Accel World vs. Sword Art Online is the fifth Sword Art Online game for the PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4and PC. It is developed by the same developers as Lost Song, so it follows that style of gameplay and structure rather than Hollow Fragment or Hollow Realization. The other side effect is that it looks exactly the same as Lost Song. While the graphics were decent on the Vita, when upscaled to a TV, the textures can be blurry and the environments bland. While JRPGs aren’t known for their graphical fidelity, it is still a bit distracting here.
It takes place in Alfheim Online, so a lot of the environments will be extremely familiar to players of Lost Song. However, it puts in a twist with various elements of Accel World being incorporated. The game, instead of being only focused on Sword Art Online, is a crossover with Accel World. Therefore, there are a lot of references to both series, and it is recommended to have at least watched the anime of Accel World before diving into this game. The story actually takes place at around volumes 18-20 of the light novels of Accel World as the events of the game happens just before Nega Nebulus attacks the White Legion.
If you’ve read the manga packed with the game (and the full version online), then the opening of the game will be pretty much exactly the same. Kirito, Asuna and Yui were enjoying a day out in Alfheim Online when the game developers announced emergency maintenance and for all players to log out. Kirito and Asuna doesn’t after noticing something odd with Yui, which ends up leading them to clash against Black Lotus who had been mysteriously transported into this world.
Yui ends up being captured and after the misunderstandings are cleared, the characters of Sword Art Online and Accel World join forces. Together, they investigate the mysterious character known as Persona Vabel. All characters use the same voice actors as their anime counterparts which is pretty awesome (this also means that there is only Japanese voiceover with English subtitles). The story is told via a combination of static image cutscenes like a visual novel and normal cutscenes using in-game models. There is the odd hybrid where it doesn’t use in-game models but rather higher quality 2D in 3D character models that can have odd character proportions.
For a JRPG, the story feels like it breezes past. You go through episodes within twenty to thirty minutes each, and it isn’t that substantial. It’s basically a gigantic piece of fan service, with nearly all the characters from both series making an appearance. It’s pretty cool though when you get to see the Accel World characters that turn up after the anime here, because there’s probably no other chance of getting another standalone Accel World game. If you’re a fan of Accel World, it is really cool seeing the higher detailed avatar designs of characters that never appeared in the anime. The story will amount to a giant fetch quest, where the characters need to battle the Kings of Pure Color and gain orbs to unlock the next map.
The game only gives you a brief tutorial about how it works, and it can be very confusing at first. The square button is a light attack while the triangle button is a heavy attack. Light attacks don’t do much damage while a heavy attack will cause heavy damage but uses up stamina. You can block and dash, as well as use both magic and Sword Skills. Sword Skills run on a cooldown system, whereby you cannot use for a certain period of time after you have used one. Magic will use MP. In addition, aerial combat returns and all Sword Art Online characters can fly, which allows for a lot of verticality in the environments.
Accel World characters on the other hand play slightly differently. Most of them can’t fly while their special attacks are separated into Incarnate attacks and Special Moves, which function mechanically like Sword Skills and Magic respectively. MP is recharged by attacking enemies and there are shortcuts in order to use all these different attacks. Your party consists of only three characters and the switching system from the anime and light novels return. Once a bar is full, you can execute a switch attack with another party member to stun the enemy. Once you’ve played it for a bit the combat system is easy to use and can be fun, although you’ll probably rely on chaining your sword skills / incarnate attacks since they do easy quick and heavy damage. It’s a shame with so many playable characters that you can only use and level three at a time, leading to scenarios where it is very easy for all the other characters to be underleveled and unable to be used in the post-game content.
The maps are average in size, although the verticality drastically increases its scope. There are the awkward invisible walls on the edges of the map. There are heaps of enemies roaming around and even on Normal, they are easy to defeat so it doesn’t become a drag. However, there are a few cheap sections, such as one where the enemies swarm you like there’s no tomorrow, which is quite frustrating. There are random and unexpected difficulty spikes towards the end of the game where you’ll be okay fighting the enemies in the dungeon only to get thrashed by a boss that’s 100+ levels higher than those. That being said, it’s quite easy to level up and the levels quickly become meaningless. You’ll gain 5-10 levels at a time quite easily and will soon crack into the hundreds.
Quests are simple affairs, being collectibles or extermination types. There are treasure chests scattered about and dungeons. The dungeons load in a different map and they are all just bland corridors, nothing too exciting and it’ll probably hold a few bosses before you reach the end. Granted, there are Accel World elements literally merged into the environments (this is part of the story) but all in all, it feels very similar to Lost Song, right down to the enemy designs.
There are very unclear ways to progress the story, which is ridiculous. Not only are there waypoints for only half the time, but there are some obscure functions that you never knew and would have to use such as sitting down of all things. It’s terrible game design and wastes heaps of your time. Have fun trying to figure out where you need to go as you try to go into every dungeon in the hopes of being able to trigger the next cutscene.
The character side quests don’t only involve Kirito. There will be times where you have to swap in particular characters. This adds to variety but can be annoying if you haven’t been playing that character and they are severely underleveled. These side quests have a simple story structure and aren’t too long.
This was always a flaw of the Sword Art Online games but it tries to shove in too many systems that don’t work coherently with each other. There is a terrible smithing system where you are forced to raise levels to even enhance one weapon. Smithing level restricts you to weapons to both rank and the level, which is just overly restrictive and useless. It uses way too much time to try and level up so you probably won’t even touch it.
The ending isn’t surprising, especially with the reveal of the villain. It tries to tackle concepts throughout the game but it ultimately muddles up its own mechanics. It is an underwhelming story overall, only saved by the interactions between the Sword Art Inline and Accel World characters. It only takes 15-20 hours to complete, so it does feel like a really short game, especially for a JRPG.
Overall Accel World vs. Sword Art Online, just like the rest of the games in the series, is one for fans of the show. This one has a higher barrier of entry since you need to be up to date with both Sword Art Online and the less popular Accel World. Nevertheless, the amount of fan service is through the roof and as with all crossovers, the interactions of the characters between the shows are a lot of fun. Everything else is okay, from the combat to the story to the game design.
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