Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream Review – Addictive Action That Suffers From Repetitive Missions

While I typically avoid the more popular fandoms, being the hipster that I am, it’s strange to admit how much I enjoy the Sword Art Online series. I know it has its moments, but I can always count on the action and emotion to turn up to 11 during an epic fight. Anyway, one stand-out release in the series that many will tell you to play is Sword Art Online Fatal Bullet; whether this was because the entry allowed you to create your own character or because Dimps developed it has always been up for debate. That is until now, given that Dimps has returned to the series for Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream. However, this time around, this entry removed the option to create a character and added a gameloop revolving around online play.

Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream seemingly takes place after the events of Sword Art Online Last Recollection as Kirito is on a quest in the VRMMORPG Alfheim Online with his friend Quinella.

Fractured Daydream Story – New Virtual World, Same Familiar Faces

Now, this shocking pairing is soon revealed to be just a coincidence as the two have found themselves trapped in Galaxia, where they can reattempt old missions and relive memories. While they try to understand how they’ve become trapped in this world, they save two characters who are under attack and finally get some answers. It appears they are, in fact, trapped in Galaxia, but they aren’t alone. Along with the small group, other characters from the SAO franchise are stuck in this world, including characters from Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online.

Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream nails the fast-paced combat but fumbles the endgame grind.

The story does a relatively good job of making sense of all this chaos by allowing some missions not to include Kirito, effectively giving players a perspective of the story he isn’t the main protagonist of. While Kirito is a prominent face in the story scenes, I feel like there’s a nice balance of screen time with the other characters, even more so if you spend time in the character-specific missions and side-missions. Sadly, similar to other SAO games, the story’s final arc is rushed and doesn’t capitalize on some of the more interesting plot points. I would have enjoyed the final few missions to slow the pacing and adequately explain some of the story nuances before the final fight. As it stands, this game only has one job following the 13-hour story, and that’s to get you right into multiplayer for hours upon hours.

Suppose you’re picking up Fractured Daydream for the online content alone. In that case, this is sadly one of those games that you’ll need to play through the entire story to unlock all of the 21 playable characters and raise your Player Rank high enough to gain access to additional online missions and raids.

Gameplay Mechanics

While I enjoyed this aspect given that I was mostly interested in the original story, I know some players are only looking forward to the online gameplay. Here’s the thing: if you don’t like Sword Art Online but enjoy grind-heavy action games with a ton of loot and continuous rewards after each match, continue with this review, but only consider this game at a discount. On the other hand, if you love SAO, you’ll probably have fun here no matter what.

Action-packed but repetitive; fun in short bursts, but lacks long-term content.

A few interesting aspects of these missions include the fact that there are optional things to do outside of the main objectives.

Missions and Objectives

These are scattered around the map and are required if you want to S-rank the mission. I will say that I have always enjoyed finding these secret bosses and optional objectives, but I wish they were displayed somehow on the map and not hidden. This game is designed around swift matches, making running blind around the map looking for hidden items slow it down. Further, there needs to be an option to skip the story scenes completely upon replays. It only skips a small portion, but an option to turn them off after you’ve seen them would be nice.

As you progress through the story, you’ll earn a decent pool of gear and raise the Character Ranks of the party to hit the ground running in the online modes. Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream is built with online gameplay in mind.

Online Play – Co-op Missions and Repetitive Grind

You can accept co-op missions and raids once you’ve unlocked a few characters and World Tiers. It’s an interesting setup, but one that gets repetitive quickly. The co-op matches take place across a map divided into sections. There’s an objective in each area where players will travel to points on a map with a party of others. Opening the map at the beginning of a match allowed me to route the objectives more quickly, given that there are a lot of branching paths. Similar to the results screen of the single-player mode, online missions are concluded with a ranking and items for appraisal. Missions also have a few rare cosmetics available as drops, but this game expects to be played. Sadly, there isn’t enough content to justify the time investment and reward.

The entire experience requires a bit of forgiveness from time to time.

Character and Class Variety

You begin to look past the thought that different classes wouldn’t play the same, and while they do have access to elemental abilities and playstyles, everyone plays like an Attacker. You don’t mind the constant stuttering during traversal as random objects stop you in your tracks. You begin to find it funny after the umpteenth time the strange lock-on system sends a character flying across the stage due to a miss-aimed ability. You don’t mind your hands hurting a little from pressing Square repeatedly with a few Triangle presses here and there. Lastly, you forget that you’ve already played this mission 18 times. Your only happiness is the fulfillment of that sweet-sweet explosion of rewards, the sensation of equipping Epic gear that will likely be replaced in a few matches, and the forethought of knowing that as more content is added and more players find their way into Galaxia, YOU will be the strongest.

A familiar VRMMORPG setting, but with new twists and old faces.

At least, I think that’s what Bandai Namco is hoping for. Listen, what’s here is fun. The gameloop isn’t anything special as it borrows from other titles like Granblue Fantasy: Relink, but unlike that game, the grind isn’t worth it when there isn’t enough content to satisfy the time investment. I’m sure Dimps has more maps and content on the way, but it should have had at least 60 hours at launch. Less than a week after release, players have already risen above Level 45 player rank and have seemingly run out of things to do. Even though the game allowed me to spend quality time with Sinon, I, too, was stuck finding fun in this gameloop after 20 hours.

Given how repetitive the online mission structure becomes, you almost wish for automated systems to get you through the matches while you do literally anything else, like re-read the SAO light novels or something. Now, I’m not saying the gameplay isn’t fun, though. In fact, this is one of the most fun SAO games I have played in a long time. I enjoyed each character pool, aside from the Support Class. I’m a Leafa fan, don’t get me wrong, but the Support Class in this game just isn’t fun at all and mainly ensures you’ll be the weakest link in any party. If there’s a re-balancing of skills and bases stats for any class in the future, I hope they find a way to make this class fun.

Performance and Graphics – A Smooth but Stuttered Experience

When it comes to performance, Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream ran fine, with a few stutters during scenes and random disconnects that sent me to the main menu. The enemy AI is ridiculous, but given the waves of mobs you’ll be mowing through, you kind of appreciate their aloof attitude. I really enjoyed the graphics for the characters. They just stand out so prominently on screen. Each character has a few different alternative costumes, and even ones they can share amongst the other characters.

This brings me to premium cosmetics. There seem to be ways to achieve some premium currency through completed Daily and Weekly quests and other in-game events, but you can bet you’ll pay around $9.99 for each costume DLC set. I’ve paid for more bathing suit DLC, so they got me. That said, bathing suits were free in other SAO titles, and I hope there’s a broader pool and variety of free cosmetics found through matches. Sadly, the drop rate for these is insanely low right now.

Final Thoughts – Fun for SAO Fans, But Lacks Longevity

Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream is an SAO fan’s dream and an action RPG fan’s nightmare. While the rewards provide a nice dose of dopamine across each match, there’s not enough content here to justify fans of online action games to invest themselves in. The story might hold you for around 10 hours, but after that, you’re looking at hours and hours of grinding across the same handful of maps and missions, completing uncreative daily quests and begging for something new. Still, the action gameplay is incredibly addictive, but the support needs to show up as fans did on day one to witness the cringy emotional drama of SAO, one more time.