So, right off the bat, I throw money at this since I happen to actually like the previous games. Some exceptions apply to this statement. I can safely say that $60 is a tad too high for the level of quality they threw at this one.
As the game starts off, it's once again Kirito being the mary sue of the series, only to find out that his daughter Yui is quickly kidnapped by a purple villianess after she sicks the hero of Accel at you: Black Lotus. You fight, you compliment one another, you team up. Life's wonderful.
You are introduced to some new mechanics. And by new, I mean kinda old. This game is literally Lost Song 2.0, so if you are familiar with that game, you'll slip right in here with no issues.
So the game introduces the Accel World powers: You blink/dash to your target, and jump really high. The trade off is all but one can't fly. Or use a plethora of support magic. But they hit really hard. They do this by specializing in elemental damage that you can enhance, but all the AW character's augmentations raise one stat, and drop another. 90% of the time it's your DPS. Joy.
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Using this logic, it didn't take me long to realize 2 Accel World characters paired with one SAO support made bosses pretty damn simple. Or in many cases, Black Lotus for DPS, Kirito for his Debuffs and (of course) DPS, and Asuna for the fact that she (sometimes) heals. I'm sure there are some characters who do other things better, but this is what I had at hand, and it worked. It worked so hard I have little issues in most cases of actual difficulty.
That one issue being the game throwing stupid high stat monsters at you that shouldn't be that difficult to kill, only to find out they are an unlimited spawn, and the game's tactic is to annoy you enough to just run past. I tried power leveling to kill them (since pride is a thing), but that was not good enough after awhile. Running past, I actually was quite annoyed by the whole dungeon, only to find out they tried to excuse the poor creation for a story related reason. “Something powerful came through and corrupted all the actual monsters in the dungeonâ€.
Well, you run into said “Something†later, and it literally makes no sense why everything corrupted. They failed to explain how “Something†is capable of something you never actually see in the game.
They try to do it once again later down the road, but you're so high of a level at that point, and they forgot to raise those super enemies health, that they turn into canon fodder. I digress.
That one issue being the game throwing stupid high stat monsters at you that shouldn't be that difficult to kill, only to find out they are an unlimited spawn, and the game's tactic is to annoy you enough to just run past. I tried power leveling to kill them (since pride is a thing), but that was not good enough after awhile. Running past, I actually was quite annoyed by the whole dungeon, only to find out they tried to excuse the poor creation for a story related reason. “Something powerful came through and corrupted all the actual monsters in the dungeonâ€.
Well, you run into said “Something†later, and it literally makes no sense why everything corrupted. They failed to explain how “Something†is capable of something you never actually see in the game.
They try to do it once again later down the road, but you're so high of a level at that point, and they forgot to raise those super enemies health, that they turn into canon fodder. I digress.
The later bosses made me want to put my head through the wall.
They are all really big, and you are really not. I don't know who thought it would be a fun a idea to have a sky scraper run around faster than you can teleport, but they should probably be fired. Most of my end game boss fights consists of the following:
I activate my buffs/debuffs. I run in. They run away as I'm in mid swing. They proceed to use either a kick attack that knocks you out of your flying stance, or a kill move to drop anywhere between 10% - 100% of my health, that also simultaneously pushes me away.
Stay and heal, waiting for the boss to come back, never does, go after it, rinse, repeat.
I've decided that most boss fights are actually 2 minutes long, the developers realized this, freaked out, and found out basic gimmicky ways to extend the fight to make it seem like they are an actual threat.
Irritation aside, the story is lack luster, and the audio is not there. And when I mean not there, I mean the audio in the cutscenes lag, cut out, and during sword parries or landing, it's outright missing in these “Epic fight scenesâ€. Kinda pulls you out of the immersion when you watch a scene play out in complete silence, only to hear someone scream in rage as they try to power swing at the enemy, then immediately go back into silence.
They are all really big, and you are really not. I don't know who thought it would be a fun a idea to have a sky scraper run around faster than you can teleport, but they should probably be fired. Most of my end game boss fights consists of the following:
I activate my buffs/debuffs. I run in. They run away as I'm in mid swing. They proceed to use either a kick attack that knocks you out of your flying stance, or a kill move to drop anywhere between 10% - 100% of my health, that also simultaneously pushes me away.
Stay and heal, waiting for the boss to come back, never does, go after it, rinse, repeat.
I've decided that most boss fights are actually 2 minutes long, the developers realized this, freaked out, and found out basic gimmicky ways to extend the fight to make it seem like they are an actual threat.
Irritation aside, the story is lack luster, and the audio is not there. And when I mean not there, I mean the audio in the cutscenes lag, cut out, and during sword parries or landing, it's outright missing in these “Epic fight scenesâ€. Kinda pulls you out of the immersion when you watch a scene play out in complete silence, only to hear someone scream in rage as they try to power swing at the enemy, then immediately go back into silence.
Also, side note: Yellow Jester is an asshole. He has a status effect that lasts 3 minutes that makes you auto lock on, then it plays roulette between you and your party members, making you lash out at the wrong person and generally kill them.
With my irritation freshly guiding me, I decided to finish the story (The ending actually made me stop and thing though, so there's that), unlock the extra characters, and finally try out Online.
Online is dumb. You can join a “Room†that holds 16 people. Of the 16, one person makes a quest. 4 people can join a quest.
Most of the time, if you are not one of the 4 people the quest maker is comftorble with, you will see them disband the quest and immediately remake it until you stop joining it, so you are stuck farming the same 1 star boss with your lv 400 unit as you are literally one shotting the damn thing as a healer, but god forbid they let you in to the 4 star quest where you can actually do something.
And they removed character creation.
If you're a hard core fan the series, wait till this drops in price.
If you're not a fan of either Accel Word, nor Sword Art Online, run. Run far, run fast. Don't look back.
With my irritation freshly guiding me, I decided to finish the story (The ending actually made me stop and thing though, so there's that), unlock the extra characters, and finally try out Online.
Online is dumb. You can join a “Room†that holds 16 people. Of the 16, one person makes a quest. 4 people can join a quest.
Most of the time, if you are not one of the 4 people the quest maker is comftorble with, you will see them disband the quest and immediately remake it until you stop joining it, so you are stuck farming the same 1 star boss with your lv 400 unit as you are literally one shotting the damn thing as a healer, but god forbid they let you in to the 4 star quest where you can actually do something.
And they removed character creation.
If you're a hard core fan the series, wait till this drops in price.
If you're not a fan of either Accel Word, nor Sword Art Online, run. Run far, run fast. Don't look back.
I am amazed at the things you put yourself through for our entertainment
It is the people like you that save the rest of us from making poor decisions. Thank you for taking the time to warn us. The review was informative, and I now have more reason to not purchase this game.
I agree. These reviews are very good and you should make this a thing if you have the time .
Call it " Joker plays and reviews bad video games"
Call it " Joker plays and reviews bad video games"