Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet Is You Oc Gay

Sword Fine art Online has been effectually in some course or another since all the way dorsum in the prehistoric times commonly referred to as 2002. Originally a series of calorie-free novels, information technology's been praised for its exploration of themes relating to the intertwining of real and virtual worlds and the result this has on the psyche and physicality of those who feel it in a long-term capacity. Set in the near future, information technology sees protagonist Kuzuto "Kirito" Kirigaya and his friends locked in a VR tournament in which decease means actual death; their real-globe bodies withering abroad in infirmary beds, they take no choice but to ascend the 100 levels of Aincrad in lodge to be set complimentary.

After this initial incident is resolved the heroes proceed to duke it out with evil forces, laugh, love and form relationships together equally they take part in various virtual reality massively multiplayer online games, or VRMMOs, across the several series that make upwards Sword Fine art Online as a whole. These VR tournaments and battles accept inverse themes over the course of Sword Art'south life and it's the globe of Gun Gale Online, a VRMMO based entirely effectually shooting ruddy slap-up large guns, that's the focus of this videogame accommodation.

In terms of exploring problems such as the nature of love, life and death in a VR realm or the effect of sustained exposure to VR on the human psyche, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet does away with most of the serial' more cerebral flourishes in favour of giving you every bit many guns as you can possibly handle and letting y'all shoot massive robots in their faces repeatedly in a multifariousness of offline and online modes whilst keeping the melodrama – and there's a lot of very deadening-moving melodrama here – firmly grounded in oddly misogynistic conversations, teen relationships and subservient robot ladies territory.

Indeed, Sword Fine art Online has also oft been criticised for its attitudes to women, who tend to be or survive in order to placate men. For the most part, it seems women's futures are controlled and ofttimes roundly cutting short because of the "heroic" decisions of the male characters, and it doesn't take long for misogyny to raise its head in this game in the class of a new character, Basalt Joe, who's introduced early on in the plot and is, for all intents and purposes, a grubby middle-aged man with a worrying fixation on immature girls, their bodies and the idea of owning them completely.

In something of a departure for the series, rather than assuming the role of a Sword Fine art Online character, here you create your very own avatar with which to engage the world, planting you right in the middle of the action as a blank slate for the first time. At that place is an unlockable Kirito mode available every bit you progress through the story – complete with its very own ending – but to brainstorm with, you have an all-new identity.

The story begins with your carefully created grapheme (there's a robust cosmos suite on offer hither, particularly if you lot like to spend time making sure your boobs are simply the right size) winning a rare item in their very start game of Gun Gale Online, which turns out to be an ArFA-SYS robot, or Type X, which takes yous as its master equally before long as it clocks yous for the first fourth dimension. The Type X will be your fighting companion in Gun Gale Online; the most advanced robot of its kind, everyone wants a piece of it but it's all yours and you're almost immediately whisked dorsum to the character creation suite to give information technology a name and make sure it'due south proportioned to your tastes. Yous can fifty-fifty give it pocket coin if you like, so it can buy things. No, actually.

From here, Sword Fine art Online: Fatal Bullet proceeds to spend in the region of around an hour slowly explaining its diverse systems to you whilst introducing a cast of characters no uncertainty familiar to fans of the serial. It's glacial stuff and isn't helped past the fact that in the aftermath of such a long tutorial we all the same didn't know how to equip new weapons or have the gear nosotros found in our first match evaluated without having to resort to looking it up. There are lots of menus and access points to get your head around here, points to assign, gadgets and skills to unlock and level-up and XP to spend. There's crafting, customisation and clothing galore, and y'all tin can even make your own outfits. The wealth of guns at your disposal tin all be upgraded and fitted with as many different boons and traits equally you lot could possibly imagine and at the end of every match you play you'll be hammered with stuff to sift through in your inventory, walking off the battlefield with all-sorts falling out of your pockets. Information technology really is all quite overwhelming.

Most of this would be fine of course if it wasn't for the fact that the actual gameplay in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, the famous Gun Gale itself, is really rather tedious, bland and repetitive stuff. Arenas tend to vary between the tiled corridors of an industrial complex – grey room following grey corridor, following grey room – or endless featureless tundra filled with identikit enemies who may occasionally vary in color but generally e'er stick to the aforementioned combat design of standing about in exposed areas shooting at you lot until you kill them. To be fair, they do occasionally practice stunt rolls, only rarely to anywhere that gets them out of harm's way.

Alongside the wealth of traditional weaponry at your disposal – machineguns, sniper rifles, pistols and rocket launchers – you're also equipped with the Ultimate Fibers Gun (or UFG for curt), which y'all tin utilise to fire at a location and and then transport yourself there via a magical laser tether. As a means of traversal, it's certainly got potential, but it's never utilised in whatever meaningful fashion and it's really its secondary function – knocking airborne enemies out of the heaven then nicking bits off their bodies for equipment – that you'll detect yourself using for the most part.

