-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Sword Art Online: Lost Song |OT| Not Last
- Thread starter Hikami
- Start date
Got the game yesterday and had a blast with it 
. Here are my impressions of the first four hours of the Vita version.
. Here are my impressions of the first four hours of the Vita version. Got my first physical retail Vita game in years; Sword Art Online Lost Song
Personally been looking forward to playing this and finally dived into the game for a good....four or so hours at this point.
The story and set-up is something I always wanted from the series as a whole; just Kirito and his friends having a fun time playing some MMORPG. And while the second half of S2 covered this, there was a lot of potential with the set up Hollow Fragment had with how it fixed up the story the anime fumbled up a bit with S1 (in my personal opinion; outright loathed the second of S1). But it wasn't because of ALO; the world itself looked amazing, the concept of flying around is a fantastic one and I loved how it uses Norse mythology as a basis for its location/myths/NPC's/ect.
So having a game focused on this section of the anime all the while continuing the story I personally enjoyed from first half of S1 & Hollow Fragment, I was very excited to see what the story offered.
And so far, its good. I like the character interactions, the translation is great (thank got the Engerish is gone.....), and Kirito isn't an idiot when interacting with his female friends (which was an element I really didn't like about Hollow Fragment). The second-half S2 characters get some screen time, and new characters are introduced and this was nice to see; new takes on fimilar faces alongside three new faces that have signifcant story roles.
The gameplay itself is the one area I don't know how to comment on. I loved the combat system of Hollow Fragment and I will say right now that I prefer that over Lost Song's combat. But, I love how dynamic and mobile you are now; flying opens the door to some great fights, the stronger dashing mechanics and having the ability to jump does a lot to make the pace and speed of the combat better.
It sacrifices the depth Hollow Fragment had sadly, but considering how fun it is to fly around, I honestly don't mind the combat changes. The dungeons were good in Hollow Fragment but nothing amazing. That seems to be the case with Lost Song too so far; every dungeon feels the 'same' and they are far shorter then the ones in Hollow Fragment (both in comparison to the Floor ones AND the Hollow Area ones). That is okay as its fun exploring the overworlds but its a shame that they didn't mix those up. Espcally with the flying mechanics, you can have some really creative dungeon designs. There are signs of that though; switches that activate launch pads, switches that do different things, ect.
The biggest thing I have to commend the game on is giving us the option to play as any of the party members in the game. Granted, this more or less an replacement for Kritio having the ability to use all the weapon types from Hollow Fragment, but its nice to play as Asuna, Kline, Leafa, and others.
The visuals and music are my last take away and personally, was very impressed when I booted the game up and played for the first hour or so. The game runs very well and it has some great lighting effects. Shadows casting over the ground, the grass and texture work in the world being great when flying around, the character models looking closer to the anime then Hollow Fragment and little touches during the cut-scenes (character stills moving around, text boxes shaking, lips moving when characters are talking, ect) really make it a step up visually compared to Hollow Fragment (which was a mix between HD PSP Remaster and Original PS Vita game).
Overall, really enjoying Lost Song so far and I am hopeful that we will get Hollow Realization next year on Vita
Cornbread78
Member
Got the game yesterday and had a blast with it
Damn, now that is a write-up, lol.
Despite how much the anime annoys me at times with how it handles characters and story, I love the IP a lot
. I loved Hollow Fragment and it was great diving into the SAO world again through Lost Song.
I finally got to play for 5-6 hours the other day, and finished the first continent/island place. I had a lot of fun with it! The character interactions are great (The one with the cat ears and the gravure magazine had me laughing almost to the point of tears), and the combat is pretty solid. Definitely miss some of the depth of Hollow Fragment's system with the unique special attacks, but the flying stuff is really interesting as well. Still getting a feel for the full dynamics of things.
Season 2 of the anime spoiler comment
Season 2 of the anime spoiler comment
Having Yuuki though. Jeez. Seriously feels weird, with how goddamn tragic everything associated with her entire storyline is... Not sure I'll end up using her in my party much, because as awesome as she is, it just feels weird.
Cornbread78
Member
Despite how much the anime annoys me at times with how it handles characters and story, I love the IP a lot
I loved Hollow Fragment and it was great diving into the SAO world again through Lost Song.
I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of it. Now when it vomes to the anime, despite how much hate AnimeGAF and ToonamiGAF give the series, It was my first and I love it.
Damn, didn't even think about that one. She was awesome, but yeah, kinda mixed emotions with that.
You bring up a good point and it is odd.
