僕の夏休み #2018

As I get older, Summer becomes a much less relaxing season. The neighbourhood feels noisier, people to replace at work, trips to organize and… events in Fate GO ! Consequently, my anime viewing time has dropped quite dramatically, and I have a lot of pending series.

Of course, I actively followed Gun Gale Online, the Sword Art Online spin-off entirely focused on firearms. I kind of shows (again) the missed opportunities in Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet on PS4 : why was there no emphasis on the characters of the anime, who were absolutely wonderful ? Novelty for the series, GGO tells you about the characters’ life inside the game, but also outside. And this is FAN-TAS-TIC, because the gap between the characters in the game and in real life is so hilarious, just like their personal stories and way they experience GGO. The anime featured fairly enjoyable action scenes, especially everything that involves Pitohui. I had great expectations for it and they have been quite met.

I thought the manga was very good as well, since it shows scenes that aren’t in the anime, and also because some part are more enjoyable drawn. Everything on Karen is just super cute, kudos to the mangaka for that. The release pace is worryingly slow though, I hope the publisher is still committed to it…

Being a big fan of Caligula PSVita, I quickly jumped on the official anime of the series. I remind you my review for the specifics, but it is probably one of the best new IP in recent memory in terms of story and the thinking behind it. The anime banks on this inner strength by giving itself a very philosophic orientation, made even more moving thanks to the beautiful direction. It is clearly an enjoyable complement to the game, well animated and that covers all the characters very efficiently. Best anime of this season.

Media mix Kakuchô Shôjo Trinary had a series of very short episodes (approximately 5 min each). Despite being made to illustrate a smartphone game, it was rather decent. Action part was dumb but fan-service was certainly here, the story was diverse enough and some of the music was good too. Uzuki was a suprisingly deep character, which triggered a couple of unexpected, and somewhat fascinating turns of events. It makes the anime go beyond your average girl sentai fighting evil in the exact same way every time.

I also decided to tackle the smartphone app since it was to end on August 29^th. No wonder on why they had to unplug the servers : you need to grind like mad as soon as chapter 5. It immediately felt long and tiresome. The terrible combat didn’t help, monster design was honestly the worst I’d seen in ages, so there was next to no incentive to spend money on it. On the other hand, dating and storytelling deserved top marks : UI is splendid, 3D was quite advanced and the girls’ reactions were priceless. Can’t think of anything more kawaii than this… Then I do reckon that Trinary held a significant potential that has been completely misused. I believe that free to play system was not adequate in this case, and it’s sad to see all publishers jumping on this bandwagon without thinking, leading to a lot of destroyed value beside very few massively successful titles.

One of those is Fate GO. Aniplex’s 2D RPG, which has just celebrated 14 million downloads, never stops bringing fresh content like the summer event of this year. The challenge was 3 weeks long, and winners were rewarded by no less than a 4-star Jeanne Alter Berseker !

Fate GO giving a character for free is definitely suspicious and there was definitely a cat in the bag. Indeed soon enough, Fate GO veteran came up with the reward conditions : achieving 950’000 within the 3 weeks. I seriously freaked out here, since my level didn’t allow me to get more 12’000 per battle, and only with excellent support plus maximum optimization.

No choice but to spend 3 or 4 hours on event quests per day. I really thought the Iphone was going to melt from inside. I did manage to clear the event in 10 days, with outstanding progress in my party (Sabers went up 15 levels, Nursery Rhyme 50!).

It doesn’t stop here of course, Aniplex being definitely there to make a profit. They added 9 new characters in summer version (understand : swimsuit version) to be obtained by the vicious paid rolls. All my attention goes to Ushiwakamaru summer, which took 4 rolls to drop.

Is that all ? No, because my hard work during the event earned free summoning tickets that got me no less than Mysterious Heroine XX and Medb summer. Great success in this event then, which shows the bright side of service-based gaming despite the excessive pricing.

僕の冬 #2018

Years go by and each of brings new standards, new evolutions, in good or bad. Mine this year will be perhaps disappointing for those who enjoy reading this blog, because I will mostly stop posting game reviews on it. I recently joined VGChartz as writer, so this is a whole new challenge for me. VGChartz staff are great people and they gave me the warmest welcome I could ever imagine, so technically I could keep posting reviews here but at some point the amount of publishing between French and English is too demanding. January has already strained me quite a bit. So reviews should be found in the VGChartz review list from now on, although I might keep a few little ones for the blog. That doesn’t mean blogging stops here : I will replace with posts like this on anime, and I seriously consider translating my posts about my travels in Japan (although that might kill me completely given the extensive content). Opinion pieces will still be there, so it’s not goodbye or anything.

