So now that I’ve completed the initial story up to the end of season 1 of Alicization, I feel like it’s fair for me to write a review and I’ll point out the first few problems right away. I also provide a link to my gameplay below.

- I didn’t have any performance issues, and I’m assuming that’s because I turn off V Sync when I start any brand new game.
- I noticed the camera is absolutely garbage. Sometimes it would freak out and look directly at the sky when I’m attempting multiple commands between party members, and speaking of which
- Your party members are pretty much useless without you providing any input. Unlike Hollow Realization where you can sort of shape your party members into their roles, this game doesn’t make them do anything. I constantly have to switch in between them to make them NOT just stand there.
- There is a colossal amount of dialogue in the first chapter (The first season of alicization). Some people may like this, but this is especially noticeable in the swordcraft academy and ending. I kid you not, in my 20 hours of playtime I’ve probably only played about 5. There's so much dialog that I would simply put the text running on auto and leave to go do things around my room. I managed to make lunch, eat, and clean my room in the span of one dialog. Seriously. Triple A prices to make your players sit there and not play the game. Incredible work Bandai.
- The combat is smooth but incredibly slow. By the way Bandai, that’s just stupid. Considering that quicktime events are now part of duels and how ridiculously fast those are, it doesn’t match the pacing of the battle at all. God forbid you get knocked up in the air because you’ll be in the air for over two seconds.
- The animations are LAZY AS HELL. I actually sat and watched the cutscenes so far and my god was I disappointed. There were so many scenes that could have been completely CG, or better yet SHOULD have been. There are some dismemberment scenes in the anime where in the game they don’t even bother to remodel the character and just lazily angled the camera to hide the limb. Come the hell on guys. If you were going to attempt a 1:1 story up to the ending of chapter 1, why not set the standards to DBZ Kakarot levels. Some scenes needed the extra life that the anime breathed into the series with beautiful animations and sound effects. This game has neither. Take God of War (2018) for instance, you're paying the same price for almost cinematic cutscenes whereas this game has static characters with camera pans during cutscenes.

Aside from my complaints, the only redeeming quality of this game is it's visuals. The graphics are beautiful and it's nice to be able to integrate towns with monster areas for once. However, it doesn't take away from the fact that Kirito's hair has some unnecessary pearlescent on it. As someone who is attending art school and continuously provides critiques for art choices, I just have to ask why. The character models don't match the surrounding areas, and maybe that's due to the really stupid design choice of making all of the character's clothing glossy.

TL;DR: The game is basically a bad visual novel of the anime and Bandai was really freaking lazy when they made this game. It’s not nearly as in depth as the other games and to be honest I’m kind of not interested in continuing past the first chapter. Hell, there was literally an HOUR AND A HALF of dialogue after the final fight. My $14 purchase of Hollow Realization was much more worth than spending $80 on this half baked game.

I'll be streaming all of my gameplay for this game. If you need proof, here is my playthrough on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSFDGRH_HZLimlQ23XIHzYt9g40WwBflY

So now that I’ve completed the initial story up to the end of season 1 of Alicization, I feel like it’s fair for me to write a review and I’ll point out the first few problems right away. I also provide a link to my gameplay below. - I didn’t have any performance issues, and I’m assuming that’s because I turn off V Sync when I start any brand new game. - I noticed the camera is absolutely garbage. Sometimes it would freak out and look directly at the sky when I’m attempting multiple commands between party members, and speaking of which - Your party members are pretty much useless without you providing any input. Unlike Hollow Realization where you can sort of shape your party members into their roles, this game doesn’t make them do anything. I constantly have to switch in between them to make them NOT just stand there. - There is a colossal amount of dialogue in the first chapter (The first season of alicization). Some people may like this, but this is especially noticeable in the swordcraft academy and ending. I kid you not, in my 20 hours of playtime I’ve probably only played about 5. There's so much dialog that I would simply put the text running on auto and leave to go do things around my room. I managed to make lunch, eat, and clean my room in the span of one dialog. Seriously. Triple A prices to make your players sit there and not play the game. Incredible work Bandai. - The combat is smooth but incredibly slow. By the way Bandai, that’s just stupid. Considering that quicktime events are now part of duels and how ridiculously fast those are, it doesn’t match the pacing of the battle at all. God forbid you get knocked up in the air because you’ll be in the air for over two seconds. - The animations are LAZY AS HELL. I actually sat and watched the cutscenes so far and my god was I disappointed. There were so many scenes that could have been completely CG, or better yet SHOULD have been. There are some dismemberment scenes in the anime where in the game they don’t even bother to remodel the character and just lazily angled the camera to hide the limb. Come the hell on guys. If you were going to attempt a 1:1 story up to the ending of chapter 1, why not set the standards to DBZ Kakarot levels. Some scenes needed the extra life that the anime breathed into the series with beautiful animations and sound effects. This game has neither. Take God of War (2018) for instance, you're paying the same price for almost cinematic cutscenes whereas this game has static characters with camera pans during cutscenes. Aside from my complaints, the only redeeming quality of this game is it's visuals. The graphics are beautiful and it's nice to be able to integrate towns with monster areas for once. However, it doesn't take away from the fact that Kirito's hair has some unnecessary pearlescent on it. As someone who is attending art school and continuously provides critiques for art choices, I just have to ask why. The character models don't match the surrounding areas, and maybe that's due to the really stupid design choice of making all of the character's clothing glossy. TL;DR: The game is basically a bad visual novel of the anime and Bandai was really freaking lazy when they made this game. It’s not nearly as in depth as the other games and to be honest I’m kind of not interested in continuing past the first chapter. Hell, there was literally an HOUR AND A HALF of dialogue after the final fight. My $14 purchase of Hollow Realization was much more worth than spending $80 on this half baked game. I'll be streaming all of my gameplay for this game. If you need proof, here is my playthrough on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLSFDGRH_HZLimlQ23XIHzYt9g40WwBflY