Sword Art Online has been around in some form or another since all the way back in the prehistoric times commonly referred to as 2002. Originally a series of light novels, it’s been praised for its exploration of themes relating to the intertwining of real and virtual worlds and the effect this has on the psyche and physicality of those who experience it in a long-term capacity. Set in the near future, it sees protagonist Kuzuto “Kirito” Kirigaya and his friends locked in a VR tournament in which death means actual death; their real-world bodies withering away in hospital beds, they have no choice but to ascend the 100 levels of Aincrad in order to be set free.
After this initial incident is resolved the heroes go on to duke it out with evil forces, laugh, love and form relationships together as they take part in various virtual reality massively multiplayer online games, or VRMMOs, across the several series that make up Sword Art Online as a whole. These VR tournaments and battles have changed themes over the course of Sword Art’s life and it’s the world of Gun Gale Online, a VRMMO based entirely around shooting ruddy great big guns, that’s the focus of this videogame adaptation.
In terms of exploring issues such as the nature of love, life and death in a VR realm or the effect of sustained exposure to VR on the human psyche, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet does away with most of the series' more cerebral flourishes in favour of giving you as many guns as you can possibly handle and letting you shoot massive robots in their faces repeatedly in a variety of offline and online modes whilst keeping the melodrama – and there’s a lot of very slow-moving melodrama here – firmly grounded in oddly misogynistic conversations, teen relationships and subservient robot ladies territory.
Indeed, Sword Art Online has also often been criticised for its attitudes to women, who tend to exist or survive in order to placate men. For the most part, it seems women's futures are controlled and often roundly cut short because of the "heroic" decisions of the male characters, and it doesn't take long for misogyny to raise its head in this game in the form of a new character, Basalt Joe, who's introduced early on in the plot and is, for all intents and purposes, a grubby middle-aged man with a worrying fixation on young girls, their bodies and the idea of owning them completely.
In something of a departure for the series, rather than assuming the role of a Sword Art Online character, here you create your very own avatar with which to engage the world, planting you right in the middle of the action as a blank slate for the first time. There is an unlockable Kirito mode available as you progress through the story – complete with its very own ending – but to begin with, you have an all-new identity.
The story begins with your carefully created character (there’s a robust creation suite on offer here, especially if you like to spend time making sure your boobs are just the right size) winning a rare item in their very first game of Gun Gale Online, which turns out to be an ArFA-SYS robot, or Type X, which takes you as its master as soon as it clocks you for the first time. The Type X will be your fighting companion in Gun Gale Online; the most advanced robot of its kind, everyone wants a piece of it but it’s all yours and you’re almost immediately whisked back to the character creation suite to give it a name and make sure it’s proportioned to your tastes. You can even give it pocket money if you like, so it can buy things. No, really.
From here, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet proceeds to spend in the region of around an hour slowly explaining its various systems to you whilst introducing a cast of characters no doubt familiar to fans of the series. It’s glacial stuff and isn’t helped by the fact that in the aftermath of such a long tutorial we still didn’t know how to equip new weapons or have the gear we found in our first match evaluated without having to resort to looking it up. There are lots of menus and access points to get your head around here, points to assign, gadgets and skills to unlock and level-up and XP to spend. There’s crafting, customisation and clothing galore, and you can even make your own outfits. The wealth of guns at your disposal can all be upgraded and fitted with as many different boons and traits as you could possibly imagine and at the end of every match you play you’ll be hammered with stuff to sift through in your inventory, walking off the battlefield with all-sorts falling out of your pockets. It really is all quite overwhelming.
Most of this would be fine of course if it wasn’t for the fact that the actual gameplay in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, the famous Gun Gale itself, is actually rather boring, bland and repetitive stuff. Arenas tend to vary between the tiled corridors of an industrial complex – grey room following grey corridor, following grey room – or endless featureless tundra filled with identikit enemies who may occasionally vary in colour but generally always stick to the same combat pattern of standing about in exposed areas shooting at you until you kill them. To be fair, they do occasionally do stunt rolls, but rarely to anywhere that gets them out of harm’s way.
Alongside the wealth of traditional weaponry at your disposal – machineguns, sniper rifles, pistols and rocket launchers – you’re also equipped with the Ultimate Fibers Gun (or UFG for short), which you can use to fire at a location and then transport yourself there via a magical laser tether. As a means of traversal, it’s certainly got potential, but it’s never utilised in any meaningful way and it's actually its secondary function – knocking airborne enemies out of the sky then nicking bits off their bodies for equipment – that you’ll find yourself using for the most part.
The arena combat in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet reminds us of nothing more than when you decide to “go loud” in any Metal Gear Solid game pre-V. There’s that very same feeling of unease. You’ve got all the latest equipment, you’re armed to the absolute teeth, you’ve got a gadget for every occasion stuffed into your trousers, but you still can’t shake the feeling that the controls are going to let you down when the heat gets turned up.
Everything is slightly more awkward than it needs to be here; even throwing a grenade – which requires you to tap the right shoulder button to get to gadgets, then hold it in, press whichever face button you’ve assigned to grenades and aim in roughly the area you want it to go, which it usually won’t – is painful. You can dodge out of the way and do a little forward roll, but neither of these manoeuvres is 100% guaranteed to get you out of harm’s way. You can also crouch behind things, which is, we understand, universally regarded as a good thing to do if you're being shot at, but you can’t shoot over barriers, so when you want to return fire you’ll need to get back out there, fully exposed, take a shot and move again.
The shooting also feels rather imprecise with no tangible feedback, even with the 'assisted' mode engaged, and this is partially down to the fact that enemies don’t react to being shot beyond the obligatory damage numbers floating out of their bodies. The guns also tend to feel light and don’t have any real bite or satisfying noise to them, which is a real shame because a lot of time and effort has obviously been spent modelling them and providing as much information as you could ever want as you purchase them from the game’s store.
Nevertheless, if you’re willing to forgive Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet its long and drawn out melodramatic sequences, bland level and enemy design and slightly clunky combat systems, there is plenty for you to sink your very forgiving teeth into here. The aforementioned customisation options are deep and you can gear and spec your avatar up in an impressive number of ways. XP earned by defeating enemies can be spent on levelling-up the skills required to handle better guns and accessories that grant you special tactical effects. CP can be poured into six different areas of growth – the usual strength, vitality, intelligence, etc – and the weapon and outfit customisation really is almost endless.
Returning to SBC GLocken, the VR world in which you live outside of the VR tournament in which you partake, you’ll always have a ton of merchandise to sell for credits to use for endless tinkering. Your Type X is also fully customisable and levels-up alongside you, and you’ll certainly be kept busy organising both it and yourself for the next quest or battle.
In terms of modes there’s an impressive number of things to do, from solo story missions, side quests and bug or treasure hunts, to co-op battles with up to 3 other human players (and their Type-X companions) and a PvP Mark mode, which sees one specific human player with a bounty placed on their head being hunted by other players for a big prize. One unfortunate thing we did also notice over the course of this review is that currently the online modes seem pretty sparsely populated and getting into a game or joining up with other human players was a real hit or miss affair, at least in our experience.
Fans of the series are, obviously, guaranteed to get much more out of what’s on offer here as they’ll likely be much more engaged in the drama that’s wrapped around the gameplay, and with that aforementioned unlockable Kirito mode and multiple endings to see there's certainly plenty of story here for those who're into it. For everyone else, if you can somehow ignore the often troubling attitudes to female characters, there’s still an okay experience to be had if you’re really, really into shooting stuff and hoovering up collectables in between long breaks for interminable chatter between Sword Art Online’s cast of characters.
