Review – Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop

Even though the support seems to have ended now, Entergram has kept Vita much alive with tons of visual novels. The company had notably partnered with NanaWind to get a console version of Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop, as often ported from a PC adult game.

Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop is visual novel entirely centered around a school environment, but with a drop (lol) of fantasy and mystery. The player appears as Sotaro Sema, an average high-schooler at first sight, but actually super talented. He’s member of the Tasogare club, student group who helps classmates here and there. The Tasogare members are part of the student council, and Sotaro will be asked to help against the Shinseikai, rival group that tries to take control of the school affairs.

That’s most of the story, and honestly it’s not very dense : barely anything happens, even during te final clash between the two groups. Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop then starts a second half that has a little more mystery. The Tasogare club faces a intruiging man called Zero, and discovers doors leading to an eerie world. Zero sends coded letters to Sotaro’s group, which each time must break the code in order to stop him.

My issue with this game is that the narrative never tries to go deeper in that paranormal aspect. There is no actual puzzle gameplay when you get Zero’s letters : the player just witnesses the outcome passively. Satoro as well as the heroines possess magic cards that grant them some superpowers (look into someone’s memory, detect lies, etc.) but here again it’s very minor part of the story : each card is used only once and you don’t really know where they come from.

Same goes for the parallel world, since the characters just briefly enter it twice. Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop sadly is very plain, including in its school life. It looks more like some big introduction to something else. Indeed, NanaWind’s website (watch out, adult site) shows a sequel called ShiroKoi Alice Gram, only for PC at the moment. Perhaps the narrative gets better but the chances to play it on Vita are essentially zero.

Then, we have to make do with the dating events with the main girls, who aren’t too shabby to be honest. I did like Yaya’s scenes. The head of Tasogare is a real genius but she’s also a flirtatious one. She spends here time teasing Sotaro and the others with absolutely hilarious lines. She’s the funniest character by far.

Kuzaha, the leader of the school discipline bureau, wasn’t bad either. Especially talking about her physical side, since she shows up in the hottest scenes. I realy wished she’d played a bigger role in the story. She’s some sort of drawing geek but she represses her feelings. A shame that aspect of her personality couldn’t be more explained in the scenario.

Yuki is the girl I flagged the ending of, after approximately 20 hours. She’s a real, assumed PC geek who plays MMO games all the time. There are a couple of gaming easter eggs which I found very fun. The dating part felt very flat though. Let’s stress that Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop was hit by censorship, in at least two event pictures. There aren’t that many sexy happenings, so nothing wild there. The progression system seems quite vague as well : it’s very linear and there’s no clear choice of which ending you’re going towards.

Haruoto Alice Gram Snow Drop is globally a disappointing experience. Too long for a visual novel of this type, it’s terribly paced and very shy in nearly every aspect it introduces. Granted, there are extremely pretty girls, great artwork but there’s a lot better in the genre on PSVita.

Review – Sakura Sakura

We are entering the last months of the PSVita in Japan. It’s sad but there’s nothing we can really do about it. It’s time to support the last Vita supporters, namely Entergram which released waves of romance visual novels on Sony’s handheld. Sakura Sakura is one of those and it’s a stunning little game.

Like it happens a lot in those games, Sakura Sakura tells the story of a transfer student. Tôru is such a student and arrives in the middle of an academic term at Rintoku high school. He was told he could live in the comfy dorm called Maison Lune, but last minute troubles finally guide him to the derelict Tsukimi mansion.

Unfortunately for Tôru, the dwellers of this ruin have all an attitude problem and he will get into trouble as soon as he sets foot there. So much good for the player though, because the game starts being hilarious right away. The very cunning Naoki for example, is huge slacker but somehow always manages to get his way thanks to his unmatched talent for blackmailing. For some reason, he also has the largest collection of photos of female students in the academy, which will ultimately put Tôru in dire straits.

