Have you ever wanted to play in the world of Gun Gale Online seen in the Sword Art Online franchise? Put the swords away and pick up some guns in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet! Trade in the fantasy world of Aincrad and Alfheim for the metal landscape and sci-fi themed world of Gun Gale Online. Have you grown tired of being a swordsman and want to be a marksman? Then get ready to dive into Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet!

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is a third person action shooter with players not taking the role of Kirito but a new character instead. Create your own avatar and enter Gun Gale Online as you aim to become the best player throughout the land. Face off against terrible beasts and metallic beings and embark on an action filled story with characters from the Sword Art Online franchise. Be prepared to dodge bullets and laser swords in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet. Prove your skills aren’t just luck but raw talent!

Based on the popular Sword Art Online series—with a focus on the game franchise primarily—Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet throws players into the VRMMORPG Gun Gale Online. Here a new player is about to enter the world of Gun Gale Online to join their friend who has been playing for some time already. On the first day of the tournament, the protagonist ends up finding a rare item in the form of an AI unit. Now a target of other players for this rare unit, the player will see the darker side of online games like Gun Gale Online. Luckily aided by their new friends Kirito, Asuna, and many others, the protagonist might stand a chance against a new threat that is about to shake the very core of Gun Gale Online.

Here at Honey’s Anime HQ, we have a fondness for the Sword Art Online franchise. While we know it’s not perfect—but what anime is ever without some flaw?—Sword Art Online is still enjoyable and surprisingly so are the games. We have played numerous Sword Art Online games here at Honey’s Anime HQ and most of them have been fun with a few being okay at best. Though we have been dying for Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet as it is the first Sword Art Online game to depart from the series’ mainstay of Aincrad or Alfheim to be based on the world of Gun Gale Online. After having put in a sizeable amount of time into Gun Gale Online’s world, we have enough to share with you to say if this is a solid game or one you should pass on. Welcome one and all to our review of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet.
Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, as we mentioned above, is a big departure from the previous titles. Rather than using a sword, katana or dual swords in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, you’re using guns like machine guns, assault rifles and of course a beam sword so you can mirror Kirito in season 2 of Sword Art Online. Also, a big change from the other games is that players no longer assume the role of the Black Swordsman himself but instead, make a new character from a huge amount of customization options. Once done, whether you made a girl or a guy your life in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet begins. Let us first talk about what you will be doing in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet.

In Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, players will embark on a quest as they enter into the world of Gun Gale Online to enter a new tournament that has just begun. Here, players will end up gaining an AI unit that leads to them becoming targets for rogue players and some of the more popular faces in the world of Gun Gale Online. As you dive deeper into Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet’s story you will team up with Kirito and his team to solve the purpose of the AI unit you got and why it’s so special in comparison to other models. Ironically, while we worried that being anyone but Kirito would hurt the story and narration of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, it actually gives it strength. This new story feels original all while familiar thanks to the expert guidance of Reki Kawahara—the creator of Sword Art Online—who you can tell made sure to adhere to the lore he created all while making Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet a new and original story.

Now while the story for Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is solid enough most gamers are going to want more than just narrative—which Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet has a bit too much of at times—and that’s why we now want to discuss the gameplay of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet. Players will take their hero/heroine of choice and be blasting away foes in an intense third person action/shooter scenario. Guns are the name of the game in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet and luckily whether you’re rocking a shotgun, handgun, rocket launcher or sword the combat in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet feels solid. Fans of Gun Gale Online will notice that the bullet lines and bullet circle from the anime/light novels/manga appears and is what aids players in shooting accurately as well as dodging enemy fire. You won’t be deflecting bullets like Kirito can but you have various ways of avoiding damage such as rolls, cover and a quick escape/movement tool that reminds us of the grappling hook seen in Freedom Wars, a PS Vita third person shooter that at times feels similar to Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet.

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet has a ton of depth in its gameplay design that amazed us here at Honey’s Anime. Every gun feels and handles differently and the various enemies—both human and non-human—react differently based on your actions. For example, if you favor heavy rocket launchers be prepared to have enemies evading a lot, especially if they are NPCs or real-life players. Your 4-man squad—which in story mode is AI companions—need to be guided by your hands and with quick emotes to tell them where to go and what to do, you’ll always come out on top in Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet.

In terms of RPG elements, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is chock full of rather unique ideas. Players can customize a lot about their set up in terms of if they want to be a strong melee focused fighter/tank or wish to be a sniper like Sinon. What’s also amazing is that Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet features the ability to save builds for you so you can have essentially the same character be able to use different roles depending on the situation. All you need to do is go back to town, load up a custom slot with your skills and status saved on it and then you’re good to go. Add to this a checking system—yes Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet features a banking system—and even the ability to have your AI unit buy items for you of their own violation and you begin to see that Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is a very deep third person shooter thanks to the integration of RPG mechanics.

Graphically, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is also quite stunning. Characters have a lot of depth to them and the same can be said of the enemies—namely the bosses though—as well as the environments. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet looks beautiful and when you get cutscenes you’re treated to some solid animation that reminds us of the Sword Art Online world but with that gaming spin we’ve grown accustomed to here at Honey’s Anime. The same could be said about the music which is solid and really keeps battles flowing. Overall, we knew going into Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet—thanks to us playing the demo—that Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet was going to look incredible and sound equally impressive.

While Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet does more good than bad, it does have some glaring flaws and we wish to explain some of them here. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet has an online component where players can either team up for co-op battles with bosses and other foes or go against each other in several PVP like experiences. While the PVP element is unique, neither the co-op or the PVP itself is that enjoyable as it feels stale and lags something rough. Even when our connections were in top performance, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet still lagged leading to some silly battles and sometimes unfair deaths. Be prepared to spend the majority of time in Sword

Art Online: Fatal Bullet solo as that’s where the enjoyment truly comes into focus.
Speaking of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet’s narrative, there is a ton of it. We are use to the narrative heavy titles from past Sword Art Online games but this one takes the cake. In the first hour alone, there is more explaining the game’s mechanics—which is why we didn’t go into super depth here with our review—that will hammer in every detail of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet whether you want it or not. Even after 10 hours, you’ll still have moments of narration that seem to last for 20 minutes before getting back to the gunplay which is where Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet shines. We also noticed that often some of the narration has weird lag issues where text won’t pop up or will pop up but the characters are talking and or have stopped already. This isn’t a big deal but be sure to not spam the confirm button unless you wish to miss a dialogue choice or hit one by accident.

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet isn’t the best Sword Art Online game but we enjoyed it despite the several flaws it has. The gun play, missions, various environments and bosses keep Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet from ever getting too stale but the tidal wave of dialogue and occasional boring quests don’t help. The online component to Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet also is pretty weak with tons of lag and overly generic missions/fights so you’ll probably want to stick with doing the main game for the crux of the game. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet at the end of the day is a lot of fun even with its issues and for those who love the lore of the games—as once more Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet follows the game lore more than the anime/manga—it’s a good addition to your gaming library. We recommend Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet and think fans will too.

We really are enjoying Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet even now as we continue playing. The constant dialogue—which sometimes is quite boring—and the ho hum quests aren’t that great but the gameplay, visuals and story really make playing Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet feel enjoyable and less like a chore. Don’t go into Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet expecting an atypical shooter as there are mechanics that keep it from just being another third person shooter. Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet does just enough to make it slightly different from other blander third person action shooters and we know that we’re keen on continuing our quest to conquer this world and get the best stats/gear. Are you excited for Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet after reading our review? Let us know via the comments below and be sure to keep stuck to our hive here at Honey’s Anime for more game reviews and gaming related articles.