In terms of the port itself, in both portable and docked modes, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet runs pretty much flawlessly on Switch. There's a very definite blurring of the image in handheld but with a huge game that looks as good as this often can it's not really a big surprise to see the resolution dropped for portable play, and, although the image is much sharper docked, it still looks good in both modes. Furthermore, we didn't notice any framerate problems or bugs in our time in SBC Glocken.
Conclusion
Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is one of the stronger outings for the series in a video game format. However, it’s still bogged down by heavy-handed and often thematically troubling melodrama that’s delivered at a glacial pace and prefers to eschew the potentially interesting aspects of the world it depicts in favour of stereotypical male heroics, teenage matters of the heart and questionable attitudes to its female characters. Beyond this, and judged solely as a game, the combat of Gun Gale Online itself is a rather bland, clunky and repetitive experience – albeit one with a ton of customisation options and modes of play to engage with. Fans of Sword Art Online will already know whether they’re into this or not; for everyone else, it’s a pretty tough sell that doesn’t really manage to do anything it attempts well enough to earn a recommendation.
Comments 108
EDIT: I have to mention I've never watched SOA, nor have I played any other game in the series. This is my first time seeing these characters.
My own review:
I've clocked about 50 hours into this game. I disagree with the review on a few points, though agree the story is glacially slow and tropey. I'll add that by nature of the setting, the stakes are EXTREMELY low for the majority of the game.
That said, combat is fun as all get out, and promotes "just one more run" into the wee hours for me. Party management is decent, creating a squad that fits your needs takes some research but it works. It all reminds me of PSO on the Dreamcast, which I played extensively (Online And Off) I've played this game entirely offline, and I don't feel it's lacking the "teamwork" feel. You can populate a squad and program your personal AI to your liking pretty accurately. Honestly, I'm stoked my wife got me this for my birthday. I'm hooked. ALSO- just started using the sword/handgun combo fighting style... near unstoppable.
Highly rec this game. Solid 8/10, missing 2 for slow story and poorly conceived character relations.
EDIT: Subdivision Infinity DX got 7/10, Forager got 9/10, both are very repetitive games, neither of them have the fit and finish of this one. Coming from someone who doesn't give two figs about SOA or its universe- I genuinely like this game. I think NL has gone way off the mark, themselves. NL is being pretty harsh here, guys. Get it for the gunplay, lightsab- i mean laser swords, and LOOT. Nothing else quite like it on the switch right now.
"misogynistic story"
Ok I didn't know we were polygon/kotaku/resetera all of a sudden lol
@TechaNinja Is misogyny not a criticism?
@aznable
They should of used pixel style for the game that would of given the game an extra two points. Played it on ps4 while the game will not win any awards it's not as bad as the reviewer makes out. The reviews on this site just seem.to go against the grain just to be different. Seems they want to be different than anyone else just to be different.
After Youngblood i beginning to take the sites reviews with a grain salt
@nessisonett
Not to a weeb it isn't.
From what I've read on Metacritic and what I've heard from a fan of the anime, this game is mediocre. Unless you're a diehard SAO person, I can't see why you'd buy this. Sloppy controls alone is enough to deter me from an action game.
@suikoden the consensus is that the game is mediocre, I don't know how they're going against the grain with this.
I played this for a couple of hours on PC, a few months before the dlcs were released, and it's pretty meh. I don't necessarily agree with NL's review, but they got most of the points right.
Story is definitely slow, almost non-existent, cannot say if its misogynistic, but at least it can claim to have an original story among the SAO games [since the others were described to be rewrites of the original story]. Combat is fun, but a limited enemy design/amount kinda hurts it. Coop is probably the worst aspect, you'd expect you get to explore the vast maps with friends, but really you're just locked in a boss room with them. :HAhaa:
On the bright side, character customization is pretty in-depth, while the good amount of weapon options opens up more variance in combat.
tl;dr The only looter shooter on Switch with decent combat, but everything else kinda sucks.
I dislike this game as well. I love RPG games, but this sure felt weird playing it. I stopped playing after 20 minutes. I didn't feel it and it didn't get me. I can see why others (in this review) pointing out the stuff I already disliked while playing it
@AlternateButtons I thought it was just knives and such but spoons now?
@AlternateButtons And now misogyny is a subject that shouldn’t be taken seriously regardless of the medium in which it appears? And then people wonder why the birth rate is so dangerously low in Japan, the country with one of the worst records on sexual harassment in the world.
I got the base game on PC for $13. It was ok at that price if a fan of the Anime.
Hoping Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris comes out better.
Sorry, Stash O'Reilly, that they Sword Art doesn't have the usual female strong lead slugging a dude in the face an no one batting an eye lid. I guess you prefer such Animè. For what it's worth the first 2 seasons of the show have the hero completely ignoring any female interest in him and yes that is hilariously embellished but I thought that was the satire? The misogynistic characters are the villains, no? Therefor, why complain? It's not like they're saying such views are ok.
Woah, is that "Joys" and "Cons" section new? Very cool!
@TechaNinja As soon as I see that crap in a review I immediately disregard it. Duke Nukem 3D is misogynistic as hell but it's still one of the best FPS' of all time. The misogynistic content doesn't make the game worse.
@PJOReilly Just so you know, some of us actually appreciate it when you call a game out for misogynistic attitudes. Personally, I try to buy and play mostly respectful games. I can definitely play some fanservicey games, but I prefer more inclusive ones. And I like to know what I'm getting, especially since I have two daughters who play on my Switch all the time and watch me play.
I'm not saying games with questionable attitudes shouldn't exist, everybody likes a good trashy story once in a while. But I'm a big fan of knowing what I'm getting before I start playing it in front of my whole family.
@JasmineDragon If it's anything like Animè then it's not misogynistic, why don't you at least decide for yourself instead of being told what is black and what is white?
Fatal Bullet is fun but 3rd best SAO game for me.
Hollow Realization is the best, followed by Lost Song, Hollow Fragment is fine but being the first game it has some issues.
As for online, the "online" part in the games is because the series it's name, don't buy these games for online because 95% of their content is single player (I prefer that to be honest)
As for the review, every game is repetitive in some way, I love Mario games but a friend of minde hates them because they are repeptitive for him, he loves FPS games and there my opinion is that most of them are boring.
Opinions will always differ, but again I have the feeling this game even if it was the best ever would get a low score because anime.
Not that it matters I read most reviews with a grain of salt anyhow.
@aznable I agree with you, Fatal Bullet is fun.
@Jayofmaya I agree, compared to some people I look up at gameplays and don't let myself brainwash with reviews, I choose for myself what I like or not.
Geez, if a 5/10 game is one of the stronger entries in the series, then how bad are the other ones?
Anyway, I can't comprehend why the Switch hasn't gotten the .hack//G.U. remastered trilogy as a port yet. I'm waiting for that, personally.
Well this reviewer has never seen an episode of SAO that is for certain. The 'misogyny' rant is funny because it is not only misleading it has no real relevance to the review than for the reviewer to virtue signal. I don't expect any better from games activists though.
The review does not make it clear if this new misogynistic character is good, bad or if the game paints them in a good or bad light which is important. Deliberately framing it without that makes the agenda become clear.
