The game is based on the relatively popular Sword Art Online anime series and takes place after the first season. The story for the game is original and doesn’t follow season 2. Unfortunately a problem results from that as the game doesn’t make an effort to explain to you the events leading up to it’s beginning, or the relationships with any of the returning characters. Fans of the series will likely know this information beforehand, but it would have been nice to have some sort of small recap video for the odd person who might buy it on a whim.

"Hollow Fragment is probably the worst game I've played this year. "

Combat consists of you mashing the O button furiously to get an automated combo to trigger. I’m being reductive as there are other skills and abilities you can use, but I really never needed to outside of the occasional dodge or defend action. Just because you call yourself an RPG, doesn’t mean you get to have a bad combat system. In it’s attempt to mimic MMORPG combat the game forgets that a lot of those games have to a follow certain design rules because they are actually online. Because of this, they have usually gotten a pass on having latency based action. Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment is not a real MMORPG, and as such shouldn’t have to abide by that design.

Sometimes you will come across NPCs who are being attacked by the various enemies of the game, and you can choose to help them out. Its a nice little addition to the game’s otherwise empty and boring world, but is a superficial attempt at building the world.

You move around areas and dungeons mindlessly fighting monsters and finding treasure chests working towards the boss of the area. Sometimes when you find the boss, you get the option to go back to town and prepare, but I didn’t feel the need to do it unless I just wanted a break from playing. Completing a dungeon just isn’t satisfying and the stakes for progressing the game feel very low.

Which leads me to the horrible localization. Sword Art Online is completely voiced in Japanese, but that isn’t the problem. Its certainly not the first game to do this and I generally take no issue with it. However, the translation into English is just bad. From misspellings, to bad grammar, incomplete sentences, and outright nonsense the localization is complete trash. In the year 2014, there is absolutely no excuse for this whatsoever and I have to question whether this game had any QA for this at all.

" From misspellings, to bad grammar, incomplete sentences, and outright nonsense the localization is complete trash."

Hollow Fragment puts a huge emphasis on building relationships with your female companions using a thinly veiled premise of gaining new armor and abilities. Really though, it is just an excuse to allow the player to date and eventually sleep with the girls. Its a type of sleaze that is all too common on Vita these days with games like Bullet Girls, and Conception II.

See here’s the thing, I enjoy anime and visual novel type games, so usually when there is creepy fan service I can shrug it off because it tends to be one-off content and it’s easily ignored. And even in visual novel games when gameplay is on the back burner, it doesn’t bother me because the gameplay we do get is typically still good. The problem with Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment is the the fan service is the entire point of the game, and the gameplay that surrounds it just isn’t good.

Listen, if you are the fan of the show and badly need to play it. Go for it. Chances are the things that bothered me probably won’t bother you, and that’s fine. But for anyone else who is even curious, stay away. Stay far away.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation Vita.

ead or Alive is a fighting series that is a fighting series that is known for good graphics and most of all good core fighting mechanics. Dead or Alive 5 is the 5th main game in the series, however, Dead or Alive 5+ is a well-done port that adds exclusive additions such as training +, touch fight mode, portability, more costumes and quicker load times. At its core, it is a fighting game with a somewhat interesting story mode, 24 characters to play with and cross-play features. In this review, I will cover the core gameplay, graphics and its overall appeal.

The Core Gameplay and Content:

Dead or Alive 5+ continues the trend as it always did with the previous titles from the series. The core fighting system of the series is the countering system. A skilled player can easily counter any opponent’s move and punish them in return, that is how most Dead or Alive games are played all throughout.  The gameplay is fast-paced and the fighting always feels fluid and fun. I don’t really have that many complains about its gameplay system, if you enjoyed previous Dead or Alive games then you will enjoy this one just as much and you will know what to expect.

Dead or Alive 5+ introduces environments that have something called “Danger Zones”. If the player manages to combo their opponent into a danger zone, they will trigger a cool dynamic environment change. These environmental changes add a nice cinematic feel throughout the fight and add tension to the game. The game also has an option to turn on/off the danger zone, which is nice if you just want to play traditionally.

The game features a somewhat lengthy story mode that feels overall cheesy and obnoxious most of the time. With a ton of in-game cut-scenes, it is nice to see developers trying to have an interesting story in a fighting game, but to be completely honest; I could care less about the story. I am more interested in beating the crap out of my opponents in single-player campaign to unlock new outfits, play against other players online or try to beat my friends in a versus match.

The touch fight mode is an interesting addition for the PS’s Vita touch capabilities. As the name implies this mode will take you in first-person, perspective and you can start swiping and tapping your fingers on the screen to deal damage to your opponent. The touch fight mode feels gimmicky while an interesting concept, it does not really work that well and just feels kind of cheap and dodgy. I tried this mode a couple of times and just could not get into it, maybe someone else will find a better way to implement touch mechanics in the future.

Training + mode is much better than the original console version and the addition of combo trials is awesome. If you are trying to practice and perfect your counter-moves and learn your character’s frame-date then Training + is the place to do it.

Dead or Alive 5+ does have cross-Save and Cross-Play features. With Cross-Play, you can play against PlayStation 3 players on your PlayStationVita and vice versa. Cross-Save let’s you save your game content/progress across both systems without a hassle. However, the game does not support Cross-Buy unfortunately, but if you buy DLC for one version, the other version gets it too.

Graphics and Sound:

The graphics of the game suffers a little bit because the developer tried to achieve a smooth buttery frame-rate of 60 FPS. Lack of Anti-Aliasing and lower-resolution textures are noticeable, but the game still looks good for a handheld system. The 60 FPS really make up for the small compromises of the console graphics, but I personally think they still could have achieved higher resolution textures and had a better-looking port. However, since the core of the port is good then I cannot really complain much.

The game provides both English and Japanese voice-overs for all of the characters, the soundtrack fits the game well and all of the sound design is well done. The Dead or Alive 5 + version also adds the ability to completely change the music suite to your liking.

Overall

Dead or Alive 5+ is a great fighting port. I really do not have any big problems with it, my only complaint is the cheesy story mode and the dumped down visuals. If you like Dead or Alive then you will like this, if you do not like Dead or Alive then you will not like this port either. However, if you want a good fighting game on the go, then give this game a chance for your PlayStation Vita. Fan of fighting games, but never played Dead or Alive? Training + will help you to get into the series and understand the fighting mechanics of the game.

In a nutshell, Dead or Alive 5 + is a successful port that any Dead or Alive fan should consider purchasing.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation Vita.