Update [Sat 2nd Jul, 2022 08:30 BST]: Following on from a leak earlier this week, Bandai Namco has now officially confirmed the 2020 RPG release Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris will be coming to the Nintendo Switch soon.
This version will include "Ancient Apostles" free content updates, and additional free and paid content will also be made available in later updates (thanks, Gematsu). There's no release date for the Switch version just yet, so keep an eye out for one in the near future.
Original article [Thu 30th Jun, 2022 18:15 BST]: It looks like 2020's Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is Switch-bound if a recent retailer leak is anything to go by.
Australian Nintendo community Vooks has reported that EB Games Australia accidentally listed a switch version of Bandai Namco's latest game based on the Sword Art Online anime. There's no specific release date for the game — simply a "2022" window — but as other Sword Art Online games have made their way to Switch, we wouldn't be surprised if this was on the cards too.
There's nothing fancy about the accidental listing, otherwise! Just some placeholder box art and some pricing, and that's it. Interestingly, Bandai Namco has just announced that the game will be receiving new DLC on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam in the future.
When the game first launched on PS4 in 2020, our friends over at Push Square were less than impressed with it, calling it a "technical mess".
Are you a Sword Art Online fan? Would you grab this on Switch if it came to the console? Share your thoughts below.
[source vooks.net]
Comments 27
Would I grab it for Switch? Absolutely not. The game is 30 FPS on PS4, but feels like its 15FPS, and not even consistent. Can't even imagine how horrible it would be on Switch. Lol
Who names this garbage
Here come the people whining about performance even though they havent seen a thing.
Let's remind some of you that all SAO games on Switch run at a stable 30.
@BloodNinja SAO: AL is far from garbage. I actually like it far more than the anime and I'm not a die-hard fan of the anime, just a casual viewer so this isn't coming from a blind fanboy. 😉
I don't care if it runs at 15fps until patched. I played them all on vita ( easily 100 hours per ) and loved the janky, chill grind those games have. I'll buy it day 1. My swoled has become a JRPG heaven.
Had it on ps4 since day one and its a decent game, easily the best sword art game so far and can play as any of the characters instead of just kirito. The only let down is the item store which they introduced which isn't worth the hassle or money for the items you get.
I enjoy the series. I'd buy a copy.
Just give us another Tales game.
Sword Art Licorice. Delicious
I liked the anime so will keep an eye on this.
@Rika_Yoshitake you only totally forget those game are lighter to run too.
I can run any SAO game at locked 120fps on my desktop with max settings, when Alicization Lyroris came out I had to LOWER the settings to get anything above 30fps.
They fixed most of the issues, but even now getting 60fps means I still have to fiddle around with the settings, they tried a newer engine this time and failed hard at it, so I have my doubts if this game will even run at acceptable framerate, graphical settings and resolution on the Switch.
Because even on the PS4 it was a hot mess.
As for the game, it is fun but only for the fans.
For new commers I would say Fatal Bullet and Hollow Realization make more sense.
@Palico82 same, I remember playing Hollow Realization on the Vita, finished it and all the DLC back then and it was a blast.
Busy with replaying it on PC and it is still fun, just more smooth now.
The only one I never finished on the Vita was the Accel World one, had to play it on PC because on the Vita the poor performance was a littlebit too much.
Hollow Realization has weaker performance too on the Vita, but it has no flying so I can live with that, Accel World got too frustrating for me because of framerate and flying, Lost Song was better on that regard.
For a second there I though those two were Wolfram and Yuuri and almost had a (positive) stroke
Wouldn’t surprise me. HR and the GGO game is on Switch. Would make sense with the announcement of the new dlc for it.
Yeah I saw this on EBgames pre-order page a few days ago and was wondering why I hadn't seen it mentioned on any gaming news sites.
And with this, SAO games are back to being fully portable. Yes, please.
@Serpenterror Imagine if we can play Tales of Arise on Switch.. one can only dream.
@Olympia if this would run on the Switch, then Tales of Arise could technically too.
Tales of Arise is a heavy game, but at least good optimised from day one.
However... Alicization Lycoris is much heavier than Fatal Bullet, and that game already had some hefty resolution penalty on the Switch.
Why port a Bandai Namco game that got awful reviews over Code Vein, Berseria or Scarlet Nexus though?
@Rayquaza2510 I found lost song ran well on vita, it was just so....bland looking. Accel world, while it did run like hot garbage, added flying mech suits.....so it got a pass from me for my frustrating 50 hour playthrough lol
@Oscarzxn I'm genuinely shocked they having ported code vein YET. But I feel like that and scarlet nexus could very likely come in the future. Bandai loves the switch and we seem to be getting the majority of their games.. just sometimes delayed by a few years.
@Oscarzxn because SAO as a brand is popular and Switch already got two other games on the platform?
@Rayquaza2510 that is because Lost Song and Hollow Fragment were PS3 and a PSP port for the latter.
Hollow Realization and Accel World were PS4 ports, and sadly any PS4 3D game on Vita had performance issues, while native or older system ports ran mostly fine.
Another issue was that Accel World was a worse port than Hollow Realization to begin with.
@Rayquaza2510 I mean to be fair Hollow Realization was still way better looking on Switch than it was on Vita plus the Switch version actually runs no worse than the PS4 version as far as the frame-rate is concerned. And poor old Fatal Bullet couldn't even run on Vita and was scrapped on the console while it has a minor visual downgrade on Switch, but still runs decent with only an occasional slight dip in FPS. I'm sure Alicization Lycoris will look good enough on Switch, but am a bit concerned it might run a bit more like the Vita ports of the older SAO games, because it has a lot more resources that require computing power than the previous games on Switch.
Also why did you at yourself? 😂
hmmmm
ni no kuni 2 ran like crap on switch, going as low as 22fps in the overworld... i'm really not fealing it
@TowaHerschel7 for some reason I didn’t realise I was @-ing myself.
As for Fatal Bullet on Switch, I think the resolution especially in handheld got a too big hit, but it is true the framerate is fine.
Hollow Realization on Vita does indeed look visibly worse than Switch, framerate is better too on the latter but the game has it’s usual easy to trigger framerate dips (I assume engine issues, even on PC you can trigger them)
As usual, I got to buy another SAO Switch Port. I just hope they will release the other SAO games for the Nintendo Switch that haven't been release yet, including the Accel World crossover game.
Despite the mediocre reception my brother swears by this game. Says it's fantastic (granted, he's a fan of the anime so there's that).
I told him I'd pass unless a Switch version were to release. Lo and behold, here is that Switch version
And frankly, the footage looks excellent. Whatever team ported this game seems to know what they're doing. Bandai Namco has been on a roll lately with Switch ports. DragonBall Z Kakarot was also a very impressive release, against all odds.
I'll pick it up. Why not.
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