It’s been two weeks since I started playing Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream and it feels like I am finally ready to do a full review. This is a game for SAO fans, that much is clear since non-fans don’t really get much from it. I won’t get too much into technical details because I covered that in the first impressions article; instead, I’ll focus on the overall impressions after some 30 hours of playtime.
At a 60$ price point, the Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream does cost a pretty penny. Its price can be justified by the amount of content that you get, especially if you are keen on one of the 21 characters that appear in it. The storyline is decent and gives quite a few opportunities to try out every character while getting into a new plot with various plot twists. Still, multiplayer is where this game shines and chances are you are only doing the quests to unlock the characters. Multiplayer comes in three different modes: Co-Op Quests, Free Roam, and Boss Raids.
Initially, I was going to point out the lack of players in multiplayer modes – more often than not you end up playing with bots that, while not terrible teammates, lack the logic a regular player would have. After a dozen or so games, I realized you could change servers and switched mine from the EU to North America. The player issue was somewhat solved (not fully), but it did come with a ping increase.
My favorite part of the Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream game are different characters: all of them come with a special skillset, unique attacks, ultimates, team functions, and weapons. Voice acting is amazing (my favorite is definitely Fukaziroh and her “TASUKETE”). Learning how to master them all is easy the most fun part of this game. Grinding and leveling, collecting weapons, buffs, and achievements: these are the things that awaken the hoarder gamer in me.
But, the grind does bring something that kills even the best games: repetitiveness. SAO: Fractured Daydream does suffer from that. Once you finish the main questline, you can do the multiplayer, but ultimately it all boils down to the same thing: find items (optional), defeat enemies, run around, avoid attacks, and defeat bosses. When you account for the lack of players, you have a problem so it’s important to find a party. Luckily, the community did make a Discord server where you can chat or look for co-op partners.
All in all, if you love the world of SAO and its characters, Fractured Daydream is a game for you. Multiplayer makes it worth it but I wish there were more people to team up with. I haven’t played the other games from the franchise, but I do wonder if they suffered from a similar lack of active players as they did pretty well and stayed active for quite some time. I’m personally not a fan of microtransactions for cosmetics and even less of DLC-locked characters, but I guess time will tell where Fractured Daydream ends up. In the meanwhile, it’s a fun game to take your mind off things and spend some time with your favorite characters.
Anime Corner received a review copy of the Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream game.
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