Review: Sword Art Online Fractured Daydream will only appeal to die-hard fans

Online Sword Art has left an undeniable mark on anime landscape since its adaptation in 2012 and it continues to influence shows coming out today. Of course, with the premise focusing on VR MMORPG players, many video games naturally follow. Sword Art Online Broken Dreams Made explicitly for veteran fans of the franchise, this sounds great on paper, but it packages itself into a niche category that only die-hard enthusiasts just found the experience to be cathartic, isolating most of the normal audience.

The main attraction of Sword Art Online Broken Dreams is said to be its multiplayer experience. But since you need to take a reasonable step forward in the main campaign to unlock the multiplayer and available characters, let’s dive into this aspect first. Sword Art Online Broken Dreams contains an entirely new standalone story designed specifically for the game, presumably taking place after the Alicization Arc. Without going into spoilers, the characters introduced in this episode play a pivotal role in the overall story. A new updated beta system called Galaxia has been added to ALfheim online, aiming to allow players to relive their fondest memories of the game. However, a fatal error has now trapped Kirito in the Galaxia system. Kirito will now need to navigate Galaxia, with the assistance of many familiar faces around the world. Online Sword Art timeline, to find a way to return to the real world.

Sword Art Online Broken Dreams has the best storytelling and cutscenes in all of gaming and some of the moments that play out are fantastic. One thing that stands out vividly is right at the beginning of the game, where Kirito finds himself participating in an unusual show and a fight quickly ensues. It feels like this scene could have been ripped straight out of the anime, which is sure to put a smile on the face of any fan. My only criticism is that the overall plot requires a good knowledge of Online Sword Art. The story can be very “meta” at times because of the characters throughout Online Sword Art The multiverse interacts with each other. It’s like watching Avengers Endgame without seeing the previous Marvel movies. You can do that if you want, but you will be confused about some parts.

The campaign’s gameplay structure is where things get a bit confusing. There are five chapters in total, all of which have some sort of quest. Initially, your character will be transported to a new location and you will have to move to specific points on the map while fighting monsters along the way. To complete the mission and move on to the next part of the story, you must defeat a mini-boss battle. As you can see from that description, the setup is very basic. What also doesn’t help is that every location in the game feels empty and stiff due to an invisible barrier that prevents you from fully exploring the environment. This often makes me confused when I have to run zigzag on the map to find a straight path. You can also pick up some collectibles, which I assume is an attempt to make the environmental space not feel barren, but collecting them is tedious because of the way the terrain is laid out.

The combat is somewhat mixed, but there are enough differences between the classes to make it more interesting than not. There are six combat classes: fighter, tank, rogue, ranger, mage, and support. Each character is automatically classified into one of these classes and plays differently from each other, which adds variety to the combat. Kirito, in the fighting class, has his iconic dual blades, allowing him to excel in close combat while also moving quite quickly on the battlefield. Agil, part of the tank class, will move slower in comparison but can withstand more hits, and Llenn in the rogue class will wield a large gun, allowing her to attack from afar, mimicking Fatal bullet game format. Usually, during a mission, you will choose one character to be your main fighter and can then choose additional characters to join your team, but sometimes, you will have to play as a different character. specific objects, forcing you to try all the classes. If you want to complete the main storyline as soon as possible, you’ll want to stick with the warrior class as they feel stupidly overpowered, but all of the classes have some value to them.

In terms of the real-time combat system, there’s the standard stuff you’d expect to see, like regular and heavy attacks. Each character also has special and ultimate moves, which are useful to use if you find yourself in a difficult situation. However, you’ll have to wait a short cooldown before using one of these moves again, which encourages you to think before you act. But the locking system is what keeps me fighting. The game encourages you to lock on your opponent, as you can then rush towards the enemy and unleash a chain combo, but it rarely works. Most of the time, when I try to do it, I’m left in mid-air or at a weird angle, so I usually attack opponents without using it, which makes any flying monsters is also a bit more complicated than the game intended.

After going through about an hour of the main campaign, you’ll unlock the multiplayer mode, which has many similarities to Granblue Fantasy: Relink, as it includes real-time combat combined with MMO gameplay mechanics. Multiplayer is divided into three modes: free roam, co-op missions, and boss raids. Free roaming is by far the best, as you can leisurely roam around the entire map, fight enemies, and take on daily challenges. This is a breath of fresh air compared to the main campaign, which is limited in where you can explore (yes, the invisible barriers are a sticking point). It reminds me a lot of Dauntless’ open terrain environments, which may not be a laudable statement to some, but I’ve always enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere the game tries to encapsulate.

By comparison, co-op missions have a more frenetic feel as 20 players are divided into five teams, running through a giant dungeon to meet the boss at the end. You have thirty minutes, but most lobby groups can do this in a 15-20 minute period. When you successfully complete this mission, you will be rewarded with better weapons and different appearances. While looking at the scoreboard at the end to see how your performance faired against other players was fun, the rewards didn’t really encourage me to keep playing.

The boss raid is easily the weakest mode of the bunch. Once again, twenty players are divided into five teams, but this time, your goal is to defeat an astronomical boss battle while your team tries to score the most points. It feels repetitive because there isn’t much cooperative gameplay, as you’re mostly just hitting big enemies with endless attacks. The enemy’s fighting style is nothing special and they will repeat the same moves over and over again. To be honest, I felt bored the first time I met the boss. I did it a few more times for good measure, but somehow it became even more uncomfortable.

There is a clear executive effort towards Sword Art Online Broken Dreams Multiplayer experience, But it’s average at best. When you’re trying to convince players to spend hours on multiplayer content, you need to offer something unique and different, but throughout, I had a serious case of déjà vu because I was in into this repetitive action in countless other titles. In a short time, I felt like I had seen everything, got the t-shirt, and was ready to play something else. You’ll only start investing serious hours into multiplayer if you’re a big player Online Sword Art fans want to get every item possible. But you’ll likely be alone in this pursuit because convincing others to come along will be difficult unless your friends are also super fans.

Sword Art Online Broken Dreams shines in some departments but fails in others.
I wish the game focused more on the main campaign as the story here is fantastic and with some tweaks to the open map environment and combat mechanics, it could have been a quintessential game for any fan. But the multiplayer feels so half-baked and unengaging that only die-hard fans will enjoy the lengthy and tedious grinding process for each item.

Sword Art Online Broken Dreams To be now available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch and PC.

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