Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment is basically a single player game set in a fake MMORPG and it does a pretty convincing job of building the world. There’s surprising attention to detail with characters who walk around the city. They rummage through stores, sit at tables and teleport in and out of town. The AI movements are nothing special compared to many other games, but the sheer number of characters on screen at once masks the simplicity of it all.
At first they seem like a faceless mass of NPCs, but they have names, join clans, and battle in the world on their own. You can even recruit a good chunk of them into your party and build relationships with them. However there is a large main cast you can also get intimate. As a reward, they’ll give you a steamy bed scene. I highly doubt there’s anything this elaborate for the faceless NPCs, but it’s nice that they give you the option.
On a side note, it’s kind of weird that you can date multiple people despite there being a canon relationship. The main character, Kirito, is married to a girl in-game and even has an artificial intelligence child. Yet, you can date the other characters and get into bed with them too. Of course, it’s not sex. It’s simply completely platonic semi-naked cuddling.
This is a weird and long game that I can’t recommend to anyone. It has its moments, but they’re hardly worth the 70 hours it takes to complete. I’ve written two articles about it: one on the gameplay and the other about the tone.
