Okay, so I'll just be upfront about this... In my opinion, don't waste 40$ on this game, ever.
Now the review...
- Graphics: 4/5
- This is actually fairly nice, very good quality, though the stages and dungeons really feel too jagged. Beautiful cinematics and artwork though. Armor and weapons also look great.
- Gameplay: 2/5
- At first the gameplay seems extremely complex, but the you realize 99% of the time you're only ever pressing the normal risk-gauge-based attack button, and 1% of the time you press switch (which resets your risk, allowing you to deal more damage with the same button). The combat gets pretty uninteresting fast due to this.
- If you want a harem though, this game is great... Well, not really. You get everyone in Kirito's harem (you're stuck as a relatively customizable always-male-Kirito) as partners, and the dialog is pretty much the same as combat where you're only ever pressing 2 buttons, but realistically just 1. After doing this well enough several times you can hold their hands, then later pick them up and carry them around and that was as far as I got before I got completely disinterested and clueless.
- Main storyline has a few missions (usually gather/slay ones) and some exploration, then you fight the main boss of that floor.
- Localization: 1/5 (Actually, can I do negatives? I'm beyond disappointed in Bandai for this.)
- Okay, so this is literally one of the biggest problems of this game. Never before have I been so turned off by a game JUST FROM THE TEXT. It got bad enough I literally can't go any further unless they'd pay me to play it. I play imports all the time, if you're not gonna try, Bandai, then just leave it. Please. x.x
- No but seriously it's really bad.
- Music: ... Honestly I forgot... Probably nice?
- Atomsphere: Awkward/Annoying
- This should be self explanatory though... Since you're Kirito and every girl in his harem is there and they all believe in monogamy, so there can be only one who will be with Kirito and they ALL get jealous EVERY cut-scene. No matter what. x.x
- Controls: 4/5, they work, can be surprisingly laggy in towns, though it took me a few floors for it to be at all noticeable. (Then it was like, POW.)
So Overall I'd give this a 3/10 or 4/10, but the translation is so bad, and that was Bandai's only job, so it gets a 2/10. As a reviewer of the US version, localization should really be one of the most important.
Please Note that I use the [5/10 = Okay] scale, not the IGN [7/10 = Shit] scale.
So 2/10 in this case means "Really bad translation and fairly repetitive game-play with things to spice it up few and far between." (The game literally says you don't gotta worry about squat for the first half of the floors... So why have them there? >.>)
And I'll also be honest that I'm trying for a refund atm, after clearing the first two floors, and getting really frustrated I can't play anyone other than the character I despise the most in the entire series. q.q