Misogyny does exist in the series in a negative way (it's for villains who are, well, villains) and it works well there. I mean that just makes you hate them right? Hating villains is good right? Outside villainous means it treats all female characters with respect (Asuna, Sinon, Suguha, Alice, Yuuki, Administrator etc.).
Since the word (along with racism, sexism) has lost all meaning due to it's overuse on anything not pandering to certain far-left leaning groups I just groan whenever it comes up in a review like this as it just further adds to the meaning fading away.
@AlternateButtons Since when was misogyny political? Other than certain political figures such as the so-called most powerful man in the world actively championing misogyny, it really isn't a political issue, it's a social one. If these games don't want reviewers commenting on 'political issues' then they should avoid adding the same trope-filled misogynistic baddie, just like how certain groups complain whenever a game has a female lead, a gay character or dares to mention the far-right as it's 'inserting politics into video games'.
Isn't this supposed to be judged purely as a game? This isn't 2014, you know.
@TechaNinja this one review is making me questiom coming to this site
A bad game only fits a bad anime
@OdnetninAges Lol, I came to the comments to mention that too. When I saw it I audibly chuckled.
@nessisonett It's funny, I have not once seen a 'group' that is anything but minuscule you mention get angered over a female lead (had those in gaming since god knows how long), a gay character (whatever) or mentioning the 'far-right' which is now a catch-all term for right wing or centrist.
You're honestly just regurgitating the same old tired spiel that sites want you to think happens and is widespread outside an extreme minority they magnify tenfold. Same with movies, comics, TV etc.
On the opposite side though we see gaming activist sites like Eurogamer, Polygon, Kotaku or ReeeeesteEra complain when they don't go far enough in pandering to themselves only or daring to appeal to someone who isn't them (straight men), this site does it as well with fan service games.
You're free to prove me wrong though. Think you might struggle mind.
@AlternateButtons
"Hey you got a license for that Switch!!?"
I actually disagree with this review. I feel like worst games have gotten way better scores.
I finally belong here.
Like I mentioned on the sister site earlier I have always been interested in playing this series of games but due to time,backlog and not really knowing where to start (plus not ever having watched the anime) I never got round to it.Of course now I have seen the new one in action my interest has finally hit a high and I'm bound to try one soon.
To be honest Fatal Bullet is the one that I like the look of the most and despite this game receiving a naff review I have seen enough gameplay on YouTube to know I'll most likely enjoy it.
anyone notice all the screenshots only feature some kind of scorpion enemy?
@ancientlii that is because this is early enemy in the game.
Now that you mention it I wonder if the reviewer finished the game or played it far enough (I don't expect finishing it because the game is 30 hours so that's fine)
@Mr_Muscle Because all anime feature the same style of character design, right?
What a profoundly silly comment.
I hope that bandai-namco can stop with SAO and give me .Hack//GU Last Recode on the switch...
Played this on PS4. It’s ok
lol sometimes the comments on this site are just utter perfection. My favourite part was when they attacked Britain for something an American wrote.
"The story is slow and mysoginistic"
So basically like SAO
You gotta love a bunch of fiercely independent thinkers who sit around giving eachother high fives and validating eachother's opinions.
Yeah, guys, you're totally the independent ones.
@nessisonett
I reject the concept that a videogame can be guilty of "misogyny". You can't actually harm people who don't exist.
It's the same logic as criticising a game for letting you murder innocent NPCs. That's not inherently a valid criticism either.
Ouch, I will just wait for a better port from Namco/Bandai.
Can’t help but roll my eyes at this review.
Reaching for low hanging fruit to be part of the “I’m cool too” club.
@Ralizah reminds me of my parents, they still think DragonBall, Looney Tunes and Dora (my sister watched that she was smaller) are the same because well, cartoon.
And so for some anime is exactly the same, people like this will say DragonBall and Sword Art Online are same, because anime.
Oh even better, I know some people saying all anime is like hentai, because hentai looks like anime so it is the same.
Yeah some people and their logic is fascinating to see especially the ones that hate stuff for the sake of hating it without proper research.
"SAO has been praised"
ok lol
If anyone ever play Freedom Wars in PS Vita, this game plays pretty much like it. I think it's either same engine or same dev team.
"Indeed, Sword Art Online has also often been criticised for its attitudes to women, who tend to exist or survive in order to placate men." - This statement is a glaring falsehood and is catering to so-called SJWs and people who hate popular anime.
It is of little surprise to see NintendoLife once again give an anime game a poor rating. While I generally quite like this site, in my time as a regular member it has always shown itself to be remarkable critical and hostile toward anime and in turn anime fans.
@AlternateButtons They are critics and the story is part of what they critique. Mentioning that it's mysogynistic tells us something. I'm not offended by such things, but neither do I want to play a game with a story including that. This tells me what demographic the story is aimed at and that it's not for me. If it is for you, you can seek the game out. Why get so triggered? Reviews are supposed to give you an idea of what the game is so you can make a decision about whether to bother playing it. Does this line about mysogyny prevent you from doing that? No. So what are you upset about? That the reviewer doesn't share your values? Who cares. Do you expect people to share your values and generally get upset when they don't?
@Heavyarms55 Every media outlet has its editorial slant.
@Dezzy Mysogyny is an attitude. A game, movie, book, or whatever else can convey an attitude. So you might reject it, but this may be because you don't understand it.
Whether or not this "harms" anyone is a different discussion.
Do you think it is impossible to make a game that has racist attitudes?
It's all subjective, and I don't find it offensive, it's legitimate to say that this about a piece of media.
"Melodramatic, glacially slow and at times misogynistic story"
Then fans of the SAO anime should feel right at home!
Leave it to NL's reactionary snowflakes to get all hot and bothered when a reviewer dares inject their 'politics' (read: common sense) when calling out the story. It's not like y'all are doing literally the same thing in calling for preserving the status quo. Hooray for hypocrisy!
I'm so glad more and more of your readers are realizing how garbage tier the reviews in this site are.
It can't even bring myself to meme you with the "if it was a flavor of the month pixel art indie metroidvania you'da given it a 9 out of 10" anymore... when these reviews are so pathetically written...
I won't even touch the misogynistic part since it's literally the dumbest thing I've ever heard hurled at this game. Good Job NintendoLife
This review is complete ass. Misogyny as a criticism, but can't tell us one line that was misogynistic. What you do instead is push your political agenda with a lie. Do you think we're stupid? I don't appreciate someone treating me like I'am stupid. You didn't play this game at all and this review shows it. How was the last game fine, but this one wasn't. Your own review makes no sense at all. You didn't compare the last game to this one. What did this game do better and what did it do worse. This review that wasted my life on is complete utter trash and you should find a job in the fast food business they need idiots like you. I wasn't planning on getting this game, but now I will.
idk if this is a fallacy but why is misogyny worse than conventional tenets of video games to game reviewers, like, can someone explain to me if we need to stage a coup at the next E3 in opposition to killing in video games
like, politicians get shat on repeatedly for blaming mass shootings on violent video games, yet something like this is a travesty irrespective of what real world events do or don't transpire allegedly in its wake. i dont get it mang help
@BMOC
They're attitudes towards actual people though. Fiction only conveys attitudes towards fictional characters. It's not necessarily equivalent.
Also, fiction can assume an attitude without actually agreeing with it. That's an important distinction.
There are a few different reasons you could do that. Often because you think it creates interesting story conflict, or interesting worldbuilding.
So if you think a piece of fiction is conveying an attitude, you should always be very slow to conclude it is ENDORSING that attitude, because it's more likely that they're using it for a different intention that you just happened to miss.