The arena combat in Sword Fine art Online: Fatal Bullet reminds us of nothing more than when you decide to "go loud" in any Metal Gear Solid game pre-V. In that location'due south that very same feeling of unease. Y'all've got all the latest equipment, you're armed to the accented teeth, y'all've got a gadget for every occasion stuffed into your trousers, but y'all yet can't shake the feeling that the controls are going to permit you down when the estrus gets turned up.

Everything is slightly more awkward than it needs to be hither; even throwing a grenade – which requires y'all to tap the right shoulder push to get to gadgets, then hold it in, press whichever face button you've assigned to grenades and aim in roughly the area you want it to become, which information technology usually won't – is painful. You can contrivance out of the manner and do a little frontwards gyre, but neither of these manoeuvres is 100% guaranteed to get you lot out of harm'due south way. You can too crouch behind things, which is, we sympathise, universally regarded as a practiced thing to exercise if you're being shot at, just you tin't shoot over barriers, so when you want to return fire you'll demand to get back out there, fully exposed, take a shot and move once again.

The shooting also feels rather imprecise with no tangible feedback, fifty-fifty with the 'assisted' mode engaged, and this is partially down to the fact that enemies don't react to existence shot across the obligatory damage numbers floating out of their bodies. The guns besides tend to experience light and don't accept any real bite or satisfying dissonance to them, which is a existent shame because a lot of time and endeavour has obviously been spent modelling them and providing as much information as you could e'er want as y'all purchase them from the game's store.

Even so, if y'all're willing to forgive Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet its long and fatigued out melodramatic sequences, bland level and enemy design and slightly clunky gainsay systems, there is enough for yous to sink your very forgiving teeth into hither. The aforementioned customisation options are deep and you lot can gear and spec your avatar up in an impressive number of means. XP earned past defeating enemies tin can be spent on levelling-up the skills required to handle better guns and accessories that grant you lot special tactical effects. CP can be poured into half dozen dissimilar areas of growth – the usual strength, vitality, intelligence, etc – and the weapon and outfit customisation really is virtually endless.

Returning to SBC GLocken, the VR world in which you alive exterior of the VR tournament in which you partake, you'll e'er have a ton of merchandise to sell for credits to use for endless tinkering. Your Type X is besides fully customisable and levels-up alongside you, and you lot'll certainly be kept busy organising both information technology and yourself for the next quest or battle.

In terms of modes there'due south an impressive number of things to exercise, from solo story missions, side quests and problems or treasure hunts, to co-op battles with up to iii other human players (and their Type-X companions) and a PvP Mark mode, which sees i specific human player with a compensation placed on their head being hunted by other players for a big prize. One unfortunate thing nosotros did also notice over the course of this review is that currently the online modes seem pretty sparsely populated and getting into a game or joining up with other human players was a real hit or miss matter, at least in our experience.

Fans of the series are, manifestly, guaranteed to get much more than out of what's on offering here as they'll likely be much more engaged in the drama that'southward wrapped around the gameplay, and with that same unlockable Kirito way and multiple endings to see there'southward certainly plenty of story here for those who're into it. For everyone else, if you tin somehow ignore the often troubling attitudes to female person characters, in that location's withal an okay experience to be had if you're really, really into shooting stuff and hoovering up collectables in between long breaks for interminable chatter between Sword Art Online's bandage of characters.

In terms of the port itself, in both portable and docked modes, Sword Fine art Online: Fatal Bullet runs pretty much flawlessly on Switch. There's a very definite blurring of the image in handheld but with a huge game that looks as good as this often can it'southward not actually a big surprise to meet the resolution dropped for portable play, and, although the image is much sharper docked, it still looks good in both modes. Furthermore, we didn't notice whatsoever framerate problems or bugs in our time in SBC Glocken.

Conclusion

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is one of the stronger outings for the series in a video game format. However, information technology's still bogged down past heavy-handed and oft thematically troubling melodrama that'southward delivered at a glacial step and prefers to eschew the potentially interesting aspects of the world information technology depicts in favour of stereotypical male heroics, teenage matters of the heart and questionable attitudes to its female characters. Beyond this, and judged solely as a game, the combat of Gun Gale Online itself is a rather bland, clunky and repetitive experience – albeit ane with a ton of customisation options and modes of play to engage with. Fans of Sword Art Online will already know whether they're into this or not; for everyone else, it's a pretty tough sell that doesn't really manage to do anything it attempts well plenty to earn a recommendation.

ryderthrunt.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.nintendolife.com/reviews/nintendo-switch/sword_art_online_fatal_bullet_complete_edition

Share this post