Akira, the sexy gymnast, has a sharp tongue and never misses an occasion to throw a jab at someone. Sakura Sakura is very well written in that department and the dialog never ceases to entertain. The maths teacher Nanako Sakura is the manager of the mansion. She’s rather shy and has trouble solving the problems caused by Naoki and Akira. Of course, she has feelings for Tôru and the reverse is also true.

But after seeing the gorgeous deputy-head of Rintoku’s art club, Sakura Kirishima, Tôru decides to tackle the subject. He had always been interested by drawing and painting, of course…

From there, you come to enjoy the love triangle between the two Sakuras and Tôru. It’s really fun because loaded with jealousy, mean lines, and suspense since most of the time you can’t know who’s route it’s gonna be. Awkward in his relationships, Tôru will upset Sakura or Sakura more than once, but they always make up in a touching way.

The surprising thing is that there are also love misunderstandings among the secondary characters, which in fact don’t look like secondary at all. Many protagonists beside the Tôru-Sakura/Sakura couple have a big role to play and moving feelings for each other, which they take time to discover and it’s really beautiful when they do. Sakura Sakura then has not just one but several stories to enjoy at the same time, and I don’t even mention the numerous character routes. That’s dozens of hours of fun here.

Visually, Sakura Sakura is really fine. The live 2D is rather discreet but convincing. CG pictures are cute and there are plenty throughout the game. Alas, due to the game being released when publishers were the most confused about Sony’s new rules, at least two pictures have been cut to remove the underwear from the screen (note that in later games, Entergram does show the underwear again). On the other hand, swimsuits or other sexy aspects don’t seem to be a problem.

For a first VN experience from Entergram, Sakura Sakura was definitely an excellent pick. Hilarious from beginning to end, with great characters and characters stories, visually appealing, it’s one of those little games on which you spend a very nice time.

Press Round-up – Spring 2018

Review – Senran Kagura Burst ReNewal (PS4)

It’s obvious that Senran Kagura Burst ReNewal was made with the West in mind. The franchise having started to get really popular after its arrival on Playstation, there’s definitely a market for that remake. But seen from someone who’s cleared the first one on 3DS, it doesn’t renew that much the starting point of the series. The storytelling is still remarkable today, but the progression is kinda tedious. Those who go through it will nevertheless find great surprises at the end.

Review – Gal Gun 2 (PS4)

After seeing the latest screenshots before release, I was genuinely interested in Gal Gun 2. Unfortunately, after three walkthroughs, there were arguably much less exciting scenes than in the awesome Gal Gun Double Peace. Apart from that, the unchanged gameplay and the few gimmicky additions failed to arouse my interest. The graphics were not really good compared its predecessor, but that will be explained if Inti Creates announces a VR update in a few days.

Review – Valkyria Chronicles 4 (PS4)

After an utterly disappointing Valkyria Revolution, there was some pressure surrounding the return of the main series. I have only one thing to say : fear not ! Valkyria Chronicles 4 restores the glory of the series with breathtaking narration, formidable challenge, great characters, many new strategic elements and worthwhile DLC. I hadn’t seen a game like that since… Valkyria Chronicles ten years ago !

Review – BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle (PS4)

I have been impressed by BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle ever since the Japanese beta. I’m not a specialist of 2D fighting games, but this latest Arc System Works game clearly has the deepest gameplay I have seen in the field. The number of moves and possible combos is impressive, the tag system is downright amazing, and graphics & sounds are quite enjoyable.

Review – Nights of Azure 2

Nights of Azure 2 bears a strange relationship with the first one. It begins the exact same way : Aluche is granted the title of Templar and her first mission is to escort priestress Liliana to where she will be sacrificed. As you could guess, Aluche is not too hot about letting her childhood friend die like this, even if that’s for the sake of saving the whole world from the wicked Moon Queen. From there, Aluche decides to disobey the Church and will seek to eliminate the Moon Queen all by herself.

