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If you're a fan of Sword Fine art Online, then Sword Art Online: Lost Vocal offers a lot of dissimilar options for you to give yourself your platonic SAO experience. It doesn't have long to unlock the whole primary cast as playable characters (you can even switch Kirito out of the party for some other character) and even side characters somewhen go playable like Argo, the information broker or the leaders of the races such as Sakuya or Alicia Rue. Each character can be equipped with their own sets of equipment, which is dependant on their character's race, equally well as their own gear up of skills.

Strea and Philia render from Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, though I didn't recognize Philia in her ALO class at first as information technology's very different from her original advent! There's a multifariousness of costumes for each character and all the DLC costumes from the Japanese version is including in the English release. While it seems you can't switch back to the original Aincrad forms, Kirito and Sinon have their GGO forms as a costume besides as a Gods Eater costume for Kirito and Asuna available from the start of the game.

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In one case you reach a sure point in the game, the online multiplayer options open up, enabling you to create a custom character. While you lot can create your character for online play, you're too able to play the single actor campaign using them equally well. Unfortunately, the options hither are actually limited, even more so when compared to the character creator (or rather the Kirito Customizer) that was used in Hollow Fragment. You lot start by selecting your grapheme's race from the ones available in the globe of ALO, though some races like Cait Sith are restricted to certain genders. Where the real disappointment lies is that every bit you lot're picking out your grapheme's features, at that place'southward merely two options for each pick and your character never really deviates from the default options. What's worse is that all these custom character models are based on the NPCs you see running effectually town, so the character that'southward meant to look unique and represent you lot online just looks similar an ordinary NPC. It feels like a mode that'southward just been tacked on and frankly, y'all're better off sticking with the existing characters than bothering creating 1 of your own.

As you progress through the game, y'all'll exist able to trigger scenes with diverse members, some being only for fun and others lead towards extra quests giving yous extra experience, weapons and items. Characters do accept their own set of quests to complete simply these aren't handled the same way they were in Hollow Fragment. For a start, there'south no romance options and characters don't follow yous around boondocks and you can't collaborate with them either. Characters send you in-game messages nigh their thoughts and feelings well-nigh recent events that has happened either in the story or side quests you've taken on. You'll too get letters from political party members that you oasis't used in a while, asking to come up along on your journey.

Information technology's a shame then that party members not in use don't earn whatsoever feel points from your battles since they'll fall backside very speedily and won't acquire some of their advanced skills that are helpful in later stages of the game. While you earn experience simply by taking out enemies, in true SAO fashion your skills only level upwardly as y'all utilize them. Then to increase a healing skill, y'all take to go on healing, to increment an attack skill, y'all have to go on performing that specific attack. Too your efficiency with your weapons increases as you use them. Using skills and attacks on enemies that are a higher level than you will, increase the rate the skill increases, something to go along in mind when facing a dominate if at that place's a item stat you want to increase.

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I feel like Sword Fine art Online: Lost Vocal has done a expert job of including fan pleasing content and I'm a big fan of the alternate timeline arroyo that Hollow Fragment and Lost Song have taken. I ever remember it makes it a lot more than engaging to play than just playing through a story you've already seen. Sword Art Online: Lost Vocal does follow on from the events of Hollow Fragment, though it requires no prior noesis of information technology. However, information technology does reveal a spoiler nigh a certain character early on that's pretty unavoidable, simply something to go along it mind if you lot've set on playing through Hollow Fragment first.

Alistair Wong

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