Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization Reviews
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is an enormous title, especially when compared to his most recent predecessor. Unfortunately the game is once again devoid of a charismatic antagonist and a solid storyline.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization feels like a game that’s on the cusp of something great but is held back by a few hiccups. The story is interesting and quite fleshed out, and the base combat has potential. The inconsistent pacing, sketchy AI and grindy nature of the game, however, make it feel like a slog after a while. If you’re a fan of SAO, though, this is worth checking out just to re-experience Aincrad’s rebirth once again.
Skip it unless you're a diehard Sword Art Online fan.
Fun MMORPG-style mechanics aside, this game lacks much of the excitement the license is known for.
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization does not depart from the fluctuating quality of its predecessors, with a pleasant story, though designed specifically for fans of the original work, accompanied by a complex and layered gameplay, which, however, has unclear mechanics to challenge even the most experienced of players.
Review in Italian | Read full review
It’s possible to argue that the release of Sword Art Online -Hollow Realization- is a bit much.
In summary this is a game that fans of the genre will love and those new to it will most likely give up on. You can tell there has been a ton of work gone in to tweaking this game, making it clearly the best of the series to date, but the onerous nature of the storyline along with the static nature of the interaction during dialogue will put a lot of people off. Into the series? You will love this game. Hopefully I’ve helped with the pros and cons. Have fun!
Sure, it might take you a couple of solid evenings to break though the barrier for it all to make sense, but when you do? It's easily one of the best action RPGs on Switch.
It is hard to recommend Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization to anyone who isn’t already a Sword Art fan. The story just takes so long to get into and you can’t skip the cut scenes. If you are a fan of Sword Art on the other hand, the combat and co-op is enough to make this game enjoyable.
Regardless, much of the content is either repetitive or forced reading, and the story isn't going to win any awards. To enjoy this title, you have to want to spend more time with characters you already know. If you aren't interested in Kirito and Asuna's budding romance or Yui playing the dual-roles of both game guide and in-game daughter, you aren't likely to derive a lot of entertainment from Hollow Realization. There are better action-RPGs on Switch, such as the aforementioned Ys VIII, but certainly none that give the freedom of exploring and interacting your favourite SAO personalities.
Aquria have created a game that really does feel like an MMO.
While 'Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization' is definitely a step up from its predecessors, it's still too rough around the edges to really appeal to anyone other than fans of the anime. It fails to take advantage of the unique premise, and an unpolished localization makes the game overly confusing in spots. Hopefully 'Sword Art Online' will get a great game adaptation, but that still hasn't happened yet.
Hollow Realization is the strongest iteration of Sword Art Online to date, and an easy recommendation for fans of the anime and previous games.
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization augments the formula of past entries and largely succeeds by doing so.
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is a hard game to judge, since newcomers to the series will be baffled and even bemused by the overly complex mechanics and the unnecessarily convoluted story that seems to refuse to focus on the interesting parts. That being said, though, Hollow Realization is a great instalment for long-term fans of the series, as it is filled with enough fan-service to keep them entertained for a long time, or at least until the inevitable next one in the line arrives.
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is a faithful representation of the source material that unfortunately has flaws in gameplay that can be infuriating at times. This is an unfortunate consequence of trying to follow the aesthetics of an MMO world.
Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is yet another licensed anime game that does not live up to the expectations. While the presentation is a success, lousy storytelling, a broken battle system and dull dialogues ruin the overall experience. The game has no rhythm or anything that makes it worthy of your attention.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Hollow Realization shows no progress for a series that appears to be relying solely on its base franchise for sales.
While it can be a fun action game in the short-term, it quickly becomes repetitive due to its meandering plot and disingenuously perfect cast of characters.
A huge game with great ideas on how to treat an environment based on a MMO world. Sadly it has many flows. While it’s combat is interesting, the characters are dull and tracking missions ends up in a headache every time. An experience only SAO fans will like.
Review in Spanish | Read full review