PlayStation Vita User Reviews

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Aside from a questionable translation, getting used to the Circle button acting as the "confirm button" (a habit I admittedly struggled with until the end of the game and until early in my second run), and your teammates not referring to your character by the name you assign (they will always call you Kirito), this game has a good balance between the final 25 floors of Aincrad, and the Hollow World with Philia. I find that the "what if" scenario is a novel concept for a game to explore when the SAO storyline didn't explore these remaining floors in the anime. The game does combine aspects from MMORPG's and single player RPG's pretty well. The multiple endings do give it replayability, though you do always have to start from scratch with every heroine in the game, which could lead to some tedium. A good first outing for the SAO series in video game form, and a decent diamond in the rough.

This is a game for every fan of Sword Art Online it makes fun to beat bosses but in the end it is a good JRPG.

I don't normally like to lay into a game like this, but with SAO Hollow Fragment I simply have to, because it's the way the game opens up. And it opens up with an alternate ending to an anime that the game decides to completely summarize TWENTY MINUTES LATER. This is the first of many issues that hold SAO:HF back. There is no reason for the game to start in a gameplay tutorial, and then give a reason as to why the protagonist was in that area, how he got there, and what led to that point. It reeks of an executive decision that showing off gameplay rather than giving players the option for backstory (and yes, it's optional) would be better. So, in emulation of the game, let us now go BACKWARDS to the first fault with HF. When you press New Game you are first brought to a character customization screen where you can rename and change Kirito from the SAO anime. The problem that will crop up instantly is that ... everyone calls you Kirito, regardless of what name you chose, and all of your gear starts set towards the canon path of dual swords. Unless you go buy junk equipment in the first town, which is almost sure to be worse than the starting swords, you're just going to be Kirito. So why give us these options to not be him if the game is just going to assume we're Kirito? The only excuse is that I hear there's multiplayer, and it would be really bad if everyone looked the same, but I doubt that mode is really great enough that it warrants alienating the player like that. The second fault is where the game starts, at the end of the anime. They pull some silly "the game is glitched" thing to reset your skills and nerf your weapons, but if you just knock roughly two zeros off the end of everything it would be the same as starting at the beginning. You're not level 100, you're level 1. You don't have 3,000,000 gold, you have 30,000, etc, etc. You don't really feel like an end game character that soloed several bosses in an MMO. You feel like a guy who just picked up the game, and there's strangely no reason for that to have not been the case. See, the game tries so hard to just make you Kirito that they missed out on a huge concept. Remove him instead. Kirito is a typical anime blank face. He doesn't have wild anime hair, or super natural powers, he's just an everyday schmuck who happens to be really good at VR WoW. Rather than start at the end, SAO:HF should have been an alternate universe where your made up character took the place of Kirito, you were the beta player, you get stuck in the game, and now you have to make all the choices instead. And I say this because so many features in Hollow Fragment feel geared towards that. Like the fact that Kirito is married to Asuna and has that magical data child ... but you can still go mack on the other girls that like Kirito, even to a point where they brought in girls from future seasons for almost no reason other than "Hey, more waifu material!" But because they game wants you to be Kirito you'll feel slightly scummy seeing you ENGAGEMENT RING equipped while you hold hands with Leafa. The combat is fine, though the tutorials are horrible (Bad translation is bad) and some of the dialogue can be very confusing. One of the worst things in this section is that dialogue boxes are as long as the Vita screen, right? That makes sense, they go all the way across the bottom. They will use less than half of that space and instead stack two sentences three lines high, roughly two dozen words total. It ends up looking something like this. And frankly it's not only annoying, it's probably easily fixed. All in all the game's not bad if you like SAO, there's certainly worse games on the market. However the game ultimately failed because what I wanted was an SAO experience, not a Kirito Life Simulator which is what I got. If the specific idea of being Kirito sounds fun, you'll have a blast. If you want something more in lines of a traditional game with familiar characters, I hear the second game did a better job of that.