I got PSVR for Christmas, mostly by curiosity about a few titles since the VR craze hasn’t really been convincing to me. Yet my short experiment of Senran Kagura Peach Beach Splash in VR certainly was. I hadn’t expected such a deep level of immersion. I was at loss for words after getting the helmet off, stupefied by the scale of the revolution I had just witnessed. If such incredible result was achievable in 6 months of PSVR, just imagine what content will be available in 5 or 10 years ! The array of possibilities are staggering, this will be truly a human revolution if they become reality. Since then I’ve bought Hoshi no Kakera no Monogatari which is amazing as well.

In a more classic way, Dissidia FF NT has come to warm the icy week-end of January. With all the efforts, raging and twitching, my body always end up feeling like burning. In short, the usual symptoms when playing a good fighting game. SquareEnix’s product is beautiful, the animations are incredible and it has a dream-like soundtrack for series fans. More than ever, the FF universe is recreated perfectly. Online play is really harsh though, which exacerbates some unbalance between character types. Terra, like all Shoot characters, is tricky to play as because far to slow and virtually defenseless. It’s exhausting to try to earn a few points and that’s a shame because so the rest of the game is so good. But enough of gaming and let’s talk other media.

Kûsen Madôshi Kôhosei no Kyôkan is an old harem that was sleeping in my hard disk so I thought I could give it a try. That anime is about Kanata, a nonchalant military instructor who has been given the task to turn three lousy magical knights aspirant girls into tactical pros. Action scenes were under the par but for the rest it was fun nicely directed. Character management was pretty good, especially in the last episode because it breaks the rules of the genre and let the girls strike the final blow and not the hero.

A spin-off about an interesting character is generally worth the time, even when the original work is poor. Aiz is the main character of Sword Oratoria and expectedly it’s a lot better than Danmachi, even though the writers couldn’t refrain from liking it to the main story, which is annoying. The Loki family is quite a entertaining group, composed of characters a lot more amusing and charismatic than the crybabies of the original anime. Battles aren’t jokes, there are serious confrontations and a real show. In fact, it has almost everything that Danmachi lacked.

Classroom of the Elite was fairly interesting for its originality. 4 classes of highschoolers rival each other to get the best positions later, but the ranking isn’t just made of school marks. It involves points, the management of which is complex and only the best minds can get the most of it. Ayanokôji, the protagonist, is an expert in the field and will discreetly come up with plans to beat the other classes, despite the poor students of his class. Classroom of the Elite is one of those animes that invent complex but fascinating rules, and the mystery surrounding Ayanokôji is another reason to want more.

Gamers made me think a lot. It shows the numerous misunderstandings between five gaming fans in love with each other. It kinds of busts the fundamental contradiction between love and gaming. It’s almost too well directed : the dream-like relationships between those otakus guys & gals is like advising us to look for a similar reality ourselves. Fun and moving, it was clearly a great show.

Masterpiece here. Princess Principal tells the missions of 4 spy girls in a fictional London split into 2 at the beginning of the 20^th century. A unique universe featuring political intrigues, betrayals and admirable moral messages. That anime surprises you almost every time, especially in episode 8, which overturns the narrative so much that my brain made a system error : impossible to get a clear picture of what that meant for the rest of the story. Mind-blowing and best anime of the season.

The first thing I do when coming back from Japan is always symptomatic. In October 2015, I had booted the PS4 version of Nights of Azure. In 2016, I had started Persona 5. In Spring 2015 I… … maybe it’s better not saying that. In 2017, I rushed to my TV to start watching the 2^nd season of New Game, my favorite of 2016. Although it loses its originality, this show keeps delivering, especially in depicting rivalry and ambition. The shattered hopes of Aoba made an unforgettable scene. I also appreciated the renewed role for Hifumi and Umiko, and all the parodies of professional life were as true, and hilarious, as ever.