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Fans of the original Nights of Azure might be taken aback by the storytelling here. Because while Nights of Azure 2 tries to mimic its prequel, it’s surprisingly disconnected from it. The story of this second installement does a awful job at explaining the links between past and present : where the heck does the Moon Queen come from ? How did Arnice turn into a enemy ? Is there a reason why Camilla’s last name is Alucard ? Numerous questions raised by the story aren’t properly answered in the narrative, which is frustrating at best. You even have to look into the encyclopedia within the game to get essential details.

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Actually, the narrative in a whole is one giant mess with big holes and almost no plot (the real one). In the end, the story is nothing more than « search & destroy the Moon Queen ». Every other story element is blatantly underused : the Rurud Order, some big organisation supposed to compete with you, doesn’t do a thing. The Church has almost zero screentime whereas it was a the center of the intrigue before, and your allies’ indentity and personality lack details. If you liked the subtilities of Nights of Azure 1, I regret to inform you that it will be a distant memory here. That said, I did feel some good storylines like for example the relationship between Aluche and Myuvel, but here again everything happens so fast that it can’t be felt epic or emotional. It would have needed far more background/cutscenes to feel truly great. With approximately 20 hours to clear it, Nights of Azure 2 looks simply too short to tell a proper RPG story.

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Very limited in its main story, Nights of Azure 2 tries to make up for it with substories for each secondary character. Aside Liliana, you can date 6 other girls. I say « date » on purpose because while it’s a little exaggerated, the theme of the series still lies in the yuri, that is to say the attraction between women. That’s a bit new because the previous one was centered on Arnice with somewhat little relationship feature. You will thus be able to progress on any of your buddies’ own story by completing the quests they propose. Nothing fantastic, because it will always be matter of taking the girl with you to slay some demons or lead her to a certain location. Eventually meaningless in terms of gameplay or experience, as you’ll quickly be sighing over the abysmal dialogs. As said before, all this lacks a whole prologue dimension and much better writing to be efficient.

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In terms of gameplay, you’ll find again combos mixing square and triangle buttons, like in the first one. There are a tad more variations in this sequel, so a slightly richer action part. Buttons are customizable if you need to adapt the controls to your habits. The player can still use other weapons : the two-handed sword, the cristal sword, the great shield and the mirror shield. This part is fairly underwhelming, as both swords and both shields perform identical moves. Worse, the weapon-changing system is blatantly unconvenient, which prevents you from having fully access to those powerful great swords. Again, a significant step back from the first one. And the big problem remains : your blows still lack a sensation of impact or power, making battles very slack. Even boss fights were uninteresting, whereas they were absolutely great with Arnice.

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The big new thing of Nights of Azure 2 is tag battle, because you’ll always have one of the girls as ally when going into dungeons. Each of them has her own personal abilities, focused on attack or defense. Liliana for example can revive Aluche from KO, useful when you consider the cost of losing in this game. She can also boost attack status for a few seconds. More offensive, Veruschka can kill an enemy in one blow or cause damage on a wide area. There are also two gauges that allow super abilities known as Double Chase and Lily Burst, two types of combined attacks that deal maximum damage.

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The world of Nights of Azure 2 is composed of several dungeons themselves divided in very small sectors. Those ones are rather flat and empty, except for some various traps not so dangerous anyway. A pretty much uneventful progression and poor level design that doesn’t live up to the architecture of the first game. The time you can spend outside the hotel is still limited to 10-20 minutes depending how far you’ve developed Aluche’s status, but the huge revolution here is that you also have a limitation in terms of days, exactly like in an Atelier game! Every sortie costs you one day, symbolised by moon phases : if the moon gets fully dark, it’s game over. A little bit of organization is therefore essential on who you take with you and where you go, especially if you intend to complete character routes. You also need to fight well, because every KO brings you back to the hotel.

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Fortunately, each main boss you defeat rewinds the Moon phases, and in the worst case scenario you can always redo the whole chapter. The problem is that unlike Atelier, the schedule is kinda tight and getting to maximum friend level is difficult at first. Unless you know the conditions for good end in advance, the game sends you straight to bad end.

