Sword Art Online Hollow Realization Deluxe Edition Worth Playing for Story?

A decent unmarried-player RPG that plays like an MMO and caters heavily to its target audience.

If y'all aren't familiar with or a fan of the Sword Art Online (SAO) light novels or anime, I can safely say that Hollow Realization probably isn't for you. Much of the content and story of this action-RPG focuses on seeing recognizable and love characters interacting with one another. The combat isn't bad, and there is a ton of content, but much of the narrative is told through dialogue interactions between characters, then some previous attachment to them is almost a precursor to enjoying the game.

The story of Hollow Realization centers around Kirito and his friends—Asuna, Leafa, Lisbeth, Klein, among others—inbound a new game called "Sword Art: Origin," which seems familiar to them since information technology reuses assets from "Sword Fine art Online," the game they participated in 3 years prior. In Ainground, the world of Sword Art: Origin, Kirito and coiffure come across an NPC whom they name "Premiere," who seems to exist something of a bare slate. Her information doesn't reveal much about who she is, and it's the player's job to find out more than about Premiere equally you journey through Hollow Realization's 5 main areas.

Hollow Realization is actually the fourth entry in the series, but it'southward the offset to come to Switch. I was still able to bask the game and empathize the story without playing the previous games, only I have watched much of the SAO anime and was able to recognize many of the characters. That said, Hollow Realization relies heavily on dialogue, and the lack of English voices ways yous are going to be doing a lot of reading if you want to follow the story. Although in that location are a smattering of animated and in-game cut-scenes, these were likewise few and far between, and it would have been nice for a greater part of the story to exist delivered in more entertaining means.

For those that are interested, in that location are dating sim elements equally well, and these allow you to strengthen bonds with different characters, increasing their power. One particular chemical element of the dating sim attribute can safely be ignored, but could even so put some people off: upon reaching a strong enough bond, you lot can "bridal carry" a grapheme into bed, which leads to a simple mini-game where you can movement the photographic camera around and requite basic reactions to that character's comments. The bed mini-game can lead to a loosely-animated cut-scene with your partner in a seductive pose, and the best thing I tin say is that these scenes aren't the most egregious things on the Switch. Ultimately, the dialogue in these scenes is pretty repetitive and inane anyways, and so yeah. Buyer beware.

The combat feels similar to that of Ys 8: The Lacrimosa of DANA, which came to Switch in 2018. You lot can equip a variety of different weapons such as swords, axes, and spears, and these take different special attacks that yous can utilize by spending stamina points. I played through almost of the game using the sword, and it's like shooting fish in a barrel to see how the game can be compared to an MMO when you lot have all of your skills and items listed in a toolbar in the bottom-middle of the screen. You can travel with upwardly to three other party members, and they will fight fairly passively abreast you lot until you create chain attacks and combos that can deal massive amounts of damage. It'south always satisfying to stun or weaken an enemy, and so unload a multi-hit combo on them, which drives up your harm multiplier. Of class, most of the basic enemies y'all encounter in the globe don't require a lot of skill, but there are frequent instances and special events in each area that task you lot with taking down unique or empowered monsters, and these practice crave more strategy than just jamming the attack button.

Each map within a given part of the world contains treasures and a teleport pad that you lot tin unlock to send you dorsum to town or to a particular dungeon on that map. However, these dungeons, and much of the Deluxe Edition DLC, are locked until you complete the main game. Traversing the environs tin can feel a footling slow as enemy multifariousness is lacking and the scenery is nothing to write abode well-nigh. The music doesn't really stand up out either, then I played much of the second half of the game while listening to podcasts, which also made grinding more than tolerable, likewise.

Speaking of grinding, I didn't really take to grind out levels or skills until the extremely challenging final boss. The all-time role of Hollow Realization is the four surface area bosses that have the form of raids where groups of NPCs join you to accept on a large and imposing creature. These raids require actress strategy above and beyond what you might need elsewhere in the game. For example, yous might have to take out the raid boss' legs in lodge to knock it down so that y'all tin can begin to whittle downward its sizeable health meter. Even though y'all can't direct the NPCs effectually you, having them there makes these battles feel all the more epic.

The progression and side-quests merit a mention too. In that location are numerous non-overly-simple systems for skill progression, equipment evolution, and character bonding. While yous tin get through much of the game with only a rudimentary cognition of these systems and the combat in general, you will confront a severe hurdle in the game'southward concluding boss without either grinding to an incredibly high level or agreement better how to fight finer. In terms of side-quests, there are extremely piece of cake fetch quests that give meager rewards and seem to be repeatable, just at that place are also narrative-focused ones that can lead to cute graphic symbol interactions. What's funny is that you basically just watch and read these graphic symbol-focused side-quests, and there is no real reward for doing so other than the scenes themselves.

At that place is hands over 100 hours of content in Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, and that's earlier you consider the online multiplayer component where you tin play competitively or cooperatively with other players. Regardless, much of the content is either repetitive or forced reading, and the story isn't going to win whatever awards. To enjoy this title, you have to desire to spend more time with characters you already know. If yous aren't interested in Kirito and Asuna'due south budding romance or Yui playing the dual-roles of both game guide and in-game daughter, you aren't likely to derive a lot of entertainment from Hollow Realization. In that location are better action-RPGs on Switch, such as the same Ys 8, just certainly none that give the freedom of exploring and interacting your favourite SAO personalities.

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Source: http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/review/50650/sword-art-online-hollow-realization-deluxe-edition-switch-review

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