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Sword Art Online games are known for offering opportunities to get to know your party members. You lot're encouraged to interact with people you recognize from the anime and light novel series. While in earlier games, it could sometimes experience similar all yous were doing was working toward a fanservice scene with your favorite grapheme, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization feels like it makes the interactions experience a little more pertinent to the situation.

Basically, people are able to interact with characters like Asuna, Leafa, Silica, Strea, and and then on. These characters accept diverse traits that can influence their deportment and personalities. Praising and encouraging them during in the field, as well as taking fourth dimension to walk and talk with them in boondocks, tin can change their behaviors and increase their affection. While this may seem, on the surface, like it'due south giving Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization a dating organization, it's actually a ways of ensuring the characters act the way y'all want in battle and get them close enough to join you lot, receive gifts, and engage in pillow talk.

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It'southward actually a rather complicated system. Let'south start with Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization'south personality system. Every character can accept half-dozen traits. Asuna starts out with the fiery, absurd, smart, caring, kind, and nosy personality traits. I wanted her to be a dedicated assaulter, which meant I needed to focus on improving her red natures, like fiery and warlike. The best mode I found to do this was to praise actions in battle that had fiery attached to them. I wanted Silica to vitrify up and support my political party, which means encouraging the green traits like Smart and Timid. It tin get pretty complicated, merely praising and interacting with people you intend to use often will help you on your style.

But, equally complicated as the personality arrangement is, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization's affection system is easier to sympathise. Talking with people makes them like you lot. You really accept to spend free time with them in boondocks, engaging in what is pretty similar to a visual novel or dating simulation. As you spend time together, perhaps even holding hands if you're close plenty, you lot'll come across a heart higher up their caput. This means you lot can have part in a conversation where yous nod aye or shake your caput no to bespeak interest and engage in interactions. Zooming in lets yous agree or disagree. Pulling back lets y'all press the foursquare button to appoint in interactions. A throbbing eye will appear, every bit well as a feeling gauge in the upper left corner. Y'all want to wait until the heart is a purple color to start spamming actions to increase her feelings, and you can't practice that until y'all talk starting time.

Now, here'southward why you desire to do that, even if yous take no involvement in Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization's pillow talk events and virtual relationships with characters. (Though, if you desire pillow talk, that happens after reaching level four affinity.) Yous need to reach certain levels to add people who aren't main characters to your grouping, though all of the main characters like Asuna and Silica will already arrive at that level due to your shared history. You lot likewise need people to be at the fifth level to actually give them equipment. This is huge as you go toward the endgame, equally it ways they'll have stronger, better, and more effective equipment.

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It's a good thing the characters of Sword Fine art Online: Hollow Realization will offer incentive to increase good volition, because sometimes the game itself doesn't do enough to stay in your good graces. It keeps crashing on me. Things accept gotten slightly better since the 1.01 patch was released, simply this is one of the few PlayStation iv games that merely decides to randomly shut things down. The first 3 times, it happened when I was in field areas, exploring and battling. Another time, it happened when I sent Kirito over to the inn. It'due south an odd feeling and feel, since I take a launch PlayStation iv with the stock hard drive and have been playing a physical re-create of the game. The merely other title to ever crash on me was a digital copy of Assassin'south Creed Iv: Blackness Flag.

In both anime series and video games, yous're encouraged to get close to characters. Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization helps you connect to these characters from the Sword Art Online series in meaningful means. Yeah, spending time with them helps you get to know them. Mayhap it even means seeing them when they're at their most attractive. But, it likewise means making them amend partners for you. They'll be stronger and more competent if you lot connect with them, which is a actually interesting way to show relationship growth in a game.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is now available for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.

Jenni Lada

Jenni is Editor-in-Chief at Siliconera and has been playing games since getting access to her parents' Intellivision as a toddler. She continues to play on every possible platform and loves all of the systems she owns. (These include a PS4, Switch, Xbox 1, WonderSwan Color and even a Vectrex!) Yous may have also seen her work at GamerTell, Cheat Code Fundamental, Michibiku and PlayStation LifeStyle.