I found that manga on a bookshop display in Fukuoka station. Pretty sure it shouldn’t have been there though… What Ijôsha no Ai tells or shows is absolutely gruesome, and certainly not for all audiences. Midô is your not-so-average middle schooler in love with a young boy called Kazumi. She’s so deeply in love with him that one day, she just stabs one her rivals in love in the classroom. Unable to erase Kazumi from or head, she’ll quickly come back to haunt her loved one, after years of isolation. Then starts a real thriller between Kazumi who seeks revenge, and yandere gold medalist Midô capable of doing the most horrible things to keep him for herself. The narrative, full of shocking scenes and amazing twists, ends up hooking. But I repeat, the level of psychological violence here is unprecedented.

Most anticipated games of 2018

Fate Extella Link (PS4/PSVita)

How great to see Marvelous keeping Vita version for Fate Extella Link ! PS4 version obviously getting a huge graphical overhaul, it was far from guaranteed. But yes, we’ll be able to fight for the holy Grail in cross-play, with new fun or classy characters like cute Astolfo or sexy Sacthach. There’s even a full Mah-Jong game in the limited edition !!

Girls und Panzers Dream Tank Match (PS4)

Girls und Panzers on PSVita already being a good adaptation, I’m looking forward to experiencing the same sensations in a prettier, smoother and richer PS4 entry. Girls und Panzers Dream Tank Match features all the characters, all the tanks and all the battles from the movie, all this also in multiplayer.

Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet (PS4)

At long last ! Three years… I’ve been waiting 3 years for an SAO game taking place in the fantastic universe of Gun Gale Online, featured in the Phantom Bullet arc. I’m gonna be able to SNIPE at will as Shinon or the original avatar. Because Bamco finally understood that the player wants maximum choice : you’ll have Kirito and his friends plus an original character to create yourself, who’s gonna have its own story. Artworks looks extremely promising and multiplayer should be implemented again. It’s time for SAO to be back on top.

Senran Kagura Burst Renewal (PS4)

Thanks to Senran Kagura Burst Renewal, we’ll almost be able to wipe the series history clean of Nintendo systems. The founding game telling the story of the first two ninja schools is being remade for PS4 in splendid 3D and 60 fps, with redesigned menus.

Shining Resonance Refrain (PS4)

Clearly no one expected Shining Resonance to show up again. And when you think it’s coming back with a whole new scenario in which you have Jenuis and Excella from the start, the hype goes high ! The story would need to be re-written entirely, and I’m curious to see how.

Death End Request (PS4)

Compile Heart is in dire straits. Sales keep dwindling, new ideas and skillfullness lack clearly. Their last hope is Nanameda Kei, Compile’s new star illustrator, and the Galapagos RPG team. Taking place in an MMORPG from where the heroine Shiina cannot escape, Death End Request seems to be the innovative and deep title the company needs, not to mention it respects Compile’s spirit.

Caligula Overdose (PS4)

Yet another remaster with additional content, but this one is interesting : adding to new friends and foes, Caligula Overdose includes an “if story” in which you’re gonna side with the opposing gakushi, and explore their personalities as you did for your allies.

Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4)

Was it all a bad dream ? I kind remember playing a failed Action-RPG called Valkyria one year ago… Yeah, that was surely a dream. Valkyria Chronicles, the real one, is coming back like it has ever been, in an episode featuring the missions of the Atlantic Federation (you know, the diplomats trying to lure you in the first game) against the Empire in snowy lands. Game system, battle system… everything is inherited from the original Valkyria Chronicles (they understood that it was better not to change anything) and characters seem charismatic. This means a big 14’000¥ collector’s edition for me.

Soul Calibur VI (PS4)

SoulCalibur’s return was sure desired, but less expected. But still we’re gonna be able to cross swords a 6^th time. Namco has mention some ideas about reboot and “simplicity”. Quite not what I want to hear but they did a good job with Tekken, so that should go well…

Catherine Full Body (PS4/PSVita)

This wasn’t expected either, even less on PSVita. Thanks to that handheld version, I’ll be able to experience that strange dating/puzzle game. Vincent, a unresolved young man, spends his days in a bar where a girl called Catherine tries to seduce him. During the night, Vincent is trapped in his dreams, in which he must escape by climbing a sort of Jenga tower ! A clear UFO that will be perfect for commuting.

