Sword Art Online: Lost Song Review | IGN

It’s dangerous to go alone into Sword Art Online: Lost Song. The single-player campaign is paper thin, combat and enemies are repetitive, and the fan service kept to a minimum. On the other hand, adding other players to the mix lets you find the fun in its smooth controls, coordinating attacks against hordes of enemies, and tough competitive duels.

[rdgneoz3]

Reading the review of the single player part, you'd swear they were reviewing the COD single player portion or something (though that never get points taken off).

[eyeDEVOUR]

I pre-ordered this game because it came with hollow fragment for free. after trying out hollow fragment ive had absolutely no desire to even try this game out even though ive already downloaded it.

[rdgneoz3]

Lost Song and Hollow Fragment are very different games. The combat is very different and same with the areas you fight in.

I'd say Lost Song has the a more simple action oriented combat (less abilities and now magic skills) with flying and huge open areas to run around in, as well as a more stream lined MP (rooms for up to 16 players [4 player missions], though not as many missions to tackle as Hollow).

Hollow had a ton more skills (you could open your skill list and use them from their if they didn't fit in your bar), more weapons / armor / gear in general, and the boss battles were epic at times (you and like 9 NPCs vs the floor bosses).

The story is OK so far in Lost Song (on the third island). Both are non cannon games with Hallow having you continue you in the tower as if Heathcliff wasn't the final boss and in Lost Song as if you never fought the Fairy King / Asuna kidnapped / somewhat new to the game (some characters you treat you as meeting you for the first time).

Overall, both are games made for fans of the series to tide people over till the next season (the 4th arc which is about 7 novels and counting so far, compared to the 9 novels that made up the first 3 arcs or so) or the movie ( https://www.youtube.com/wat... ) that was just announced. I love the look and feel of Lost Song (great visuals, action, and the MP is fun and easy to find groups), though wish it had a bit more of the content that Hollow had (more weapons/armor/abilities/MP missions).

[Reviews2Go]

Harsh review is harsh. Though I guess that's expected. The reviewer openly admits they thought what the game was based on was awful. So that's kind of a guaranteed low score, even if the game was perfect.

IGN shouldn't give games to reviewers who don't like the source material.