@raisenv nope not same, played both same goes for the engine.
But both are fun in their own way.
@Heavyarms55 That's the big joke here, SAO is maybe the most female friendly anime out there and Kirito is not a womanizer at all like some dare to say (he loves the main girl of the series Asuna, that's it)
I've watched all SAO episodes many times, the great first season, good spin-off with a completely different cast and Alicazation.
But also the bad episodes, SAO is fun and I like it but it does not end up in my top 5 anime because of few weak seasons.
So I at least know what I'm talking enough, there are animes out there that make jokes of women, portait them as weak or sexualize them, but SAO is none of them and SAO is not the only victim anime that is being portrait as female un-friendly while it's not.
I remember one time having a discussion with someone about this non existent issue in SAO, and that person didn't even knew the main female protag her name, he called her "the one with blue hair" which was not who he meant, plus Sinon (because she has "blue" hair ingame but is not main female protag, that's Asuna) is maybe one of the strongest female characters in the series next to Asuna.
People complain, that's fine but most people complain because others do, and most of the complainers don't even know what the hell they are talking about.
They are nothing more than sheep, following others they think are right or know better, without using their own brain to think about it if other sheeps are right, or are just follow others.
@BMOC
"but neither do I want to play a game with a story aimed at basement nerds who jerk off to anime."
As a woman you offend me, and you offend most women that like anime and play anime games.
People like you keep telling lies that anime and japanese anime games is "a guys only thing" and that they "jerk off" on it, and some of people like you also say "pedophiles play anime games" without even knowing what pedophillia really is.
You are a beautiful example of why anime has a bad name, because people that don't know shit have false opinions based on lies about it.
Shame
@Rayquaza2510 SAO is hardly a perfect series and it does cross some uncomfortable lines at times. It's fair to call that out. But making broad extreme statements like the one I pointed out is just wrong. It's like calling Marvel's Daredevil a porno because there is a sex scene in it. It's like saying Star Wars is anti-semetic because the Empire is based on Nazi Germany. You can take almost any fictional work, single out one or two issues in it, and make it sound horrible.
And that's one of my issues with western outlets like this. They'll happily bash on something like SAO with absurd claims like this, but not even comment on similar issues with western games and media. Where are the people outraged about all the Netflix originals overflowing with sex scenes and even rape? Where are the people claiming that Game of Thrones turns people into killers?
Double standards and hypocrisy. It's all fiction. And if you base your right and wrong on video games and TV in the first place, you've got bigger and more immediate problems to work out.
@Heavyarms55 "They'll happily bash on something like SAO with absurd claims like this, but not even comment on similar issues with western games and media."
Exactly my issue for years, not all anime or japanese games are perfect but even the smallest issue true or false is changed in the most over the top negative stuff you can imagine, and my biggest number one issue is people calling japanese games for pedophiles (without even knowing what that word really means) or complaining about oversexualization of women (but sex in GoT was totally fine for people, same with murdering and strip clubs in GTA games) to name few.
And the best thing is that all these complainers have in common that they asume males play/watch such games/anime and jerk off on it, for crying out loud 99% of them does not AND they forget women also watch anime and play games.
But all these stuff get a pass if it is made in the west, ohh the irony is hard here.
I'm totally fine that someone doesn't like certain games or that someone doesn't like anime at all, but people should stop spreading lies, especially if they don't even know what they are claiming and talking about.
@Dezzy It is an important distinction. There are the attitudes of the characters involved, and there are the themes and messages of the media itself. Obviously it's possible to tell a story and is pushing a message, I'm sure you'd agree?
Now I'm not familiar with this game or this anime, so I can't comment on whether the claim that it's misogynistic in nature is accurate, I'm sure that's debatable, but claiming that a piece of media cannot be such is not an accurate claim in my opinion.
People use narratives to make points or put forward arguments intentionally, and narratives can demonstrates attitudes and points of view unintentionally due to the mindset of the creators.
@Heavyarms55 I dunno what you're getting upset about or why you feel insulted. I didn't say there was anything wrong with being a basement nerd who jerks off to anime, it's just not my thing. It was a tongue in cheek comment that wasn't really the main point I was making. The point is, I can assume certain things about this game's story that won't appeal to me based on the review.
@Rayquaza2510 I don't really care if you're offended, just as I don't care if people are offended by the review.
I love some anime, and other anime I don't, same as anything else. If your claiming that a lot of anime isn't designed to titillate males, then I think you're wrong. Just as a lot of hollywood cinema is. Just like porn is. I like porn.
@Rayquaza2510 The biggest issue for me is consistency. If a person is of the opinion that we should not portray sexual themes or violence in media, they need to be consistent about it. You can't call it bad in anime but be okay with it on western TV. (or vice versa)
Personally, I am of the opinion that it is not only okay to show mature topics in fiction, but important to. Fictional material portraying all flawless white knight protagonists and evil antagonists isn't realistic or good storytelling.
It's also a fact that fiction isn't real and is a place for people to portray things that aren't real. (Thus occasional stories about perfect protagonists and evil antagonists is fine, we just shouldn't pretend that's the norm, it's not.) And it is vital to teach people from an early age that TV/books/games/etc are not real.
Hypnotism and brainwashing are not real things. If you play a violent video game and murder your neighbor, or if you watch porn and rape you neighbor - there is something wrong with you. You weren't magically warped or influenced by fiction, you saw something that - had you been raised right, within societal norms, - you would have understood was bad, and you still did it.
Wow. This comment section escalated quickly. Back to my (the) first comment... This game is worth playing but if you give up during the painfully long tutorial/opening dialogues, you'll never know. I don't mind paying full price for it, but I suppose some of you could wait until a sale. Its good stuff folks, friggin videogames at its simplest and almost at its shiniest.
@BMOC Oh please, don't try to pull that nonsense. The basement fapping nerd is a very common and glaring stereotype and insult.
The basement comment is alluding to the lazy person freeloading off their parents, the nerd is insinuating someone who likes a particular topic very strongly and the masturbation comment is calling someone unable to find a traditional relationship. And making the comment at all is saying that people who might enjoy this game are this kind of person.
Don't insult me or anyone else further by trying to deny it. If you don't have the decency to apologize for such an obvious insult, at least be mature enough to own up to it!
@AlternateButtons so he's that type of trash person, didn't expect less from someone who says all anime is made to pleasure men.
(and considering he thinks offending people is fine then essentially he should not give two s**ts he's called trash)
Nothing surprising, another day on the internet I guess.
@aznable Thank you for the review. I don't know what's happening to NL lately. These reviews are getting worse and worse by the day.
@Heavyarms55 I didn't say it wasn't a stereotype. I used it specifically because it's a stereotype. I'm fully owning up to it and not apologising.
I just don't care if you're offended. I was making a point that sailed over your head because you got triggered.
The review conveys the type of themes contained in the game. You can disagree with the value judgement of those themes, but we all understand the type of thing it indicates, that's the point I'm making. It's still informative, even if your view is that this sort of thing is not misogynistic. I'm not disputing that it probably offends some people, I just don't care. This site has an editorial slant, if you don't like it you can read other sites. Choice is great.
Now get out of the basement.
@Rayquaza2510 Lol, I specifically did not say that
I don't think offending people is necessarily fine, but I think worrying overly about offending people on the internet is a fools errand, because people get offended by everything. For example, in this article and the comments we can see people offended by what they perceive as misogyny, and people who are offended by other people being offended by this because they object to it being called misogynistic as they perceive that to be a negative reflection on themselves and their love this type of anime.