13 Sentinels Aegis Rim (PS4/PSVita)

Let’s say it again, 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim has the potential to become the next 2D adventure masterpiece thanks to its incomparable atmosphere. A handful of high-schoolers must act before and after the end of the world, helped by strange mechas. With time and choice parameters, it looks absolutely outstanding.

Final Fantasy XV (PS4)

Final Fantasy XV development is going smoothly according to SquareEnix, who publishes Active Time Reports on a regular basis.There will be an early access version on PC in a few weeks, with only 4 playable characters (not the best ones). Probably SquareEnix will polish the game at this occasion, before hopefully giving all the information on the final version.

Zanki Zero (PS4/PSVita)

Quite austere Survival-RPG, Zanki Zero was back at TGS with new interesting hints. As developers had already shown, the characters should age, and there seem to be some strange resurrection mechanic… Well, the fate of those 8 survivalists is still shrouded in mystery.

The Legend of Heroes Trails of Cold Steel IV (PS4)

Trails of Cold Steel IV is a nightmare for Western fans of The Legend of Heroes (you, actually). The first pictures are potential huge spoilers about Trails of Cold Steel III and they’re being shared everywhere in the world as we speak. But of course, for me and Japanese fans, those informations are highly valuable for knowing what to expect.

Granblue Fantasy Re-link (PS4)

The gameplay video of Granblue Fantasy Relink surprised pretty much everyone. No one expected such high end graphics and exciting action. We should have though, because the people behind this are the geniuses of Platinum Games. Although the talented developer seem to stay on Nintendo’s side, we’ll gladly take such epic heroic-fantasy, especially since it will be in VR too.

I’m also waiting for Persona 5 Dancing Star Night (PS4/PSVita), Persona 3 Dancing Moon Night (PS4/PSVita), Project Lux (PSVR), Ace Combat 7 (PS4), Dissidia Final Fantasy NT (PS4), Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4), Ni no Kuni II Revenant Kingdom (PS4), Code Vein (PS4), Senran Kagura 7EVEN (PS4), World End Syndrome (PSVita) and Bullet Girls Phantasia (PS4/PSVita).

Review – Fate Extella

Extremely large media mix IP, Fate has gone into anime, visual novels & mangas. But it of course doesn’t fail to visit the gaming business to meet the demand for more interactivity. So after Fate Extra and Fate Extra CCC on PSP, it’s the turn of Fate Extella on PSVita.

Fate GO, Fate Zero, Fate Extra, Fate Stay Night, Fate Apocrypha, Fate Kaleid Liner Prisma Ilya… Not always easy to get facts right in the sprawling Fate universe. The aim of Fate Extella is thus very simple : to offer an action game picking charismatic characters in all those sub-IPs so that fans can play as their favorite characters. Altella and Elizabeth come from the smartphone game Fate Grand Order, No Name Archer is well-known for being Rin Tôsaka’s servant in Ufotable’s anime adaptation of Fate Stay Night, and Nero & Tamamo come from the previous PSP games. In Fate’s lore, some humans called magi or masters can summon the spirits of past heroes, reincarnated into powerful servants. You are to expect the evil Roman emperor Nero as a extrovert Blond girl, Attila as a tsundere girl and, more in line with history, Alexander the Great as an old and bold king. That’s a total of 16 playable characters in Fate Extella, with both handsome men and sexy girls. So no one gets left behind here.

Fate Extella’s story happens after Fate Extra and Fate Extra CCC : the Holy Grail War is over and your main character is already crowned king of SE.RA.PH, virtual domain set by the Moon Cell, itself a central system measuring and controlling activity on Earth. The main character first appears with his/her servant Nero Claudius, who de facto become regent of SE.RA.PH. Their reign however won’t be peaceful as Tamamo No Mae, another servant from the Holy Grail War, starts invading their territory.

Altella, another spirit, will barge in this struggle to power not to conquer, but to destroy all. This particular event foretells greater trials for the servants, which go beyond the Holy Grail War. Each of the three has a team involving other heroes, so Fate Extella shares out good and evil a bit like Dissidia does for Final Fantasy. The player is invited to experience the story from the three different points of view, three alternate futures that shall lead to an ideal fate in the lovable true end.

