MMOs are funny things. Standing for Massively Multiplayer Online, they're essentially huge virtual worlds you can lose yourself in, sometimes to the detriment of your friends and family. Much like a traditional role-playing game, much of your time is spent raiding dungeons, beating bosses and completing various fetch quests - but with a bit of a difference. You see, in the world of MMOs, many of the people you encounter are actually real, living and breathing people, playing over the internet - potentially making the whole thing a much more social affair. Unless you're a bit of an introvert like us, in which case it may be a bit of a nightmare.
Based on a popular animé/manga comic book series, the Sword Art Online games are heavily influenced by MMORPGs, a genre of online multiplayer games much like famous time-sink World of Warcraft, except with more pointy hairstyles and oversized swords (it is Japan after all!). Set in the near-future, the teenagers of Sword Art Online don their virtual reality headsets and log into the game, only to find that they can't leave - at least not until they beat the final boss, anyway. Along the way you'll meet literally hundreds of characters who can join you in your quest, although fortunately they're entirely computer controlled, and not socially awkward bros pretending to be a female elf called Lady Twinkletoes III. You see, despite its MMO-inspired setting, and the fact it has the word 'online' in the title, both are still sprawling single-player role-playing games - somewhat confusingly.
It's penetrating time!
So, about those two new games. First up is Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment, a remake of last year's PS Vita download, Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment, obviously enhanced somewhat to take advantage of the more powerful Playstation 4. If you already own the game on the Vita and fancy playing through the remake as well, you'll be able to import some items from your portable game into the new version, as well as being able to unlock any downloadable extras you bought for the Vita version in the Playstation 4 game at a "later date". A 'director's cut' of sorts, Re: Hollow Fragment packs a new online game mode, additional bosses and the option to play as a female character instead of the standard Kirito - but that's perhaps not the biggest change.
When it hit the PS Vita last summer, the Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment was famed for it's slightly wonky, and occasionally laughably bad, English translations ("you must be exhausted penetrating!", "what are you think!", "Klein became to one who did the fight without everyone noticing it" etc etc) - even if, as with everything, it wasn't as bad as the internet made it out to be. Well, it turns out Bandai Namco are planning on penetrating all those typos and giving Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment a brand new English translation too, letting you enjoy the game without having to do a double take during dialogue sections - yay!
But that's not all the Sword Art Online goodness - a mere few months later, a totally new entry in the series, called Sword Art Online: Lost Song, will hit both the Playstation 4 and PS Vita simultaneously. And with the new game comes a whole new set of 'firsts' for the series, letting you play as characters outside of the normal dude for the first time, as well as introducing a rather funky sounding flying ability, that lets you explore the world of Lost Song from the air as well as on foot. Also new is support for four player online multiplayer - a bit of a departure from the game's previously single-player centric past, although the ability to take on the world with your friends is certainly welcome (although local co-op would have been nicer still).
Come fly with me, let's fly, let's fly away.
Newcomer Sword Art Online: Lost Song is coming to both the Playstation 4 and PS Vita this autumn, while the remade Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment will hit the Playstation 4 over the summer, as a digital download via the Playstation Store, giving players a few months to catch up with the series before the next instalment. In the meantime, why not check out the (Japanese) trailer below:
