The latest Sword Art Online game, Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris, is out today on PlayStation 4. We have a copy of the game for review, but we haven't played enough of it to deliver any kind of final judgement just yet. However, we felt that it was worth writing up a quick Hands On article just to let you know that the game, in its current state, is not good.
Fans of the hit light novel and anime series have been waiting on this release, and as fans of previous titles like Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment and Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization ourselves, we had reasonably high hopes for this new adventure. Unfortunately, our time with the game so far has been little more than a chore thanks to how badly it runs on Sony's system.
The action role-playing title targets 30 frames-per-second on PS4 and PS4 Pro, but it struggles to keep things stable. In built up areas like towns or dense forests, the frame rate can fall off a cliff, leading to some seriously choppy visuals. What's more, the drops can lead to a shocking amount of input lag, resulting in scenarios where simply trying to pick items off the ground is difficult. During fights, it's a disaster.
The kicker here is that the game isn't even nice to look at. A lot of textures are very low resolution, and the world is disappointingly static. There are no weather effects, there's no day and night cycle -- there's no discernible reason as to why the game performs as badly as it does. We can only assume that the product has been rushed out of the door, despite the fact that Alicization Lycoris was delayed back in April.
Right now, the game's a mess. But even if we were to disregard the myriad technical issues, we'd still be unconvinced of the title's overall quality. Cutscenes drone on and on and on as the camera does its best to give us the most boring angles imaginable. Inane, sometimes frustratingly vague fetch quests are absolutely everywhere. Losing a fight to a sudden, super powerful foe or boss can set you back hours because of the game's archaic save system.
In short, we're really disappointed. Alicization Lycoris seems to have some cool ideas, and combat is kind of fun when the frame rate isn't dipping into single digits, but we'd recommend staying well away from this one -- at least until a much needed performance patch is released.
Comments 19
What They Got Rid Of The Day And Night Cycle That The Other Games Had Why? Guess I'll Just Wait Till They Iron Everything Out In The Mean Time I'll Just Keep Playing Fatal Bullet And Hollow Realization.
Well I had to put this on the back burner. It never had a chance with everything else out on PS4.
Leave it on my Steam list. Get it when on sale and Brute Force better performance if still broken.
I heard about this. Unfortunately I'd already ordered it and the game is on its way. At least it's not as bad as Deadly Premonition 2 and at least I'm pretty sure they'll fix it.
They really nailed the full MMORPG experience, even down to the lag!
I'm playing it right now and while it is a technical mess, I'm still enjoying it.
Oh, come on now! It was easily my most anticipated game of the year. I didn't expect something perfect, but still
@Matroska Cant you return it here in the Netherlands 30 days return if you keep the seal on.
That saves me money im not buying a technical mess in the end of the generation. š
Unfortunately, this game seems to be about as good as its source material, unlike its surprisingly decent predecessors š
@nessisonett The light novel, is not that bad, since it has time to flesh out characters,their motives and the plot(and PLOT).
I'm finding it quite addictive. I've been meaning to get off for the last hour!
Iām not falling the 4th time... Sorry, but I will wait for. a ā¬9,99 sale or PSN Plus monthly offer...
@whizzkidd This type of games will never be a plus offering, and for 10e you gotta wait 3 years (fatal bullet is 2.5 years old the standard edition is 15e)
"can set you back hours because of the game's archaic save system."
Seriously, what kind of RPG doesn't have a quick-save or auto-save system in 2020?
@Aerodynamic41 That's just it though, since the game claims to have an auto-save system and even says in the tutorials that it saves periodically. However, I died once and it set me back almost 2 hours to the last time I manually saved at one of the save points. The auto-save doesn't even work during exploration or side-quests or anything, it's only noticeably saved during major story events.
To be honest, the awful framerate drops and the input lag hasn't killed my enjoyment of the game but the save system, that's the one thing that's really annoying me.
I've been playing the game on the pc running on the highest graphic settings with no FPS or input lag issues. I'm running with an 5700 XT card. The graphics and story have me hooked for now anyway. I almost bought the PS4 version instead sounds like I made a better choice.
Maybe the 1.01 patch improved the fps because it's not that bad. It's okay most of the time then noticeably drops when you're, say, high up and looking over a lot of the area while a town is also visible. I've got worse fps drops in BOTW, though admittedly only in one area. The save system, and regularity and length of loading screens is atrocious, though.
While I will not disagree that there are problems with lag, in my opinion game looks beautiful - battles (duels espescially). Cities looks great, too. There is night/day cycle (when 2nd chapter starts and player is given much more freedom) - that you are not aware of that, shows that you spent very little in the game
2nd - had no problems with saves at all - and game informs you about high level monsters with sound effect - you can avoid them easily. While there are a lot of cutscenes in first chapter - it gets less prevalent later on.
@Aris666 Clearly states they haven't played much of it, which is why there isn't a review yet! You don't need to play much to get an idea of how the game runs though, it's not like it improves at any point.
There is definitely a problem with the save system. At the end of Chapter 1 the game throws several bosses at you and if you die, you have to fight them all again.
Oh, there are weather effects too! Literally started to rain as I'm typing this. I'm glad to see the game includes a day to night cycle and weather effects!
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