Likable on its principles, the story of Fate Extella is a little less exciting in the way it’s told : its structure is basically repetitive and vary only in the very last chapter, which is more interesting to follow. But before it, you can’t help thinking you’re doing the same game 3 times with 3 different characters. Note that purely narrative part are quite long (you often spend more time between chapters than playing) with lots of raw text in the middle of dialogs. In doing so, Fate Extella gets back to its roots of visual novel, even at risk of annoying players eager to enter the fray. It remains that those sequences have a strong poetic tone and excellent writing. A good read, but here again they could have made it more concise.

Besides that, dialogs still a have a strong sense of humor : driven by their unstoppable love for the main character and their own rivalry, Nero and Tamamo will keep making a fool of each other or come up with hilarious strange words. Their behavior is clearly over-the-top and lives up to the craziest JRPGs. Strangely, this wacky talk balanced by very sophisticated language, with complex use of Japanese kanjis and rare vocabulary. Once more, the redundancy of situations can be boring.

The combat area in Fate Extella is divided in several little sectors. The rules are pretty simple : you have to take a set number of sectors to make the boss appear. Once you’ve defeated him, the level is cleared. To make a sector your own, you first have to sweep dozens of basic (but sometimes threatening) enemies to make “aggressors” come down. Those much tougher entities are the guardians of the sector : you have to destroy three or more to secure the sector.

But that is easier said than done, because the opposing side isn’t going to stay idle while you march on its soil. Foes counterattack at every occasion, harass your sectors relentlessly and can even invade them from afar by devices called “plants”. Those strange UFOs can indeed send enemy troops from and to any part of map. You therefore have to eliminate them in priority, even it that means going all the way to the other side of the map. Thanks to those powerful means, opponents progress very quickly and your sectors are in a constant state of hemorrhage. Besides, enemy heroes will regularly stand on your way, slowing you down. Fate Extella is an action game with permanent pressure, because you always play on the brink of defeat! The game won’t even hesitate to throw you on map controlled 90% by the enemy, where surrender is a question of minutes! Up to the player to rush towards key-sectors and unleash his fighting spirit. Sensation are guaranteed.

Your arsenal of combos rely on variations of square and triangle buttons, a bit like Senran Kagura Estival Versus in fact. The good thing is that it ensure a good variety in gameplay while keeping the game very accessible. The same pattern being applied to every character, you can switch between stories without having to learn everything again. However, the three main heroines do have a fighting style of their own : Nero prefers shield/sword combos, Tamamo casts fire/ice/wind spells, while Altella boasts the most impressive combos with her polymorphic rainbow blade. To allow faster progression, each character has 3 trump cards.

Extella maneuver is a series of blows targeting every foe in the vicinity : it’s useful to take out several aggressors at the same time. Moondrive is a transformation that makes you temporarily invincible and the hôgu, the most powerful capacity and the one that makes the most impressive cut-scenes, blows everything in a sector. Even if you master the use of those abilities, victory is far from certain but you do keep the experience gained after losing. This way, missions become gradually less difficult, so that no one gets stuck. The boss characters, of seriously dumb AI, are still extremely disappointing. On the minus side, changing characters in the story is very limited, since you can switch to the current lieutenant and no one else. A bit of variety would have been welcomed here.

So we’re definitely happy to have side-stories for every character. «Story» might be a little exaggerated since the actual scenario is thin. Elizabeth’s stands out though, because her story is really fun and draws the best of her yandere personality : she will finally fulfill her evil ambitions and crush her rivals. This mode is a good occasion to fully enjoy the cast, not to mention that secondary characters’ movesets are as good as the main ones.

Combos and skills are original and varied. Jeanne d’Arc for example fight with a spear with a large flag on the top of it, also drawing on her knight sword from time to time. The holy maiden however heavily relies on her hôgu, considerably more powerful than any other and which, reference to History, costs her one life. Seriously challenging, those side-stories are a clever way to enhance to general value of the game.

If Marvelous’s technical mastery on PSVita needed further proof, Fate Extella is more evidence that the publisher take handheld fans seriously. Despite numerous elements and lot of movement on screen, the framerate knows no problem on PSVita. In fact, the game pixelates slightly to keep framerate stable at any time. A drawback for greater good, easily forgivable since character modeling is quite above average.

Fate Extella is a fun and intense action game making clever use of the series. With a rich array of characters and lots of storytelling, it adds a lot to the Fate universe and offers fans a thrilling way to experience the passion despite redundancies here and there.

