The least ambitious isekai gacha game yet - Sword Art Online VS Quick Review
Sword Art Online VS is the latest in a long line of video game spin-offs of one of the most popular isekai anime/light novel series. A game based on a show where the characters get trapped in a game seems like a no-brainer, but unfortunately none of the Sword Art Online games have been very good. VS not only continues that trend but is perhaps the least impressive entry in the series yet.
THE STORY
As with the anime and light novel series it’s based on, Sword Art Online VS follows the exploits of Kirito, a teenage boy who has by now survived numerous instances of being trapped in or otherwise mortally threatened by virtual reality massively multiplayer games. You’d think the government of his world would ban these games by now, but here we are.
As VS opens, Kirito and his ever-growing collection of mostly young, attractive, female allies find themselves investigating a new game called Cross Edge. Not only is this video game causing its players to lose their memories, but it also seems to be strangely pulling in environments, enemies, and scenarios from previous games that Kirito and crew have already conquered—which provides the perfect excuse to celebrate the series’s tenth anniversary by showcasing nostalgic bits and pieces from every iteration.
PLATFORMS
Sword Art Online VS is now live on both Android and iOS platforms. I played on Android and ran into no problems running it on my Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra. It’s worth noting that the game features relatively high-end 3D visuals and fast movement during combat, so older phones may struggle more.
TIME PLAYED
I’ve played around five to six hours of Sword Art Online VS this week, which has shockingly been enough time to work through almost all of the game’s available content at launch. For an ongoing gacha game, there’s really not a lot here.
WHAT’S AWESOME
• Flashy combat. Sword Art Online VS features real-time 3D action battles where you can swap between three different party members on the fly. This system allows you to pull off really impressive combos that look and feel great. It’s something I’d love to see expanded on in a game that’s more fully realized.
WHAT SUCKS
• Extremely limited and boring content. As mentioned above, I was able to play through almost all of Sword Art Online VS’s launch content in just five or six hours. More damningly, that content just isn’t very interesting. Levels in this game consist of entering one of a handful of similar small arenas and then trying to kill a couple waves of enemies as quickly as possible. There’s no depth and no imagination.
• Repeat enemies. Despite having a structure that’s based entirely around quick combat scenarios, Sword Art Online VS only has maybe half a dozen types of enemies, which are then just repeated over and over. I may have been more forgiving of the dull arena fight setup if I was challenged with a wider variety of opponents.
• Disconnected story. Rather than having cutscenes play out naturally as you progress through story levels, Sword Art Online VS asked me to play through as many as ten of those speedy levels in order to unlock the next story scene...which I then had to navigate to in a menu and select to even view it. I’m not the biggest Sword Art Online fan, but I think Kirito and friends can be entertaining, and they’re clearly the draw for any hardcore fans checking out this game. So why is the story buried like this, and why does it feel totally unconnected to anything happening in the actual levels?
• The gacha stuff. No, it’s not what you think. Against all odds, Sword Art Online VS doesn’t appear to be a particularly shady gacha system. The game splits gacha pulls between characters and ability cards, which is mildly annoying, but I was able to get a full party of SSR pulls with no trouble.
No, the real problem is, there’s just not a lot of joy to be found in this gacha system. Love gacha or hate it, the appeal is in pulling on that slot machine and celebrating when you get something awesome. VS only has a few characters that just come in slightly different forms, and as it stands right now, there’s just no drive to get more pulls—to the point that I felt nothing when I was rewarded a pull ticket for a login reward. That’s a bad sign for a gacha game!
SHOULD YOU PLAY IT?
No. Even the most hardcore Sword Art Online fans are likely to be disappointed in the meager content on offer in VS, and that’s who the game is made for. Maybe Bandai Namco will pump out new content quickly and the solid combat base will get built on enough for this to be worth it in one day. For now, though, there’s hundreds of gacha game and isekai narrative alternatives out there, and many of them are better than Sword Art Online VS.
💬 What's your favorite isekai anime or game? Let me know your pick in the comments below!
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