Sword Art Online: Last Recollection performance upgrades previewed in new comparison trailer; Philia and Strea confirmed

Bandai Namco promised fans that the upcoming Sword Art Online: Last Recollection will have improved technical performance from its predecessor, Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris. The benefits of the technical upgrades included in the game were shown off in a new trailer uploaded to the game's official YouTube channel.

Check it out below.

The video is actually an archived clip from a promotional livestream held by Dengeki Online, and showcases real-time comparisons in performance between Sword Art Online: Last Recollection and Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris on PlayStation. The newer game will launch on both PS4 and PS5, while the previous game launched on PS4 only (though it received patches to improve its performance somewhat on PS5).

The comparisons cover the differences in "Game Speed" and loading times afforded by the technical upgrades implemented by Last Recollection's development team. Both on a PS4 Pro and on a PS5, Last Recollection runs at a noticeably smoother framerate compared to Alicization Lycoris, and features less "draw-in", where objects are actively added to a scene due to lag in loading assets and models. Loading times are also significantly improved in Last Recollection, even on the PS4 Pro. Where the PS4 Pro version of Alicization Lycoris takes about 20 seconds to transition maps, the PS4 Pro version of Last Recollection accomplishes the same task in less than 15 seconds. This is even faster than running Alicization Lycoris installed on the PS5's SSD. Meanwhile, the "native" PS5 version of Last Recollection loads the same level in less than 5 seconds.

Additionally, the same stream and promotional messages on the game's social media channels confirmed that the characters Philia and Strea will appear in Sword Art Online: Last Recollection. They're game-original characters first introduced in 2014's Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment. They've appeared in other SAO games, including Lost Song, Hollow Realization, and Fatal Bullet, and were added to Alicization Lycoris as DLC characters. Philia was a fellow victim of the original Aincrad "death game", and met Kirito at the outset of Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment. Strea is an AI character of a similar design to Yui, Kirito and Asuna's AI "daughter".

Sword Art Online: Last Recollection launches on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam on October 5, 2023. Alicization Lycoris is available on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.