Recent reviews by PhantomFoxKyo

If you have interest in Guilty Gear, now's a great time to get into Revelator 2. Rollback netcode is on its way with a public test happening late October, and the playerbase is pretty receptive to new players. You'll likely need to use Discord to find matches most efficiently, but it's worth the effort. Plenty of resources exist to teach new players, and to help more experienced players further optimize their play and other players are always willing to help.
I also strongly recommend watching a bit of match footage featuring characters you might have interest in to see how the game looks in action.

Play it.

The game is fun, a nice adaptation of a Neptunia game. The story ws somewhat short, but the characters were as lively and comedic as ever, and the bosses were fun. There is one problem though.

The multiplayer. It would be nice, if it wasn't for the horrendous lag everyone except the host gets. It's extremely choppy and ugly, and makes guarding (especially perfect guarding) utterly difficult as it can freeze your character in place for a moment, even after you've let go. The multiplayer is not worth playing with friends until this issue is fixed. Where one could perfect guard a lvl 200 boss to death solo, as a guest in a room, they'd miss and die. This needs taken care of asap.

So far, per my own experience, I give Sword Art Online a solid 8/10. Love the graphics, and a lot of the animations are just what make a jrpg. The combat is fast, fluid, challenging at times, and there's PLENTY of enemies to go around. Most of the creatable costumes are available in the shops too, which is kinda dumb, but at least some of the creatable ones have distinct differences, so that's neat. The aim assist system is a neat feature, and you'll REALLY be wanting it when fighting wasps and other fast-moving enemies -- that, or a shotgun (love it). The weapons available are great, though I don't really find the gatlings to be very useful due to the overheat speed, but maybe that's just me, I still favor a lot of the other weapons. Finding more rare gear is pretty exciting, but early on it feels pretty repetitive to find just a stronger version of Sangfroid over and over again, but I do love me a better weapon. Some areas will overwhelm you if you aren't careful, you'll get surrounded by target lines and a hail of bullets, but that adds to the challenge. So far the story isn't bad, it's enjoyable and the characters are likable. The SAO characters retain their personalities from the animated series, and they've got stylish new outfits. A couple of characters' presences don't really make sense, but to see a favorite again is pretty nice. Aside from all that, the one big problem I have with SAO:FB is that multiplayer is very, very, very limiting. I dunno if anything is different in the deluxe edition, but being unable to join your friends in the field and dungeons is pretty offputting, and I'm pretty sure everyone went into this thinkin' you'd be able to, or at least I and a couple of friends did. Not really much co-op without the co-op to be honest. Though, co-op boss raids are fun (for a while) but there isn't even a dungeon to precede them, and the NPC's kinda ruin the experience swarming the place and making very short work of the bosses. The thought of pvp is also shattered here when you find out that it's only a damage race and not actual combative player versus player duels/group fights. A Bullet of Bullets style multiplayer would be a great idea, while keeping Hero and Avatar loadouts seperate just like with the other mode. If multiplayer/pvp were generally more open and inviting, I think it'd really help give more appeal to the game.

All in all the game plays really well, but multiplayer really needs some work.

I'm impressed at this title. Though I was skeptical at first, since I'm not usually one for moe vn's, conversations and interactions with each character were very enjoyable. The music is catchy and sets the mood for each conversation. Each character is very in-depth and has plenty of interesting things to say. Everything is well drawn and stylish. Best of all, being able to freely choose who you want to. To. Each character. spend time with is pretty cool. And honestly, writing the poems in the minigame is a neat feature. spend time with Monika I like to choose NatMosutknika.i cuz who doesn't think she's adora▓le?▓If you're new to vn's and the dating genre, definitely pick this one up, cuz hey, Monika. it's free, and it's very well wr▓▓ten.
▓▓▓ ▓▓Monika.▓▓Just Monika. Monika. ▓▓Monika. ▓▓▓▓▓▓▓Monika.▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓Just Monika. Don't listen to them, just Monika. Monika. Monika.▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓▓

