Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization
A game I'd love to love.
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is an Anime JRPG. It looks awesome for anime fans and I would really love to love this game. If only the keybinds weren't so crappy and there wasn't so much to learn.
Character creation in this game gives you plenty of options to make your character your own. It's not completely freestyle, but there are many different presets and colors to pick from. You can even pick from a lot of different voices.
How confused I was at first when, after creating a female character with a female voice, I started speaking with a male voice during cutscenes!
Right, so gotta get that one straight in my mind: I'm playing a boy who's playing a VRMMORPG in which he (I) created a female character and during the cutscenes, he's speaking with his friends who have also created characters in this VR world.
Don't think about it too much, it is what it is!
After character creation and some cutscenes where you meet some of the friends your character knows from previous Sword Art Online games, you will be pitted against an enemy to learn some basic combat skills.
Now I'm playing this game with mouse and keyboard and it did not make me happy. We have the WASD keys as usual for walking, but then there's IJKL for camera movement. You can also use your mouse for that, if not for the fact that you need your right hand on that keyboard to attack. U and H have been my main attack buttons so far and I've also started learning about X, N and O. Basically, you need both hands all over that keyboard to play this game.
After your first kill, you'll get to explore the hub city. Here you'll find various shops and places to hang out. You'll also see many other characters from other 'people who play this VRMMORPG game'. So you know, kinda like the characters you see running around in WoW cities like Stormwind or Orgrimmar, only these ones have an AI driving them, instead of an actual person.
Again, don't think about it too much, your brain will hurt!
This game, atleast the start of it, holds many cutscenes. You'll also move from day to day as your male player does need to sleep in his 'IRL world'. This is how you move through the story and it works out well.
I really want to like this game and I do in some ways. I am curious enough to want to go through the rest of the story, but the keybinds are pretty horrible and there is so much to learn which gets thrown at you in chunks that are a little too big for my taste.
I'm not that old yet, am I?
I've tried to keybind some stuff to my extra mouse buttons, but sadly, that didn't take. The game doesn't recognize my extra buttons it seems.
Overall, it could have been an interesting game for me, but I'll have to look elsewhere for my gaming adventures though, due to the keybinding issue which complicates the learning curve immensely. It's a real shame, but luckily, I found Yonder to keep me occupied!
How about you?
- Have you played this game or are you planning to?
- Do/did you play with keyboard or controler?
- How did you feel about the keybinds and learning curve?
| Foodblog | Redbubble shop | Vida shop |
Connect with me on:
| Pinterest | Twitter | Twitch | Steam |
That was an anime that I thought was gonna suck me in but ended up losing me at the second season totally. The show feels like it would have worked better as a game to begin with. I've never really understood how to play games on a keyboard. My brain just can't program itself for that....
I just heard my favorite anime Made in Abyss is getting a game. :-O
I never saw the SAO anime. Actually, it's been many years since I've last seen any kind of anime. There's a few in my watchlist I think, but I'm just not feeling it anymore. Good to have them there, just in case though!
It's always nice to see a franchise you enjoy expanding!
I'm not a superfan, but I love the SAO franchise. I have a number of SAO games on my steam wishlist that I just haven't pulled the trigger on, including this one I think. But, after what you say about the keybinds, I may remove it. That seems like a real dealbreaker to me. I usually play games like this for the story, and if the controls are far from intuitive, it's not worth getting in to.
I still manage to smash the H and U buttons to kill stuff, but I'm not sure if that's enough later on in the game.
If you're really interested in the franchise, at the least I would advice to wait for a good discount.
SAO is my favorite anime and I've always wanted to play one of its games. This game looks pretty good and I will definitely try it in the future when my PC can run it xD
That seems like a good thing to wait for! :D
It's always a nice feeling creating those characters, using the weapons and fighting it out.
Although, most of the battle video games looks similar, but the characters in each of those, makes them unique and creates a fan base for each.
Good one, I am not someone much into video games except for Splinterlands battles :)
Have a good day :)
Aaah, I really need to play Splinterlands more, but it's not like it used to be, just throwing random cards together. Sooo... I need to learn how to play Splinterlands first :D
Yeah, the value of the cards has gone down considerably in the recent past, but I am bit addicted to Splinterlands.
You don't need much learning to play Splinterlands battles :) it's just a matter of few battles to learn it :)