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Sword Art Online Last Recollection<\/strong> is the latest entry to the long list of titles the franchise has made over the years. Originally started out as a PlayStation Portable title with Infinity Moment, it soon found its way to creating a sequel with Hollow Fragment, a game that I personally started with and have kept myself going for more. Fast forward to 2023, and here we are, faced with yet another monstrosity.<\/p>\n

Sword Art Online Last Recollection<\/strong> is a direct sequel to 2020\u2019s Alicization Lycoris it followed the anime\u2019s fourth season which tackles Kirito\u2019s life in Underworld, a virtual world filled with AI that\u2019s capable of human-like emotion.<\/p>\n

However, Last Recollection delves into the latest season following that arc but much like the previous game titles in the series, it brings its own unique twist by reimagining the events of that arc and creating something more, which more often than not, just means Kirito gains more \u201cwaifus\u201d before the end credits start rolling. But if you aren\u2019t familiar with Sword Art Online and more specifically, the game\u2019s universe, then sadly enough, its story will feel a bit too inaccessible for newcomers.<\/p>\n

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The story so far\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The game\u2019s premise starts you off directly at the halfway point within the entirety of the events in Underworld. At this point, you\u2019ve already bested a great threat to the Human Empire but by doing so, it also opened up the floodgates to a war between the Human Empire and the Dark Territory of Underworld.<\/p>\n

This is also the time where the game deviates from its source material, which unlike the anime, Dorothy, an original character for the game and a citizen of the Dark Territory is trying to get in contact with the Human Empire to negotiate peace. This led Kirito and the gang to act as peace ambassadors and travel to the Dark Territory in hopes of convincing the hostile factions to negotiate.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a fun little story that tries to put its own twist but frankly speaking, because the series has been going on for a long time and its developer, AQURIA doesn\u2019t shy away from adding more to the pile of playable characters, a lot of the times, these characters never get to shine in its overall narrative while Dorothy, the new main heroine of the game, gets to hog the spotlight for most of its runtime. It\u2019s a huge shame but at the same time, I have to say that I do love the role that Dorothy adds to this.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s well-fleshed-out as a character and as a heroine and I enjoyed every bit of interaction I have with her. And getting to know her more as each chapter unfolds was really something that I enjoyed more than the actual struggle between the two halves of the Underworld.<\/p>\n

As the Child of Sin, she\u2019s often discriminated against by her own kind and struggles to fit in. But after travelling with Kirito and his companions, she finds the warmth of friendship while still trying to distance herself at the fear of having to point her blade at them when the negotiation for peace crumbles. There\u2019s a lot more to her however it\u2019s falling a bit too deep into spoiler territory so I will just stop here.<\/p>\n

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Button mash. Spam skills. WIN!<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sword Art Online Last Recollection<\/strong>\u2019s gameplay is a bit similar to what Alicization Lycoris has with a few minor and major changes to its features. They both follow an action-based hack n\u2019 slash formula with a huge emphasis on swordplay and skills coupled with a bit of magic here and there. Here, you\u2019re able to mash a single button to execute a chain of combos that ends up with a set of finisher skills that you can freely set to your liking.<\/p>\n

Unlike Alicization Lycoris though, you have a total of 3 sword skills for your finishers to chain together unlike there where you\u2019re only allowed one. Similarly, you\u2019re still able to set a certain number of sword skills to use manually at the cost of SP. However, you are limited now with just 8 slots to fit everything\u2026 including your combat skills and sacred arts. You\u2019ve also got your step which acts as your dodge button and two other action buttons that are namely switch and nice.<\/p>\n

With the switch button, you\u2019re able to swap out with your main partner which can then be followed up by an attack that would stun the target. This has a cooldown before it can be used again, however, you also have another button to freely switch between your partners without the added benefit of the stun. On the other end of that is the \u201cNice!\u201d button that does a few things and one of them is to compliment your partner for doing certain actions which improve their affinity with you. Meanwhile, you also get to have a guard button which is something you\u2019ll never use in combat.<\/p>\n

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But probably the most prominent feature of SAO is its sword skills\u2026 just remember the first season\u2019s most badass moments like Kirito\u2019s first group raid with the Floor 1\u2019s boss which earned him the nickname of Beater (BETA Tester + Cheater) that led him to becoming a solo player or when he clutched a win by showing off the unique dual-wielding type against the fight with the skull reaper were easily two of my favourite moments in the entire series.<\/p>\n

