SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream Review (Steam)

by Jim Smale · Published October 9, 2024 · Updated October 7, 2024

SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream Review, In this online co-op action game, enter a distorted version of the SWORD ART ONLINE world. Pick your role in the form of your favorite SWORD ART ONLINE characters and team up with 20 players for raids to defeat powerful enemies. Galaxia, a new system allowing players to relive the past, has been added to ALfheim Online; however, Galaxia spins out of control causing players from all over time and space to be displaced! To set the timeline back on track, Kirito must work with fallen friends…and foes.

SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream Review Pros:

Decent Anime graphics.
42.64GB download size.
Steam achievements.
Full controller support.
Mouse and keyboard support.
Cross play – on/off.
Graphics settings – screen mode, resolution, resolution scaling, v-sync, frame rate, anti-aliasing, shadow quality, textures, ambient occlusion, screen-space reflections, motion blur, depth of field, texture quality, animation LOD, displayed effects, grass density.
Camera controls – Invert axis and sensitivity sliders.
Online settings – streaming mode (randomize players’ names), anonymous mode, matchmaking region, and analysis settings.
You can remap controls for the mouse and keyboard.
Three matchmaking regions – Europe, Asia, and North America.
Third-person view.
Opening Prologue acts as a playable tutorial.
Tutorials and videos pop up as you play.
Hack and slash combat.
Dodge apart from the obvious has a perfect dodge where you temporarily become invincible and get a small HP boost.
The combo counter pops as you kill enemies consecutively.
Damage numbers pop up.
Cancels is where you can stop the attack and is easily done with basic attacks and pressing dash to stop it.
The perfect block will momentarily stun the enemy.
A full 3D game world with 360-degree camera control.
The game looks and runs really well.
Special attacks have a cooldown on them and they look fantastic.
Healing crystals heal you but they too have cooldowns and dungeons can have a set amount of healing crystals allowed.
Mods can drop out of loot chests, you can see its stats before picking it up and equipping it.
A cool setting is you can have auto run turned on set it kicks in after a few steps.
Ultimate is your best attack that does huge damage, renders you Invincible, and has a massive cool-down.
In-game cutscenes and interactions.
You can fast forward, auto-play text, and skip interactions.
Loot comes in rarity levels which can add new abilities or buffs to mods and items.
The game is very flashy and looks awesome as a flurry of blades and whooshes fills the screen.
Beautiful looking game world.
The mini-map fills in objectives, points of interest, enemies, and loot chests as you get near them.
Boss fights are plentiful and generally use the break gauge mechanic where you have to deplete the break bar first.
Synchro counters are where an enemy will do a powerful attack, you and all the players around have to enter the newly appeared yellow circles in the time limit to trigger a co-op attack.
The synchro counters are an awesome team-based system and they look really good when you trigger them.
Chain attacks and chain finish are again another co-op-based set of attacks and triggers at a certain enemy health state. It involves being close enough to attack and pressing a button within a short time window.
Cool slow down last hit kills on bosses.
Story quests let you unlock new characters.
You have access to a SAO tutorial which will refresh the Sword Art Online adventures and serve as an introduction to new players.
Two game difficulties – Easy and normal. Each story quest will show your best rank for each difficulty.
You can replay levels.
Unlocked and equipped gear and weapons can be set to show in cutscenes.
Each character has one of six roles – Fighter, Rogue, Ranger, Mage, Tank, and Support.
You can customize your characters from load out to passive, and skins, and even change up emotes and stamps.
The Create Item tab lets you pay to make equipment scaled to your current player level.
You have a home hub menu system to deal with your character, quests, crafting, etc.
Daily and weekly challenges.
SAO trial is like a Battlepass in that you earn exp for it from challenges and unlock new rewards.
Five game modes – Story, additional story, free roam, co-op quest, and boss raid.
Does have in-game purchases for real money.
The game will run Seasons introducing new themes, events, and rewards.
Elements play a big part and knowing which element beats another lets you deal major damage.
A lot of bright orbs pop out of enemies and chests which is really satisfying.
Flying characters are in the game, you can hover and go up and down really fast.
There are three sets of collectibles to find in each chapter/level is – unique enemies (named mini-bosses that drop customisation loot), data cells (player card customisation items from chests), and Remnants that have three on a level and unlock past events of the SAO history.
Levels/chapters are open and you can freely go around and explore.
Find self-contained mini-missions by interacting with set terminals.
Chests will emit a beam of colored light to help see them off in the distance.
End of level breakdown showing loot, score, and rank.
You can dismantle unwanted gear for parts.
Any loot you pick up will not show what it is until after the level and you appraise them.
Two ranks – player and character so earned exp is for each of these with each character having their own rank.
Has a disconnect penalty for repeatedly leaving online quests.
Free Roam supports 20 players online in one session.
In free roam you get generous timings in multiplayer attacks, and it serves as a way to practice multiplayer and co-op.
Free roam alternates between two maps – grasslands and dusk wastes. Each map has nine areas each with a different enemy strength.
Character stats are fixed in free roam and you can only take on stronger enemies by getting better gear.
Weapons and gear can have special effects, and elemental statuses attached to them.
You see what you will get if you dismantle the item.
Weapon skins and player skins are cosmetic only and don’t affect stats.
Waiting for the world to populate in free roam has you in a self-contained area and lets you just mess about.
Before setting out in multiplayer you can choose any unlocked character and change any gear and loadouts.
You can be revived in free roam.
Play how you want.
It feels like you have a solid single-player game and then it has an almost MMO-feeling multiplayer.
Any chests opened in free roam leave their loot on the floor for you.
It’s really cool how the different modes are all connected so you can get better in mp by playing the story and vice versa.
Encounters and chests will respawn over time in free roam.
Aid requests are where you can ask for help or help someone else with a mission.
It’s a very moreish game as you always have something to do you always get new items, and every class plays so differently.
In Single Player, you can have AI partners, the best part is you can swap between characters at will.
Button prompts show to help learn the game.

SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream Review Cons:

No benchmark test.
You cannot remap the controls for the controller.
There is so much to take in.
The controls take some time as they go against what you would call familiar controls.
You have to unlock so many of the modes.
Going into the hub gives you a huge info dump on every tab.
Does have in-app purchases for real money.
The story is broken up in such a way that it’s not great to follow along with.
It is all very chaotic.
It is hard to judge distance attacks and aerial enemies can be a real pain for some of the melee classes.
Not always sure when it saves and you cannot manually save.
Combat is very flashy and it can make planning and timing your attacks really difficult.
Doesn’t offer any real environmental destruction.
After the Prologue there are a lot of cutscenes and story to take in.
Invisible walls are everywhere and a real pain, even showing boundaries on the minimap would have helped.
Sometimes the level will just end after an encounter without warning you that you are in the final stages.
I hope that the disconnect penalty doesn’t affect you with legitimate disconnects, this is more a just-in-case.
Free roam doesn’t just start and people join, it puts you in a seperate area until you fill the room.
In free roam it is so easy to wander into straight death.
You cannot just respawn after dying and instead have to wait for the timer.