Quite enjoyable one, really. Having a solid main storyline, with a lot of things to get into and a lot of side-events to see. Well, this point is just for mentioning, as games with good story aren’t in decline, honestly.

Variety. A point that can keep certain types of players playing the game more and more. You see, Kirito can use a lot of types of weapons, not only doing 二刀流(double sword style) all the time. Shamshir, daggers, spears, axes, 2H swords – all is available to the player. And it really gives a variety in both skills and play styles.

And all of this give an excellent game in sum. Yep.

The game itself will be excellent no matter how much you dislike SAO franchise, characters, setting or whatever people can dislike.

It was an excellent game to play, and I loved it greatly. Might actually finish the platinum trophy one day.

Oh, and a bit of a word about the shitty localization west got(and deserved, in my opinion) – my friends gave me a lot of screenshots of the translation as examples. And in a lot of cases, it really seemed like the translation was done by…RUSSIAN FREELANCERS, because the sentences sounded a lot wrong in english, but made perfect sense in Russian(I am native Russian, you see). 

Well, I do not have any feelings for the people who are forced to play with such translation, they deserve it.

It’s words of wisdom of my parents – who WANTS will find a way, who DOESN’T want will find a reason. I never understood these words as a child, but now I get it. And that’s exactly how I came to know japanese. I found a way. People who say “I don’t have the time to learn” or “japanese is too hard” or “I’m too old to learn a new language” are just finding a reason(not to do something). I do not have any remorse in bashing them. And will never have. They deserve everything they have and will have.