Accel World Stage 01: Ginyoku no Kakusei (Limited Edition)

Okay game wise. Nothing too spectacular.

if you're fan accel world you don't miss this game.

The plot and pacing is great. Please keep in mind that this is a dialogue heavy game with little to no player involvement. However, if you are looking for an action-packed story with great voice-acting and music then this is your game.

First and foremost, Accel World’s story is revolved around Haruyuki Arita and a virtual fighting game called Brain Burst. In this game, you will be Haru/Silver Crow. For a game based on a virtual fighting game, Accel World Ginyoku no Kakusei is not a fighting/action game. So if that’s what you’re hoping for, save your money. Just by looking at the screenshots online, one can deduce that it’s the typical Japanese adventure/dating simulation game. So don't pretend that you didn't know what you're getting (as seen with the 1 star ratings).

Basically, you will be seeing a static image most of the time with dialogues on screen. Most of the time, all you will be doing is pressing circle to move to the next dialogue. You can press the left shoulder button to toggle an auto-mode. There are few decision trees to pick your date and unlock some pictures. There’s a light RPG element in the game where you can improve the special moves of your duel avatar, but that’s about it. Picking up the right response and giving the right gifts for your dates are more important here. Having said that, Brain Burst battle is there, but it’s not what you think. The Brain Burst battle is basically a turn-based rock/paper/scissor fight, where you assign values to your duel avatar’s offense, defense, accuracy, and evasion points, and hope that yours are more than the opponent’s during the fight. It might feel hard or complicated at first unless you understand Japanese, but it’s actually pretty easy once you understand the concept and pattern. This feels tacked on though, as you don’t even participate in many of the “battles” that are part of the story. You can always do a free battle on your own, but it doesn’t give you any experience or anything. Your level is hard-coded with the story. That’s right, you don’t get to level up on your own. The story dictates what level you are, again emphasizing that this is not an RPG/fighting game, the main game is the adventure/dating simulation.

Now to the graphics. Most screenshots you see online are clearly from the PS3 version. The graphics on the PSP version is a meh, for obvious reasons. The PSP is an old system. Jaggies are aplenty due to the low resolution, but that’s expected. The character models are actually not bad during the adventure mode, but what hurts the most is the low-res/low quality textures for the 3D models. This is most apparent on the duel avatars, especially Silver Crow. From the screenshots of the PS3 version, Silver Crow really looks metallic. On the PSP version, he’s just, well, kinda grey colored. The battle stages are no better, mostly barren with low-res textures. Having said that, the graphics would probably be acceptable during the PS1/PS2 era, and considering the limitation of the PSP system and the UMD media, I guess it’s a decent trade off as you can see later. Again, the emphasis is on the adventure part. The 2D illustrations themselves are beautiful and vibrant, with the same style as the anime.

The best part of this game is the sound. Why? Because the game is mostly fully voiced, by the same seiyuu of the anime. This is AWESOME! Heck, they really went overboard with this, by having each characters do a version of the legal warning. And yes, nearly every dialogue of the characters are voiced, even the opponents in battles (which includes Yellow Radio, Rust Jigsaw, Black Vice, etc) with the exception of the player’s (Haru) in the adventure mode. Haru is voiced when there’s a special scene in the Accelerated World and during battle. I noticed though in battles, Haru’s voice is clearly encoded at lower quality. Now considering the extensive voice work, you can expect the limited space of the UMD might be an issue, so I can excuse the use of low-res textures for the graphics.

The music itself is okay, but can be repetitive, especially the battle music. I wish they used the same BGM as the anime. Oh well, at least they put the Anime’s OP when the game starts, complete with may’n's Chase the World. Alas, the animation seems jerky and suffers from color banding. Seems like they encode the video at a low frame-rate and low quality, probably due to the limited amount of space of the UMD.

The major attraction of the game is the dates between the player (Haru) and the various characters (including Taku). Meeting them, picking the right responses during dates, and giving them gifts will improve Haru’s relationship with the characters, and will unlock the various 2D anime illustrations.

Overall, I enjoyed the game, mainly because I’m an Accel World fan. The fact that the game has a completely different story and timeline than the original kinda bugs me a little bit, but the game’s original story is also fun and still carry the same feel as the original (although the Dusk Taker arc and ending have much less impact compared to the original). Again, if you expect a fighting game, move along, nothing to see here. If you are familiar with the Japanese style adventure game, you’ll be right at home. The high production value (the voices by the original seiyuu) is worth the price of admission.

It's terrible.I was hoping for some good fighting action and such,but instead they came up with such a weird fighting phase.Really disappointing,I hope they come up with a better game next time.

DO NOT BUY,unless you're a huge fan or you just want the OVA.