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If you're a fan of Sword Art Online, then Sword Art Online: Lost Vocal offers a lot of different options for y'all to give yourself your ideal SAO experience. Information technology doesn't take long to unlock the whole main cast as playable characters (you can even switch Kirito out of the party for another character) and fifty-fifty side characters eventually become playable like Argo, the information banker or the leaders of the races such as Sakuya or Alicia Rue. Each character can exist equipped with their ain sets of equipment, which is dependant on their character'south race, too equally their own fix of skills.

Strea and Philia return from Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, though I didn't recognize Philia in her ALO course at offset equally it'due south very different from her original appearance! There'south a diverseness of costumes for each graphic symbol and all the DLC costumes from the Japanese version is including in the English release. While information technology seems you tin't switch dorsum to the original Aincrad forms, Kirito and Sinon take their GGO forms as a costume as well as a Gods Eater costume for Kirito and Asuna bachelor from the offset of the game.

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Once you achieve a sure point in the game, the online multiplayer options open up, enabling you to create a custom character. While you tin can create your character for online play, y'all're also able to play the single actor campaign using them too. Unfortunately, the options hither are really limited, even more so when compared to the character creator (or rather the Kirito Customizer) that was used in Hollow Fragment. You showtime past selecting your character's race from the ones available in the globe of ALO, though some races similar Cait Sith are restricted to certain genders. Where the existent disappointment lies is that as you're picking out your character's features, there'southward only 2 options for each selection and your graphic symbol never actually deviates from the default options. What'due south worse is that all these custom character models are based on the NPCs you run into running effectually town, then the grapheme that'south meant to look unique and represent you online just looks like an ordinary NPC. It feels similar a fashion that'southward just been tacked on and frankly, you lot're better off sticking with the existing characters than bothering creating one of your own.

As you progress through the game, you'll be able to trigger scenes with various members, some beingness just for fun and others atomic number 82 towards extra quests giving yous extra experience, weapons and items. Characters exercise have their own set of quests to complete just these aren't handled the same way they were in Hollow Fragment. For a start, at that place's no romance options and characters don't follow you effectually town and you can't interact with them either. Characters send you in-game messages about their thoughts and feelings virtually recent events that has happened either in the story or side quests yous've taken on. You'll too get messages from party members that you lot oasis't used in a while, asking to come up forth on your journey.

It's a shame and then that party members not in use don't earn any feel points from your battles since they'll autumn behind very quickly and won't larn some of their avant-garde skills that are helpful in later stages of the game. While yous earn experience just by taking out enemies, in true SAO fashion your skills only level upwards every bit you use them. So to increase a healing skill, you have to proceed healing, to increase an assail skill, y'all accept to keep performing that specific assail. As well your efficiency with your weapons increases as you employ them. Using skills and attacks on enemies that are a college level than yous will, increase the rate the skill increases, something to continue in heed when facing a boss if there'due south a detail stat you desire to increase.

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I feel similar Sword Art Online: Lost Song has done a good job of including fan pleasing content and I'1000 a large fan of the alternate timeline arroyo that Hollow Fragment and Lost Vocal accept taken. I always think it makes it a lot more engaging to play than simply playing through a story you've already seen. Sword Art Online: Lost Song does follow on from the events of Hollow Fragment, though it requires no prior knowledge of it. However, information technology does reveal a spoiler virtually a certain character early on that's pretty unavoidable, just something to go along information technology mind if you've attack playing through Hollow Fragment first.

Alistair Wong

Very avid gamer with writing tendencies. Fan of Rockman and Pokémon and lots more!