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It will tell the story further reaching in dark territory, how do you call which will most likely be 50+ hours of story content DLC?
Also, dont buy it if you dont like it, no one is forcing you. SAO games have never been a Tripple A title.
If I didn't like it, I wouldn't be here. All because people have negative things to say doesn't mean they don't want it to improve. SAO is one of my favourite franchises and all I'm asking for is an optimised game that looks and feels different.
You can justify your low standards all you want; that it's not a AAA title, but that is just disrespectful to yourself.
But saying it looks like DLC and is not worth doesnt make much sense either if you dont say what you want them to do better.
From my view the graphics look quite a bit improved (could still be better but whatever)
Stability and performance we will have to see how it runs at release, at least should be a lot better than AL simply because of the new engine. And tbf, i didnt play AL for the story, it was nice but i played it for the endgame, which i am curious what/if they include here.
Better engine, ACC/EVA removed. Hopefully they do something about RNG drops too.
60 is a steep price though, hopefully it's justified.
I wouldn't say the engine itself was bad, it is mostly programming. really.
The same engine that had been used previously was an engine made by Sony itself and it had been used to make games such as: God of War Trilogy (the Greek mythology ones), FFX HD Remaster, multiple Trails games, and many, many more.
And it is not like the engine itself will make the game amazing by itself, it is all within the programming. There are plenty of great UE games and plenty of bad ones.
The engine itself is just a tool, but how you program things in it is what matters.
Like Soul Hackers 2 and Nocturne HD remaster, both had performance issues, despite being on Unity.
From the footage released so far the game's been improved massively on the technical side, that's what I meant.
I really like your response.
Yeah, AQURIA is a good small dev studio, but most of the issues are really within the same "restrictions" as other licensed games. Deadlines, rushed production, sometimes even scope creep or even marketing department and publishing side wanting to put features for more profit at the cost of artistic integrity.
The great example within SAO would be the very first game, Infinity Moment and Hollow Fragment, released a year after Infinity Moment, the one that is available on multiple platforms.
The signs of a rushed production of Hollow Fragment are there:
- Art direction is worse: textures do not really fit the setting (photos of real life objects of HF vs hand drawn, bright textures)
- Gameplay is worse: the gameplay design was slightly altered, without considering the changes this will have on the combat itself. What was once a more strategic, tactical endeavor, with startup times and cooldowns, had been turned into essentially a button masher-enemy stunclocks which make them not able to do anything
- Pacing is worse, for the portion that was adapted from IM, for the sake of fanservice (HF lets you pick any girl regardless of the fact that each area at the beginning had a theme for each girl, which played into their abilities and strengths). Additionally, the great tutorial section, which tightly integrated itself into the story arc was moved somewhere else, removing the significance it had in the Aincrad portion.
- CGs and sprites are worse: now looking more flat, due to them being redrawn as vector art, instead of the hand drawn beautifully made CGs and spites
Sure, HF has extra content, which is great, but at the cost of everything else.
Both IM and HF were made by the same dev team, on the same engine: Phyre, yet one looks and plays much worse (HF) than the other (IM)
But Infinity Moment was not ported anywhere, and probably never will be. Which is very unfortunate, as this makes people believe the dev team and the engine aren't good.
As I said, this is mostly due to the fault of the publisher/IP holder/licensed property deal.
I know that the dev team is capable of delivering great experiences, despite the small size they are.
So I don't blame the dev or the tool, the blame should be pushed on the marketing team and the publisher/IP holder. They are the ones who decide everything. And if anyone has issues with that, the simple solution is not supporting the release and voicing (politely) your concerns.
Tbh I read thru your whole thing and most of the issues you have with HF aside from I'd say the Artwork/CGs definitely being worse in the Hollow Area story, and some pacing issues (which aren't even that noticeable if you go into the game thinking it's a long a$$ Visual Novel) it is all personal preference.
I played Infinity Moment with a pseudo english patch on Adrenaline on my PS Vita, and the game is FAR worse gameplay wise, it felt more like they wanted it to be a turn based like tactical game and ended up in the middle of action and turn based, and that wasn't what most people wanted from an SAO Game. Which wasn't what most JP Players wanted at the time, they wanted pretty much full action flashy combat.
