2018 is a particularly big year for anime games. A ton of anime-inspired titles are on the way to various platforms this year, from Dragon Ball FighterZ and Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth--both of which are already available--to My Hero Academia: One's Justice and the ambitious, open-world One Piece game, Grand Cruise. The most recent is Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, Bandai Namco's latest adaptation of the popular anime and manga series, which arrived on PC and consoles on February 23.
Unlike previous Sword Art Online games, Fatal Bullet takes place within the world of Gun Gale Online (or GGO), the shooter/MMO that serves as the setting for the first arc of Sword Art Online's second season. Fittingly, Fatal Bullet plays out like a third-person shooter rather than a typical fantasy RPG, emphasizing cover and twitchy gunplay over swords and magic. And while the game doesn't follow the same story arc from the anime directly, many of SAO's most recognizable characters do make an appearance in Fatal Bullet in various roles, including Kirito, Leafa, and Asuna.
On the latest episode of GameSpot Live, we played through the early portions of Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet. In our two-hour session with the game, we explored the world, picked up treasure, gunned down enemies in dungeons, and met up with Kirito and other familiar Sword Art Online characters. If you weren't able to join us earlier for the livestream, you can watch a replay of our exploits in the world of GGO above.
Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is now available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. If you'd like to see more of the title, you can watch Fatal Bullet's opening movie here. We've also recorded eight additional minutes of gameplay footage, featuring Sinon and Kirito battling giant scorpions and other robotic enemies.
