Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization Deluxe Edition Reviews

Keep Crashing

Great game. I still have fun in 2025.

weakest game ever. krilin in dragonball type shiiii

This game sat in my library for quite some time after purchase, more because I got it on sale at the time, among other titles, and I played the others first. So, it's outdated as of this writing, and that plays a big factor in this review. I watched the Sword Art Online series, and that's what drew me to this game. Graphically, in a way, it's a good representation of the anime. Storytelling wise, it's more of a bookend to a whole collection of anime series. And it doesn't hold true to the mechanics described in the original anime, as it's trying to hold too true to the other animes and mangas, while selling itself as the functional inheritor of the game world of the Sword Art Online anime series itself. And that doesn't work because they didn't respect the pacing, the dialog style, or the mechanical aspects of that anime. The PC port might work on Windows. I'm trying it from Linux and can't get controller support working. So I won't speak to controller function in Windows. Linux has a hard time getting Proton to work, and it requires an outdated version of Proton to even think about launching correctly. Then, because of the lack of controller support in that version, I'm dealing with keyboard and mouse controls. And, I'll be honest, Final Fantasy 1 on the NES in the 1980's had literally better controls than this game, because I'm doing a nostalgic playthrough of that game alongside this one. I end up screaming at this game for the keyboard control options given how clunky they are as a whole. Yes, I could remap them. But they've got so many controls, so many combinations of controls, so many layered menues bound to combination hotkeys, and so little explanation what any of their systems mean that I could likely spend the next six months trying to figure out what all of it does and remapping the controls. So, that's the first two problems: It's cluttered and it doesn't follow the anime that it's trying to inherit. Then there's the dialog / tutorials. Because of all those layered systems, you're going to easily spend the first three hours of gameplay trying to read through entirely cryptic tutorials that don't actually explain how to accomplish any of the things they're saying you need to learn. Good luck with that. And when you're not in a tutorial, you're in an endless collection of anime harem girl popups as the hero (male or female), is every girl's favorite person as they flirt their way through literally every interaction. It's endless. It's meaningless. It says nothing about the game. And if you haven't watched all the animes released before this game was released, I 100% guarantee you're going to be lost on what the story is beyond the most basic, elementary school child level. Which is pretty darn weird for a very thinly veiled harem game that's also functionally lacking in meaningful adult themes. Every aspect of the world, including all NPC levels who you'll get to interact with in the first six hours of game play scale with your party's level. Try to go solo, like Kirito does in the anime, everything you can fight scales down so you can't get experience. Go in a group, everyone levels with you and does random things you don't get direct control of, and you can't affect your party's equipment unless I'm missing some huge feature of the game. You eventually can lightly 'nudge' the NPC choices toward a pattern of behavior through constant mid-combat flattery that takes you away from your character's controls, but that's about it on keyboard controls. Then there's the crazy targeting system. Do you like a game that doesn't give you an explicit heading, but every last melee action that you can choose is likely to thrust you wildly into a massive over-swing and step forward in that random direction you're facing? Great, this is the game for you. You're going to hit air a good 50% of the time even once you're used to the keyboard controls, they're really that bad. The city they're showing in the game doesn't even come close to the playable environment of that city in the game. It's probably worse than the Neverwinter MMO in that respect, but even more glaring just how obvious they made it. There are four zones, each about half a city block in size or less, in a city represented as taking up many, many square miles in the cutscenes. And you can enter exactly one building in that city in the early stages of the game. Now, that might change after those first six hours... but... And then there's the character selection and customization options at the start of the game. You want to play Kirito from the anime? Great. You want a guy who looks nothing like Kirito, has different hair, uses a different weapon, has a different voice? Okay, but every time anyone in those endless dialogs is talking to you, it's all of Kirito's experiences and his voice you're going to hear as 'you' answer all the cute harem girls trying to hit on you and be super cute. And if you choose a female avatar? Yep, you're still Kirito, speaking with Kirito's voice, and all the cute harem girls trying to hit on you are doing the same thing. So... I ask you, is that customization of your character, or a token effort for graphical control? The loot system is baffling. You're tasked with going out into the field to gather components, and your looting system fills up before you even exit one area on the quests you're on. Not for stack size, but just the sheer quantity of random things you're given as you try to do your quests. And don't even get me started on having the whole game scale to your party's level but the merchants don't ever sell new gear... Overall, if you were looking for a game that represents Sword Art Online and what you might have liked about the anime and the mechanics? This isn't it. If you were looking for a deep and rewarding RPG experience and you have a lot of patience? Maybe. I don't. If you were looking for something with tight controls? I definitely can't recommend it on Linux. But if you were looking for a romance simulator in which two thirds of a game world populace of dozens of NPCs are cute anime waifus in outfits that never change, and a system to flirt your way into manipulating them to fight well for you? Excellent. You just found your gold mine, sir. Good luck with that.

Well, this game is more focused to players who already know the story of Sword Art Online. It's story telling is like visual novel, and I was a bit disappointed at first since I've been playing famous Triple A games with stunning visuals and story cutscenes. But I'm still hooked with the new story of this game and wanting to progress as the plot slowly build up. I could say this game is very good for me since I already know the background of Sword Art Online but this game is not for everyone, I guess.