Echoes of Aincrad

Echoes of Aincrad, in its current state, is a solid 4/10. The game feels bare and like it was rushed to release. I really wanted more from this game and it currently barely delivers. The enemies are all the same 4 or 5 with different "variations", the world feels pretty empty and the chests, in said world, all have terrible loot like a bomb stone when you just used one to get to the chest. Progression, combat and sword skills all feel nice but its grossly underutilized when you're running around for almost an hour. The dungeons are only slightly better and it's not by much. Most of them feel pretty much the same but the loot from chests is a lot better. There are also unique ambushes in these dungeons that are fun at times. Unfortunately that doesn't matter when half of the enemies phase under floors and stay there. The bosses in these dungeons are also just reskins and don't give you anything but the same Annealed Blade you just grabbed 3 minutes ago. When I played the demo I was under the impression that it was like this because it was "the beta" in SAO and like the full release of it, there would be more at launch. Unfortunately I was wrong because there are no NPC's outside of towns, no random world events, no free exploration and no secret gear or skills to try and find. Couple that with the fact that there's somehow ONLY TWO FLOORS out of the 100 in the game and you get this. I understand that asking a studio to make 100 fully explorable and unique floors, WITH the brand new story they're using is a huge ask, let alone a huge idea but at least 5-10 would've been nice. I don't know what the future of this game is going to be like but I hope they add more to it because this shouldn't be selling for $70 USD.

i came to the game not as a fan of SAO but because i liked the demo. what i didnt know was that the demo was the whole game fr. 4 main enemy types the entire game, boar, wolf, bear, kobold. theres like 3 others that are spread out like the wasp, plant monster and thief rat thing but over all its hella repetitive. i feel ripped off for buying the ultimate edition. death mode doesnt even have a reward. the story is OK.

一如既往的透明人队友，看着残血玩家没有一点帮忙吸引仇恨的操作；还有离谱的技能判断范围，boss的猪鼻子千里之外就能拱到人身上，跺个地板也能把远在身后的人弹飞，游戏性做成这样简直就离谱；而且非要结束任务之后才能回到城镇，每次背包物品不够了就得折腾一个来回，不知道设计这个功能的目的是什么，还不如之前几款SAO游戏的模式。

Well lets separe a little bit this review Story/Gameplay If you are familiar with SAO and you expecting that it will follow whole Anime ... you will be disappointed, because, there are few things which do not connect with anime/manga ... but was is good as stand alone story, yeah I think they could spare us forcefuly interact with lore characters, but i Think some people will be glad that their favourite characters appeared there. So with that interesting story with ending where it left open doors for next game (dont know if it will be enough succesful to recieve another game, hope so) And now gameplay Here you can see similiar patern to eastern RPG games, same bosses, same mobs, grinding, upgrading of gear, here is maybe 10 models of NPC and after that another 10 colour variants of each model. From number of pigs i killed i could end world hunger 10 times over. Pork for everyone for rest of days. Is it fun from beggining? Absolutely Yes... Does it after some time beggin to annoy you? If you are not fan of this hard grind .. Yes. But with those games you know every time what you can expect, so for story, fighting and visuals, yes I am glad i played that, but I think that if there will not be DLC which will add something interesting or new story chapter, it is a game which I will not play again, but I will not have bad memories or bad aftertaste after I finished it. Maybe wait for some discount as for this price tag I think it is not worth.

I lost 24 hours of gameplay because the game crashed and the save file got corrupted; now, whenever I launch the game, I get stuck in an infinite loop where it asks me to accept the privacy policy and then sends me back to the title screen over and over again. Please fix this issue it is unacceptable that I have to restart the game after putting in so many hours.