9 out of 10 only because it has no spanish subtitles... Remarkable in all aspects, Graphics are stunning considering it was a psp port to HD. Is necessary had seen the anime for full enjoying.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Being a fan of sword art online i also ordered the Japanese import of lost song. This was a great game but the not being able to open doors when targeted or being able to properly run made it very time consuming. Also sometimes if a enemy is targeted to you and you press O you wont target the one targeting you. It will engage battle with a completely different enemy sometimes which can cause easy game over depending on the **** story line was very good however and the hollow area was brilliant. It was nice to see the remaining floors because i always wondered what they looked like apart from the few cons i would recommend buying this. Its not that expensive and all round its a good game graphics are good and little to no lag on PSvita and it deserves more fame i think.

Gameplay: Pretty boring, since attacking is one button. Kirito can equip different weapons, but they don't change anything, so there's no point. The switch system is alright, where you switch with your partner if your 'risk' gauge gets too high, but battles are so short that it'll feel like the same thing over and over. The synthesis system is pretty confusing but functional, just should feel much more engaging. Enemies are simplistic and aren't entertaining to fight. The game also fights for you, I guess if your thumb gets tired? You can dodge, but it costs SP which you'll want to reserve for skills, so may as well assume foes will miss you or tank, since your HP and SP recover if you stand still. The game feels immensely easy, so action seekers may end up disappointed by the low difficulty and linear battles. Characters: You can make your own character, who only shows up on the field or in towns. In cutscenes, you go back to being Kirito. The game also lets you name yourself but you are still Kirito everywhere else. This breaks the immersion and feels really inconsistent, they should have either let you be your own character or be Kirito, not both at the same time. Armor you equip does change your appearance, which is neat, unless you are Kirito. Your comrades are as they are in the show, so if you are into that sort of thing, you won't be disappointed with that. Dialogue is flat and uninteresting. Chatting with the characters is lifeless, as they talk in incoherent fragments, where you can randomly interject with unrelated agreements or remain silent. There is a relationship system which seems more focused on than any other element in the game. Despite its attempts to be 'intimate', characters still talk in broken sentences and act awkward so don't expect anything super engaging. Characters who shouldn't be in the game also make appearances, like Shinon and Leafa, without much explanation. Pacing: I found myself lost pretty often, and nothing seemed to flow well. You would go through a dungeon, find the boss and decide (well the game decides) to go back to discuss the boss, and your friends want to play poker and do pointless quests. The game also seems to purposely drag itself on incoherently and would rather you focus on building relationships than being in the dungeons. Also don't expect to level up a lot, after six hours of gameplay I leveled up...once, even after multiple mini bosses and one mid boss. You also find a ton of weapons from chests. Technical issues: The game has some laggy moments, dropping to 15-20 fps if there are more than five things on the screen at once. The game therefore tries to spread apart enemies so you won't encounter any slowdowns, which ruins the immersion and difficulty level. Models are also oddly animated, seemingly done by amateurs or interns...they aren't atrocious, just awkward. Textures are noticeably flat and ugly. I mean literally flat, the trees look like cardboard. Characters don't always respond to commands and the AI seems very simplistic, often running into walls/not turning around to talk to you/just standing around while you fight something. There are no button configurations, and the only commands to give your partner are to be either offensive or defensive. The game also suffers from consistent and noticeable translation errors, making anyone wonder if Namco checked the finished script at all. Grammar is butchered, random symbols and spaces interject text, and spelling mistakes become comical after a while, but not acceptable. There are many localized games, including from Namco, that do not suffer from this quantity of errors in translation. Also, why does the map have to cover the screen so you can't see? Enemies also are relentless and will hunt you for most of the dungeon, so you're better off just killing everything that sees you. They are also awkwardly fast (it's fun to see their little feet zoom away), and will be at your back in seconds. Overall: This game is an obvious cash in on a popular anime but lacks in actual enjoyment. Dungeons are linear, similar and empty. Gameplay is ridiculous easy. Your partners are worthless with wonky AI and no involvement besides awkwardly fragmented conversations and intimacy. Leveling up requires hours of pointless grinding. The story has no real direction besides shoed in quests and bonding with girls (and Klein, if you're into that). Characters already love you and want to marry you, so there is no development. Translation is absolutely atrocious, some skills are not even translated to English and the English language being butchered almost constantly. Pop-in, optimization, frame rate drops, and awkward modeling really show that Namco did not budget much for this game. If you are looking for a fun, interactive and challenging JRPG, there are others on the market well worth your attention over this obvious cash in.