Monika. Monika. Monika. Monika. Monika. Monika. MoNiKA. MOniKA. MoN▓▓▓▓IKA. MONIKA. MONIKA▓▓▓▓.MONIKA.MON▓▓IKA.MON▓▓IKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIK▓▓A.MONIKA.▓▓▓▓MONIKA.MON▓▓▓▓IKA.MONIKA.MONIK▓▓▓▓A.MONIKA.MONI▓▓KA.MONIKA.M▓▓▓▓ONIKA.MONIKA.M▓▓▓▓ONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA. MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIK▓▓▓▓A. MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA.MONIKA. MONIKA. MONIKA.MONIKA. MONI▓▓▓▓KA.MONIKA. MONIKA.

Only me, okay?~

Welp, the only way to fix pvp now is to completely wipe pvp rankings and rebuild the system. When a lvl 23 E rank is paired with a lvl 99 Transcendent S rank, ~~~~~SOMETHING IS WRONG, KOG. FIX IT OR YOUR GAME IS GOING TO DIE.~~~~~

Only my lvl 90+ characters can pvp in the Arena now.
Suggestion: Regulate all pvp levels, stats, gear, and skillsets in the Arena, remove items (cuz players whine about getting hit by items, it's endless I tell you), and remove titles (Curse of Chaos is literally overpowered) in OFFICIAL ARENA MATCHES.

Levels: For cosmetic sake, lvl 50, or completely take "level" out of pvp. That way no one gets a level bonus on an opponent.

Gear: All pvp +7 Spar Gear. Period. No one-combos, and knockdown rate actually matters.

Skills and Commands: Four pre-selected skills, three actives and a special active regulated across all players for the class and character they play, geared towards countering, catching, buffing, and then damaging, respectively. No "instantly get super armor for 30 seconds" type skills for anyone. Elsword's "instant super armor when attacked" would be gone for pvp, and all "Blocked" effects are removed unless specified by a skill. Chung's random special super armor would be removed. Ain would be either ACTUALLY BALANCED or removed altogether (he can literally outmatch any and every character/class and ALL OF HIS SKILLS ARE INTENDED FOR DUNGEON USE, AND THEREFORE ARE HUGE AND OVERPOWERED. KEEP ADDING STRONGER AND STRONGER CHARACTERS AND THIS IS JUST GOING TO GET WORSE.), and his jump slam would be limited to one use at a time instead of over and over and over and... Optimus Rose's homing and lockdown type skills would not exist, and Rose's autoguns knockdown rate increased. Drastically. Seriously. Spam is boring and isn't cool. All other homing type skills would not be used across all characters. Super Armor combos would be drastically limited, especially in wide-hitting combos like IS Elsword's X spam or Ara's X spam. No healing skills/abilities, except for Crimson Avenger's blood heal, but nerfed reasonably. Eve's MP > HP heal would be fine as is. Aisha's Teleport would not be used, or its cooldown severely increased. MP Drain skills like Ara's Mana Drain or Energy Absorb would still recover her MP normally, but the amount drained from the opponent would be smaller. SKILLS THAT HOME IN ON TARGETS OR JUST HOLD THEM IN PLACE NEARLY FOREVER DO NOT MAKE YOU GOOD. IF THE GAME PLAYS FOR YOU, YOU CAN NEVER BUILD SKILL OF YOUR OWN. Seriously. Complain about pvp being broken, this is how you fix it. Also stop whining about Mana Break, that's what it's for. You don't need to always hold a combo to fight well, work on your catching.

and lastly, most importantly,

Stop being trolls and sore losers. I'm suggesting all this for YOU, Els community, so everyone can have their precious Arena fair and square.

Strong gear and free kills do not make you a good player. I don't know why you all think it does.

If I have to, I will personally test all the skills in the game and find the four-move skill sets that are most fair.