Review – Sword Art Online Hollow Realization

After selling more than a million copies of the previous games worldwide, BandaiNamco is fully aware that Sword Art Online is now a big asset of its JRPG line-up. By deciding to re-create Aincrad in Sword Art Online Hollow Realization, the publisher bets on nostalgia for this episode.

Invited by Seven to beta test a new virtual reality game, Kirito and his friends come to Sword Art Origin. This software being developed on Aincrad as base (where Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment took place), the infamous «death game» surfaces again in the form of a mysterious message saying «I’m back to Aincrad». This, and the arrival of a NPC of complex AI named Premiere will mark the start of troubles because the development of Sword Art Origin will soon go awry.

PS4

The dev team defends this new yet old setting because they said they wanted players to experience an Aincrad from the start (in Hollow Fragment, you start at floor 76). The game system is roughly the same as in the first game on PSVita and PS4 : you prepare your gear and interact with your buddies in the town before teleporting yourself in the various worlds of Sword Art Origin. The only difference is that you can now bring 3 allies and not just one. But the fact that Seven is part of the plot suggest that Sword Art Online Hollow Realization is actually closer to Sword Art Online Lost Song than you might think.

PSVita

Indeed, as in Lost Song, death in Sword Art Online Hollow Realization is not definitive : you can easily revive a fallen ally whereas in Hollow Fragment, any KO meant an immediate game over. While players in Sword Art Origin are safe, NPCs don’t come back the same. NPCs are a key element in this episode : there are dozens of them in the village and you can invite any of them in your party. BandaiNamco makes the risky bet that you’ll like them as much as the heroines. But in the end, an NPC is nothing more than a series of 0 and 1, and can’t have the charisma of a main character. Sword Art Online Hollow Realization clearly fails at delivering intensity in its narrative, which by the way accounts for a tiny part of the total length of the game. Nothing like the mature atmosphere and the suspense of the recent anime series.

The story actually doesn’t unfold before 30 or 40 hours. There at last you get a few (precious few) cut-scenes, but for most part you won’t have anything else to follow than character side events. Let’s say it straight, those events have a very light tone : slice of life only, the dark atmosphere of the Hollow Area doesn’t exist here. True, it’s fun at times but it never goes beyond the friendship and worries of your average teenagers. Another disappointment is the further use of live 2D for dialog. That means next to no cut-scenes in the scenario and rather boring scenes describing battles that aren’t shown. It feels cheap for a game that sells hundreds of thousands and comes from such a great anime. Even tinier series like Atelier have dropped that for years.

The (numerous) illustrations look a bit commonplace compared to what was offered in Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment. The latter was rated CERO C in Japan (CERO B for Hollow Realization) and had more risqué and more interesting artwork. It’s better investing in the excellent manga adaptations Sword Art Online Progressive and Sword Art Online Girls’ Ops at this point.

PS4

PSVita

Let’s go into the field of Sword Art Origin. It’s not an open-world as we know it nowdays because each of the six themed worlds (forest, desert, citadel, etc.) are unlocked progressively, and themselves divided into smaller linear areas. Sword Art Online Hollow Realization never escapes its linearity and doesn’t give much freedom to the player. Objectives are all marked (giving very inaccurate information at times) and there’s no secondary quest that would invite you to explore further or go back in former places. The only entertainment lies in Event Fragments, random hunt quests in which you face tougher monsters. Those represent excellent leverage because you often get high-rank equipment.

The battle system is a mix of the first two episodes : it’s basically an action-RPG since you attack directly with square (Hollow Fragment was relying on auto-attack) but the action aspect is less rich than in Lost Song. On the tactical side, you get back the skill palettes from Hollow Fragment. L1 and R1 allow you to give orders to allies, including the now famous switch that switches positions between Kirito and a friend, then triggering a powerful attack. Even better, you can order all your teammates to fire at will for maximum damage. Linking attacks effectively sometimes leads to a skill chain, which launches a light spell of dramatic effect. Accuracy is a problem, because the lock isn’t effective and you’re likely to hit the void. Premiere is the only character that can «die» but here again the game is a bit lenient since you have 60 seconds to revive her. Far, very far from Hollow Fragment where any mistake had you start from scratch, giving real heat to battles.