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Nights of Azure 2 brings back the Servants, those friendly monsters helping you in the fights. But here again Gust made radical but unappropriate changes. First, you now only have 2 Servants following you, whereas in a previous game you were allowed to bring as many as 4 groups of 4! The monster deck is of course no more, and the entire strategic side of the feature has vanished : no way to form tactical groups like before. Servants also have new roles : remove obstacles on your path or turn themselves into weapons for Aluche. Servants are hidden in some places on the maps, often in a blocked path. So in order to secure all the Servants, you need to permanently have with the Servants that can clear the path, which makes the others pretty much useless. It’s especially annoying in terms of weapons, because you’ll almost never bring the Servants that transform into the weapons I mentioned earlier. Hence you’ll rarely have the occasion to use them. Another consequence of all this is that Aluche can’t transform like Arnice did, another key feature of Nights of Azure that has been sadly ditched here.

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In a trailer published early July, Gust underlined that they had made considerable effort to improve PSVita version (although they probably knew it would never reach the West). Indeed, there is a huge leap in graphics and modeling, it’s even pretty neat. But you still have to expect far less good frame-rate and hiccups. Lightning effects are reduced among other drawbacks, but it runs well enough to ensure confortable sessions outside. Ironically, Nights of Azure 2 represents the improved PSVita version of a game itself in sharp decline.

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On PS4, you’d expect something a lot more beautiful, but it’s not always obvious. This home console version is quite close to the portable one on certain cutscenes, to the point you’d come to wonder if it’s the PSVita doing a record best or the PS4 being low quality. I would tend to think on the latter, because despite much more good-looking fighting (numerous effects during attacks, etc.), aesthetics go from correct to subpar. This is when you realize that in promotion videos, Gust had been using mostly pre-rendered cutscenes! Not very fair… In real time, modeling is average and facial expressions non existent. In terms of graphics or animation, Nights of Azure 2 on PS4 is not even remotely close to Blue Reflection, a game released six months before by the exact same developer.

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But that’s not the end of it because the game crashed on both systems, and includes numerous annoying sound bugs : voices and sounds effect are time to time inaudible in battle. The sound environment wasn’t very good to begin with, because of the blatant lack of lavish sound effects in battle. The soundtrack will partially make up for this, with orchestration is still great in every possible tone. Then a question needs to be raised : was it relevant to develop 3 versions of Nights of Azure 2 at once, especially when you know that PS4 version alone accounts for more than 60% of total sales in Japan? This latest Gust title has all the symptoms a of rushed product lacking a compelling story and decent polish. We’re glad to get swimsuits for every character, but having a complete experience along with them would be nice.

Nights of Azure 2 is a disastrophic sequel any way you look at it. The delay didn’t help the slightest. Far from living up to the first one, Nights of Azure 2 is nothing more has ruined gameplay and a story in shambles. By releasing such a poor product Gust and KoeiTecmo deal a fatal blow to a promising franchise. Both publisher and developer should rethink the way they’re doing this, because it would be unacceptable to see Atelier Lidy & Soeur suffering from such pathetic development circumstances.

Review – Blue Reflection

What would happen if you gave more power to illustrators than to game’s directors? Blue Reflection gives a glimpse of the answer to that ludicrous interrogation, because the keyman of Gust’s JRPG is no other than Mel Kishida, the brilliant designer of the Arland part of Atelier games. Can the man lead Gust to success once more?

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Hinako is discouraged : her dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer gets shattered when she suffers an incurable ankle injury. Wandering like a ghost in her new school, she’s bewildered when she realizes she has the power to enter her classmates’ mind to relieve their anguish. She’s a magical girl : she transforms and wears a frou-frou dress, gaining some magical abilities in the process.

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Brought along by her magical girls comrades Yuzu and Raimu, Hinako will pursue this “career” for a reason : her dearest wish will come true when she achieves final victory against the genshu, demonic creatures at war with humanity since ancient times. Her dialy activities will always be to walk around within the school and help anxious pupils. Each time, the three heroines will be sent in the Comon, spiritual world built by the collective unconscious, a bit like the Mementhos in Persona 5. There, the game will simply ask you to defeat 1, 2, 3 or 4 enemies of the same type, or collect fragments here and there in super tiny maps. Sadly, it never gets more elaborated than that.

