TheSword Art Online (SAO)universe is eclectic, diverse, and captivating, spanning video games, books, anime, and films. Whether you’re an anime, gaming, or sci-fi fan, the ever-expanding Sword Art Online gameverse has something to offer. Watching at least the first two seasons of the anime, though, is recommended to really grasp the lore and context behind the games.
The Sword Art Online video games are fairly true to the anime, and generally follow Kirito’s adventures and tribulations, making them very playable in chronological order. In its lifetime, however, the series has had its share of both enduring installments and installments that haven’t aged as well. Here is the complete list of Sword Art Online games on major platforms, ranked up to the best release to date.
Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment
The second installment in the series is seen as the updated, more widely accessible version of its predecessor in the Sword Art Online community. This means it essentially follows the same direction and plot line of the original game, retaining the RPG and action-adventure elements, only with extra content related to recruiting, multiplayer, and exploration, as well as more developed character interactions, like romance arcs.
Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment features 100 character recruit options, as well as the addition of the Hollow Area from Aincrad, the setting of the first two anime seasons, unexplored in the previous game. But aside from these additions, even with all its added content, the game doesn’t necessarily stand out in such extraordinary ways among the series, or trump its predecessor.
8Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment
A Satisfying Intro And A Classic
The first-ever installment in the series, even preceding Hollow Fragment, Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment is a classic in the community. It did respectably well as an inspired anime creation and a strong introduction to the series it initiated. The RPG game follows the ongoing fight byKirito and Asunaagainst a glitch trapping them inside the online virtual reality game world of Aincrad.
Infinity Moment heavily draws from anime’s first season and features an ample variety of weapons, equipment, skills, and open-world exploration opportunities for its players during its time. Despite its success as a foundational part of the series and a classic, where it falls short today is accessibility. While Hollow Fragment was made available for a wider range of popular platforms, like PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, and Microsoft, Infinity Moment was released for PlayStation Portable, making it a bit less accessible compared to its companions.
Sword Art Online’s fourth installment, Hollow Realization, which is set years after the events of Aincrad, balances on a fine line. With mixed reception from fans regarding Premiere’s directly affected story by Kirito, and the lead character starting at base level in this RPG game, the installment still saw some major developments and growth emerge within the series and is considerably beginner-friendly for newcomers to the franchise and game series.
Hollow Realization brought a major expansion to the multiplayer aspects of the game, allowing four rather than three players into a party and containing 300 characters players can recruit. It also introduced new types of enemies into the series, and a new, attractive open world, as well as more customizations and gear choices for Kirito.
6Accel World vs Sword Art Online
An Innovative Spin-Off And Crossover
This is a video game crossover between the Accel World and Sword Art Online franchises. While not canon to either series' narratives, the fact that both franchises originated as novel collections built on the same concept of players becoming lost in a virtual reality gaming world makes them work incredibly well together. In this crossover, Kirito battles against Alfheim and Accelerated World as they overlap, to rescue Yui from a hidden location.
Moreover, while pretty niche to fans of both franchises who are familiar with their histories, Accel World vs Sword Art Online focused on innovating combat styles and mechanics. The game also features consistently great boss fights and still provides enough material for unfamiliar players with either universe to begin familiarizing themselves with their elements and backgrounds.
Fatal Bullet is the complementary game for the second season of the anime, Gun Gale Online. This RPG game plays out in a virtual reality multiplayer online gaming world similar to that of the other Sword Art Online game installments but instead features first-person shooter game-play.
The player is also given the opportunity to create their own main character for this game, and are able to interact with a variety of characters and allies from the Sword Art Online universe throughout their playthrough. The refreshing perspective and style of this game make it a unique standout in the series, and a great option for gamers who are more partial to shooters.
4Sword Art Online: Lost Song
An Inviting Adventure-Focused Experience
The third installment and another classic of the series and universe of the franchise, Sword Art Online: Lost Song corresponds to the Alfheim Online content of the anime’s first season. Alfheim is an online gaming world where gamers play as fairy versions of themselves. Lost Song is fairly loyal to the original plot but features some key differences, including a different villain, who leads a guild competing with Kirito’s, and players' ability to choose other main characters in online tournaments, a feature introduced in this installment.
The game doesn’t elaborate much on the franchise’s lore and may be somewhat overwhelming for Sword Art Online newcomers. But it does find its strength in the adventure and exploration aspects of the game series, presenting a vast, charming open world for players to roam.
The ninth and latest release for the series, Sword Art Online: Fractured Dream features the most gorgeous visuals the games have to offer. Although it borders fan service in some aspects, it definitely brought improvements to character customizations and design, along with creative, detailed monsters. It’s also a major step forward for the multiplayer aspects of the series, with up to 20 people able to raid and play cross-platform.
This game has a unique and largely independent story -though still drawing from the anime- in which Kirito encounters a system called Galaxia through Alfheim Online, which alters timelines and dimensions. Allies and rivals from the Sword Art Online universe band together in the game to find their way back to fix their timelines and dimensions. With little lore explanation, however, it’s recommended gamers familiarize themselves with the show and go through a couple of earlier games before jumping into this one.
The seventh game of the series is much more niche compared to the other installments, making it more intimidating and hard to follow for newer players where lore and storylines are concerned. So before stepping into this game, it’s recommended to watch seasons one and three of the anime. It is, however, great for long-time and enthusiastic fans of the franchise, sticking close to the material and plot that makes up the third season, called Alicization.
Similarly to Season Three’s plot, the story followsKirito and a group of loyal alliesfighting their way through and trying to escape the Underworld. Furthermore, most of Kirito’s companions are playable, and the game features some of the best dialogue in the series, moving its story along effectively.
The eighth installment of the game series deserves the highest praise from the Sword Art Online gaming and franchise communities and its position on this list. Building on the Underworld plot from season three, Last Recollection is possibly the most creative with its story-telling, visually accomplished, and accessible Sword Art Online game to date with the best combat, fantastically balancing everything that makes a good Sword Art Online game.
Though it’s heavily based on the anime andbook series, Last Recollection inventively explores different possible endings, speculating how things would’ve unfolded if the characters had made different choices. While familiarity with the Sword Art Online universe may help, the game offers enough opportunities, customizations, adventures, and content to captivate even strangers to this franchise.