You can't please everyone.
@AlternateButtons You're right, good choice.
@Heavyarms55 i agree and their reviews on games like peach ball and others with fan service is alot to be desired.
@BMOC I agree a lot of people get offended for nothing nowdays.
However...
"but neither do I want to play a game with a story aimed at basement nerds who jerk off to anime."
It feels like you do this on purpose, this is offending and false too.
(and even trolling in some aspects)
But looking at your other comments discussing with you seems a waste of time, even if based on false info and lies you seem to think your opinion about anime or this type of games is the right one.
Having an opinion is fine, it is even great to have OWN opinion, if based on facts and truth which yours is not.
And that is sad, the way you seems to see anime as "designed to titillate males" is not what the truth is, because if few do it that doesn't mean all of them do.
With your logic every movie with real people would be porn, because we ignore every non porn movie and only count the porn ones.
However porn is a bad example, I'm pretty sure that if we count most movies with real people out there, majority would indeed be porn, thats not the case with anime "made for males" (let's call it that way).
Plus you seem to forget that if people would want to "jerk off", hentai and porn exist for that, not regular movies and regular anime or games.
But again waste of time because you don't seem to care anyhow and think you know better, and I have better things to do at 5am than that.
@RiasGremory It's amazing that with a username like which you use, you take objection with fan service. You realize that anime is basically nothing but fan service?
Why would you be bothered by fan service and make a username like that? That'd be like saying you hate sci-fi with "LukeSkywalker" as your username...
@Ralizah Watched varying anime for 20 years. It’s gotten so samey it’s very sad. Show me something you think is unique and I’ll pull something up that already did that. Im saying it’s not treading any new ground, and that someone with talent needs to push the medium forward. What’s so silly about wanting something to evolve past “skinny tough kid with giant sword,” or “quiet girl with bow and arrow,” etc etc...
Please don’t message me back. You’ve been fairly aggressive in the past to other users and I’m not entirely interested in engaging further. Thank you.
@Rayquaza2510 "you seem to think your opinion about anime or this type of games is the right one"
Was that most strongly indicated in the part where I said I have no idea about this particular anime? Or the part where I said that just like any other piece of media, I love some anime, and dislike other?
" the way you seems to see anime as "designed to titillate males" "
You mean where I said "a lot of" i.e. some anime is designed to titillate males? And then also said so is much of Hollywood film, and other pieces of media?
I think you're misrepresenting what I'm actually saying.
The idea that because we have porn people never jerk off to non pornographic material is a bizarre one. Speak for yourself I suppose, but sexuality is more complicated than that. People become infatuated with particular actors, or characters. I mean, what if you can't find hentai for the particular anime character you have a crush on? Or what if you are more aroused by them when they are wearing their sailor suit than when they are nude?
@Mr_Muscle You're never going to find a medium not utterly inundated with overused tropes, characterizations, art styles, etc. The vast majority of books, films, TV shows, video games, etc. will always be cookie-cutter and disappointing, and you have to dig beyond the surface to find stuff that's innovative or fresh. That's true of anime as well. But to act like it's all the same, that there's no innovation, etc. is pure ignorance.
Anyway, if you really don't want to see my posts, you can add me to your ignore list, and you'll never them again. You don't get to silence me, though, so if you choose to keep this conversation going, then so will I (until I get bored, at least). There was nothing uncivil or "aggressive" about what I said.
@Ralizah Well said.
@Mr_Muscle There are really only 7 story types. If you have started finding things "samey" that just means you've experienced a lot of things.
Overcoming the Monster.
Rags to Riches.
The Quest.
Voyage and Return.
Rebirth.
Comedy.
Tragedy.
Basically everything falls into one of these categories. That's not limited to anime. That's just fiction.
Sorry cant take this review serieus.
Just finished watching SOA II, and found the ending with Yuki massively depressing (but Evagelion was even more mental), hopefully the third series comes out on Netflix soon.
Doubt I'm going to get the game as I like watching Anime not playing it
@Heavyarms55 The seductions of youth (or 'youthful stages of experience' with something, as when you first discover an entire new artistic medium, hobby, etc.) lie heavily on the memory. It's why the tendency to "back in mah day" everything is so universal. Why so many people seem to think art and society in general are constantly degenerating from the ideal they used to embody in some mythical golden age half-remembered from earlier years.
@Ralizah Yup. Nothing will ever be quite like your first time - with anything. It's just kinda how the human mind works.
@Bunkerneath You can watch it on Crunchyroll, free, if you don't mind ads.
@Bunkerneath I watched SAO Alicization (season 3) and while it is good and doesn't feel like a copy and paste from the fist 2 seasons, it is much slower and no where as good as the first season. Also the first part of Alicization ends on a very frustrating cliffhanger and we won't see the 2nd part until October (+4 month if you want it dubbed)
@AlternateButtons if it had child rape in it, would you consider it worth mentioning? Would that be virtue signalling? I'm guessing you think that is horrible and isn't OK to put in a game (at least not in a way to just provide entertainment). Well the thing is, people have different levels of what is horrible and where they draw the line. The person who wrote this article likely feels that misogyny shouldn't be present in games, so they mentioned it. I agree that virtue signalling is a thing, but you also have to realise that everybody has different views and they're entitle to comment on it if they see something they don't like, it doesn't make automatically make them an SJW.
@Hellburner918 Thank you!
@nessisonett blinded by your own social justice, I see...
Gonna have to give this one a rent. It sounds like it has a lot going for it (tons of content, modes, loot and the ability to make a sexy avatar). It's okay to have opinions about misogyny and I can understand why people would want to know about it, but I don't see how that can negatively impact the score or rating of a game.
Are the Mario games also misogynistic? A helpless female only exists to be kidnapped by an aggressive Male to make the Male hero look good and be his romantic interest.
@Dualmask Putting aside whether the description is accurate, it does say something about the story. And story is a big part of games, at least it is for some people.
What I am assuming (and could be wrong) is that the game features strong males and weak, helpless, infantilised, doe eyed females. Fine if that's your thing, but it's not mine. I'm as big a pervert as anyone, probably worse than most, but the way that females are often depicted in certain types of anime is off-putting to me. It's not even that I think it's immoral or anything, there seems to be a culture of some asian women actually acting like helpless children, called kawaii or something? I just find it cringey and weird and have zero interest in playing games with that stuff in it.
@Bass_X0 lol, type "mario misogyny" into google, and apparently plenty of people think so hahaha
@BMOC
Yes that's fair. I would agree that in principle it's possible for that to be the kind of meta-narrative message of a story.
I don't think I've ever seen a story where 'misogyny' was the general message though, so I would be very skeptical whenever someone claims that. It's far far more likely that you've just misunderstood something or (the most likely thing) that you're just projecting your own personal agendas onto an ambiguous story.
Well....that was....weird...
This has got to be the strangest NL review ever. If it were a Senran Kagura review I could almost even get on board...I mean what else can you say about it? But for SAO:FB? There are many things wrong with this game, and series as a whole, worth complaining about. The game is mediocre. Not bad, and the combat can be fun, but you have to sit through hours of dialog without even being able to save during it (so you end up repeating it if you put it down) before you even GET to gameplay most of the time. The world is fine, but not the best of the series, and it's lacking if you're not already familiar with the series. There's definitely complaints that make this not a mainstream game for everyone. Being "misogynistic" isn't really one of them that crossed my mind pretty much ever. That's just a bizarre out of place rant, presumably to attract search engines. I hope it's a cynical business reason like that, because at least I can point fingers at corporate shilling rather than NL losing touch with reality entirely...
inb4 "Mario and Luigi are racist against Italians: A 4 part essay."
