Sword Art Online RE: Hollow Fragment Review

Best waifu? Best waifu

The Verdict and Score

Fans of Sword Art Online who have previously never played the Vita version have a lot to look forward to in this superior version. It's not without some slight hiccups, and a lot of its systems can be cryptic, but those that are willing to invest hours upon hours into the game will certainly be rewarded.

Even though you're only playing a simulated MMO, the amount of content available makes it feel like an actual MMO, just without the thousands of players all logged on at once. But even so, making your way through the town on each floor and seeing all the NPCs walk around, or sit down at the local cafe gives the world slightly more life.

For only $20, you're getting a whole lot of game. There is so much content that you could easily put in over a 100 hours into the game. And if you're a die hard Sword Art fan, you can pre-order Sword Art Online: Lost Song and get RE Hollow Fragment for free. Not too shabby!

The Negatives

• There is unfortunately no way to carry over your story progression from the Vita version to the PS4 version, which means you'll have to start the game all over. However, there is a save transfer option which transfers over your character's level, your money, equipment and items, as well as companion levels. That at least means you won't have to start completely from scratch, and advancing through the game should be somewhat easier and quicker. Silver lining.

• Even though some of the combat bits were streamlined, such as making your Skills not cost resource but instead act on a cooldown, it can still be rather overwhelming, and will take a while to get used to.

• Difficulty spikes are frequent. There can be times when you're facing an enemy, and out of nowhere you'll get struck with crazy amount of damage. A normal enemy encounter can turn for the worst rather quickly.

• The grind belongs here as well, for those that hate it. Simply put, if you don't like to put in a lot of time in to unlock a lot of the better skills, you'll have a bad time in this game. Since skills are locked behind a weapon proficiency number that goes up to a 1000, you'll probably be fighting a lot of easy monsters over and over just to have that number grow.

• The environment is sadly bland, especially compared to the much better looking character models. It's a step up from the Vita version, sure, as the textures are slightly better, but this can't be considered a current-gen game graphically.

• No manual save option. This bothered me in the Vita version as well. The only way to save your game is if you change areas, meaning you have to run through a map checkpoint and load into the next area. Once you do that, you're fine. This is a much bigger deal when you're smack dab in the middle of a big map, and you have to make your way through a labyrinth of hallways just to reach the adjacent map.

• Inventory management is still quite a mess, not very intuitive.

• The UI in general has some hurdles to overcome. Picking up and turning in quests is annoying, since you have to do them one by one, each time watching Kirito do an animation for opening up his personal UI in the game.

• That damn talking/courting mini-game is just as cryptic as it was in the Vita version, despite the better translation.

The Positives

• Two massive games in one complete package. It's amazing just how huge the Hollow map is, especially when you consider that this was originally just a PS Vita game. The Infinity Moment PSP portion is also rich in content and you can freely tackle either at your own leisure, though the Hollow Fragment portion is definitely harder.

• As you level and get proficient with various weapons, you'll have access to a ton of skills. There are tons to play around with to figure out a great combo. Those that like to experiment with skill combos will have a good time here.

• The localization makes sense. While I'll miss the word "Penetration" when they're really talking about stabbing someone with a sword, I appreciate that the entire script was redone to be coherent.

• For those that like the grind, I'll list it here since you'll certainly have to do a lot of it if you plan on unlocking all the various skills and abilities.

• The character visuals certainly got an upgrade and have a lot more detail. The environment? We'll, those didn't make the positives list.

• The touchscreen gestures carried over, and you can still swipe down to open up the game's menu, just like in the show. Neato!

• You can now create a female avatar if you want. However, note that this doesn't change how the story is played out, and the female heroines will still react to you as if you were Kirito.

• Online multiplayer! This is a pretty huge addition. Me and Andrew had to rely on either playing in the office, or at each other's apartments, since it only supported Ad Hoc. Now you can play with up to three other friends online, which will undoubtedly make the grind much better.

• Great for fans of the show. While this might be obvious, unless you're at least familiar with the anime and have seen the first Arc that deals with the events of Aincrad, you probably won't get anything that's happening in Hollow Fragment.

• Boss battles that unlock new floors are extremely fun, and equally as threatening. Various NPCs can die during a boss fight which eliminates them from the game permanently.

• Implementations are a great side task that will further introduce you to some of the game's hidden systems, though you might have to look up online how to actually pull them off. The Implementation system will have you pick a goal, such as hitting enemies with your Burst attacks 200 times. In doing so, you'll unlock various bonuses that are definitely worthwhile.

• Thanks to the bigger screen, the information and UI doesn't clutter up the screen as much, which is especially true for major boss battles.

Sword Art: Hollow Fragment was a Vita game I very much enjoyed, and so did our writer Andrew Clouther. It was the first Sword Art game we got to play in the US, since the original PSP game never released here. To our surprise, it also contained the entirety of that game within it, as well as the all new Hollow Fragment portion. What resulted was a massive game with some rather convoluted mechanics, and a translation that was so laughable, you couldn't take the game seriously.

Enter Sword Art Online RE: Hollow Fragment, the updated game for PS4 which not only fixes some of the more annoying options when it comes to combat, but it completely fixes the botched translation and makes the dialogue actually coherent.

Let's give you a little backstory on Sword Art Online, in case you just happened to stumble onto this review with no background knowledge. If you already know what Sword Art Online is and you want to just get to the positives and negative, skip to the next page.

Sword Art Online is a VR MMORPG where the player's consciousness is fully uploaded into the virtual world. The game's creator, Akihiko Kayaba trapped everyone in the game by removing the Log Out button, and tasked everyone with climbing the world's 100 level tower to defeat the final boss. Then and only then would people be allowed to log off. Of course, to raise the stakes a bit higher, if you died in the game, you died in real life, as a microwave beam would fry your brain. Dark right?

The game takes place in an alternate timeline which doesn't end after Kirito battles and wins against the creator himself on level 75, but instead continues higher. What it does do, however, is introduce characters like Leafa and Sinon, who normally wouldn't appear until the second arc of SAO and SAO II respectively. This portion of the story is Infinity Moment, the original PSP game, whereas the game's second map, called the Hollow Area refers to the all new Hollow Fragment portion.

So let's get on with the positives, the negatives, and whether you should give SAO RE: HF a chance. Keep in mind that the final score doesn't reflect how many positives and negatives there are, since some can be completely subjective, but rather my overall enjoyment of the game.

The Positives

The Negatives

The Verdict and Score