Do NOT waste your money on this game, the game is in Japanese with English subtitles, however the text might as well be gibberish and half the time you wont understand what they're talking about. The battle system is engaging but poorly optimized. With encounters ranging in levels 70 to 150 in the same area (many times right beside each other) you can easily die in one or two hits. There is absolutely no coming back from the dead, you or your companion dies its game over. No way to manually save (it auto saves EVERY time you load into a new area). Total wast of money unless you are a mega fan of SAO and don't care if the game is actually decent.

It has all the voice acting and the visuals are stunning, but it wasn't what I was hoping for. I was hoping it would add to the SAO story but it actually detracts from it by creating an alternate reality and redoing the ending to the first season and then randomly adding in characters from later in the series that don't belong. It's like a bad fanfic. The translation is sloppy as well.

Im sure this game would have been 1000 times better had i actually watched the anime before playing the game. That being said this is an EPIC title for any vita owner. The world is HUGE, the characters are many, the graphics are top notch and the combat system keeps you engaged (especially if you don't like your '0' button as your gonna beat it like it owes you money). There is also a small dating sim element that feels for organic than the traditional 'scale walls of text to get the girl'. Your also not confined to being with Asuna, tho the story assumes you are and makes you feel a little greasy if your going for another girl. On the negative side however, this game suffers from a translation that would make Ar Tonelico 2 look like it came off the desk of a university professor. Avid JRPG gamers such as myself might read this and ask 'how bad can it possibly be? Ive played many poorly translated games and they don't really bother me'. trust me, you will understand. Other than the occasional frame rate drop while there are many NPC's on the screen or landing yourself in an area WAAAAAAYYYYY out of your level range (and thanks to cannon this happens fairly often) there is little else to complain about with this title. over all wicked game deserving of being in your library.

The game has all the same voice actors and anime art - very pretty. If you like the SAO and want to play a game with all the female characters in it will be a ok game. The actual game play suffers from extremely limited features with very boring dungeon for the infinity moment portion lvl 75-lvl100. there is only 1 town with 3 very small areas with a few shops. The shops and items are mostly useless and can be done completely without - and that means gold is not very useful... However the game does have many weapons types for you to play and skills that goes with them. You can party with one female character at a time and each female character uses a different type of weapon. you can gift them better weapons to use and set their combat behaviour. the skills are mainly good looking weapon combos plus support skills. not all are useful. The hollow fragment portion of the game is alot better with better maps, events and boss fights. (more complex and interesting) one other thing to note is that there quite a few typos and a few grammar mistakes. translation isnt done too well, but mostly ok. some lines are completely different or just skipped. overall acceptable game but could have been alot better.

Great game! love the story, and has over 100 hours of play. it would be my favorite game if it wasn't for the horrible translation but besides that i love this game, cant wait for a sequel

If you're a fan of the SAO series, this is almost the perfect game! If you're not a fan... but enjoys a good rpg/adventure game, you will love as well! Great game for a handheld!

The only problem this game has is the translation. Everything else in it is a dream for Sword Art Online and MMO fans. The game feels like an MMO, with FREE DLC and FREE Content Updates, there is a ton of stuff to do. The combat is amazing once you get used to it and the story is what all SAO fans wanted, to complete the remaining 25 floors of Aincrad and beat the game. But that's only infinity moment, this is two games in one, the Hollow Fragment story is even better. New characters, returning characters. Truly a game fit for fans of the series.

If you enjoy the anime you should have no problem with this game. I was really hesitant to buy this because I read so many complaints about the translation. I had only seen a few episodes of the series and with each episode I was pulled closer to buying the game. I don't find the dialog to be as bad as people let on. There are typos here and there and some grammar issues. But if you look at this as being a simulation of a MMO guess what? Those games when dealing with other players are full of bad grammar. The combat system is unique and takes some getting used to. The tutorials are important. The game guide is important. Again, in a real MMO there is a level of complexity that takes time to master. The story and characters are great. The emotions are well animated and the underlying Japanese dialog adds feeling to the game. The dating sim is a bit strange. The chat bubbles come across as nonsensical but it is a minor part of the game and it is easy to pick up on response patterns to get through it. I don't think this part of the game was intended to be actual dialog but more like thoughts or emotions coming across. Overall the game is fun to play and hard to put down. It does play more like an MMO at times and I enjoy that aspect. I find myself getting the same level of enjoyment as I did with Persona 4 Golden.