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Blue Reflection is a turn-based JRPG, with a timeline on which the order of action of all characters and enemies is displayed in real time, like in Child of Light. Combat has 3 parameters : HP, MP and Ether. While the first two are well-known, Ether is the big particularity of Blue Reflection and does a lot of things. For example, Overdrive allows one of the girls to use several skills during the same turn, dream-like capacity because you can attack and heal in the same time.

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By clearing secondary quests, you’ll be able to obtain fragments. The magical girls can equip those fragments and affect them to one particular skill in order to maximize their effect : better healing, absorb HP/MP or boosting attack power when Ether reaches a certain level (50, 40 or 30%). Those fragments work like passive abilities in Atelier, and thus allow you to build a general strategy, although less precise.

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But the biggest innovation in Blue Reflection is undoubtly the Active Command. Between turns, you’ll have 1 or 2 seconds to hit one of the direction buttons, each of the 4 having a different effect. By keeping it pushed, you’ll boost defence, speed or heal the girls, but your Ether gauge will be depleted fast! Ether management is thus the cornerstone of the game, and you need to keep some characters in defence so that your Ether never dries up. Given how fast-paced it is, it’s dynamic enough to liven up boss fights.

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Like Persona, Blue Reflection includes many secondary characters who can be invited by Hinako for a chat or a stroll in town. The game laso features a friend level for each girl which greatly depends on the answers you give, so there is a little yuri sim aspect in it. The problem is that unlike Persona, the girls in Hinako’s high school aren’t very charismatic in general, nor do they have a solid background or a strong personality.

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The only exception to that was Yuri : gifted with off-chart IQ but suffering from a rare syndrome, she was by far the funniest characters and had the most touching story. I barely remember the others (maybe Shio and her bizarre humor) since their personality traits were thin. Voice acting was almost non-existent, which is a big mistake in this type of game. Reading all that leads to boredom and fatigue. Blue Reflection really would have needed that investment so that school life feel more lively and the characters more convincing.

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On the plus side compared to Persona, the allies are with you during the boss fights. You can call them quite often and they show up in a funny little animation, granting immensely useful effect to your party. Those girls can attack, heal, resurrect, boost your stats and refill your Ether gauge! They also react to the evolution of the fight : they run away when they’re afraid that the boss might win, and they come back when you take the upper hand. It’s pretty enjoyable to have a real integration of secondary characters in gameplay.

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Boss fights are the strongest aspect of Blue Reflection because they’re super well directed. At each key moment of the story, gigantic genshu will advance on the school to wipe it out, like Evangelion’s shito. The giant creature actually progress during the fight, and if it reaches our line of defense, it’s game over. As it gets closer, music changes, the facial expression of the characters also.That is extraodinary direction, in particular in the cutscenes that come just after, in which Hinako deals the final blow in pure magical girl style, living up to the best animes in the field. Very cool moments visually speaking but unfortunately the story fails to renew itself and find a new stage.

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Those fights are rather long and complex because bosses have numerous parts that regenerate all the time : you need to manage your offensive to keep to parts in check, because they attack you too! Despite all that, battles are a bit simple, as the game is in a whole. Even difficult mode won’t resist very long to veteran JRPG players who’ll master the use of fragments and Active Command. Blue Reflection is in fact a light experience in terms of gameplay : no game over (except in boss fights), experience comes from completed quests and not from battles, and fighting in the Comon becomes soon tedious.

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Blue Reflection is thus better felt by your eyes than by your hands, the 3D engine having been tailor-made for that. It’s astonishingly beautiful, so much that Blue Reflection feels like being that game passing the baton between PS3 and PS4. Not only for Gust who clearly here went to the next step, but also for the all the developers of similar scale who now have to keep up. The world in it may not be very large, but 3D modeling totally lives up to Mel Kishida’s wonderful designs, and battles are just breathtaking. Lightning, shading, reflects, textures… Blue Reflection sets a new technical record in everything. And that’s not all, because interface, monsters and bosses are classy. The illustrator certainly did a great job in supervising all this.