Hollow Fragment gave them that, and I vastly prefer Hollow Fragment over Infinity Moment, I dare say I'd probably hate the game series if they stuck with the more traditional tactical/turn based-esc gameplay style Infinity Moment had and all the games since had it, it would be horrid and I'd of dropped the series years ago.
All in all I'd say Aquria has VASTLY improved their development standards since their first SAO game started development all the way back in 2011/12
If you read my previous post above, you would find your answers to your complains about why things are the way they are, including the engine.
Engine is just a tool, nothing more, nothing less. It is up to the developers, artists, 3D modelists, etc, to bring their vision to life, given the experience and funding they receive from the publisher itself, Namco Bandai in this case.
To fix most of the issues, you would have to change how licensed properties are handled in game space. Most of the time, they are seen as publishers/license holders as something extra, regardless of what the end result might be. Developers tend to not get enough time or funds to make the games like they would want them to be. Even if they might be fans of the property themselves and want to make them shine.
I for one, was really impressed by the first game, a game, which never got a rerelease of any kind and which was technically impressive for its time, with care put into its gameplay, visuals and sound. And it is for this reason, I am willing to give this game a try.
I am not also a fan of the property previously by the form of the anime or any of the light novels. I just liked the game experience a lot, because I like to play (usually anyway) good games, even if they might come from small studios that take licensed properties as a way to fund their other projects.
And if you know you will have issues with the game from what had been released about it, you can just....not get the game at all. Why waste energy complaining about something you know you will not get or enjoy. There are plenty of other experiences you can get, play and enjoy.
As a person, who prefers more of a turn based combat, I found Infinity Moment better than Hollow Fragment, for this reason, though not for the reason you might think.
Not to mention the fact that the issues with Hollow Fragment I do have, besides the ones I mentioned, (and you can definitely tell the game was rushed in the Aincrad arc, with the audiovisual department too)
The issue I have with HF, is not that it has more of a focus on an action based combat, but that the combat was altered in ways that make the whole experience unrewarding, since now, you can stunlock any enemy by just constantly pressing buttons, precisely because the core system was not altered suiting the new combat style.
For my last point, even if you personally do prefer mashing buttons and not think about what you are pressing (which is a fair experience each of us is different) in order to do the combat, isn't it upsetting that the unique experience of Infinity Moment is not preserved in an official capacity? Especially since a lot of people do like unique gaming experiences?
For me, because games are an interactive medium, and because I do like unique experiences, my adoration of Infinity Moment is precisely because I do like the unique mix that that game is going for, and unlike Hollow Fragment, which built on top of the system IM established, but which the system wasn't designed for, you get a very unrewarding combat. And for me, that is a vastly inferior experience. The other changes visually do not help either.
To finish this post off, while I am aware this game won't have the system I ended up loving the most, I am hoping that I still can have fun with it, since I do love action RPGs, despite not being great at them.
I mean to each their own, you like Infinity Moment over HF for very valid reasons for your personal preference.
I for instance personally found Hollow Fragment rewarding for the time I put into it, not at any point did I feel the game wasn't rewarding, which that just comes down to what you personally feel is rewarding and if you don't feel the game is rewarding or your time isn't treated right that's for fine for you to argue.
In Hollow Fragment I very much disagree that it is just button mashing to stun lock and destroy defeat the enemy. It is not just button mashing imo, the amount of grinding you have to do to be able to get to a point where you can stun lock bosses is unreal. Also unlocking the specific sword skills to just make an OSS Combo takes a good chunk of time to, and if you screw up your timing on your OSS Chains you are basically screwed until you get your SP Back or in Re:HF case the long ass cooldown resets (I personally prefer the Vita version of HF and not the Re:HF Remaster).
