PLAY

SWORD ART ONLINE: FATAL BULLET

Anime fan service, but no tip

- Vikki Blake

An anime game about an anime series… about a game. This fifth console instalment of the Sword Art Online franchise follows a novice gamer1 dipping their toe into the fictional VR-MMORPG, Gun Gale Online. Playing as an in-game noob means real-life ones can jump into the series cold, and get acquainted with Kirito2 and his pals as your protagonis­t does.

Between fights and dungeons – which are great fun, especially when you get grapplin’ and explore – you’ll spend a lot of time selecting from two dialogue choices that say almost the exact same thing, witnessing eleventy gazillion meaningles­s conversati­ons, and attending weird parties where friends without drinks stand rigidly in a perfect semi-circle. There is, however, a fast-travel map, so at least travelling to/from tedious encounters is expedited. The rest of the time you’ll be sitting on the loading screen.

Your squad is fabulous, contributi­ng meaningful­ly to combat, especially as you can direct their roles on the fly. That said, we experience­d several instances where our AI companion, ArFA-sys, froze, unable to fight despite the ‘pew-pew’ sound of his weapon looping throughout the entire battle.

While SAO:FB tries to shake up its formula, it does little to inject the game with a distinct identity. There’re some interestin­g mechanics – including currency investment, which sees you dabble in a fictional market – and plenty of stats to tweak and weapons to experiment with, but ultimately, FB’s story and cast are too forgettabl­e.

Love SAO and/or JRPGs with killer soundtrack­s? You’ll probably like this. If you don’t, you probably won’t.

FOOTNOTES 1 This is the first A SO title to offer a fully customisab­le character… and you can tweak everything. 2 Although not starring Kirito, this story was supervised by SAO creator, Reki Kawahara.

 ??  ??
 ??  ??

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from Australia