Solid 8/10 for those who actually paid attention during the official announcement. Short and (Not so) Sweet: Game was announced as a Single Player experience, Mission Driven gameplay with no open world, and consisting of the first 2 floors to start. Devs gave us exactly that, so the people complaining about the "Lack of Multiplayer" or "It's only the first 2 floors" are the same ones who don't pay attention. Enemy Variety: You have a few simple types but they do vary in terms of abilities to separate them enough to be a pain in their own rights. (Every game out there just reskins/reuses the same enemies over and over so faulting for this is pointless) Story: Good concept, kinda mild in execution. NPCs/Allies: Outside of one that genuinely annoyed me, they weren't that bad overall with each one having their own quirks to make for some fun moments. Perm Death Mode: You can either unlock it by beating the game once on any difficulty or buy paying a little extra up front. This is not mandatory, and considering as how you can get killed by animation locks fairly easily when fighting, this is a good thing. Learn the game in a forgiving environment before you try to go for the community set challenges. (No hit, Perma Death Mode, etc) Personal gripe: Character creations could use a bit more options/care. It's simple overall, but a color wheel would also do wonders. And some of the character animations are a bit stiff. If you're on the fence of if you want to buy it, try the demo. The demo takes you through the entire tutorial of the game and let's you see how gameplays will genuinely feel and does have relevance to the story itself. If you go into the game with an open mind and give it a genuine chance, you might be surprised.

【プレイ状況】 ・SAO知識はアニメの二期？までとミームくらい ・デスゲームモード＆ベリーハード（攻略情報等なし） ・主なコンテンツはクリア済（あとはトロフィー埋めくらい） ・ナーヴギア4台目 ・キーボード・マウス 【プレイ前に気になっていたこと→実際にどう感じたか】 ・ボリューム（二層までしかないと発売前に少し話題にあがっていた） →自分にはちょうどいい量だった。というのも1層をクリアする頃にはロストすることが怖すぎて、 （これが100層までなくてよかった……）と思うようになっていたから。 　1回脳を焼かれてからは強気にサクサク進められたけど、サブクエなどの回収まで含めると十分な量に感じた。 ・体験版で感じた独特な操作性（主にカメラ） 　水平方向の移動がダイヤル式で、マウスだと動かした距離とカメラの回転が合わない。 　デフォのキー設定が微妙すぎる。 →慣れた、その程度の問題だった。けど最初に自分に合う操作設定を見つけた方がいい。 【感想】 　粗削りのゲームという印象がプレイ中も残り続けていたが、このゲームにはプレイヤーを楽しませようという工夫がたくさんあり、純粋にゲームとして面白かった。一方で、そういうところに目がいくのはデスゲームモードという集中した状態でゲームをプレイできたからというのが大きい。デスゲームモードがデフォルトで最初から選べないのは、ミドルユーザーへの配慮なのかもしれないが、良いゲーム体験だけを別売りで出して味気ない部分をフルプライスで提供しているようなもので、ゲーム会社ってこれでいいのか？　って、なっちゃうよね～ 　この下は少しでも攻略要素に触れたくない人に配慮 [spoiler] 　このゲームとにかく数値が怪しい。それが全体のゲームバランス、そして体験を乱しているように感じた。 　パートナーキャラでいえば、イオリは書いてあること自体は強いが効果範囲・回復量と速度の値が低く、そもそもの片手剣スキルも弱い（スケールも微妙なので最後まで弱い）ので使う理由がウルトくらいしかない。 　一方でアルゴは書いてあることは弱いがバフの値が大きく短剣スキルも優秀で最後までダメージが出ている。 　自分は、タンク役として期待していたエギルはサポートスキルの効果範囲が狭いせいなのかアグロを引ききれていないし、斧のソードスキルのダメージが低すぎて絶望的だった。 　プレイヤーの使いたいキャラや武器が数値のせいで端に追いやられるのはアニメ原作のゲームとしてはきついことなんじゃない？ 　個人的に一番ゲームに影響を及ぼしていると思うのは武器のモッドの値。 　自然に考えるなら弱いベースタイプには低ティアのモッドが、強いベースタイプには高ティアのモッドがつくべきだが、ベースタイプとモッドの関連性がないことが最初から最後までゲームとかみ合わなかった気がする。 　序盤は状態異常がとんでもなく凶悪だったが、これを解決するには高い値の耐性モッドが必要になる。序盤からモッドのガチャをお祈りさせるのは本当にデザインしたくてやったことなのか？　モッドの値を制限していれば敵の状態異常の値も制限できるしアイテムの重要性も上がる。そっちの方が難易度として自然だと思う。 　中盤までにモッドが揃うと戦闘は単調になるし、武器の高レアドロップもただの色でしかなくなる。敵の強さも途中で跳ね上がったと感じたが、これはデザインとして合ってないんじゃないかと思う。スケールの良い武器と悪い武器で明らかに差が開き始めるから。 　ベースタイプとモッドの値に関連性があれば、中盤からモッドの値に気を遣うようになり、だんだんとスケールを感じやすく（調整しやすく）なるはず。敵の強さのインフレは緩やかで済むし、高レア武器が落ちたときに良いモッドがついているかもとワクワクできる。一番はモッドのティアや数を参照してアイテムレアリティを決めることだが、ベースタイプを参照すると決めたなら工夫してデザインする必要があった。例えば特定の高レアモッドを持つ武器は色や演出を変えたり、低ティアモッドしか持たない武器は拾えないように設定できたりなどは現状でもほしい。 [/spoiler] 　って細かいコトをぐちぐちと言ってしまうほどには楽しかった。次回作出てくれ～！！

