Sword Art Online: Lost Song is something of a sequel to the Vita title, Hollow Fragment, which told the tale of protagonist Kirito, who was trapped with some friends within a virtual reality MMO where death in-game meant death in reality. With Lost Song, we rejoin Kirito as he starts playing a new MMO, but he is quickly swept up in drama involving Seven, a mysterious singer who is fighting to change the game.

Sword Art Online enjoys the deviations from the anime and what they mean for the characters. Without understanding those deviations, many of the character decisions seem incoherent. Kirito delights in hopping back into a video game after enduring a traumatic experience. It's mostly an excuse to get Kirito into the game, but it's enough to make it difficult for casual players to grasp things. The plot is mostly an excuse for characters past and present to hang out together in an MMO that isn't trying to murder them. The translation, mercifully, is also a tremendous step up from the Vita release of Hollow Fragment and just a tad dry.

You can attack with strong and weak combos, dodge, and perform special attacks that use up a regenerating magic bar. While you begin the game as protagonist Kirito you can actually play as a wide variety of characters, most of whom have their own unique selection of weapons and abilities. Kirito is probably the most well-balanced character but Sword Art Online fans are likely to be glad to have the chance to play as other characters. There are RPG mechanics but the game absolutely rewards good action skills more than good RPG play. You'll probably quickly find a few reliable skills and focus on those more than worrying about elemental strengths and weaknesses or anything of the sort.

The big feature in AFO is the ability to fly. From the moment you hop into the game, you're able to fly. There are a few limitations; some areas lock down your ability to fly, and you have an altitude limit for a good chunk of the game. The free flight still is the coolest and most enjoyable element of the title. You have three modes: fly, hover and walk. Flying is fast but less effective for straight combat. Hovering is for combat and allows you to move and fight as easily as you do on the ground. Dashing or flying quickly drains your stamina, but stamina refills so quickly that you have to really be pushing it to run out.

The camera doesn't play so well with the flight mechanic at times, and it's occasionally difficult to judge the distance to enemies, so locking on to foes is a must. Flight is fun, but it doesn't feel like it changes things, and there isn't much distinction between air and ground combat. Perhaps it would've felt more significant if it had been introduced later in the game, but there seems to be no reason to not fly unless the game demands it. This works well for the enjoyment factor but takes away some of the "wow" of flying.

"Awkward" is kind of the name of the game in Sword Art Online. Everything works, but some things feel weird to do. Blocking, locking on and using special moves are slightly uncomfortable and don't feel natural. Casting a spell requires putting away your swords first, which is difficult in the heat of combat. The R1 button is way overused, and while the game is complex, it isn't complex enough to merit some of the button combinations. On the other hand, there are nice but undocumented shortcuts, like holding the dash button to take off into flight. This is a perfectly acceptable but unexceptional action game that could've used some polish.

Lost Song suffers from trying to be an MMO. The gameplay is fun for a while, but it soon becomes clear you're repeating the same places, fighting extremely similar monsters, and doing the same things. It's an accurate depiction of MMO-style gameplay, but it lacks the sense of progression that makes a good MMO work. After a while, it all blends together. If you enjoy tearing through monsters and finding loot for the sake of doing so, there's enjoyment to be had here on that visceral level. I never felt more advanced in Lost Song than when I started, despite getting a few cool abilities and skills along the way. Swapping characters helps a little, but the RPG mechanics are pretty shallow and it's easy to get bored.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the online features are one of Lost Song's stronger elements. You can create a simplified custom character and take him or her online to compete in cooperative or competitive play against other gamers. While the core gameplay is pretty basic, the simplicity actually works on its favor when you're playing alongside other people. This isn't an MMO but is akin to small snippets of multiplayer with up to four players (or 4v4 multiplayer combat). With a human behind the wheel, the combat mechanics become a lot more fast and intense. Taking down powerful foes or having a PvP battle emphasizes the game's strengths. It's not going to be a long-lasting online game mode, but it's the most fun to be had in Lost Song.

Visually, the title is a mixed bag. The characters are vivid and bright, and the art style works very well to present a picture-perfect version of the anime. Combat animations are cool, and there are neat touches like glowing damage marks appearing on enemies in the location of their injuries. Some other animations look awkward, such as Kirito's running animation. The cut scenes are mostly presented in a visual novel style, which feels a little weak compared to the occasional well-animated cut scene. The soundtrack is good, if unmemorable. The voice acting is entirely in Japanese, which is probably a plus for fans of the anime. There's a ton of dialogue, and the Japanese voice actors are a competent lot.

Sword Art Online: Lost Song is a game for fans of the anime. It relies heavily on players recognizing the story twists and turns and grasping how the anime mechanics translate into gameplay. Without that familiarity with the franchise, the game is a combination of fun, simple combat with the more tedious aspects of an MMO. The online play adds some extra spice to the game but won't keep players coming back unless they're big fans of the show. If you're interested in seeing a different side of Kirito and his pals, there's a fair bit of content here and you'll get the chance to play as some of the lesser-known characters.

Score: 7.0/10