@Ralizah There's also the reality that things actually always are continually getting worse. Beyond even the human condition in general as population grows and continues exceeding the ability to comfortably support it, when it comes to art and experiences, it generally always does have a golden age that gets worse, as once something peaks to a certain point, it's appropriated and mass manufactured by commercial interests with a maximum profit goal motivation. It's not everyone's imagination. "Back in my day" generally was better for a given medium/form, because that usually means "when something was reaching it's zenith before being stripped down to the lowest common denominator for maximum wholesale distribution."
@Dezzy I'm not personally all that sensitive about this stuff, but if you watch old films, from an era where society in general was more misogynistic, the hero obviously embodies the attitudes of the day. So you can say that the film promotes certain qualities as being that of a hero. E.g. often the hero will force himself onto a woman in a way that would be considered quite unacceptable today. This is really not uncommon in films of 40-50 years ago. You could say that's misogynistic (it is of course a product of it's time). And it doesn't have to be from some by gone era. Obviously as attitudes change, across society you have different views, some people will consider a given behaviour to be perfectly fine, other might consider it racist or misogynistic. Lets say a film maker who is on the more conservative end of that spectrum makes a film, and imbues his main character with traits and attitudes that he thinks are admirable. Well others might find that character to be misogynistic, and thus say the film is misogynistic. It's unlikely that you're going to have as much agreement on this recent film, as some past film. As time goes on, perhaps there will be more agreement on it, perhaps not. Ultimately it's all value judgements, and anyone can disagree about a value judgement, and over time consensus may develop, one way or the other.
And obviously you have different cultures. In some countries women have to cover themselves up when they go outside. I'd call that misogynistic. That's an extreme example. But Japan has cultural differences that I think many understandably find misogynistic. This is a country where women getting groped on trains is a serious problem. This is not a serious problem in the west. These differences manifest in many different ways.
@Heavyarms55 im not bothered about fanservice in games i was referring to the reviewer on this site deducting points on games with fan service that shows to much skin which is dumb.
Sounds like the reviewer brought in their personally feelings about the series dropping the rating down. However I haven't played it, but nice to see first comment is from someone that isn't familiar with the series. I'd love to see a game where someone could genuinely set up a 100 floor Aincrad. 100 floors with bosses, would be a lot work though lol.
I was going to comment '>inb4 the walking fedoras come and massacre the author for mentioning mysogyny', but it turns out I'm late. Very, very late.
@NEStalgia Fundamentally disagree. Human life is broadly better today than it has been at any previous point in human history. Gaming is better today than was in the so-called glory days. And, regarding anime, people don't think about the fact that, back then, we were only getting a fraction of what we were now, and the mediocre stuff was all staying unlocalized in Japan. Anime is big business now, though, so we're seeing everything come over, often via simulcast: the trash AND the treasure.
If the optics look worse, it's because technology and corporate interest in your hobbies have increased to the point where we're more aware of the bad than we ever were in the past. It's the same reason people tend to think the world is becoming more unsafe, even though, if you look at the stats, human life is actually flourishing in a way it never did in the past, with less totalitarianism, violence, disease, poverty, etc. than in the "good old days." The one exception to that is income inequality in developed nations, which is not good, but it doesn't counteract the way human life is improving otherwise.
I'm not saying there aren't periods in history that are more or less creative or influential. There obviously are. No process of evolution is ever going to be one constant, uninterrupted stream of improvement. But your view of existence as being one of constant degeneration from a golden age is fundamentally at odds with the evidence.
The world isn't getting worse. You're just getting more cynical. Which is a fairly normal reaction as people step further away from the idyllic ignorance of childhood.
@EmmatheBest Yes fight buzzwords with buzzwords
@BMOC
Well that's making the logical jump that depicting something is effectively endorsing it in some way. I don't think that's a valid deduction at all.
Yes, old movies are gonna have some different attitudes that are taken as normal. But new things could also have similar attitudes for completely different reasons. E.g Game of Thrones is set in a quite sexist fictional world. But it's not because the writer agrees with those behaviours. It's because creating that kind of world creates a great setting for drama, and also partly it's due to knowing that people have a good intuitive grasp of that kind of society because it's so similar to human history (which means you don't need to explain every little detail to them)
So there are always a variety of reasons you might depict certain negative attitudes, and a reviewer should be very very slow to conclude you're endorsing those things.
@Ralizah On the topic of the human condition, your probably hit the nail with "income equality in developed nations." Ultimately the worse one's position is relative to those around them, the worse everything is. If we were all living in mud huts, next to Jeff Bezos' slightly larger mud hut, we would likely be happier in ignorance than the current situation which is "objectively" better, but one's relative position to what's around them continually degrades.
As for the rest of "human condition" nobody's really paying attention to how many children are or aren't starving under a dictatorship in Batu Batu. People's evaluation is based on their own society and their own relationship to it, not global statistical numbers of every tin pot equatorial cesspool they couldn't even locate on a map. That kind of thinking is how the academics consistently get everything so wrong, looking at spreadsheets of numbers to build a reality rather than localized relational reality. The 70's were objectively "worse" materially in the US than today. Very much so. Yet everyone's position relative to each other was much more static which led to a mostly more cohesive society (setting aside for the moment specific groups, racial issues, etc of each era.)
As for art/entertainment, though, and games specifically. Is it more "objectively better" now? In a way. BotW is prettier than Adventure of Link. And it's not as cheap and annoying. Define better? There was a raw experimentalism of the early days that for many reasons can't exist now. There was a finite existence of it that lead to participants being fully integrated with its evolution, versus today when it's so vast you're merely a consumer rather than part of it's arrival.
Particularly with a new medium or genre, you really can't duplicate the emotional impact of what experiencing it in it's new/growth era is like. You can't repeat that same series of events in the same way, it does reach a peak of that form, and then vanishes from that form forever. I wasn't alive when Charlie Chaplain was on the Silver Screen, but I don't think anyone from that era that might say moving picture shows were better in their day would be wrong. In fact I imagine they're quite right. The latest Michael Bay film may be prettier, the latest Scorcese film ore substantive, but neither duplicates the raw impact, individually, collectively, atmospherically that early era did. And that experience will never be had in that media again.
Being a book worm today would be "objectively" much better today than in 1439, with endless variety of cheap books across every genre is instantly available. Yet, for someone that was there when the mass production of early books began and everyone was "on the same page", experiencing it in similar ways all at the same time? That experience was no doubt superior - the experience was superior. Even if objectively, statistically, it was substantially "worse" than what we have today.
Watching the latest VOD miniseries whenver you want wherever you want is "superior" to everyone having to watch Leave it to Beaver at the same time, on the same nights, as everyone else. But that collective experience of television back then is half of what made it...it's lost it's significance, meaning, atmosphere, and effect now.
There's a collective energy in those early forms. Everyone involved is watching the same things at the same times as each other. Experiencing and anticipating the same events and engaging with it as a universal experience, even if individually. The more it becomes mass marketed, individualized and "better" the more it degrades from that early, ultimately superior experience.
