Sword Art Online: Lost Song Review (PS4)
Our favorite VRMMO is back! Yeah, VRMMO is a thing now, as it has been for the past few years with Sword Art Online franchise. Kirito and his party of waifus can’t wait for you to explore the dangerous, but beautiful world of ALfheim Online.
Like the previous title in the series, Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, Sword Art Online: Lost Song is also set in an alternate world and is a direct sequel to Hollow Fragment. Kirito has now decided to dabble with ALO, ALfheim Online and finds all of his friends there. Then he and his party are introduced to some interesting new characters that end up being a sort of rivals for Kirito’s party.
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While the game eases you a bit better than the previous instalment with the overall story, those who didn’t follow the series will be confused. Still there are some infrequent flashbacks that serve to clear up what happened during the time between the original and Lost Song.
The most exciting addition in Sword Art Online: Lost Song is the ability to fly. There are two modes. Floating Mode where your character slowly hovers and a Flight Mode. This is the real deal where your character soars like a bird and automatically moves forward.
While the addition of these modes makes getting to places easier, it takes a bit of time to get used to, but after a while becomes second nature. That is the Flying Mode. I can’t say the same for the Floating Mode which is a bit finicky as the same button is used for both ascending and descending, which can get frustrating really quick, especially in battles. And unfortunately you can’t just fly and pick up items, but have to float in order to do so.
One of the cool moves you can use is the Aerial Drive that I imagine can be used for escaping the enemy or evading powerful attacks in some boss fight, but this drains your stamina like crazy.
Each area in the game is a floating continent with a specific theme in mind. Like grassy plains of Wogelinde and dry desert of Wellgunde. Areas are open world that you can traverse to your liking and they have a few dungeons and a huge number of enemies around. But there is a catch. The dreaded Altitude Limit, where if your character is flying too high he or she will start to fall instead of simply not going any higher, although your character never gets hurt from falling.
The graphics have been improved drastically, and while the game doesn’t look overly impressive on the PS4, at times it manages to make a beautiful scenery. Fairy versions of the characters are meticulously modeled with their cute little wings and there are all sorts of effects and details. At times I felt like Kirito was Tinker Bell.
The combat system has been drastically changed from the previous entry in the series. Given that the developer is no longer Aquaria but Artdink, changes like these are to be expected. Sword Art Online pretty much now plays like a real time JRPG without the previous auto-attack and party management gameplay and is much more straightforward.
Each character has a strong and weak attack with their weapon of choice, with the addition of special skills and magic. The skills are performed with the tap of the right shoulder button and face buttons or a combination on the D-pad. Magic attacks are done the same way, but with your weapon sheathed, which can pose a bit of inconvenience in the heat of the battle, as sometime you won’t find enough time or space to preform them. And finally, there are dodge and guard commands that do just that.
The lock on feature is quite bad, and that coupled with a frenetic camera can really get in the way of dealing with battle situations. Early on in the game I was dealing with some in-game players that rushed me out of nowhere and it took me more than half an hour to deal with them individually because the camera was getting in the way of the action.
Unfortunately, like with many real MMOs flying is not permitted in towns or in dungeons. I can grasp why it would be a bad idea for an MMO to not permit flying in the city, just like how it makes sense that the players have no collision. But when it comes to dungeons, they could have been much more spiced up with the addition of flying and making them more tridimensional so to say. That would have been much more interesting experience, so that you could use your whole range of skills including flying to explore. But instead, the dungeons are very similar to the previous entry where you pull levers and get keys in order to progress further. While dungeons have just a few floors, they don’t pose much challenge. Sometimes you will get a key and imminently use it.
Even the bosses have been nerfed, as beating them is very easy and mostly doesn’t require much strategizing. Given that you do have unlimited healing abilities and your mana replenishes quickly it can really be a cakewalk. Most challenge I faced was with flying bosses, but that was mostly because of the seemingly broken lock on feature and camera controls. If you want more challenge you will have to play against other players online, or against some hostile NPC players.
The town is much more involving, but given that the previous game was designed with the PSP in mind, it is something that was expected when it comes to the sequel on the home consoles. The towns people now talk, walk, dance around and give you advice, which is an improvement over the previous wax figures that spawned at the city gates in clusters.
All the playable characters from the previous game are back with the addition of some new ones. Namely, The Lost Song tried to stir things up with a much prominent main villain, Nanairo “Seven” Arshavin, a famous 12-year old Russian idol that is also an MIT graduate and at the same time has a vast interest in VRMMOs. Well, thank you Japan. Next is Rain, a new girl who decides to follow Kirito and his party. And there’s Seven’s bodyguard, Sumeragi who is ALO’s top swordsman.
Seven’s guild is called Shamrock and even though she is at a low level her team mates can cover for her as they are one of the strongest in the whole game. Overall, the story can be really sluggish at times and really takes a while to take off.
But what we don’t miss out on in SAO: Lost Song is an abundance of fan service. First of all, every female playable characters has a swimsuit DLC and for some there’s even a schoolgirl outfit. Not to mention the titillating bath towel outfits. Then there are some crazy jiggle physics, which showcase each of the character’s “qualities”, especially Leafa’s. Thankfully no jiggle physics for flat chested girls. Sadly, there is no trace of dating mechanics from the previous game.
There are about 20 playable characters, and you can chose a leader character to play as and two characters to battle alongside you in your party. Other characters will still pop up in the main story, but in order to unlock some of the special events you have to play as mostly Kirito, but there are other special scenes. These are mostly optional hub-only events.
Unlike in Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, you have to level up each character individually. And they can even level their battle skills and each individual magic skill, depending on which skill they use the most. Same goes for Kirito, or whoever you prefer to play as.
All in all if you like ALO material in SAO, but also like spin-offs, Sword Art Online: Lost Song will feel like an overall improvement over the previous installment. The flying and open-world like areas bring a bit of fresh air into the series. But I’m still waiting for that MMO that is going to be based off the franchise.
Sword Art Online: Lost Song is available on PS4, Vita and PS3.
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