PSVita

The palette at the bottom of the screen contains the passive skills regarding the status of your character. There’s quite some room to cram everything you need to strengthen your hero. It’s possible to dramatically increase your attack, your defense, your HP, your resistance to bad statuses… Becoming such a superman necessitates that you analyse the skill tree, so large that you can only fill a fraction during the main story, and choose wisely the most effective items for your playstyle. So and despite a poorer gameplay than the past episodes in general, there is depth in Sword Art Online Hollow Realization.

PS4

You quickly understand that in the fight against the main bosses, rather interesting because more complex than before. Each of them has body parts that you’ll have to break in order to deal critical damage. You side with a large number of NPCs, which gives a real impression of raid as it is depicted in the anime. The boss fights get increasingly harder and you’ll have to be ready with the right abilities if you want to succeed. The final boss is absolutely ferocious and show a more unforgiving side of the gameplay, which goes in the right way because it arouses passion. Too bad nothing of this is felt during random battles or mid-bosses that are quite tiresome.

PS4

As much as Sword Art Online Hollow Realization is faithful to Hollow Fragment’s system, this status quo is in fact a step back if you consider the elements in Lost Song that have vanished without reason. In particular, how can you not be revolted by the fact that the twenty or so playable characters of the previous game are no longer playable at all? You are forced to play as Kirito : BandaiNamco has de facto divided the number of playable characters by 20… Worse, the bow doesn’t exist anymore! Shinon, sniper in the Phantom Bullet part of the anime and Archer in Mother Rosario is now stuck with a damn spear… So not only does Sword Art Online Hollow Realization limit the gameplay, but it also fails to follow the context.

PSVita

On the positive side, let’s stress that the hero’s look can be modified anytime. The character creation menu is rich and effective, allowing to give birth to your ideal protagonist in no time. That said, it stays as Kirito in the narrative, which is extremely confusing in case you choose a female character. Moreover, a man’s voice in the narrative is mandatory, so you have to deactivate it if you’re playing a girl. The multiplayer mode, which has you travel into Sword Art Origin with other players in order to defeat named monsters, is a good, profitable and entertaining way of enjoying your own avatar.

PSVita

On PSVita, Sword Art Online Hollow Realization is even less convincing. Graphically speaking, texture quality drops seriously and character modeling is really poor in some cases. It clearly lacks polish if you compare with Sword Art Online Lost Song, released last year. We’re surprised to witness bland environments, while Hollow Area had complex architecture and breathtaking sceneries. Disarray at experienced the framerate hiccups, being progressively fixed thanks to 5 updates. On boss fights, the drop is astonishing… A funny way to thank Vita players, whose enthusiasm two years ago made the once Vita exclusive Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment a global success.

PS4

The result is of course a bit better on PS4. Textures are a lot sharper, especially in the town, but dungeons don’t feel really more impressive. Lightning effects and attack effects, on the other hand, look great. Character modeling show some progress but not enough : Premiere’s 3D model is still hideous, and graphical bugs are often spotted. No problem in motion though, 60 fps is guaranteed on the home console. Music is maybe the only department where Sword Art Online Hollow Realization performs well : symphonies are great and live up to the series, and field themes make the walk enjoyable. Welcome to SAO is so remarkable that you could stay in the menu for hours.

Sword Art Online Hollow Realization is the story of a publisher that makes AAA revenues while keeping making a AA game. Under-investment hurts this newest episode even more than last year, making it impossible to reach the greatness of the anime. The unacceptable loss of the new features brought by Lost Song leaves me crestfallen and the feeble technical side doesn’t help. A less-than-average Sword Art Online game that I can hardly recommend at full price.

Review – Asterisk War Phoenix Festa

The Asterisk War anime must be quite popular in the West seeing how fast BandaiNamco decided itself as for the game adaptation. In less than a couple of weeks since the leaks, Asterisk War Phoenix Festa is already up on Vita’s PlaystationStore.

The story mode of this game can take place in two different ways. Let’s focus first on the one in which you create your own character. The character creation is OK but not one of the best : the various design choices are correct. Once you have your character, he enters Seidokan Academy for a new term and prepares himself for the big event reuniting all the schools of the peninsula.

