It's been a couple of years since I last used blogger, and my oh my it's had quite a change. Today I'm gonna talk about the anime/manga/light novel Accel World. If my post title led you to think that there's a MMO for accel world, i apologise for misleading you because there is yet such a MMO. However, I'm gonna talk about what it can be and should be like. If you wanna try a game that I think can be compared to AW, try playing any of the examples I listed below such as Dissidia (PSP), GunZ (Computer MMO).
For those of you who may or may not know, Accel World began as a light novel and inspired later popular production: Sword Art Online. I haven't read much of either, but I was deeply interested in them since the launch of their anime. If you have yet to watch either anime, I recommend you should pick up both anime. Accel World 1st season has been completed and you can watch them all now. Sword Art Online is an ongoing anime with new episodes released every Sunday. They mostly revolve around the concept of Massive Multiplayer Online games (MMO), a popular concept in recent years since the rise of online gaming. Just a fun fact, I used to keep a blog for Atlantica Online (a turn-based rpg), though it's kinda dead since I quitted it again and again lol.
Today however, I am not going to focus on Sword Art Online in this post. For you SAO fans, I'm sorry I'm not gonna comment on SAO for now. Nor am I gonna talk about Accel World's storyline, I'm not gonna spoil it to you. This post will be mostly about Accel World... as a MMO in the real world. Because the novel Accel World is modeled after a MMO (a real world term) concept, I tend to find it difficult to use words to differentiate the original Accel World ITSELF and a real world MMO dedicated to Accel World and I beg you will forgive me for that.
You might think that I'm gonna discuss about Accel World's game concept. Well you are half correct, I am about to discuss how Accel World can be a MMO now. If you haven't realised, Accel World has had a PS3/PSP game published "Accel World: Awakening of the Silver Wings". I haven't played the game, but I've seen gameplay video on Youtube and much to my disappointment, it is not as fast paced as the anime itself. It's genre is instead a turn-based fighting game, similar to that of Final Fantasy. Though I've played quite a number of turn-based games myself, I find this concept somewhat lacking when applied to Accel World, mostly because it just seems too draggy to be planning your battles when the actual Accel World is a contest of speed and reflexes.
After watching the gameplay video, a few thoughts came to me on how to produce a better game for Accel World:
1) Solo/Offline Game for Accel World
creating a game to represent Accel World is theoretically not difficult. the key is to find the correct style of gameplay to represent Accel World, and I can say turn-based action is just too weak for Accel World. In my opinion, it should be created as a fast-paced action fighting game like Dissidia: Final Fantasy and DDFF (look up on Youtube if you have never played them before, they are available on PSP platform).
In the original Accel World, the players (they are also called Burst Linkers) rack up their battle points by fighting duels and purchase upgrades for their duel avatars. This point immediately led me to think of Dissidia, because characters in Dissidia can level up to unlock new skills and master them by repeatedly winning battles. The destructable environment in which fights are conducted in Dissidia is also a plus point that can be used for Accel World. In fact, the game can even be opened on PSN for multiplayer battles, which is exactly what the concept of Accel World is about. Therefore, I think the next PSP game for Accel World should model after Dissidia.
2) ACTUAL MMO for Accel World
as of now, the AW game is limited to solo gaming on PS3/ PSP, which doesn't really showcase the challenge of the actual concept as a MMO that Accel World is. What if there is an MMO dedicated to the concept of Accel World?
Just like Aion (NCsoft MMO, try it if you haven't, it's a beautiful MMO featuring flight combat and racial territory competition) is similar to the concept of ALFheim Online from Sword Art Online, there can also be a MMO produced with the concept of Accel World in mind.
In such a game, it has to be skill-based (leveling is involved but doesn't play much role except new skills or upgrades), and everyone's duel avatar can be customised uniquely. Granted, given that MMOs are developed to reach out to as many players as possible, I'm pretty sure certain customisations will be overrated and used frequently by many players.
There are a few skill-based online games in existence since a decade ago, from GunZ and Guild Wars to the recent TERA, Guild Wars 2 and RaiderZ. These games made the difference compared to many MMOs that use the boring fixed skill lists and shortcut keys with no way of moving the character away from the target while in a fight. In games like GunZ (possibly the more fast paced MMO I've played), you can dash to and from the target in an open world (GunZ is instanced/closed room fight, but games like GW are open world). In other words, you literally control how your avatar attack, block or dodge against your target rather than the usual boring click target->press 1 for attack, spam and repeat. You may even use the terrain to your advantage possibly by sneaking around walls and striking from behind, etc. Among all skill-based games, GunZ is the best in terms of fast paced action despite being extremely old. Its only drawback is the overused K-style which makes sword fights sadly repetitive.
Back to this topic, now what if a MMO for Accel World is developed the same way as GunZ (just an example). Given that such a game already exists for a decade, it should not be difficult to model the game after the same concept. Keep in mind Accel World is supposedly a fighting game, so it doesn't necessarily mean that the actual game has to have a large open map for duels (but this can be an option for the "Unlimited Field" in the original Accel World). It can be "instanced" like GunZ and Dissidia, where the map is neither too small nor too big for a fight and it can include party fights. Guilds (Legions) should also be an option, and it does not necessarily have to follow the original Pure Colours of the novel (a good reason for this is because I'm pretty sure many players will choose Negas Nebulus rather than the other colours). Guild territorial or fort control contests are to be expected in such a game (this is seen in many old games like Lineage 2).
Classes should be introduced to differentiate playing style between players rather than a simple brawling avatar. This is similar to the original AW where colours represent the available fighting abilities of a duel avatar (for example blue for melee, green for defence, red for ranged etc etc). This is common in most MMOs and I think this is the least of a developer's problems except on how to balance the classes.
In the case of battle points, I think that they can use the same concept as Aion, where abyss points (earned in PVP or in a specific PVE) can be used to up new gears or unique skills (we call them Stigma in Aion, abyss stigmas are advanced Stigmas which are unlocked by abyss points and normal prerequisite stigmas that you choose to equip). Skills learnt should also have the option of equipping, so players can only bring a select number of skills (again this is similar to Aion/Dissidia), hence allowing every player to be unique.
So to anyone who is really developing such a MMO (maybe not for Accel World, but using the same genre), do read my comments and consider it a feedback on how you can produce a wonderful fast-paced skill-based (literally) game.
With that, I conclude my post now and I welcome any comments to my idea of an Accel World MMO.
