Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization review - Can an MMO work in single-player?

If JRPGs were to come with a checklist, you'd surely find things like spiky haired teens, a bizarre and convoluted plot, and a dozen cute creatures on there.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization has all these things and more, all wrapped up in MMO-inspired action-RPG gameplay – because it's set in an MMO.

If you're already starting to switch off, then don't expect it to pick up at all. It's a grindy, convoluted experience with enough menus and systems to confuse even the brightest of minds.

Sequel to the prequel

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization takes place after the events of Sword Art Online, and if you don't know what that is, then you're going to face difficulties here.

Despite some optional explanations of the background story, the game blazes through character introductions like there's no tomorrow, and you'll have met 15 new friends before you've even learned how to take quests.

And then you'll be sent off into the combat section of the game, in which you'll wail on series of never-ending enormous creatures until they die and you get a tiny boost of XP.

Being set in an MMO means it plays like an MMO. You have a party of 4, of which you only control one character, and you can attack by hammering the Square button and use skills mapped to a range of different inputs.

These inputs are, frankly, ridiculous to pull off, and not intuitive to the experience at all. Nor is pulling up a menu bar along the bottom of the screen to try and use mid-fight.

A little empty

It's clearly been designed to play like an MMO, and that would be fine if it was on PC. But on Vita it becomes a fiddly, aggravating experience, and you'll eventually just stick to defaults and suffer on.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization also gives you the chance to get to know your friends better, and even flirt with them, despite the fact that narratively you're married.

But to do so requires tracking down other characters in the hub world, an arduous task made more difficult by an abjectly useless map and no notification of where they are until you're stood next to them.

You need to do this not just to flirt, but also give them better equipment, which leads to numerous fights with underpowered teammates just because you couldn't find them when you needed them.

Foregone conclusion

Overall, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization is a confusing, messy game that won't rope in any new fans to the series.

It's inundated with controls and systems not suited for the Vita, and tries so hard to emulate the world of an MMO that it ceases to be enjoyable for a single-player experience.

If you know the series and you're into your MMO's, then this will likely appeal. To everyone else, it's not really worth the time.

Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization review - Can an MMO work in single-player?

Convoluted and grind-focused, Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization will alienate newcomers and potentially bore old fans
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Ric Cowley
Ric Cowley
Ric was somehow the Editor of Pocket Gamer, having started out as an intern in 2015. He hopes to take over the world the same way.