Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment is a port that builds upon the Playstation Vita release  of Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment last year for the west which comes with  a ton of extra value with the biggest plus of a having a fixed translation which vastly improves the enjoyment of game as opposed to the Vita version where it can lead to confusion on how to advance the game. It is also good to note that you can transfer your Vita save to the PS4 port which is a big help for those who may have already put in a good amount of time into the Vita ver however you still have to restart the game from the beginning. What transfers over is your level up to 199, your money (up to 99,999,999 Col), Your equipment, items and possessions as.does your Avatar data and Heroine/other player levels.

Vita:

Vita translation 1 Vita 11

PS4:

PS4 translation 1 PS4 22

The story of Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment which has a spoiler for the first arc of the anime series follows the event that happened on the 75th floor where instead of leaving the characters are still stuck in the game and must continue forward to reaching the 100th floor to leave but there is also a another separate storyline to go through alongside the main story that takes place in the Hollow Area with newcomer Philia. The Hollow area is a great place to go and just explore as it has a open world structure to it which can break up the monotony of the main scenario where you are just clearing floors. If these two stories weren’t enough story for you Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment introduces a brand new side story for another new character to the series called Strea

The graphics are a major improvement at 1080p with updated character models and textures! I am actually impressed as it also runs at 60fps although it can dip in the town still when there are too many characters on the screen this problem is common on the Vita ver. However it isn’t that bad on PS4 in comparison.  

Vita:
sao_003_cs1w1_1280x720

PS4:
Sword-Art-Online-Re-Hollow-Fragment_2015_05-27-15_003

Gameplay has had some adjustments for this HD port like the level cap being raised from 250 to 300. Combat is easily the most enjoyable part of the game but has had some changes made from the Vita version to make it more strategic in that in that skills no longer use SP and work on a cooldown system so once you used a skill it can’t be used after a set pre-determined amount of time on that skill til it’s over. That is not the only thing they made adjustments to as bosses have now have their stats changed as their visuals to make them more of a challenge.

You have more options when creating an avatar at the start of the game from more hairstyle to the actual size of your avatar but you are now able to create a female avatar in the game however you will still be known as Kirito for the story it is more for the online portion of the game where you can team up with 3 other people in quests and take on Hollow Missions this was feature that was ad-hoc only on the Playstation Vita so an online feature to this is a massive plus to this HD port. You can trade items with other players in multiplayer.

11953430_10155907987525386_5465320139113936285_o

If you would like more info about the overall features of the game as they are largely the same as the Vita ver. Please check out Colin’s review of Sword Art Online: Hollow fragment here for a more in depth view on core mechanics of the game.

Translation screenshots courteously from neogaf 

Review Summary

After playing through both version I believe the Playstation 4 version is the way to go as the re-translation of the game helps better the enjoyment as does the online multiplayer with friends at a smooth 60fps in battles.