With the newest Sword Art franchise developed by Dimps, the folks responsible for creating Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, I had high hopes for Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream. With Fatal Bullet, you didn’t need to become an SAO fan to fully engage with the title supported by its Gameplay and Multiplayer modes. Fractured Daydream, however, needs to catch up. At the same time, this game does a fantastic job of giving characters their unique playstyles, but it needs to improve with subpar gameplay which needs to pick up the slack.
Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream Gameplay
The story is meant more for hardcore SAO fans than casual anime viewers. Throughout Fractured Daydream, players are reliving past fights to view alternate outcomes. The opportunity allows players to get to know the 21 playable characters and their varying skill sets and moves, which is easily the highlight of this game. Hearing that each character has different movie sets isn’t even doing this statement justice. Each character possesses specialized, unique attacks, ultimate weapons, and more. For example, two of the same characters can be categorized as the same class; their moves and playstyles can still be different. If gamers don’t know the characters from the anime, they can easily find a favorite just by experimenting with them via in-game based on their attacks and featured scenes. Again, this is where the game shines.
What usually makes live service games suffer is their repetitiveness. Even if players complete the story mode, they will still be stuck in the same formula in terms of gameplay. You rough up some enemies, defeat a boss here and there, and it lathers, rinse, repeat. Having friends is a must to receive the most out of this title. While gamers can play Fractured Dreams with bots, it offers sustenance when playing with friends. Online modes consist of Free Roams, Quests, and Boss Raids. Putting it bluntly, I saw no purpose in participating in free roam as, most of the time I would want to group up with 19 other players to do a boss rush or quest to grind for materials. Even with a lobby full of 20 characters, though, grinding still felt like grinding, with added flair from character now and again.
Conclusion
Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream Story Mode acted more like an extended filler episode than anything. Nothing to “Wow” a casual SAO enjoyer and nothing I’d personally believe would make a hardcore fan’s jaw drop. I noticed how different the characters can all be, and it was easily my favorite part about this title. The 20-player lobbies were an experience, but other than that, this game just didn’t have a factor to keep me latched on. Microtransactions and battle passes, while only for cosmetics, are in the form of Battle passes and special shop events. Certain characters are locked behind DLC, and the game ends up being a repetitive grind once more. The question I never had answered while playing Fractured Daydream was, “What is all of this for?”. Is it to buy the battle pass and earn cosmetics for my characters since I found a favorite? Was it to excite me and make me want to watch the anime? A question that was left unanswered and couldn’t be at the least diverted by Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