The story lasts several months in the game, the first three ones being used to train your avatar so that he can eventually stand a chance against the main characters of the anime. Asterisk War Phoenix Festa is an Action-RPG as each training session (and whatever action by the way) increases your stats. Several menus are available, to beef up HP, strengh, defense, agility, MP recovery rate… Nothing spectacular in those though as they’re just small animations. The whole system quickly becomes a chore. Besides that, you’ve also access to a shop to buy different weapons and a R&D lab to improve them. You can also tackle small jobs to earn money, but here again it’s not very compelling (beat a certain number of opponents, evade attacks for 1 or 2 minutes, etc).

But Asterisk War is known for its heroines and one of your goals will be to convince one of them to be your partner for the tournament. To do so, you’ll have to impress them a bit either by giving them presents, or by increasing your fame after winning matches against other students. Seidokan Academy has a ranking of its best elements, and you’ll have to defeat higher ranked opponents to take their place. If you feel confident enough, you can also ask one of the girls for a fight : for example, getting the upper hand against Kirin immediately gives you the top spot! Even if you have trouble with that part, worry not : the game will automatically seek a partner for you 2 days before the deadline and… it will even give you the choice! This de facto nullifies the pickup system, which is useless from the very start…

All the talk or dating happens in 2D, so nothing noticeable and especially not the unispired dialogs. The same conversations come back relentlessly, so annoyingly that the skip feature becomes your best friend. Talking of this, the friend level of your girlfriend will have a direct impact on her strengh in battle. It’s therefore important to please her a maximum, as it will make future victories easier.

The Phoenix Festa starts in about 4 months. You’ll have done quite some preparatory battles, but this is where it gets serious. As in the anime, there are two different victory conditions : either you depletes the enemies’ HP or you break their badges. The action takes place in tiny areas, and most of the time you (happily) have the choice of playing as your character or your partner. The good news end here however, because the gameplay is seriously shallow : a sad little 3-hit combo on square and a special attack (of uneven effect, I still can’t figure the use of some) on L+Square. The only clever point is the mechanic of anticipating your opponent’s moves so as to hit his badge, because you need a counter to damage it. Aside from that, it’s just mashing buttons without real need to deploy skill.

Several fighting styles are noticeable : swordsmen/women can try to pull out a counter head-to-head whereas Saya for example will be useful to attack enemy HP from afar with her firearms. Speed and nimbleness still are critical to your success in Asterisk War Phoenix Festa : Kirin, the fastest character by far, excels at countering but has rather low stamina. On the other hand, Juris’s fire spells are so slow that it’s difficult to even hit your target. The characters are clearly unbalanced in the effectiveness of their specialty. The avatar’s progression is rather logarithmic so the final matches will be a challenge.

You can also choose to tackle the story mode as Ayato, the hero of the series. Ayato can train exactly like the avatar, but on a much shorter period. The reason for this being that… he’s super strong from the very start! No problem for him to deal enormous damage from mid-range. Any fight will be a piece of cake, so the point of this particular story mode is elsewhere.

The big deal in that case will be to re-experience the anime from a different point of view, including pretty fun variations. Each walkthrough lasting 2 or 3 hours at best, it’s rather easy to clear the game with every heroine. In the end, you can beat the game entirely in about 15 hours, which is kinda low. Asterisk War Phoenix Festa covers the 2 first seasons, but given the poor look of it, you’re just re-watching the story in less good conditions. The illustrations you’ll progressively unlock will slightly make up for it : some look cool or sexy, but a lot of them are actually nothing special.

Technically, the 3D of this game is really rough and doesn’t live up to today’s Vita standards. The cel-shading doesn’t hide the unrefined modeling. The level of detail is dreadfully low and some characters like Irene look so bad that you might want to turn your system off. Animation is worse : between graphical bugs and less-than-elegant moves, BandaiNamco’s game is almost uglier when in motion.

The game features a free battle mode which includes most of the important characters from the anime. You’ll have to clear the story mode over and over to get them all though, but the good news is that even sub-characters are playable. Shen Fa and Shen Yun are in that case, even though they only appear in two episodes. A rather rich roster, in which you can make unlikely pairs if you want to.

Last but not least, Sylvia, the discreet singer who showed up briefly in the 2^nd season, is present here as a partner with a side-story on her own and the pictures that go with it.

Asterisk War Phoenix Festa for PSVita is merely a cog in the media mix marketing of the license. No aspect of this game gives the impression of the slightest effort from the developer. Despite the numerous characters playable, hard to recommend it. Maybe it can be seen as a collector’s item for the biggest fans.