Sword Art Online is well known among fans of Japanese pop culture. Starting in 2009 as a series of short stories, she acquired a cartoon series, a series of manga, and in 2013 the first game of the series was released, Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment. If you are familiar with all of the above, no better than with the materials of Japanese intelligence from the Second World War, do not rush to put an end to Hollow Fragment.
Virtual captivity
Do not be afraid of the word “online” in the title: the game does not request any constant connection to the network. The word contains a distinctive feature of the history and setting of the series, which you will be briefly and thorough at the very beginning: the place of action here is a virtual space, or rather, the world of MMO game popular in 2022, into which a considerable part is cutThe population of the planet. In the near future, technologies have learned to completely imitate the real world and immerse users in virtual space by all five senses. Everything was wonderful until the Log Out button disappeared from the available options, as a result of which the gamers were sharpened in the world called Ainkard. To get out of there, they need to go through the game to the end – all a hundred levels populated by dangerous monsters.
However, we will not have to trace the whole story of the flight from Aincard. A protagonist named Kirito, falling into our hands, has already overcame the seventy -fifth level. The game offers to plunge only into the last episode, and in this sense it will be interesting primarily familiar with the series. But the knowledge of the facts stated will be quite enough to take up SAO: HF, not to feel uncomfortable.
The plot is revealed in a series of dialogs, but only fans can rightfully evaluate their value. For some reason, ninety percent of the inhabitants of Aincard are women. Kirito acquired a whole harem and, like a real macho, has the need to satisfy the communicative requests of his ladies. Conversations do not carry any semantic load and are needed here only to remind how
much the sexual ego of the main character. All girls in this world wish Kirito-perhaps this is a feature of the Japanese mentality, but many hours of love flukes among the kids who have barely reached a teenager age look at least strange.
The elevator does not work – we go up on foot
SAO: HF imitates all the basic principles of MMORPG mechanics. Adventures begin in the city of Ark Sofia, not very spacious and not too interactive, but under the eyeballs stuffed with pretty girls. It is intended to fulfill all household chores – conversations with characters, developing relationships with ladies, receiving quests, purchasing objects. Hence the “raids” are carried out on monsters in two directions: you can go to either the “empty zone” (Hollow Area), intended exclusively for the “pharma”, or to execute the main line consisting of the passage of twenty -five levels.
The plot part of the game looks, to put it mildly, not very diverse. Each floor reproduces the same sequence of actions: we get several unpretentious quests to collect a certain number of objects or the destruction of any monster. After their fulfillment, we are honored to fight with the “boss” level. The scheme is repeated twenty -five times, and you should not hope for unexpected plot or gameplay bends. Outwardly, the levels are branched corridors that differ from each other with a set of textures. All of them are quite the same, so the research potential of Hollow Fragment It is very small. In the “empty zone” the situation is somewhat corrected: here the locations are more spacious, and the design is more interesting.
Mordination is Japanese
The first fifteen levels are quite simple, and cutting monsters easily turns out to be a standard attack. In order not to be bored, you can grab one of the ladies stray in the ARC, but you do not feel the need for help from the side. However, closer to the middle of the game, the complexity increases, and the enemies begin to more seriously relate to the skills of Kirito.
Combat mechanics here is very difficult. The five -minute Tutorial will rather indicate the volume of the material that you have to master yourself. A huge number of attack types, protective techniques, energy strip, “risk” parameter – in all these aspects you will have to carefully understand. The battles will also require you to learn how to interact with your partner. You can give a fighting girlfriend various orders during the battle;praise certain decisions, motivating their repetition in the future;perform joint combinations;and so on.
You can pore for the hero’s skill for the hero’s skill. Gamer, accustomed to the two -button Western RPG system, under pressure from all these subtleties at first it will be extremely uncomfortable to feel. On the other side, Hollow Fragment Offers an exotic “Challenge”, which may like lovers of meticulous strategic research.
However, for a user who studied the principles of the local combat system, contractions with monsters turn into a routine lesson. The only thing that does not allow to doze off during endless “raids” is the visual embodiment of the game. Batal scenes are lit up with flashes of all colors of the rainbow, the appearance of the heroes differs depending on the objects on, and local “bosses” are simply perfect. This is not to say that the graphics SAO: HF located at the front level, but for the portable console, the picture is quite acceptable. But the animated cat-scenes are worthy of all praise. Often I want the video to be not interrupted by the next portion of gameplay.
Hollow Fragment – Traditional JRPG, diligently pretending MMORPG. You will spend half of the playing time in meaningless dialogs with “nyast” girls, the second half in the not -fingered, but monotonous “raids” on monsters. If you are a fan of at least one of the above genres, then a walk along Aincard can steal a hundred hours of your life. If not, it is hardly worth it to even start.
Pros: A multi -acceable combat system;Stylish videos.
Cons: lack of a variety of tasks;Long and tedious dialogs.