Meanwhile it was the Woodstock anniversary. Music is infinitely better than it was back then, with infinite more variety. Yet how many cling to the experience of the time? Why? that genre, format, styling was new, and it was a collective shared experience, where all the goings on could easily be followed all at once.
The past is always better, in terms of media, even if it's "worse" because the breakout of that medium or genre is an experience that will never return again once it grows and standardizes past a certain point.
I came to watch the flame storm for a reviewer mentioning misogyny and found an actual profound philosophical discussion going on here. Came for fast food, got a home cooked dinner.
@NEStalgia
Ultimately, what you're bringing up is a great illustration of why it is so important to heed data instead of anecdotes that, personally felt though they may be, don't reflect objective reality. The human mind is constantly preyed upon by delusion and greed, and it is easy for us to envision the world as a cozy place when we're shielded from its worst excesses by our own privilege.
It might have been more exciting to be a gamer at the dawn of 3D gaming, but I think you'd be hard-pressed to say that the average quality of games isn't drastically higher today than it was back then, despite the exciting newness of 3D game technology. The excitement of the new is fine, but it must eventually be replaced by a focus on how that technology is actually going to be manipulated in effective and interesting ways. And that leads to better games over time.
As to what I mean by "better" games? I mean that, outside of Nintendo and a few other companies, most games from the earliest console generations, and certainly before the NES, weren't great. Even most bottom-of-the-barrel indies today would best many of the big games from those eras. Which isn't a surprise, and isn't unexpected. It's the natural movement of an art form toward greater artistic heights. Video games today tackle subjects and enable gameplay that would have been unthinkable back then.
In a similar manner, the gradual opening of American society to allow representation of people other than straight white males allows for greater self-actualization among a greater number of people, both privileged and marginalized. Greater choice of books to read or films to watch allows for a wider range of expression, even if everyone isn't herded into a similar cultural space by the limitations of technology and distribution methods at the time.
As time progresses and society, in its various manifestations, generally evolves toward improvement, lessened suffering, and greater human flourishing, it's reasonable to expect that the movement away from collectivist harmony and toward personal expression and autonomy will increase. And that's not a bad thing.
I feel like I'm losing the string of the conversation, though, so I will reiterate bluntly: nothing you have said has contradicted my position that society is not degenerating from a golden age. It's OK to be nostalgic about the past, but, speaking from the standpoint of human flourishing being the standard for what is desirable and good, the world is objectively becoming a better place to live. Less violent, more educated, fewer diseases, more opportunities, etc. Which doesn't mean there isn't still very gross inequality, and that horrible exploitation and suffering don't still exist in unreasonable amounts, but, if nothing else, at least we're getting to the point as a global civilization that we can't deny that this is the case. We can't pretend we're living in a golden age when enormous swaths of the human population are still suffering unduly. That, in and of itself, is a massive moral victory.
@Ralizah You're quite the optimist... One thing I don't accept for a moment is "data". It's the modern fallacy. The 21st century "faith". "Data" can say whatever you want it to say based on it's inclusion, omission, weighting, exception, ignorance, and sample selection. It says whatever it's presenter wants it to say, and is always truth, and is always correct. But is correct within the scope of what of it was collected, presented, and why. Data is no replacement for direct observation. Data hides the reality between its columns. The modern concept of "objectivity" is illusion at best, deception at worst, distraction more often than not.
In a similar, but completely off topic acknowledgement of that, one of my favorite modern quotes comes from someone I dislike quite a bit: Jeff Bezos. In an interview discussing that customers seem to be complaining of a greater amount of late deliveries, yet that Amazon's data shows in fact the opposite, that more deliveries are on time, or even early, Bezos said that he always advises his managers that when the anecdotes conflict with the data, trust the anecdotes, the data is most likely incorrect. I may not like him in general, but I was impressed by that response. This is a man that actually gets it. He may use it for the wrong reasons, but he gets it. Which is precisely why he is the most successful man in the world. (Similarly, Hitler "got it" and understood populations and human response better than most even today do....which is exactly how he was so "successful" as well...) Both are/were wise men. Evil...but wise.
In general, in the human experience, the benefit of one group comes at a cost to another group. If one group is flourishing, its is by the suppression of another group. Perhaps the numbers show a net gain. No doubt, if we had numbers for the French-Indian war through the Trail of Tears it would similarly show a net gain by a majority. There is no "global civilization" - nor will there ever be. Nor should there ever be. The concept itself doesn't match the geography and history of this planet. It's an ideology not mated to a reality. You can't paint the entire earth in a broad brush, you need to look at each localized portion and compare its own relative positions. If Cambodia is worse or better than it was 50 years ago, is irrelevant to a Hungarian. And trying to blend numbers together in that manner does nothing to help anyone but to give optimists such as yourself an opportunity to feel good about "improvement" that matters on paper only. Each localized position must be compared only to itself. Anything else is pointless adventures with spreadsheets to arrive at data you feel good about. Are there less murders per capita in NYC than there were in the 1980s? Yes. Is that an improvement? Maybe. But what other costs and problems have come along with that change? Metrics are not an end goal, and they do not tell you the entirely reality you need to observe directly to understand. Belief contrary to that as a new form of religion is the fundamental problem creating so many other problems today.
As far as Western civilization, yes, it is degenerating from a golden age, though that's a much more complicated problem. The golden age was caused by the economics of WWI leading into WWII, the massively reduced population, the need for massive rebuilding and the economic boon of that rebuilding, coupled with new technology in industry to allow mass supply in distribution. That that was a golden age (before either of us were born) can't really be disputed. The cause of that golden age may not be a wonderful one....but it happened, and can't be arbitrarily recreated nonetheless.
That's the sociological aspect of that.
Now for the media aspect. Early 3D games were always awful. That actually already was the degradation of the actual early games we're talking about. And it's not to say that Iron Sword is a superior game to Shadows of Mordor. Nobody would believe it was. But just because the actual product is of a higher grade in later iterations, it does not mean that gaming wasn't "better" at the time, either (same for film, etc.) Holistically, as an experience, "gaming" isn't just about the objective quality of the games themselves. It's the experience of being in the environment, watching it evolve, watching it as it develops, including the simplicity of the experience as one of its potential values.
The Concorde was a far more interesting, sophisticated, marvelous aircraft than the bi-planes of the Wright Bros. era. But being a pilot or flight enthusiast would have been much, much, much better in the Wright Bros. era than in the 90's. It doesn't matter if the aircraft, safety, runways, speeds, smoothness, comforts, control, and instrumentation is superior later. The experience is not as good as that "golden age" from Wright, through Hughes, when it was all just happening around you. The same goes for games. Films, Books. Music. Being there when it was new and evolving is always more interesting, exciting, and with an overall better experience then when it is commoditized even if the commodity product is of higher finish.
That's the part you're missing. It's not about a measurable product. It's about the unmeasurable.
@Dezzy We already covered this point, and I'm not making that leap, I'm saying it's sometimes the case.
I'm not saying that depicting something = endorsing it at all. I specifically used the example of the hero, because in some stories/movies/etc. the hero is used as a vehicle to advocate values. But not always. If you think this is never the case, then we just disagree.
Game of thrones does not celebrate the bad behaviour of it's characters, but it still presents character traits that are clearly designed to be seen by the audience as admirable.
Obviously this is interpretation of art and thus can be argued about forever without there being a right answer unless the artist comes forward and explains their intentions.