A hard action jrpg game based on a current anime? and for a handheld? SURE! This is the kind of games that Vita was lacking, and we are starting get them in America! I'll think the score has to be 8.9, really good cell shading graphics, in depth history, kinda hard game if you want to rush it, but very repetitive when you are moving through the waves of monsters, but, that's like any other jrpg.-

A weak entry in my Vita's colorful library. It suffers from inexcusable "Engrish" translations that range from confusing to cringe-inducing, and uncomfortable story sequences spawning from the game's attempt to incorporate "dating sim" / harem elements centered around the "married" main character. I find myself unqualified to determine if this is made better or worse by how fans will be used to this. That said, it is a solid dungeon crawler experience. It is possible to carry through the game avoiding optional challenges, the complexities of combat, and its upgrade systems... However those that find themselves spamming "O" will miss out on a semi-thrilling experience that comes from conquering high-level optional enemies through reaction-based inputs, well-thought-out set-ups, and a varied playstyle. The story sequences CAN be genuinely appealing to a broad audience when they avoid the harem/fanservicey pitfalls that ostracize any but the most accustomed players. Unfortunately this is only roughly 50% of the time. This score would easily jump 3 points with a translation that was a little more true to the story's script. Seriously. Did we hire a Japanese major undergrad and give him Google Translate and tell him to have at it, with no context for the story, characters, or sensitivity to tonal variation? That last point would be there if they could only change the story to make me feel a little more comfortable sharing it with anyone that isn't a die-hard SAO fan, with a high toleration for Japanese media's infamous harem and fanservice techniques. Once again, aside from that, it's decent. Anyone that has played games like 358/2 Days will feel at home with the graphics and (to a degree) combat.

For those who are familiar with the chronology of SAO, Hollow Fragment starts when Aincrad ends. It’s at the same time an extension and an alternative ending to the first part of the anime. Let’s check the battle system. You always play as Kirito, while having in your party a girl (or a man, for that matters) controlled by the AI. The game mechanism is close to Xenoblade’s in the way there’s an auto-attack and cooling down when you use some skills. During battles, you have five palettes that you can switch between with L and R. Two are for giving instructions to your partner (retreat, defense, offensive, congrats, etc.), one regroups your attack skills and the last two your healing/support magic. Your partner will regularly ask you to perform certain actions (attack skill, switch, paralyze the enemy) by which both characters will launch a powerful joint attack or relay. You also have to watch a «risk» gauge : the higher, the less effective your normal attacks will be. You therefore have to ask your partner to «switch», which sends her/him on the front without cover, but recovers the risk. While it seems attractive on the paper, the execution is not always good. The IA of the girls tend to ignore the situation time to time, stopping for no reason or ignoring your switchs. But the biggest concern about them is that they are fairly weak at the beginning of the game. For example, Kirito starts at level 100, Silica only at lvl 70. They naturally reach Kirito’s level as you progress in the game, but it causes lots of irritating game over in the first hours. Furthermore, most of the fights can be done with only pushing the circle button and waiting for some sign from your partner. You’ll have to wait to have at your side partners at respectable level and in front of you some really though enemy if you want to experience the thrill of battle like it was thought by the devs. Technically speaking, the game is not even average : the 3D are neither that good nor that bad, animations are kinda stiff, and the game has quite a few annoying frame rate drops and graphics bugs. Let’s examine Aincrad now. Climbing your way to the 100th floor feels a bit humdrum : at every floor you’ll have to complete unappealing sub-tasks while in search for the boss’s room, and then beat the boss itself. The level design is nothing special, the floors look like each other too much. True, it’s pretty large in total, but most of time you’ll be going from point A to point B. There is no proper «exploration» and puzzles are scarce. You can still spend a bit of time with your harem for a change, sitting at the café with whoever you want to have a little chat. That said, the dates are nothing exciting because there are precious few topics and the answers are completely random. There is no logic to infer like you would you do in a real dating sim. Fortunately, the game includes a lot of events really close to the anime in terms of humor and atmosphere. And when I say a lot, it’s nearly a dozen per floor, with sometimes sub-quests that will make you go back looking for special things in previous floors. Events are a LOT more focused on fan-service than the anime’s average, which you can easily figure out from the numerous beautiful and juicy illustrations. The Hollow Area is organized very differently from Aincrad : it’s a very large surface divided into smaller areas you to clear one after another. The comparison with Xenoblade is clear, «exploration» becomes the keyword. Navigating is pretty tricky as the rough map you have at your disposal is about as precise as a pirate’s treasure map, and just going trough a couple of zones takes hours. The game helps out a bit but not too much, which leaves you really searching your way forward and think like you should always do in a correct JRPG. Note that the environments are a lot more refined, and level design improves a lot. Battles had become increasingly intense in the last stages of Aincrad, but here in the Hollow Area, they’re pure enjoyment. This is thanks to several things, the first being the thunderous boss battle theme that makes confrontations tremendously dynamic. The second thing is the perfectly balanced difficulty, which makes battles really rewarding. You have to be constantly swapping between palettes and item list, and at the same time having an eye your your partner’s situation. And believe me, the boss monsters’ design is something… Third thing is the scenario. While the story in Aincrad only begins in the upper floors (and actually merely copies what happens in Fairy Dance), the story that takes place in the Hollow Area is full of original and clever ideas, with some moments easily matching the best parts of the anime. The cutscenes are of really good quality (as good as in Fire Emblem Awakening for instance) and really help building a fascinating atmosphere. The sad thing is that it’s quite shorter than Aincrad : I rushed it within 20 hours, while Aincrad lasted 50h.

