The popular anime Sword Art Online first came out in 2012 and was based on a new virtual reality game. Thousands of users logged in to play, only to discover they were unable to log out, held hostage by the creator in the virtual world, and escape was only possible if someone could defeat the final boss, but there was a horrible twist – if you die in the game, the head unit will fry your brain in the real life. The series has gone through a few different arcs since the original, and the world has changed with it.

SWORD ART ONLINE Last Recollection is based on the War Of Underworld arc, featuring a new story for players to experience. Developed by AQURIA Co and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, it’s available now on Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 4 & 5, and PC.

The new storyline also comes with the characters from the show; Kirito, the lead character, and other party members such as Asuna and Eugeo. Each character has their own style of combat supporting other members of the party as they battle the new threat presented by the Dark Knight, and battle across the Dark Territory.

The story segments are cut scene-heavy with Japanese voicing, so unless you know Japanese, you’ll be reading a lot, but if you decide you can’t be bothered and try to skip the cutscene, you’ll be prompted with a warning that lets you know if there are any choices during the segment, and should you still go ahead with this, it will just pick the default action. I’d suggest sticking with them, as it’s better to experience it all and see what things you may be able to change.

The gameplay has its pros and cons. I love the combat system – give me a sword and I will beat on monsters all day and not get bored of it. The stagger system is a great addition, allowing you and the party to stagger an enemy before landing final blows that dish out massive damage. Having a full party, you can freely switch between characters in the middle of combat, which is a great way to throw more skills together on bigger targets. Now, sadly, the AI party, while they do attack and assist in combat, are unable to do the final blow attacks, so they will just stand there next to an openly exposed target and not attack it.

Despite the characters having starting gear, like Kirito and his dual blades from the anime, you can change your weapon to any available, level up skill trees for your chosen weapon class, and then unlock skills and buffs specifically for the weapon type. When I discovered I was able to put the swords away and start punching things, I went full Rocky and have been punching all the monsters I came across as a Pugilist class fighter.

While the graphics for the characters and monsters are done well, the environment can, at times, feel very empty and barren. It feels like a lot of the animation budget was used with the cutscenes, which makes sense as it is giving the story as if it was just like the anime. I would have liked to have had some English dubs, but the Japanese voice actors have done a great job bringing the characters to life. The sounds of the combat are very reminiscent of the anime, and the mild music that fills the world as you run around between fights gives you a nice sense of peace.

SWORD ART ONLINE Last Recollection is a must-play for the fans of the anime series, or if you have played the other titles covering past series arcs. With the AI failing to be overly useful in combat, the switch feature is very welcome as you can hot-swap characters mid-fight and move to whoever is in an ideal position to hit hard. I also enjoyed being able to swap weapon load-outs between the characters instead of just being locked to one style of combat.

The story felt like it took up more space in comparison to fighting, at least to me, and I felt like there were maybe too many cutscenes, so after a while, I just wanted to hit skip and get back into the action of the game.

Written by: Shane Walsh