This game is amazing. Runs flawlessly

not enjoyable just kind of a waste of time in my opinion it gets so boring and repetitive while exploring floor 2 I got so burned out that I had to uninstall the game at first the game was okay but after doing the same exact thing for 9 hours straight I started to get bored the characters aren't even good (that's spoilers so I will not get into it) for anyone who doesn't want to do the same thing over and over again, listen to your companions say the same 7 lines over and over again as well as fighting the same 5 or so enemies through the entire game don't touch this game if you don't mind the above and you for some reason enjoy SAO then go ahead and play this game 4/10 and that's being generous

EoA better known as Empty of Anything is Bandai's second fumble at a souls like with all the same problems Code Vein II had earlier this year (or was it last year? It's blurring together) It's a game where you're not allowed to have anything: Your are an NPC in an SAO fanfic with no bearing on your own story. It literally could exist without you. You are quite literally the well equipped NPC that gets summoned to go lawnmower adds and beat the game for the arguably main character Iori. (Although frankly that's a smart move on her part, the one thing this game does get right is characters jumping to sensible conclusions or reacting about as expected in their situation.) The combat is horrifically mismatched - enemies attack as if you're in a JRPG where getting hit is acceptable however you move as if you're in a souls game and if anything touches you, you will run into the Helldivers ragdoll problem except dialed up to 11. If you get really unlucky with enemy spawns, it is not hyperbole to say the game is unplayable - you literally will not get to press buttons, THE definition of unplayable. There is no such thing as a build. All weapons and Sword Skills do the same DPS but just have different animations. I gave up on all the weapon types, went 1 handed sword, dropped my shield and decided to just guard cancel the last normal slash things to death with Horizontal Quad slash - no not horizontal square, horizontal quad slash. That's it. That's my two moves. Do you have a favorite Aincrad era sword art character? Too bad. Cameos only. You are irrelevent and they are support characters to an MC, you contribute nothing, you lose, good day sir. Lastly the padding is horrendous in every aspect. Hold to confirm, hold to interact, the infamous 10 second Ark Barrier cutscenes that everyone has mentioned already by now which you will see once every 30 seconds. Even down to the map designs themselves. Imagine solving a maze by keeping your hand against the wall and following it - every route of travel is like that in this game. There is never a straight line, the map designers went out of their way to make sure even if two points are 20 yards from each other there's a spiral to connect them, every time, without fail, sometimes looping over itself. There is straight up nothing for anyone here. It's a bunch of over priced, mismatched pieces arranged in a social experiment to try and leverage SAO fans to help Bandai recoup losses from other bad products.