REVIEW: Accel World Vs. Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight


Title	Accel World vs. Sword Art Online : Millennium Twilight
Developer	Studio Artdink
Publisher	Bandai Namco Games
Release Date	July 10th, 2017
Genre	ARPG
Platform	PlayStation 4, Vita
Age Rating	Teen
Official Website

Being a fan of the Sword Art Online games and anime I was pretty stoked when Bandai Namco announced that Accel World vs. Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight would be making its way West. This crossover game features characters from both franchises in one epic tale. I hadn’t watched the Accel World anime or read any of the manga prior to this announcement, but I did remedy that before the game’s release. I thought the anime was pretty good, and Kuroyukihime was certainly one of my favorite characters from it. The question here is does this game do these great franchises justice? Let’s find out!

The Sword Art Online world of ALfheim Online has begun to merge with the Accel World of Brain Burst. Yui has been captured during this chaos and locked away. Kirito and the rest of the Sword Art Online gang must team up with the Seven Kings of pure color from the Accelerated World in order to save Yui from Personna Babel and save the world from total destruction!

One of the most disappointing things about Sword Art Online Lost Song for me was its story. Thankfully that is not an issue this time, the story here is well written, all the characters interact with each other wonderfully, and there is a great balance between light and serious moments. I got way more feels out of this than I thought I would and the ending really made me question how things will work out in the future of this story.

Graphically Accel World vs. Sword Art Online looks pretty nice. The world and character models are pretty detailed and the enemy model are great as well. The boss monsters really look nasty this time around, and they put up a pretty good fight as well in most cases. The framerate is very solid on the PS4, but there are a ton of textures and enemies that pop in. This was a problem in Lost Song as well. The Vita version has dumbed down textures and more loading times, but the framerate seemed pretty consistent.

The music in the game is outstanding. You may recognize some of the tracks from Lost Song that make a return here, but there are a ton of new songs thrown into the mix as well. There are plenty of upbeat boss tunes to get your blood pumping for an epic battle and some amazing somber tunes that add depth to the very emotional parts of the story. All of the Japanese voice cast from both franchises return to reprise their roles and they do an amazing job. When Nico and Silica were talking about their voices sounding the same I couldn’t help but laugh since they have the same voice actress.

The gameplay here is very similar to what was found in Lost Song. You will form parties of three characters. You can switch between these characters at any time by tapping R1 and L1. The combat is action based with a normal and strong attack that you can chain into combos. Each character has several different sword skills and spells at their disposal that can easily be mapped to face buttons for easy access. The flight controls remain the same as the last time. You still have to lock onto enemies and hover by tapping a direction on the D-Pad. The camera is better this time around, but it still has its share of issues when tracking a flying enemy. Though you easily re-center it, so that makes this much more manageable. Most of the Accel World crew cannot fly, so to make up for this they have what’s called Accel Moves. This will allow them to get close to an enemy they are locked on if they’re on the ground or in the air. They also have a High Jump that allows them to keep jumping so long as they have SP.

The Floating City of Ryne will serve as your world hub, and from there you can take on Quests, upgrade weapons via the blacksmith or spend your Burst Points to upgrade your Accel World characters. Burst Points can also be spent at the vendor to gain levels for any character you have at your disposal. This is very helpful, since characters not in combat do not gain XP.

Each area has a set of marked objectives to complete before moving the story forward. The overworld maps resemble the maps found in Lost Song, but due to the worlds merging, they are vastly different. The dungeons themselves are almost all completely different, so you never feel like you’re retreading old ground from the previous game. There are plenty of side quests and optional bosses to fight. Most of the boss battles are pretty intense and will require you to put a bit of thought into how to approach them. Completing side quests will trigger certain events with the other characters, which is always fun to see.

I have to say I really enjoyed my time with Accel World vs Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight. The story was top notch and very emotional at times, the combat was fun, and there was tons of content to explore. The bad camera still plagues this one a bit and some may find doing all the extra content a bit tedious. I put around 40 hours in this one to complete the main story, but you could get a lot more out of this if you do everything it has to offer. For the $59.99 price tag on the PlayStation 4 or $39.99 on Vita if you’re a fan of Accel World or Sword Art Online you can’t go wrong here.