Solid game with a horrible translation and an utterly useless tutorial. The game has a rough start thanks to it literally being akin to starting **** 3/4 of the way in. You already have a high level and a decent selection of skills (although the glitch in the game that caused everyone to get to the 76th Floor wiped out a fair bit of them and made it so your weapons are only so powerful). If you spam the O butten then the combat will be slow, but when you dig through the skill system you'll find a large variety of attacks that will have you chopping through enemies rather quickly and make bosses less of a "grind until easy" fight and more of something that can be completed with proper coordination. The game does a great job of putting you in the shoes of a player that has progressed 3/4 of the way through a game. You start out at level 100 and surrounded by lvl 75 enemies on floor 76 or level 85 enemies in the first hollow section. Other characters will vary. Asuna and Klein are just a few levels short of Kirito whereas other characters that weren't part of the Assault Team are far lower and you'll need to party with them and help them improve their levels if you want to bring them along in parties. You'll be overleveled for the first few floors thanks to how much excess leveling the Assault Team characters did to help ensure survival, but it won't take long for the game to catch up to you. Yes, it's rather fanservice-filled if you decide to do the dating element (required for the platinum trophy and advised for gearing reasons), but it doesn't take away from the core game. I would honestly give this game a 10/10 if it wasn't for the poor translation in the Aincrad sections and I hadn't had to look online to learn how to speed up and smooth out what seemed like horribly slow and clunky combat.

If you know the anime Sword Art Online, you will know what awaits you in this game, or not. The Story is about after the floor 75 in the anime, where Kirirto defeats Heathcliff and if you are a true fan, you want to know what happens there. There is a lot to explore, to loot and there a lot of enemies. Thanks to the HD remake of "Sword Art Online Infinity Moment", you will at least need over 200+hours to clear the game. With the Hollow Area, you get an additional gameplay time for more than 30 hours. Two games in one. Nice!!! You should get it! Don't think about it twice, if you are a true fan. I bought it Day 1 and totally worth it. 11/10

