The skill selection is pretty limited in the game as the skills are predetermined from the beginning. Each weapon has only 6 skills available to learn, and all these are given after your skill level with a weapon passes a certain level. You should have all the sword skills for that particular weapon once your weapon skill reaches level 400. After using a sword skill or magic skill a certain amount of times, that skill will rise in level. With each level, the skill gets stronger so once you get a skill you like, use it as much as possible in order to get stronger. The level cap for the character, weapons, and skills is 1000, so you can spend a lot of time grinding those levels up if you want.
Each character in the game can learn up to three different weapon styles; these three weapons are predetermined for each character. For example, Kirito can learn 1-Handed Sword, 2-Handed Sword, and Dual Blade skills. Each weapon has their own unique range, attack speed, and set of skills. Daggers are the fastest in terms of attack speed, Bows have the most range, 2-Handed Swords are strong but slow, and Dual Blades give the most DPS (damage per second). Only three characters in the game can use Dual Blades, which makes one of those three a must have in your party if you want to deal a lot of damage to a boss in a short amount of time. I also found Dual Blades to be the most enjoyable weapon style for me. There are 20 playable characters in the game you can choose from aside from Kirito. Out of this 20, you can create a party of three characters, one playable and two non-playable, to tackle bosses and dungeons with.
Included in those 20 characters is your own custom avatar. But the creation choices for your avatar are really lacking. There are only two options for each setting, other than voice which has three. You also can’t choose the gender for the race you select as it is predetermined for you. Sadly there is no option to change what weapons your character uses either, each race has a predetermined set of weapons they can use. This makes character creation a cool but, ultimately, unnecessary option in the game due to lack of creative power.
The main storyline only took me about 30-40 hours to complete. Most of your time will be used tackling Side Quests, Extra Quests and Multiplayer Quests. Side Quests are your standard hunting or fetch quests. Extra Quests are like boss fights you’ve previously fought in the game but much stronger. By doing these quests you may also be able to obtain rare equipment you could not get in normal dungeons. Some examples are the Elucidator and Dark Repulser, the two one handed swords Kirito used at the beginning of Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment. Multiplayer Quests are the same as Extra Quests except you complete them with other players. This makes completing the quests a lot easier and also makes it easier to obtain rare items. There is also Online PvP, in which you can do 1 vs 1 or 4 vs 4 PvP. So if you get bored doing these Quests, you can opt to battle other players online.
I very much enjoyed Sword Art Online: Lost Song. The combat in the game is fast paced, the controls are easy to get used to and Multiplayer is very fun and will drain almost all your time in the game. Those sub events are also extremely fun to watch. The only problems I really had with it were the recycled dungeon and enemy designs, and how easy and repetitive the combat could get. Also the story was pretty underwhelming. Those issues aside, if you’re a fan of ARPGs or Sword Art Online in general you should definitely give this game a shot. Currently, the price tag is about $50 for the PS4 version, which is $10 off its original price, so if you were holding back on buying it now would be a good time to go purchase it.
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Review Copy Provided by Publisher
