Review: Sword Art Online - Hollow Fragment

One of the most popular light novel and anime series to come out of Japan in the last few years is arguably Sword Art Online, a franchise most often set within the environs of virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing games. It's a concept I've found interesting, and has contributed to the similarly styled .hack//G.U. becoming one of my more memorable PlayStation 2 game trilogies. Now Sword Art Online has made its way to North American markets on the Vita; and while it's certainly not the platform's most memorable RPG, its parallels to Monster Hunter and Phantasy Star Online made it a challenging one to put down.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment is set during the series' first story arc. Inside the VRMMORPG world of Aincrad, a floating castle, its creator prevents all 10,000 launch players from logging out. If anyone dies in the game, he announces, the NerveGear VR device their actual bodies are wearing will kill them. The only way out is to clear all 100 floors.

Rather than retelling that story from the start, the plot begins at its end and then diverges into entirely new territory. As in the show, Kirito battles the final boss on the 75th floor. But after a glitch occurs and Kirito emerges cleanly victorious, everyone discovers they're still trapped inside the game. 

It's a neat diversion, though it ultimately ends up being a slow and confusing one if you've never caught the show. In fact, I almost wouldn't recommend it if you're not already a fan. Nearly two hours go by of visual novel formatted conversations before it lets you loose on the 76th floor, while characters with little introduction reminisce in all too familiar terms. It even drops in characters from future arcs. The rest of its story is equally heavy with referential exposition that won't have quite as much meaning to newcomers.

Sadly, those characters quickly become the game's weakest link. Fans often joke that the nearly all female central cast are members of "Kirito's Harem," and that's no less true here. They exist solely for the hero's attention, one dimensional caricatures of people who pine for a one dimensional Mary Sue. This isn't necessarily a surprise coming from the show, but as a 100 plus hour RPG their fawning is given much greater screen time. What's more disappointing is that characters who had agency, such as Asuna, are reduced to whimpering jealousy. And little of the trauma of the situation that introduced compelling depth, which was briefly explored and then expanded in the Gun Gale Online arc, is present. It all culminates in an abundance of sleazy fan service - I've lost count the number of accidental gropings - punctuated by a messy translation. 

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment thankfully fares better when it finally does give you the reins. There's a lot of game here, with two massive campaigns to explore. The first of which is remaster of Infinity Moment from the PSP, a release we never saw outside of Japan, covering a vertical progression through floors 76 to 100 of Aincrad. The second is structured horizontally, with no floors to climb, and has you uncover the sudden appearance of a mysterious new zone.

The Hollow campaign's direct pacing make it the stronger tale, but both are replete with things to do. Clearing Aincrad requires tackling quests, defeating specific monsters, discovering boss rooms and then using the information gained to join a raid on the powerful enemy awaiting inside. The other zone features endless quests, a wider space to explore, the best items to discover, and support for ad hoc co-operative play. It was hard to stop once I got going, as there was always something new to accomplish around every corner. The novelty of exploring familiar spaces with familiar, fully voice acted faces didn't hurt, either.

There is a degree of repetition, however. Many areas have very similar tile sets. That made it quite easy to become lost in the Hollow campaign's several large mazes. That said, they do mix up the templates just enough and new locations will be added in an upcoming patch. 

In addition to world exploration, there's a good deal of personal freedom in developing Kirito. You're not at all constrained to his original looks nor his dual wielding fighting style. There are ten weapon trees to progress down, and as you use them you'll unlock new tiers of abilities to spend accumulated skill points on. The buffs, heals and passives aren't dependent on the weapon they're unlocked through, too, so you're free to mix-and-match to find the build that suits you best.

That's really where the game hooked me: the pursuit of perfection. Combat abilities have damage bonuses dependent on specific attributes, so maximizing those values through gear and crafting becomes its own metagame. Every weapon has a specific number of upgrades that can be applied by visiting Lisbeth, the blacksmith, with the ores collected from monsters. There you select one attribute to attach and/or increase. If most of the abilities you've mapped rely on strength, then naturally it's a good idea to equip armor and weapons that raise that value. Nurturing damage numbers and finding loot is my sad addiction, to which Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment was eager enough to feed.

When weapons are drawn, the real-time combat is uncomplicated but it's not without tactical hooks. Most of your abilities consume SP, and you only have enough to unleash a few before running dry. Managing that resource and utilizing means of replenishment define the rhythm of each battle. You also have a secondary resource, a burst gauge, that can be used for a combo of basic attacks and dodges. If you time it all right - parries, stuns, replenishment skills - combat is rather quick and suitably mobile. 

But you don't have to fight alone. Inviting a character to join your party adds a few more engaging mechanics.  They'll often call out moves for you to perform, and successful results leads to them attacking with powerful abilities of their own. Their behavior can also be tweaked by praising them in combat, which has the additional bonus of restoring SP, and "switching" alternates aggro and speeds up the burst gauge. 

It's all delightfully flashy. The convoluted flurrishes that cause weapons to glow and enemies to explode in brilliant flashes of light are suitably empowering. Bosses impressively tower over the party, and their damaging reach demands your entire moveset. That's exactly what you'd want from a Sword Art Online game. Unfortunately, the sheer domination you frequently unleash may be because it rarely poses a significant challenge.

Kirito starts the game at character level 100. The majority of enemies in the floors of Aincrad are much lower level than you, making them pitiful encounters. You'll outpace that content even faster if you spend any time in the Hollow zones. Hell, with a finely tuned set of gear and abilities enemies 20 levels above me hardly posed a threat unless I was mobbed. Bosses do require more of your attention, but by attacking their secondary components and employing status effects, you won't be easily defeated. You'll eventually come across enemies that require a bit of grinding to defeat thanks to how slow you level, in fact there were plenty of tough creatures guarding chests in the secondary campaign, but that's not a serious issue for dozens upon dozens of hours. The true difficulty comes from a camera that has a tendency to zoom in on all the wrong angles and gameplay systems that are woefully under explained. 

It is worth noting that the upcoming expansion patch, set for September 23rd, rebalances much of the game. Progression should be faster, enemies should be tougher, and a huge amount of extra content will be added. We'll come back and see how it feels when it releases.

There is one other difficult aspect to Hollow Fragment, in the respect that it's time consuming, simplistic nonsense. You can date all the heroines in the game. Engage in enough short conversations of bite-sized gibberish, where the options to reply are only "ok" or "great," and you'll fill up various relationship meters. Your reward is a bed scene, a trophy, and lost hours you could have spent playing The Sims. Now I'm not outright opposed to such a feature, but without stronger characters and meaningful choices it just feels like a wasteful afterthought.

I have a love-hate relationship with Sword Art Online, and yet despite its faults I find it difficult to stop consuming. It's a light but fun franchise, which is the best way I can describe Hollow Fragment. If you're already a fan of the show, dungeon crawling and perfecting damage numbers, it's easy to forgive the game's sins for its vast, addicting content. If not, the moderately high asking price may be worth a pause.

Final Verdict

6.5 out of 10

A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review. Sword Art Online is available exclusively as a digital title through the PlayStation Store for $39.99.