Sword Art Online: Re Hollow Fragment is a Director’s cut of the Hollow Fragment game to release for the first time on PlayStation 4 with up scaled graphics from the PSVita release. With the original game, Infinity moment, only rel3easing in japan, is also included in this game, with cutscenes and updated gameplay to bridge the gap. There hasn’t been many “MMO” style games lately, the most famous being .Hack from quite a few years ago was definitely the last one I can remember fondly.
Story
(Spoilers for the anime) SAO
The game starts off quite late in the anime, just after Kirito had defeated Heathcliff, who turned out to be Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of the game and the person who trapped them in the game world. After defeating Kayaba his promise of the game ending did not come to fruition, keeping the players trapped on floor 76 with their only way to leave the game being to clear all 100 floors of the tower.
Kirito, along with all his friends from the anime, including Asuna his in-game wife and his “best friend” Klein must defeat the bosses on each floor to progress. Besides his normal friends there is a sort of fan service when both his sister, in her Alfheim getup, and Sinon from Gun Gale Online with a new outfit enter the game. Increasing their ranks with new members, game-specific unique characters and more.
Along the way you will notice glitches in the game, in the form of the two new characters falling into the world, Heathcliff battle cutscene and more. The new Hollow area brings in new questions and answers if players wish to explore it, though it is completely optional due to being an edition in the “Re” edition.
The Main story can last up to 50 hours long, with extra content including weapon collecting, levelling up, side missions, special monsters, relationships and much much more adding in another 50-75 hours.
Gameplay
If you have played an MMO, then don’t expect the same from SAO, the gameplay is a mix of free-movement gameplay from games like Tales games (Namco) and Dark souls where you need to keep an eye of potions and health since if anyone dies in this game it is game over. Gameplay is split between battle/exploring areas and towns, with time being split mostly in favour of fighting then city times.
Whilst out in the field you can travel between several screens, sometimes contain mazes to traverse to reach your destination, with each screen containing constantly spawning monsters from forest bugs to golems and lizards. When you defeat an enemy you and your friends gain experience points to level up, Cor to spend on items, or even items themselves for crafting and potions to use. You can find secrets and puzzles as well in the world but they don’t take much precedents. While travelling around you will meet other NPC players who are grinding up their levels or might even have quests for you to carry out, be it to help them level up or to save them from a high level enemy.
Whilst in cities you can buy items and equipment, talk to passer-by’s, obtain quests or hand them in for loot, rest till the next day, upgrade your gear, gather intelligence, all the while preparing yourself for the boss of the current floor. As a side-option you can also romance the main characters in the game, from flirting at the park or having a nice drink at a café. When their affection reaches high enough you can bring them to your room and sleep together (Asuna is gonna be maaaad).
There are several shops to find in the cities you visit, for items to use before or in combat, weapons and armour to equip to Kirito or your partners and finally Elizabeth’s blacksmith where you can upgrade your weapons using different parameter ores or make completely new weapons of higher grade. The Blacksmith is the place to go for weapons as the other shops don’t really make the cut, but you will need to grind for the items to make the weapons so if you want something quick a normal shop might be better.
As you go through the levels you will reach the boss room, which turns into a raid like battle with you, your partner and a handful of your guild members. Before you fight it however you must gather intel about the boss through talking to people, clearing the level and completing quests. The Intel allows you find out weaknesses, forms and more about the boss and the battle that will go with them, allowing you to plan accordingly for it.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
The music and style of the game all flow together nicely, with aspects of the anime bleeding into the game even when the graphic style has shifted a bit to the developers own style. There are action packed tracks for battle, even when they fade into the background when you’re trying to not die to a boss, with some quiet music for travel. Not one track stands out, instead all of the tracks in the game blend nicely together without breaking the tempo or immersion. I do feel the graphic style took quiet a hit from being on PSVITA first but it is understandable.
Since the game starts so late into the anime, almost the end of the anime, it does feel immersion breaking since all of the backstory and lore is lost unless you are a fan. Since you lose so much time with the game you are given a level 100 character with skills and abilities you have no idea if they ae good or not, even if it takes away some due to plot reasons. It would have made a much better game to start off from the beginning and learning the game one step at a time rather then put straight into end-game content. Besides the off-putting start to the game you can get used to the character level and skills but the knowledge that you have missed out on 75 floors will nag at you.
There are plenty of weapons, armours, skills and levels to obtain in this game, adding up into that 100+ hour’s game time, but it can feel overwhelming at points. Some weapons might contain the same name, but different stats, different characters require different loot, the item you want doesn’t always drop and your inventory can quickly overflow with gear. I feel the game could have benefited from some better UI or item management, since most of the time you will need to talk to your partner, check their equipment, talk to them again to gift them a weapon, then do the same for armour. When you have double digit companions this can become quite tiresome and boring.
Sword Art Online: Re Hollow Fragment sets to make itself a much better version of 2 games, with added content like regions, items, gender choice and more. It ups the graphics from the PSVita version, adding in online play and a harder Hollow area for added gameplay. The game caters more to the anime viewers as it skips way too much of the game to allow for outsiders to grow much attachment to the characters or where they came from.
Sword Art Online: Re Hollow Fragment gets a 3/5, the gameplay is great at the start but with the skills and poor UI designs it becomes a routine button mash as you wait for most battles to end. Boss battles are the real action to be had in the game, being one of the only parts you need to plan. Story skipping from level 1 of the tower will push away new viewers of the game. Fans of the anime should love this, unless they hate alternate realities.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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