And for your last point I personally don't care if it's "experience" is preserved or not in Hollow Fragment/Official Capacity, the devs clearly weren't happy with the way the original system worked which is the only reason I think they changed it. It's not like Infinity Moment doesn't exist anymore the story still lives on in Hollow Fragment even if some of the visuals were changed which honestly I feel it was more of an artistic choice than just budget/time constraints, cause if it really was budget/time constraints don't you just think they would of reused and upscaled almost all the artwork from Infinity Moment?
I look at Hollow Fragment as a soft remake of Infinity Moment as they redid the Aincrad story of Infinity Moment as well to include Philia if you decided to clear the entire hollow area before touching Aincrad's Story, and they heavily modified the games combat system, I feel like Yousuke Futami just personally wasn't happy with the way Infinity Moment turned out and took the release of the PS Vita as an opportunity to do what he couldn't originally with Infinity Moment.
Alas for those who enjoyed Infinity Moment power to you and I wish you could experience it officially in English, but alas that wasn't the developers vision and Bandai Namco Western branches probably though Infinity Moment being as tactical and turn base-ish as it was wouldn't be popular over seas at the time.
Great response.
I would like to add that, besides the art direction and the sprites, (really if you compare the cut-ins for example, I found IM's to be much more expressive, not to mention Leafa looks a bit off, since her new sprite kind of clashes with the existing CGs), the reason I really like IM over HF is the UI design. To me it is much more pleasing to the eye, everything is within eye distance and there is not much wasted space, like in HF.
I am also not a fan of the color choices for the map, it is much less contrasting and sometimes really really hard to see.
The colors and contrast is also far, far better in IM than HF, even on the models themselves, they do stand out much more within the environment than in HF.
But again, if you only have one year of dev time, chances are there will be some corners cut or that the art direction isn't as strong.
And with HF, the reason I have issues with it is because of one simple mechanic that was left unchanged, that makes the experience far less interesting is: enemy stun after a skill chain.
You see, in IM, this was not an issue, because you weren't able to spam attack like that, everything functioned out of SP, so even if this mechanic did stun the enemy, they were able to do their attack.
In HF, because the mechanic is still in place, you can literary spam attacks and praise, and as two skills are cast in a succession, the skill chain triggers, including the stunlock, which makes the enemy completely static and not do anything. Which is much less interesting IMO than when you have to pace and plan your attacks more
There is also the issue that chest loot, including weapons had been heavily altered to not give you better weapons as you progress, because the Lizbeth Smith shop was expanded with new options. Again, understandable, but it does make the exploration a bit less rewarding, to me at least.
So as you can see, I only have issues with HF, mainly for the Aincrad portion of the game, because I can tell that not only it had been changed in a significant way, in ways that undermine the original design, but also that it is visually less cohesive and doesn't really mesh well as it did before.
It just bothers me that HF is presented, the Aincrad portion at the very least, as a "replacement" without other people being able to experience the original, when it is really unique not only visually (sprites, cut-ins), but especially gameplay wise.
And I am not saying that you are wrong in enjoying that, no. After all, you enjoy what you enjoy.
Think of the situation as Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2. While you can say that KH2 was an improvement, is it wrong that Kingdom Hearts 1 is different from KH2, with its more focus on platforming (as one of its defying features) and rewarding you for exploration more?
I think the same applies here. I honestly do enjoy how IM is mechanically and would wish nothing more than to have a remaster of it, not only for preservation's sake, but also for accessibility, just like KH is.
But thank you for being respectful with your answer, you respect my choice and I do respect yours. It also makes me happy that we did have this conversation, really. It is nice to have someone that is seeing games for what they are and it isn't dismissive of experiences just because it involves a licensed IP
(feel free to add to this conversation if you wish, I have nothing more to add personally, but if you do, I'll read it)
So there is my thought, I wish that there will be a SAO game that let the player feel the anxiety of being stuck in the game with only 1 life and no revive possible. (like when you die you reset the game and create a new character). I also wish the mechanics of the game to be a bit like elden ring (but more fast paced) so that you'll need real strategies to overcome each and every enemies in the game (including bosses). I think even if that game will be hardcore it'll really capture the essence of the franchise due to its extremely low survival potential. (like in the novel, manga and anime) Its just a thought tho.