Not So Deep Game Review : Sword Art Online - Fatal Bullet

I have this hate-like relationship with Sword Art Online franchise and it still an ongoing issue whether I decide to like them or totally hate them. But what I really know that this kind of relationship with this franchise made me curious about what they will do next ; will it wounded me so bad or will it break my mind or become good suddenly? This time I have an opportunity to test my faith against this franchise with a game based on the best VRMMO game (in my opinion) in Sword Art Online world, Gun Gale Online, as I am quiet a fan of this world of game. The result is... Well... Not much changing from my faith before as this game has so many positives that being negated with many negatives around them.

And since I am no game reviewer and more like an anime reviewer, I won't dive down to the game mechanics as I played this game for the story (I spend days just to get the true ending) and the soundtracks. In other hand, I will do review the story, characters, and soundtracks as spoiler-less as I can.

The story itself is a bit intriguing as it suddenly bring us the twist in the very end of the game. Yes. In the very end. The story felt too linear from the very beginning for me, doing quests here and there as the story progresses when the main quests are done. While I love the major villain foreshadowing that happened with a perfect fourth wall breaking, I really felt bothered by how the build to the revelation is a little bit too fast and too out of character for the villain character even the villain had hinted it from the very beginning and from the affection conversations.

The original waifu characters itself felt a bit off balance. While Kureha's character building is too solid and strong, the other waifu, Zeliska, felt like she just there to be a guide for MC's ArFa-Sys life. Zeliska ended as an empty Anti-Material Rifle. She has a very great potential but there's nothing to be fired out and made us being rained by Assaultrons and Drones bullets. It caused a major feel problem in the very end of the story as we did not feel attached to Zeliska yet.

And because I am playing as a girl, I think this game did not dig too much into the relationship with the boys and that's made me a bit sad. While I could accidentally turning to yuri route *insert nosebleed here*, I still wanted the vanilla route too so I could be girl version of Kirito, oh wait. I hate Kirito, why should I wanted to be him.

The soundtrack of this game is so much good. It reminded me much of the original SAO soundtrack as it still bring that instrumental version of "Coffee Soda" soundtrack and modified it so it could stand on its own. But in game, the soundtrack felt a bit repetitive as I assume that the tracks count did not match with the dungeon count as the same tracks being played on different dungeons.

The Best Part of The Game

This is my avatar. Yeah, I think she is cool...

I love how this game gave me a freedom to customize my own character to the point where I could customize my character voice in my battle. I am short girl in real life so I wanted a tall girl with almost same trait of tomboy. I gave my avatar sharp looking eyes, short hair, and deep voice just to get that tomboy trait on spot. Aside from avatar, the game also gave me a freedom to choose what weapon should I master on. With the weapon of your choice, you will definitely adapting your stats and skill to your weapon so you could wield it better. This applied to me as I played with a sniper as primary and sword-gun wielding as secondary. I invested my stats on STR, AGI, and DEX. STR affected my ability to carry more weight and my melee damage in general. AGI affected my ability to move faster when wielding the heavy AMR sniper and higher defense while in close combat with sword and handgun.

The Worst Part of The Game

First... It's Kirito. What else? I still hate him even in this game. While he is posing himself as god knows OP Kirito, the Kirito inside your party is pretty weak. Using sword-gun wielding as primary and another sword as secondary, he definitely could not stand against bosses aside being a hindrance since he kept killing himself over and over again.

Second... It's Kirito's mode. While this mode gave you a useful skill of Phantom Bullet, Kirito mode story felt like a cheap visual novel story while you are progressing as Kirito himself. And to think that this mode is required to get the true ending... Huft...

Third... Managing to get the true ending. The true ending of this game is pretty hard to came by as you have to raise your affection to Rank 4 75% for the original SAO FB characters (Kureha, Zeliska, Itsuki, and Bazalt Zoe) and to Rank 2 for other characters aside from DLC characters. If you did not grind from the very beginning, it would be a very hard and time wasting job. Not just that, you must completed that Kirito mode I mentioned before and finished side quests from Kirito's friend (Agil, Asuna, and Lisbeth). Well, not only just that... Spoiler alert... YOU MUST NOT LET THAT MONSTER CALLED THE GM RELEASED ITS PURPLE LASER BEAM OR IT'S ANOTHER NORMAL ENDING FOR YOU... Yeah, at least my true ending pose is beating yours, Kirito...

"Admit it, Kirito. I am cooler than you..."

In the end, this game managed to steal my heart in some parts while still having troubles on their way and make me rethink to take back my heart. Well, now... I think I need some time to clear that extreme difficulty mode. I JUST WANT THAT AMR SNIPER BRO!