Whether the reviewer should be slow to make such conclusions, I don't really have any opinion on. Why? So as to avoid upsetting anime fans? Meh. I can understand the sort of things the reviewer is referring to without necessarily agreeing or disagreeing with this judgement. It's still informative in my view. I don't see any need to remove the personality of the reviewer from the review, all reviewers have their particular slant, and the reader needs to interpret that for themselves.
@RiasGremory Oh okay, sorry I misunderstood.
@NEStalgia I only want to respond to one part of your comment. While data can be used and abused the way you describe, it is not the same as faith. Data is still based on hard measurable information. Faith is blind trust in something that cannot be tested or measured.
@Ralizah I gotta say I agree with most of your points here. But I disagree in one area - the world is getting worse in one area. Humanity has never possessed great potential for destruction than we currently do. We as a human society sit on enough firepower to reduce the surface of the planet to a smoldering hellish and lifeless wasteland. And we don't want to give that up for fear the other guy might keep their weapons of mass destruction. The only thing that keeps us from wiping each other out, is the fear that they will take us with them. In that since, if we haven't gotten worse, we certainly haven't gotten better!
Are we really on an SAO thread still?
@Heavyarms55 data can be measured, but what is chosen to be measured and what is not, and what among that data is presented is purely at human discretion. Similarly while classical religious faith was based on trust, it was not blind, at least when the modern religions were first founded. That faith was based on the presentation of evidence, data, if you will. Of course it only worked depending on how much you trust the presenter.... Or fear him.
As for sao... The fact that this is the only going conversation says just how much anyone cares about sao
@NEStalgia Well I mean if you were alive during the time of Jesus or Muhammad or whomever pick your religious figure, then yeah I suppose that's a valid point. But in the modern sense you can find when someone is nitpicking data to make a point. That sort of thing is testable, measurable and provable or disprovable. But when a priest or minister or whatever term they want to use says you just need to take something on faith? That's just blind trust. You have to decide to believe them or not. One priest says God directly is involved in human affairs, another one says he is only passive and we have true free will - there is no way to test that sort of thing.
But if someone says the majority of people who voted, voted for politician A and not politician B, that's something that can be proven or disproved with hard evidence. And in theory at least you could ask everyone if they like Nintendo, Sony or Microsoft best and get hard data on which company is most liked. A lot of that becomes impractical, but it is possible.
@Heavyarms55 its alright i should of been more clear right off the bat and besides i support any type of fanservice in any ecchi type game with no censorship.
@Heavyarms55 I don't know that in the Western world, modern religious devotion really ought to be classified as "faith" at large (some individual cases perhaps.) It has a different meaning. Today it's belief, it's tradition, it's trust. Faith implies a bit more and going back to Biblical times, generally wasn't devoid of evidence. The religions had material evidence of their claims, they had official writings, artifacts, etc. In a sense that's what gave the modern religions so much credibility versus prior polytheistic religions. There wasn't really much "evidence" of Poseidon or Mars ever existing, it was just believing the elders and whatever they said blindly. The modern religions DID present data, evidence of a fashion proving, or at least corroborating what they stated with some material connection. (Validity of their evidence of course landing wherever it lands on your truth-ometer based on your own beliefs.) But the point is they did back it up with "data." And then faith took over and accepted that data is infallible. Even when other data could be found to contradict it (just the data of each major religion conflicting with each other, alone as an example.) Consider that the religions are rooted in their respective holy books. The proof of any claim is always sought in the reference text and verified for accuracy. You may or may not believe the data in any such holy book is truthful, but, of course that's my point. Just because the historical text claims something is truth, you can't go back in time to verify that the record is actually valid.
Modern religion (with the exception of the Middle East and N. Africa, where one's life still hangs in the balance of such things, and ones faith still mandates they accept death for that faith in many places), is more like the days of Poseidon and Mars. One simply accepts the story as told by those one trusts. Blind belief. Faith, on the other hand, was more necessary in the early days of those religions. Where belief was handed down to believe in ancient gods, but evidence based faith made one consider abandoning the old gods and have faith in following the new one that evidence has shown to be the real one. I.E. Today someone born in a Christian environment is simply taught as a matter of course the beliefs, values, and traditions that go with that. It doesn't take faith of those values to accept them and honor them. But back then, one had to make a decision to actually flip off the gods you were taught to fear, that people feared since time immemorial, possibly be smited horribly, and accept that they were nothing more than fairy tales, and instead put your devotion behind the deity that they were being told is the one true one. That took faith....and data to persuade that faith. Making the wrong call there would lead to eternal suffering as the plaything of an angry god, after all.
Similarly, that same faith of the data applies in the modern Church of Data. Much like the monks of the Dark Ages, you don't really have the means, the access, the basis to test and verify the data yourself. You rely in the Holy Scribes, the keepers of the data, the methods, the histories, to do it for you. You trust that they're legit because you have faith. You know it's entirely possible that not a single one of them is legit. But that contradicts your faith in the institutions, the methods, the integrity of their intent. You have strong faith. Even knowing it's possible every shred of data is manipulated to serve someone else's ends, you have faith it usually isn't.
When a text claims that the rate of change in temperature in a thermal mass of specific density is proportional to the air temperature surrounding it, that's something you can personally verify. You can set up a test of such materials in a controlled environment, duplicate it, and prove that indeed the text is right.
When a text claims that Politician A and Politician B got X numbers of votes, can you do the same? Do you have the means and access to tally the numbers yourself? Can you physically count ballots yourself? Or are you relying on the data provided by the Holy Scribes? Can you validate that their numbers are accurate yourself, or do you simply require faith that they are?
Similarly, the poll numbers may be legit. But are you sure you were presented with all of them? Were certain categories omitted? Were some counted "by average"? Were the wholly honest and accurate numbers presented in their entirety of everything potentially relevant, or was a subset that accurately provides the answer someone else wanted you to have given to you? And can you know at all if that was the case?
Similarly, was the proof of the divine miracle accurate? Fabricated? Or was proof that confirms it presented while other evidence that shows coincidence or other interference omitted? And would anyone know otherwise?
You can lie quite well, using entirely accurate data. You just need to know which data to use, and which not to.
Belief in the result, requires strong faith.....
Misogyny? 1) Gotta love how the only example given is from the actions of one of the villains, which, even then, is a bit shaky since the ArFA-sys can also be male. On top of that, nearly every single game with a character creator tends to be very in depth, i.e being able to adjust bust size. Believe it or not, some WOMEN may play the game who may want their character to have a larger chest size. Furthermore, your point is a catch 22 since you can also DECREASE the chest size, which is what I did, since I modeled my ArFA-sys after one of my own female characters who has a small bust size dye to me due incredibly uncomfortable with, not only drawing breasts, but large breasts in general.
If a player wants to give a female character large breasts, that's their issue, not any fault of the game.
Another bizarre critique you have is on the gameplay itself. I've read a lot of reviews for different SAO games and the one constant most of them share is that each one, even Lost Song, considered to be the worst of the bunch, has extremely fluid controls.
@PJOReilly
If you want to talk social justice when reviewing a game like Fatal Bullet, You might want to be more careful about your choice of screen shots, Why does the ArFA-sys look like a woman of color with two black eyes being protect by your avatar?
Do you really think people won't notice that.
And we please get some actual SAO fans to review SAO games?
@nessisonett misogyny is kind of subjective, so it does seem weird to have it thrown at a game in a review. But, it is the Reviewers opinions, and I guess now the people who’d be triggered by the game can avoid it. Alls good, everyones happy.
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