Spoilers:
Similar to my views on how I like the changes the games make to the anime, I like the ones they do here. Gameplay wise, they have to have Yuuki be a party member post-game, so the changed ending is reasonable. Still, it is odd having her party it up with the gang despite how tragic and down right heartbreaking her storyline is. Her moments with Asuna (and everything with the Mothers Ruso arc in general in S2) was fantastic to me.
I will agree with the comments on the scenes; they were very funny XD!.
The anime is very odd to me, I downright love parts of it but other parts that completely anger me
. But this isn't the place to discuss the anime, so I will stop their. I will say that I loved the first half of S1, liked the setting of the second half of S1, the first half of S2 was great until its closing episode which bugged me a bit, and the second half of S2 is (to me at the very least) what the second half of S1 should of been like.
Cornbread78
Member
The anime is very odd to me, I downright love parts of it but other parts that completely anger me
But this isn't the place to discuss the anime, so I will stop their. I will say that I loved the first half of S1, liked the setting of the second half of S1, the first half of S2 was great until its closing episode which bugged me a bit, and the second half of S2 is (to me at the very least) what the second half of S1 should of been like.
True, but with that being said, a Gun Gale Online SAO themed game could be awesome stuff as well, lol.
I wonder if that is what is coming after Hollow Realization releases. At this point, they did the following with the games:
-Hollow Fragment: Alicard in the world of SAO
-Lost Song: Exploring a new location in the world of ALO
-Hollow Realization: New location called Sword Art: Origin, based around SAO's world
The next steps is either Gun Gale Online or Underworld.
I guess they avoided making Gun Gale Online game due to having to include shooting mechanics into the series, make new character designs for the majority of the cast, explain a reason why everyone is playing GGO (as only Sinion and Kritio played that one) and so on.
It could work great and Xenoblade X shows how it can be done, but who knows. I feel that after Hollow Realization, they will move on to making a game set in Underworld around the time the anime adaptation of that comes around.
If they do one >.> they may have decided "That's enough, now people will buy the novels to find out what happens next" or something.. ;_;
SliceSabre
Banned
Four things of note:
1. Wow I'm enjoying the combat in this more than in hollow fragment simply because I feel like I have more agency in what's going on in the fights.
2. Not having to play as Mr. Perfection is a godsend. Strea , Leafa and Yuuki team is fucking gooooo!
3. Flying significantly more enjoyable than I was expecting.
4. Wow Bath Towel outfit sure makes you realize some of the girls are bigger than what they appear to be!
1. Wow I'm enjoying the combat in this more than in hollow fragment simply because I feel like I have more agency in what's going on in the fights.
2. Not having to play as Mr. Perfection is a godsend. Strea , Leafa and Yuuki team is fucking gooooo!
3. Flying significantly more enjoyable than I was expecting.
4. Wow Bath Towel outfit sure makes you realize some of the girls are bigger than what they appear to be!
CoolBatteryCharge
Member
Finished the game last night including (end game spoilers)
Time to see if I can get that Platinum now.
beating Lost Song.
Time to see if I can get that Platinum now.
It seems that there are four-five main locations to go too, alongside accessing the higher levels of each location once the altitude levels are unlocked (so you can go to the other islands).
That plus the story being about the same length as the Alicard sections of Hollow Fragment (as that was part of a JP-only PSP game that was remastered/remade into Hollow Fragment with the Hollow Area content being added into the experience).
If I was to make a guess......I suppose the game will be at most 40-60 hours tops, with an extra 20 hours in completing all the side-quests and event quests with your party members.
Oh shit , no way I can beat that before Xenoblade X lol .
I thought it was shorter because I saw in in a review (don't remember where) the main story was bout 20-30 hours
Fake Edit: I saw it was 23h on how long to beat
Too many feels reading aboutthis early in the morning.Yuuki
By chance I got this game for free and I have 4 days off next week. I may start it this week and play more next week.
You got it for free
! Hope you have a blast with it man !CoolBatteryCharge
Member
It felt like around 30 while doing almost every side thing along the way. Still a have a few more side things to do though.
Too many feels reading aboutthis early in the morning.Yuuki
By chance I got this game for free and I have 4 days off next week. I may start it this week and play more next week.
Her story was so good, and so emotional, it's just hard to shrug off. It was a really solid, enclosed arc, with great development for everyone. Just weird to play with her like none of that will happen.
Don't remind me.
I didn't expect that to show up in the show until the hints started coming up.
You guys are hyping me up to try this. Too bad I spent the weekend playing FFXIV.
