Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment Review: Half Archive, Half Sequel

Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment arrived on the PlayStation Vita in 2014 as the second console game in a franchise built on a light novel series. It was developed by Aquria and published by Bandai Namco Games, and it carried a strange structural burden: roughly half of it is a high definition recompilation of the first game, Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment, which had been released for the PlayStation Portable. The new material is the Hollow Area of Aincrad. The old material is everything else. That split defines the game, and it is why Hollow Fragment lands at 6.0/10.

Trailer, via BANDAI NAMCO Europe.

Kirito Is Trapped in Aincrad Again

The premise is the premise of the light novels. The player controls Kirito, the main character, who has been trapped in a virtual reality MMORPG where dying in the game means dying in real life as well. Hollow Fragment takes place midway through the first arc of the anime, but it does not follow the anime storyline. It sits in the same continuity as Infinity Moment, which exists in an alternate storyline from the anime. So this is a game about a game, set in a version of Aincrad that only the previous title established.

That continuity choice matters more than it sounds. The game assumes you played Infinity Moment, or that you are willing to accept a parallel Aincrad without asking how you got there.

Aincrad’s Floor Clearing and the Hollow Area

The structure is split in two, and the source is explicit about it. Part of Hollow Fragment is a high definition recompilation of Infinity Moment, including all content of “Floor Clearing” from the previous game. The addition is the new, unexplored “Hollow Area” of Aincrad. So the package is one old game, cleaned up, plus one new region bolted onto it.

That is not automatically a bad deal. Infinity Moment was a PlayStation Portable game, and a Vita re-release with sharper visuals and the original content intact is a reasonable way to get it into more hands. But it means the “new” game is smaller than the box suggests. The Hollow Area is the actual sequel. Floor Clearing is the archive.

Over 100 Recruitable Characters

The headline number is the roster. Hollow Fragment has over 100 recruitable characters who can be chosen to accompany the player in the game’s dungeons. That is a large cast by any measure, and it is the game’s main claim on a player’s time.

Gameplay combines elements of a MMORPG — though in a simulated fashion, since it is not an online game — with elements of a dating sim. The MMORPG side is simulated, and that word is doing a lot of work. Hollow Fragment is not an online game. It includes limited multiplayer via ad hoc for up to four players, and that is the extent of it. There is no persistent world, no server, no other players to run into. The game performs the shape of a MMORPG — the dungeons, the parties, the grind — without the network underneath it.

What the Vita Actually Gets

The platform list is short. Hollow Fragment was released for the PlayStation Vita, and only the Vita. That is worth stating plainly, because the game’s later life happened somewhere else.

The Director’s Cut is called Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment, and it addresses the most obvious hole in the original. Online play mode is added. Additional bosses are added. The ability to play as a female character is added. Those are not cosmetic tweaks. The original’s simulated online game had no real online component beyond ad hoc, and Re: Hollow Fragment fixes that on hardware that could support it.

The Ad Hoc Limit and the Dating Sim

The multiplayer ceiling is four players, and it is ad hoc, which means everyone needs to be in the same room with their own Vita. For a game whose entire fiction is about thousands of people locked into a shared online world, that is a thin approximation. The simulated MMORPG framing is honest about what it is, but it also admits what it cannot do.

The dating sim half is the more distinctive choice. It gives the roster a purpose beyond collecting.

Aquria’s Second Console Game

Aquria developed it, and Bandai Namco Games published it. It is the second console video game in the series, following Infinity Moment. It was succeeded by Sword Art Online: Lost Song, released in 2015 for the PlayStation 4 and Vita. So the trajectory is clear: Vita exclusive, then a PlayStation 4 director’s cut, then a proper cross-platform sequel.

Hollow Fragment sits in the middle of that line as a bridge. It preserves the first game for people who missed the PlayStation Portable, and it tests new ground with the Hollow Area.

Where the 6.0/10 Comes From

The published critical score is 6.0/10, drawn from an IGDB critic aggregate of 8 outlets. That number is fair, and the reasons are structural rather than incidental.

• Half the game is a re-release of Infinity Moment, not new content.
• The Hollow Area is the only genuinely new region.
• Multiplayer is ad hoc only, capped at four players.
• Online mode, extra bosses and female player character arrive later, on PlayStation 4, in Re: Hollow Fragment.
• The dating sim and the MMORPG simulation pull in different directions.
• Over 100 recruitable characters is a real draw, but the roster is the strongest thing here.

The roster is the part worth defending. Over 100 recruitable characters, each usable as a dungeon companion, is a genuine amount of game, and the dating sim layer gives those characters a reason to exist beyond a stat block. A player who wants to spend time with this cast will find plenty to do.

The part worth criticizing is the packaging. A high definition recompilation of Infinity Moment sits alongside a new Hollow Area, so a buyer gets one new region and one old game.

Hollow Fragment is a competent bridge title. It gives Vita owners a version of the first game, and it introduces the Hollow Area as a real new space. It is also a game that asks to be graded on a curve — half archive, half sequel, with the online features deferred to a later platform.

Aquria · Bandai Namco · Hollow Fragment · JRPG · PS Vita · Sword Art Online