Hey folks! It's the Banana King here ready to write a small review for the wonder virtual world of death we all know and love in a game called Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment. So just peel banana, sit back, and enjoy the review. Let me start off by saying, the English is not perfect. I can read it and understand it just fine so it doesn't really bother me. The combat is actually really great. YouTube kind of made it look like a pile of monkey poo, but when I actually played the game it was a blast. As a fan of the anime as well, I can say this game is pretty awesome. The only thing I didn't approve of is adding characters like Suguha and Sinon into the story since they show up after Sword Art Online. The fact that they are put in the Sword Art world is pretty weird. The menu screen is also really nice because it looks just like the menu the users in the anime had. The graphics are beautiful and are even better if you view them with the first person camera mode. I will tell you one disappointing factor though. You do not actually explore the cities on every floor. Just floor 76. The other floors just show an artwork piece of the city. You can go dates with other characters as well and develop a close bond with them. There's just so many features on this game. If you want to find out more you should check out some other reviews or buy the game! You really should buy this game if you are a fan of the anime. You will simply love it. I give this game a 10/10. This is TheMonkeyKing signing off. OO OO AH AH!

Sword Art Online is, in many ways, a MMO for one person: You. If you come in expecting a traditional JRPG experience, you may get disappointed. Story, combat system, crafting, and "what you do" is heavily MMO-based. For some people, like me, that is a massive plus, because it gives you the open virtual world experience of a real MMO without the tedium and annoyance of having to deal with other players. It's great for a dose of escapism. SAO very much feels like an online game (including your interactions with other characters). So if that's your thing, look no further and dive right in. Ex-WoW players, for example, who suffer from withdrawal symptoms, will find a cure here. Also folks who dig the .hack games will have a ball with SAO. You can grind as much as you want, without anyone stealing your spawn spots. :) Note, also, that the combat is largely melee-based (hence the name), though there are healing spells. But if you want to play a mage or an archer, you won't get your fix here. There are numerous types of blades, though, and skills (also passive ones), so it's not just 1H swords and little else. Far from it. Now, gamers who look for a deep, meaningful story with a narrow, linear design, SAO is probably not an ideal candidate. It has fantastic combat, but again, it's MMO-styled, with "hotkeys" and all that jazz. Watching the anime show that the game is based on (it spins off at around episode 14) is optional. It enhances the experience insofar that you meet "old friends"; but the game does introduce the player to everything that's necessary to know. Don't worry about being unable to get into the world of SAO without having watched the show. You'll be fine. (As someone who doesn't typically watch anime, I'll say that I really enjoyed the show, too.) Finally, it is a large, long game that will keep you entertained for many hours. There's post game content too, and in September '14 there will be a free expansion/DLC that adds even more content and additional zones. SAO will keep you busy for a long time -- if you like the MMO-style.

This is the game that got me to dust off my Vita after a few months of little to no use. Big fan of the series and it really represents the anime well in my opinion. Absolutely beautiful cut scenes especially on the Vita's OLED screen, I'd say it's a must have particularly for any Vita owner who likes the series but also for fans of hack and slash genre games as well.

Realy A good portion of the stories about the adventures of Kirito in SAO and other MMO world. Gameplay is similar to the last game of a "YS series" Games can be fun, and give a lot of hours in this unique universe.

awesomesauce... insert the good parts others have already said, yatta yatta, ditto and all that. love the game. ................................................

This game is a very good game and deserves a solid 7 but im giving it a 10 to counter the ahs who rate with 0s. Hollow fragment is a huge world with lots of place to explore. Battle are exciting but after 50 hours yes they can get repetitive. Like 90% of the jrpgs i have played. The cut-scenes are extremely well crafted but are few and the rest of the story unfolds with the typical jrpg dialogue windows. The characters graphics are really good representing the anime really well but the environments dont have good resolution and are a little blurry. Still the environments have lots of details and variety that counter the lack of resolution. The enemies are beautiful also -beautiful among monster that is- and have a good variety. After lots of hours everything can get repetitive, but lets be honest games with the greatest praises are repitive too after so many hours. In conclusion Sword Art Online Hollow Fragment is a good and fun action jrpg that can keep you company for many hours and since its a Vita exclusive you can play it in many different places. So have fun in Aincrad and dont mind the haters. Its not a perfect game but its definetly not bad either.

If you're a fan of the series this is a fantastic game, comes with a HD remake of the first game previously only released in Japan, so you are getting 2 games in one!