Hikami
Member
Wish I read the controls again sooner lol. I've been hating combat since you just keep getting knocked down every hit.. didn't know you could recover from it.
Having fun now, playing as Phillia with Asuna and Listbeth in my party. Slowly progressing though as I'm juggling a bunch of other games.
Having fun now, playing as Phillia with Asuna and Listbeth in my party. Slowly progressing though as I'm juggling a bunch of other games.
Thx for the info , I'm going to keep playing and see how far I can get in 2 weeks
LowParry
Member
This being my first Sword Art Online game, I must say I'm having a lot of fun with it. This is pure fan service at it's finest if you're a fan of the anime. Feel bad for the wife cause she hasn't seen any of it and she has some interest in what I showed her. There are some characters I don't remember at all in the anime. So I either missed something that went on after season 2 or part of older games? Doesn't bother me. It is really nice to be able to not use Kiri. It's hard to stay with just a set of three.
Ingueferroque
Banned
Could I skip Hollow Fragment and jump straight to this? Or should I consider double dipping on HF PS4? I don't want to deal with the localization issues but like what I played from HF...
I played 20-30 minutes.
They altered some of the story to fit certain characters in, and some characters are from Hollow Fragment. I didn't finish that, if it goes on sale for half I'll buy the PS4 version.
I hated the Vita version, the awful translation made it really frustrating on top of the awful maps.
Hikami
Member
I wouldn't skip it since you'd miss out on Phillia's story (which was great). They don't explain it at all either in Lost Song I think. They do explain what happened to Strea though. You'd just miss some backstory for those two characters I guess since they return in Lost Song. Maybe Yuuki too but you only see her once in HF.
Ingueferroque
Banned
Thank you, I will stick to it!
Cornbread78
Member
PS4 Games
1 Call of Duty: Black Ops III
14 Sword Art Online: Lost Song
PS Vita Games
1 Persona 4 Golden
2 Sword Art Online -Hollow Fragment-
6 Sword Art Online: Lost Song
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/12/10/playstation-store-novembers-top-sellers-2/
1 Call of Duty: Black Ops III
14 Sword Art Online: Lost Song
PS Vita Games
1 Persona 4 Golden
2 Sword Art Online -Hollow Fragment-
6 Sword Art Online: Lost Song
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2015/12/10/playstation-store-novembers-top-sellers-2/
psynergylover
Member
huh, I thought there would be more post based on Hollow Fragment thread and not that it simultaneously released on PSV and PS4
git it on launch but wanted to finish SOA: HF before playing so started a couple of days ago and greatly enjoying it both the visuals(even for the vita version) and combat seem much better than just spammin "O" in the previous entry
still in the beginning though
git it on launch but wanted to finish SOA: HF before playing so started a couple of days ago and greatly enjoying it both the visuals(even for the vita version) and combat seem much better than just spammin "O" in the previous entry
still in the beginning though
So I just started this and, uh...
Yay for empowerment -_-
Goddammit, SAO.
such armor very defense
I'm enjoying this game but I feel like they may have made a mistake making it a direct sequel to Hollow Fragment.
The story and new characters don't make any sense if you come to it from watching the Anime. Also while I like Strea and Philia, Seven is a really off-putting character.
Anyway the gameplay is great and the flying feels awesome but I feel like I can't recommend the game to people who haven't played HF and given how huge HF is that's a tough sell just to understand how things are starting out in this game.
The story and new characters don't make any sense if you come to it from watching the Anime. Also while I like Strea and Philia, Seven is a really off-putting character.
Anyway the gameplay is great and the flying feels awesome but I feel like I can't recommend the game to people who haven't played HF and given how huge HF is that's a tough sell just to understand how things are starting out in this game.
deanote666
Gold Member
My strategy for boss fights is to play as Asuna, hang back, and spam Ice bullets. I even used that against an Ice element boss lol! I know. I'm playing it wrong!
Edit: I have images not unlocking in the in-game gallery. Has anyone else come across this? My first page should be filled up but the bottom right two are still locked...?
Cornbread78
Member
I was really hoping this would be part of these PSN holiday sales, hopefully it's part of the final week 3 sale.
deanote666
Gold Member
Looks like that glitch I mentioned above fixes itself as the game progresses.
Got the platinum! Definitely shorter than HF!
Got the platinum! Definitely shorter than HF!
Game is on a good sale this week, for both platforms.
Any major shortcomings of Vita version? I'd like to go for that one for play on the road.
And I believe I read cross-save?
Great impressions, I think it answers all my questions. Sounds like it runs great on Vita, which is enough for me to warrant a purchase.