AQURIA does this justice by having all the flashy moves in there however where they do drop the ball on this one is it never really feels like an exhilarating moment. It\u2019s flashy and it looks really good but from a gameplay perspective, it just looks dull and uninteresting and I\u2019m saying that as someone who has spent over 800 hours playing Alicization Lycoris.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem that Alicization Lycoris had was its massive power spikes when it came to stacking buffs and debuffs that, most of the time, bosses are dead in under a minute. Sword Art Online Last Recollection<\/strong>, however, faces a problem that enemies are huge damage sponges making boss fights take way longer time without any actual strategy or a lot of mechanics to juggle with to keep the fight interesting.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just you, the boss and a flurry of attacks to slowly whittle down their massive health bars. This is especially frustrating when you\u2019re playing alone and fighting end-game beasts or doing the raids that takes roughly an hour or more to beat because of their bloated HP bars.<\/p>\n

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Features and improvements<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Despite its underwhelming combat, there are some new features and improvements to the gameplay though. It doesn\u2019t particularly make the game feel any better however it does feel like the step in the right direction. Tactical Arts is probably the best feature the game has yet. While it isn\u2019t a completely new feature, it is a major improvement to its counterpart in Alicization Lycoris where recording AI behaviour was made to be more complicated than it should be.<\/p>\n

With Tactical Arts, you can set a number of skills that can be chained up to a total of 5 at a time which can also be branched into a different set of commands if conditions are met. These skills can be activated in a number of ways like after finishing a normal attack combo or when their HP reaches a certain percentage. However, you can also manually force them to execute these actions at the cost of Ally Gauge.<\/p>\n

But much like any RPG, nothing is complete with the vast amount of loot and gear. Now, considering how awful Alicization Lycoris went down that rabbit hole, Sword Art Online Last Recollection<\/strong> felt like a godsend. When it comes to gear and loot, the variety of stat spreads is not as horrible as in the previous game which was a literal nightmare to even get something worth using.<\/p>\n

Sword Art Online Last Recollection<\/strong> at least doesn\u2019t have that problem and only has some slight deviations from the same pieces of gear and more of those \u201cgod rolls\u201d are reserved for having skills versus not having them which honestly wasn\u2019t that hard to get outside of fights just being super long in single player versus online with four people.<\/p>\n

However, what does feel like a step down is its multiplayer feature. Alicization Lycoris allows you to explore a friend\u2019s world and play the story together but Sword Art Online Last Recollection<\/strong> doesn\u2019t. Instead, when joining people in multiplayer, you\u2019re warped into a room and need to interact with a slate that will teleport the party to the quest location and after you\u2019re done with it, the group gets taken back to the previous room.<\/p>\n

It basically tones it down to a hub-based RPG like Monster Hunter or God Eater but without the fun and exhilarating fights they bring nor the massive and interconnected areas\u2026 just the plain old boring circular field the enemies are originally located in.<\/p>\n

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The world as we know it<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Dark Territory, the world the game takes place on is also a bit of a mixed bag compared to its predecessor. Unlike Alicization Lycoris which took place exclusively in the Human Empire, the Dark Territory takes a more traditional layout with interconnected paths and hallways compared to the massive open areas it had before. If I didn\u2019t know better, I would probably assume that this was the older game and Alicization Lycoris was its sequel.<\/p>\n

On the bright side, its smaller scale does make the game run smoother especially with the controls being a bit more responsive. It\u2019s just a real shame that even despite its smaller scale, it still feels like this new playground has far fewer areas to explore and not a lot of variety of items and gear to keep for the end-game grind especially since they took away the crafting system it had before.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Sword Art Online Last Recollection<\/strong> is something that I feel a bit biased about. I do love the game for its grind and what it\u2019s trying to do despite its shortcomings. However, if I try to look at it objectively, the game itself is terrible. The game\u2019s combat system is a slugfest of mashing buttons mixed with boredom. Not to mention across all its different weapon types, they all feel and play the same.<\/p>\n

Sword Art Online Last Recollection<\/strong> story which has its cool moments is a bit of a nice touch but at the end of the day, it just feels like a Super Smash Bros Ultimate where every character starts popping out of nowhere trying to help out but doesn\u2019t particularly shine through. It\u2019s multiplayer and end-game grind which was supposed to be the thing that\u2019s going to keep me pushing through a hundred more hours was honestly over before I even started it.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t get me wrong, there\u2019s a lot of grinding to get through here. From your end-game weapons to your armor and even accessories and skill masteries but despite all that, it just feels monotonous and repetitive. I can\u2019t say I can recommend this game at all to newcomers because this is something that you need to be a fan of the game to actually start to enjoy for a while.<\/p>\n

Sword Art Online Last Recollection Launch Trailer<\/strong><\/h2>\n