Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization - PlayStation 4 Standard Edition

Great game.

Good

I am a HUGE SAO fan! I've watched everything released multiple times.I was looking for a change in gaming venue, as my pc was getting older and modern games began to out level its capability. It was a hard choice between PlayStation, Xbox, and the new Nintendo Switch, until I saw the PS4 exclusive Sword Art Online game series. It titled my decision towards the PS4 entirely. A week later I had a PS4 with all the bells and whistles, right along with every SAO game I could find.I started playing SAO: Hollow Realization when it arrived, only to find that Lost Soul and Re: Fragment came before. I played through the original story and even bought a season pass for additional content. The game does have a lot of cut scenes, and I can't say that I like every one of them, but the game itself plays very well, combat is awesome, gaining each weapon skill really takes some grinding.However, I feel that the story is there to give you a little glimpse of daily life for the characters, which the shows didn't really do. I love every second of the game and hope they continue to produce more.Right now I have a team of level 80's sitting there waiting for me to catch up on the story.I've played Re: Fragment over the last few weeks and barely scratched the surface of what the first game has to offer.This entire series is fantastic! Highly recommend to anyone looking for more SAO!

This is the best SAO game I have played so far. It is a huge upgrade from the previous games. Graphics are beautiful. Character customization has been improved though it is still just customizing Kirito (which I don't mind). There are still many side stories to read through. Kirito actually talks in this game so he's finally not a silent protagonist anymore. However, the thing that slightly bothers me is the translations. The dialogue differs from what the characters are actually saying, which makes them seem out of character. It just feels like the text sometimes doesn't fall in with their personalities. The overall meaning can be considered the same but it's how it's worded that bothers me. The combat system is awesome with various combos to do. It sort of combines Hollow Fragment and Lost Song together. It brings about an action feel while also keeping the RPG feel to it. I have put almost 40 hours into the game and I'm still not even close to finishing the game. There's definitely a lot to do! This game is a good buy for fellow SAO fans.UPDATE: So I finished the story and it feels sort of empty afterwards. Unlike in Hollow Fragment, there are not many high difficulty areas/quests that you can do in single-player. You'd have to actually go into multiplayer and do solo mode or party to increase the difficulty. The bad thing is that you cannot jump to a different location from the map like in single player. You have to go back to the lobby every time. Monsters in single player remain the same level so they become extremely weak once you pass their level. The drops are the same and not very unique. Weapon designs and armors get recycled with different colors, making it bland. At this point, the endgame seems like a bunch of farming for materials to make legendary weapons. Just have to look forward to the future DLCs that will be coming.

love this SAO series and anime. totally in love with this game.

Much like the Anime this is based on, it's relatively enjoyable in some regards, but not that great as a whole. Much of the gameplay is made to resemble an MMO, and as such it can be rather relaxing (with the added benefit of not having to put up with toxic gamers.) However some of the game mechanics like setting skills is a bit hard to follow at times.The cutscenes read more like visual novels, and sadly you can't just skip them. (There's more button-mashing during the dialogue than there is during boss battles.)Much of the in-game graphics are actually quite nice and colorful to look at, and the music is really good too. I have to warn you, though, I think because the game has so many complicated elements that it sometimes crashes if I don't give the next area enough time to load. Fortunately the auto-save feature makes it easy to reload where you left off.While I really like the option of building your own avatar from the beginning, in the main story you're still meant to fit the role of Kirito, with no different dialogue options as in other RPGs, and that just makes the avatar-building pointless. As for the story, I couldn't get into it because I've never found the characters that compelling. Both in this and the Anime I've always found them rather bland and generic (and that's if it's NOT being needlessly misogynistic.)I might maybe recommend it if you're curious or a fan of the Anime, but I'd say you're better off renting it, getting a used copy or borrowing from a friend if they have it.

I'm fairly new to the Sword Art Online game franchise and only own Lost Song so I can't input fair contrast vs older games, but I just have to say that out of all the games I own ( Including skyrim special edition and Battlefield 1 on a PS4 Pro) this game is the best looking game and I can't believe that there is bloody first person. First person in a game like this is something I never anticipated since i'm used to the 3rd person view on Jrpg's and it looks good. The fighting is pretty simple and repetitive but at the same time not boring and being in parties definitely helps beat harder bosses. I haven't gotten too far to be honest but I'll update as I get further into the game.