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The PSVita has been somehow correct and I played via cross-save to the very end. Graphics were perfectly good in handhelds terms, except some really ugly decors here and there. The only issue was frame-rate during fights because there were significant drops when using flashy skills. It doesn’t replace the PS4 version of course since the interest lies in graphics, but it was cool in order to progress a bit on the go. Nothing at stake here however, since KoeiTecmo Europe abandonned the Vita overnight after years of boasting their support to the system. Sad but business is business…

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Blue Reflection is a fetish-centric game. This had been suggested during the initial teasing so that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The extra care given to the graphics serve a purpose, which is staring at gorgeous bodies and sexy costumes from every angle. Funny enough, choosing the option “streching exercises” leads to a pool event with 100% probability! There are plenty in the same fashion, including showers, dressing room, drenched clothes, etc. The swimsuit (additional costume to wander in the school) was even offered as preorder bonus for every character! Clearly Blue Reflection sells its fan service and does it well.

Frankly, Blue Reflection is average as an RPG. This is what happens when the designer grows more important than the producer : the game is a great visual experience, but isn’t great in its writing or in its gameplay in a whole. You can feel that KoeitTecmo didn’t fully invest in it and that doesn’t help. It’s like a art gallery, some parts are good, some aren’t. Personally I was rather satisfied with it despite the drawbacks, given the art/graphic qualities, and Yuri’s part which was definitely memorable.

Review – Accel World vs Sword Art Online Millenium Twilight

After the considerable disappointment experienced with Sword Art Online Hollow Realization, I had stopped believing in BandaiNamco’s capacity to make something good with Dengeki’s famous IP. The choice of Sword Art Online Lost Song as base was more reason to skip Accel World vs Sword Art Online. However, Japanese articles ended up showing some attractiveness in it, which proved to be true.

Forget your desire for an epic story : this one is again quite badly structured or written. It starts as a masked witch calling herself Persona Vabel gatecrashes Alfheim Online. Nothing big, you might think, but the damsel actually comes from 1000 years in the future and makes eras collide in the process. Vabel doesn’t stop here and kidnaps Yui, whose removal, she thinks, will lead to a brighter future.

As you’d expect, Kirito and Asuna fly to rescue their daughter. Problem is that the game is a complete mess as it merged with the Accel World universe, whose characters starts coming one after another. Kuroyukihime and her pals will soon cooperate with Kirito’s group : like in Professor Layton vs Ace Attorney, the “VS” is just for show. The real snag is that the distortion also invited Accel World’s villains, who will block your path in every possible way.

But that leads to a very long secquence in which nothing really happens : 30 hours of eventless exploring and fighting on 40 in total. Besides, numerous events feel unclear without a certain knowledge of Accel World’s scenario, and it’s not re-explained as you progress. You do have to wait the very end and the ultimate truth about Vabel’s identity to experience a SAO-like narrative. The ending is pretty much inventive and somewhat moving, but that’s little in the whole adventure.

While the main story is uneven, the side events in Accel World vs Sword Art Online are a lot better than before. First and adding to Persona Vabel’s identity, it leaves quite interesting hints for future developments, particularly in Yûki’s case because her destiny might change considerably in this gaming non-canon part. The second point is that character events are a lot funnier and feel newer because Accel World brings characters with personalities as eccentric as their outfits : Kuroyukihime has a bust size complex, “superior being” Metatron keeps looking down and shouting at you, and Ashe Roller’s true self is a memorable laugh. SAO characters participate to the fun no less, with more wacky humor and less of the childishness Hollow Realization kept imposing us.