Any major shortcomings of Vita version? I'd like to go for that one for play on the road.
And I believe I read cross-save?
Got the game yesterday and had a blast with it
Great impressions, I think it answers all my questions. Sounds like it runs great on Vita, which is enough for me to warrant a purchase.
Cornbread78
Member
I'm going to have to pony up the $20 for this since it's on sale...
Hot DAMN this game is pretty on Vita!! I now appreciate that Hollow Fragment was a PSP port and this is a true native Vita release...
I got to the Floor 77 boss (2nd boss of the game) in Hollow Fragment and think I might give up on that one and just focus on this... what pisses me off ab out Hollow Fragment is that I do these "Raid Boss" battles which take 10-15 minutes just to die when I get the boss down to 1% health... and it is due to something that feels completely out of my control, yet I suspect it is in my control and I just can't wrap my head around it. I don't even know why I lost each time... I didn't die, so I assume my partner did... I really enjoy each Floor so far as it leads up to the boss battle...
So far this game feels much more better localized (X to select instead of O, I hear Localization isn't a mess this time around) and very interesting to play. Flying is AWESOME, even though I only cleared the tutorial so far...
I sense that combat may feel less enjoyable in this game for some reason... But I guess I'll see. I look forward to playing as other characters, and having a party of 3 this time around.
I didn't even get far enough to find out yet, but do you start at level 1 in this game? Starting at level 100 in Hollow Fragment made sense for the story, but starting with so many skills was very overwhelming... HF was skill overload, I hope this game is not!
I got to the Floor 77 boss (2nd boss of the game) in Hollow Fragment and think I might give up on that one and just focus on this... what pisses me off ab out Hollow Fragment is that I do these "Raid Boss" battles which take 10-15 minutes just to die when I get the boss down to 1% health... and it is due to something that feels completely out of my control, yet I suspect it is in my control and I just can't wrap my head around it. I don't even know why I lost each time... I didn't die, so I assume my partner did... I really enjoy each Floor so far as it leads up to the boss battle...
So far this game feels much more better localized (X to select instead of O, I hear Localization isn't a mess this time around) and very interesting to play. Flying is AWESOME, even though I only cleared the tutorial so far...
I sense that combat may feel less enjoyable in this game for some reason... But I guess I'll see. I look forward to playing as other characters, and having a party of 3 this time around.
I didn't even get far enough to find out yet, but do you start at level 1 in this game? Starting at level 100 in Hollow Fragment made sense for the story, but starting with so many skills was very overwhelming... HF was skill overload, I hope this game is not!
GuitarAtomik
Member
Can I just Youtube Hollow Fragment and go straight to Lost Song? It sounds like LS is a lot better.
IMO, as someone who just "quit" Hollow Fragment from very early in the game and jumped directly into this, I don't think there is a single thing you are missing...
The only "spoiler" so far (and I'm sure it ends there) is that they
got out of SOA alive
I even recognize all the characters... and I don't expect there was any character growth in Hollow Fragment at all... the one thing I'm wondering though is what happened to
the girl who was trapped in the Hollow Area
One thing I'm really not liking in this game is the leveling... so you do start at level 100. Why??? It doesn't feel like we are all returning players... only the Sister is a vet. And we are all 100 together. And then I go out and kill a few mobs and suddenly I'm level 113 in a matter of 10 minutes. Like wtf... The game doesn't do anything flashy when you level up, it is just part of the text notifications to the left... and I think I saw that I learned skills as well, yet I can't find any new skills to equip. This is pretty wonky so far.
I may go back to Hollow Fragment... I don't know. This game is so pretty and has such great music, I don't want to stop just yet.
somotodsyo
Member
Decided to buy it for 20 on sale, I also quite HF a while ago but want to give this one a shot.
Dragon1893
Member
I'm buying HF today since it's on sale (going with the PS4 version since it looks so much better), will check this one out if I like HF which I think I will. I enjoyed the anime.
Might go with Vita for LS since there doesn't seem to be such a big gap in visuals (understandable since HF PS4 is a remaster).
Might go with Vita for LS since there doesn't seem to be such a big gap in visuals (understandable since HF PS4 is a remaster).
Cornbread78
Member
Nice, below is the link to the HF OT if you run into questions.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=805839
Dragon1893
Member
Thanks, played about 30 minutes last night, still wrapping my head around the battle system. Will give the OT a read.
Cornbread78
Member
Man, my Vita still won't connect to the PS store, wtf.. I can't entire on to buy this finally, but nope..