Thanks for the topic Parakeetman! Your topic for Hollow Fragment was one of the key factors in me purchasing it, and it became one of my favorite games of all time. This game would've been an auto-buy if it played in the same style, but since it doesn't, I was hoping for a topic like this to give early impressions.
Reading your latest post makes me worry, though. In Hollow Fragment there were a lot of things I felt could've been improved--tougher enemies in the main dungeon, more creative environments with less empty space, ect. But the combat itself was so fun, and controlled so well, that even if the rest of the game wasn't that great in certain aspects, I didn't mind because the battle aspect was so enjoyable, along with the loot system.
So even if there are annoyances in this game, I'm not too worried as long as the battle system itself is good. But from your latest post it seems as though the battle system has some issues. You make it sound like it's boring because you have to attack normally so much due to lack of MP recovery.
Sure, regular attacks weren't the way to go in the original as well, but SP management played a key factor and was part of the fun. However, it doesn't sound like the ability to get SP (Well, MP in this game) by praising your partners exists, meaning things can (And presumably will quite often) slow down.
And if the magic lock-on system sucks in this one, then that could make taking on extremely tough enemies (The thing I enjoyed most in Hollow Fragment) an issue because not only will you need skill, but luck as well when they're surrounded by multiple other enemies.
I'm writing this half-asleep so it's possible I misunderstood or misread something. But my main concerns from what you said are the two aspects I liked so much in Hollow Fragment (How fun it was and the epic battles against extremely high levels foes) are the opposite in this game due to poor mechanics. Do you feel the same?
This is a totally new game by a different team that went and used most of the code from a previous title of theirs. I can say this strongly having played Macross 30 for a good amount of time and the comparisons / functionality is most def there.
If one who was a SAO:HF fan is going to pick this title up, most def do not go in expecting Hollow Fragment or anything remotely close. The UI, responsiveness during battle and few other things is an actual downgrade. Dodging and what not works ok, but the blocking is a bit shit with how it lacks the responsive time it needs to be useful outside of literally standing there waiting for an attack and the attack motions + targeting system causes some issues with combat.
This game the fights dont really feel epic. And boss fights so far with the larger enemy types have been a bit of a letdown. Just due to it being hammer away at the target. Perhaps that will change, but these are the very basic motions / combat options that the player has and this game relies on you to grind away with skill usage to progress your characters in the story and the combat system sort of works against that.
Starting Mana potions also the amount of time taken to use one vs how much it actually recovers makes it not worth taking the time out to pop one.
One other irritation is setting skills / abilities can only be done in town.
This game the flying around and what not is fun and simple combat whatnots isnt too bad but seeing how the game is with the character / skill progression makes it lose a bit of the charm. They really should have made it so melee attacks charge MP faster to keep combat fast paced and "exciting". The standard and strong attacks too do not really chain well together either and there is a jarring pause between the use of each one that can be felt when doing attacks. Its not surprising considering Artdink does not really excel in melee combat mechanics. Their melee moves in both the gundam and macross games for the most part consist of general set combo(s) and some other moves activated by character movement, but for the most part it was not meant as the main attack method for their games. As they made titles which were mainly about ranged combat.
Thanks for the impressions Parakeetman. Looks like it really is an action game first, with some RPG elements tacked on.
Hollow Fragment is one of the exceedingly rare ARPGs I've played to offer so many meaningful options (multiple ways to regen MP, crazy number of skills, AI behavior customisation, etc) in combat. Its robust mechanics (risk, stats, etc) and customisation options also allowed for some really unique builds.
I'm still buying the game day one but it really shocks me to see how little Lost Memories resembles the game I've poured more than 200hrs on and Platinum-ed.
Its because its by a different team. My guess also is their dev budget most of it went to all the VA recordings and such, which is why besides them being fantastic for games with flying in it Artdink was chosen as they had a prebuilt engine ready to use which fits with ALO, since you need to be on the ground, hover, air. Which =s the 3 modes of movement in Macross. My guess would be that this title was selected as a stopgap to keep people interested in the brand further while (if) hollow fragment 2 gets green lighted.
Once again do not expect this title to be hollow fragment. It is why Im avoiding drawing any sort of comparisons and talking about problems as they are, not as what they are compared to.
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On a positive note the story events / extra event scenes with the characters are amusing and whats expected from SAO. So fans should most def enjoy that. The music is quite nice too, very enjoyable so far when flying around and such.
In closing generally this is not a bad game, but that impression can be had if people compare it to the experience they got from Hollow Fragment then try to compare Lost Song to it. They are two totally different titles by different dev houses and should be treated as such. With that aside fans of SAO should still enjoy the game regardless, esp with the fact that you can play as a good number of characters from the series.
(HF's run animation was hilariously bad).
While I generally do not bother commenting on stuff like running animation, this game looks worse than HFs with how odd the animations are with characters when running around in town. It does not look as bad when weapons are drawn in battle.
