Welcome to another YvoCaro Plays!
As always, these blurbs are mostly about the video games I’m currently playing. Unedited thoughts that spring up in my mind, sometimes game related. Or a random train of thoughts starting with the game and ending somewhere completely different!
If you like these bits of gaming thoughts you can find the previous ones here
Creating a Universe for Fans
This time, I want to talk to you about Sword Art Online….and I know I’m awfully late to the party. Ever since I saw the merchandise for this game at the Japanese store in Disney’s Epcot years ago I’ve been aware of Sword Art Online. But not being into Japanese anime at that time, I didn’t delve any deeper. What did stand out to me is that the merchandise showed an entire universe built around the series. And I like that. Don’t know why, but I’m always in awe when stories manage to do that. I think nowadays you’d call it a cult and there are plenty examples. I mean, Tolkien’s books the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit were really well known and a must read for any book lover. But it wasn’t until Peter Jackson made them into the amazing movie series that fandom exploded. Same with Harry Potter, with books first and movies following.
Other brands took a different route: Star Trek is a prime example of how you can create a universe (literally this time) by staying true to your story. I’ve been a fan of both the series and the movies, with TOS (original series) always being a favorite of mine. Gene Roddenberry laid a solid foundation and every show that followed stayed true to those origins. There’s even an Encyclopedia for Star Trek, a very hefty book that shows all us fans want to know. From characters to the different models of phasers used to the costumes that were worn. And the history of various planets in the Star Trek Universe.
Sword Art Online Anime
Anyway, you see what I was getting at: Sword Art Online is such a universe too. I got hooked on the anime series by my daughter, who was watching it on Netflix. Being a gamer the premise was interesting to me: gamers that play with a NerveGear on their head and become trapped in the game. Here’s from the Wikipedia (if, like me, you are new to Sword Art Online)
“With the NerveGear, a helmet that stimulates the user’s five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. Both the game and the NerveGear were created by Akihiko Kayaba.
On November 6, 10,000 players log into SAO‘s mainframe cyberspace for the first time, only to discover that they are unable to log out. Kayaba appears and tells the players that they must beat all 100 floors of Aincrad, a steel castle which is the setting of SAO if they wish to be free. He also states that those who suffer in-game deaths or forcibly remove the NerveGear out-of-game will suffer real-life deaths.”
No light hearted story there, but an intriguing one with a hero, friendship, love and all of the required staples. Only when I did some research online just now I found on Reddit that there’s quite some hate towards the anime series too.
“The characters were very unoriginal and lacked any personality or depth, the plot was all-over the place and had its holes and a lot of other things like Kirito being grossly overpowered, the villain SAO, SAO and stuff like that. I think the biggest complaints are because of the bad characters and writing.”
Now I don’t watch a lot of anime series so it could be true, but honestly, I don’t care. Having an amazing time watching it though I’m still early in the second series. So much so, that I persuaded myself to go for the game on Switch.
Button Mashing my Way Through
With the help of Paula I was able to buy the game in Northern Ireland at a reasonable price. Closer to home even the used copies of Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization were hugely overpriced. Of course, I checked the gameplay online and was hesitant. It seemed like a game that would be way out of my league, but I was persuaded by the promise of following the anime character’s journey and the promise of some sim elements. So as I always do when I’m uncertain about a game: I bought the physical game. This way, I can always sell it if it’s not a keeper.
Long story short: even having played it some, I’m still hesitant. I’m just awful at battles that aren’t turn based, fights get awfully hectic in the game. I ended up pretty much bashing the button, and I know that’s not the best way to enjoy Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization. At the start of the tutorial, I had to perform every battle move as instructed on a creature, and even that took me forever. Remembering all the button combos at the right time, and then even have the dexterity to push them all, is a challenge.
I love games that really make you pay attention to everything there is to know in the game, I really do. And in this game, you can’t ask for more layers of gameplay. It is, after all, a deep game with loads of moves in battle, lots of treasures and items to use, and tons of side quests. But playing it on handheld was really too small when it came to the graphics and the texts, I couldn’t see the commands and comments during battle all that well. And after a promising intro, I wished for more animated scenes to give depth to the familiar characters of Kirito, Asuna, Leafy, Klein and many more. Sure, there is a lot of interaction in text, and I don’t mind reading a lot in a game, but it seems a bit empty to me.
Hmmm writing that down turned out much more negative than I thought it would. I guess I’ll give it some time and try again, see if this really isn’t my cup of tea. And if not, my daughter might have more fun with Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization. After all, she beat Ganon in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, while I never even got the hang of the Flurry Attack!