Sword Art Online ripostes for western gamers

Apparently, Namco's Sword Art Online Vita title that went down well in Japan will grace western gamers' handhelds this summer. Check out the PS blog post for all the details. Anyone else notice a trend to faster releases of games from Japan.

We've had BlazBlue and Soul Sacrifice Delta getting near simultaneous global releases, and translated games are definitely picking up the pace from what was a year or longer to now just a few months. I guess the cost of development now includes the translation to maximise sales, as no one market is really big enough to justify a release.

More from a new press release, stating a July PSN-only release.

Based on the novel, manga and anime, Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment captures the characters and storyline of the SAO universe – a series of virtual-reality worlds set in the near future. Players enter the VR worlds of SAO and discover that the creator of the game, Akihiko Kayaba, has locked them inside these worlds. To escape these worlds, players must explore and defeat the enemies contained within. Continuing to fight is key inside the VR world – if the player dies in the fantasy world, he also dies in real life…

With its MMO-like genre and world, Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment will offer to players a strongly build RPG gameplay were combo attacks, execution speed and knowledge of the opponent will be mandatory to survive in this VR world! On top of the Hollow Fragment episode, this new SAO game will feature Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment - originally released in Japan for the PlayStation®Portable. Infinity Moment will benefit from all the PlayStation®Vita power as he it will get enhanced HD graphics!