Jokes also becomes quite lewder again, fan service aspect which had progressively disappeared and that we have been missing since Hollow Fragment. Renewed fan service and better sides events lead to more enjoyable artworks : nearly all of them are great (kinky or not). The side content of Accel World vs Sword Art Online hence was made a lot spicier for the core fans to throughfully enjoy the game between gameplay phases. This episode contains a few real time cutscenes, but no more anime-style ones. The 3D looking cheap on PS4, this is actually a lesser experience. As we’re talking about side content, let’s stress that there are only 2 sidequests, which weren’t very great because they rehash the same bosses/fields on uninspired writing. You do have the usual hunt/fetch quests : nothing fantastic but it’s always nice to complete them while leveling up, and there’s a nice trophy as reward.

The publisher doesn’t hesitate to brag about the record number of playable characters in this episode. DLC taken into account, that makes 44 characters available in the game in a whole, that is to say… 44 times more than last year’s game ! Undoubtly an excellent decision… And that’s not meaningless PR talk because each Accel World character has a unique fighting style, while SAO characters still see their actions determined by the weapon they use (plenty of them by the way, including the bow this time). Blood Leopard for example transforms into a crimson beast to tear up enemies, Aqua Current has a variety of water abilities, etc. Those moves are thus extremely varied. Customisation is different too : you have to collect BP & materials to improve their attack stat, and acquire external modules to add various status effects. Accel World characters cannot fly unlike the others but are a lot quicker and agressive on the ground. The complementarity of gameplay of this cross-over is an outstanding success.

As for your usual SAO characters, you’ll find the same aerial gameplay you had in Lost Song. It’s still far from perfect especially in getting the right height and managing distances, but it does benefit from magic spells to make it more RPG-like. Accel World vs Sword Art Online also adds a certain number of ultimate moves, like, much to her fans’ delight, Shinon’s sniper rifle. Last innovation but not the least, Skill Connect allows the player to chain several abilities, which deals 10% more damage each time you do it (a bit like in Star Ocean series). Slowly but surely, BandaiNamco is delivering deeper combat in SAO games.

Alas, Accel World vs Sword Art Online inherits the terrible animations that were in Lost Song. Characters are stiff and battles end up a bit dull despite the effort put on more dynamic super moves, some of them meant to be impressive. Small consolation within a dated technical showing. On PSVita the frame-rate is so bad that I ended up dropping that version entirely. That’s too bad because character modeling was good on the handheld.

On PS4, it can be considered okay at best : some characters are prettier than others, one field is significantly more detailed and good-looking, but we’re still talking about a slightly enhanced 2-year old PS3 engine. The most annoying aspect was difficulty balance. The main story is quite easy but postgame gets really hard all of a sudden, not to say unfair since the game forces you to use one or more characters. Let’s say it again : it is unacceptable to impose characters if you the game doesn’t have them level up at the same time as the others. Even though you can tweak that with BP (at considerable expense) or by changing the difficulty settings in last resort (often disheartening).

DLCs are symptomatic of this. The road leading to Alice is tough and getting her to join you is even harder. You can always see the good side of things and reckon you’ve finally got challenging trials ahead, but I’m not so sure about struggling to desperation to obtain a charcater you’ve bought with real money.

Nevertheless, this season pass has its merits, especially for Persona Vabel playable at once, Heathcliff included and an array of very nice outfits.

Last improvement of Accel World vs Sword Art Online, the progression system is better. The fields might feel identical to the ones in Lost Song, they are far larger in height ! Maximum altitude has been doubled, there are new underground locations/floating islands, the landscape has been made chaotic, etc, so that it feels actually new. You can go higher and farer, and the game has been made far less linear, giving a few hints instead of marking everything on the minimap. You’ll come across a few clever puzzles, true searching phases, which gives the satisfaction of overcoming the trials by your own wits and skill.

While short from being the necessary evolution to make Sword Art Online games as great as the movie for example, Accel World vs Sword Art Online does fix a number of mistakes made those past 2 years. The cross-over aspect has definitely be well conducted, ensuring a variety of gameplay and an enjoyable universe. Still not immersive enough in graphics, animation or direction, it’s however this time a nice buy for SAO fans.