The studio responsible for Dragon Ball Xenoverse returns SOA fans to the virtual universe in a JRPG as colorful and true to the brand as flat and confident.
The publisher Bandai Namco has traditionally known to amortize the manga and anime brands that it acquires, making them a videogame. Sword Art Online (SAO) has a few titles on their backs on PS4 , but Fatal Bullet is the first to come out simultaneously and simultaneously on PC and Xbox One , with a gift from SAO Re-Hollow Fragment in computers . The studio Dimps , in charge of the notables Dragon Ball Xenoverse but also of more mediocre works like Saint Seiya: Soldier's Soul , is the one in charge of coating of Unreal Engine 4 the virtual universe of the world of Gun Gale Online , now seen, unlike the Light visual novel by Reki Kawahara , from the perspective of a new player who experiences this absorbing simulation for the first time.
The SAO anime has many fans and is a more than respectable brand. Therefore, without talking about a bad video game with this Fatal Bullet, it can be considered a stray bullet - fatal - not having done something really big and momentous now that the gameplay, the graphics and the multiplayer have climbed several steps without losing their fan service packaging, always the main characteristic of these works. Because what we are talking about, once again, is from a JRPG disguised this time as a third person shooter action game.
Content
The game is made up of its main story, with the usual entanglements between the central characters of the anime and remembering some battles and monsters, accompanied by various cooperative missions for up to four players (hunts) and competitive challenges to compare scores. The problem? A bit the usual in anime videogames: the repetitiveness and the sense of archaism , encouraged by a development of austere budget and the also frequent very little interaction of scenery.
Storyline
The metallized and sci-fi world of GGO and well-known characters such as Premiere, Philia, Asuna or Kirito continue the story with the new and always dumb " player " right where Hollow Realization left her, but at no time who did not play that one You will feel lost in this new SAO, because already in the first lines of dialogue we can choose between telling us everything from the beginning and introducing ourselves, or demonstrating that we already know about this universe, its "players" and saving us certain explanations and background information. the graphic novel or the games. The whole script has been supervised by Kawahara himself.
Because yes, even so it can be said that the lines of dialogue are ridiculously abundant, most of them without contributing anything of true interest or narrative rhythm , one of the endemic evils of most games coming from anime licenses. In Fatal Bullet there are really long dialogues that could have been solved in many less innocuous phrases and expressions. There are empty comments, but any sequence of talks, luckily for the impatient or not so devout, can be skipped.
Gameplay
Much more agile is the gameplay already in mission, main or secondary, and almost always focused on finishing with a certain enemy, in open areas or corridors. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is, in general terms, a third-person shooter, since most weapons are firearms , but that does not detract from the role of certain futuristic white weapons and, this, more crude and damaging given their effectiveness in very short range. In this way, what the game invites is to arm itself more and more of pistols, shotguns, assault rifles, heavy machine guns or sniper rifles . Each weapon has its own behavior, specific ammunition, damage, limit loader, aim, recoil …
Fatal Bullet, in addition, is the fastest Sword Art Online in terms of dodging or blocking possibilities . The character of the player and his frequent companions, like the ArFA-sys unit that acts as an assistant and is also customizable from the character editor, have somersault, coverage, dash ... and advanced game until certain counterattack or knockout movements. The rise of levels is easy and habitual, and spending PEs freely among the skills and attributes available at each moment ends up being a crucial need. Other usual elements of the role, such as money for stores - here credits - or consumables in the inventory, of course are also part of the playable experience.
But it's too soon when one of the design and playability problems of this SAO: Fatal Bullet is exposed . The missions recommend a specific level before tackling them, but it is not a requirement, and the general ease of play in Normal difficulty (the highest selectable in the first round) means that many levels can always be tackled below. In addition, failure in a mission takes the player back to the base of the GGO, does not require loading game, and all experience points, teleport points, checkpoints and items collected in that attempt are added , so that it can be completed all the history and secondary events simply entering the missions and trying them again and again, each time with more advantage and without any penalty or sense of retry, since there are always important rewards and facilitators. That makes it less fun and less challenging.
From the main angle, firearms work with self-aimed, although there are certain enemies and situations that require manual pointing. This in competitive modes is also recommended, as both players and opponents controlled by the game have weak points that even double the damage. Certainly, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is not a game full of content or very long, that will last many dozens of hours, but its end game for completists itself that opens a range of more demanding missions and something richer where it is removed some more juice to his gunplay and the more tactical settings of equipment and attire.
Even so, at the end of the game what we see is that everything is automated and the navigation or progress shortcuts are too recurrent. We have been playing practically without running around the map, just jumping from point to point of teleportation since they can be used at any time and the load times when using them are acceptable. The same with the attributes where to spend the experience points , based on several fields that we have been filling at the end, so as not to neglect any facet of the development of the character and have a balanced tank. And so it is with many other components of the gameplay and experience, which become cold and generic, fast, to be able to pass over.
Some of the history's missions take place within the city of GGO, but most of them take us to diverse external locations, with labyrinthine dungeon points in their corners, bigger bosses, hidden treasures, etc. As we said at the beginning, in no case are ultra-detailed, live or interactive environments. We speak of simple open scenarios that house enemies and structures, spaces that feel empty but that artistically maintain perfectly the twilight tone of the art of the visual novel.
Graphics
Thanks to the new graphic aspect and support in the Unreal Engine 4, all the artistic section has won over its predecessors. The lighting in the scenes is suggestive, the distances drawn clearly, and everything moves to very stable 60 frames per second . Better stand out the characters and the color of their hair and clothing, which show again the promising and appropriate Unreal Engine for other games coming and more worked, anime court moved with this engine, such as Code Vein or Kingdom Hearts III . The Epic engine really fits this aesthetic.
Acceptable, too, is the presentation aspect of interface or sound and texts. The menus are very clean and simple, as well as the chosen subtitle size to be able to follow in the dialogs completely doubled only in Japanese . Music is a mere accompaniment that rarely stands out, but there is a better choice in sound effects , some brought directly from previous games and other audiovisual content of the Sword Art Online brand.
Conclusion
Correctly but without fanfare or pretension, Bandai Namco returns to manage a conformist video game of a powerful brand from the world of manga and the visual novel. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is probably one of the most complete titles in the SAO saga, but this is not a production full of fun or that stands out in its genre, or that renders unquestioning thorough homage to the saga that reference. Most anime licensing games are bound to evolve.
Happy Gaming !!!
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Wow this game looks amazing. Might have to check it out, I have 2 of the other games for ps4 that I still need to finish lol.