Echoes of Aincrad

Great story, amazing world to explore, and pretty loyal to SAO. I like it 💖

Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad gets a lot of things right. The story is great, the characters are fun to follow, and the combat kept me engaged from start to finish. As an SAO fan, it really captures the feel of the anime. My biggest issue is the world itself. Aincrad looks amazing, but it never feels as open as it should. For a game based on an MMORPG, I expected more freedom to explore. Instead, you're mostly jumping from one main mission to the next, with side quests usually starting from an NPC in town. It makes the game feel much more mission-based than adventure-based. After playing games like Breath of the Wild and Elden Ring, it's hard not to feel like this was a missed opportunity. Imagine just wandering through Aincrad, finding hidden bosses, random events, or side quests naturally instead of selecting them from a list. That sense of discovery would've made the world feel alive. Even with that complaint, I still had a good time. The story, characters, and combat are strong enough to carry the experience. I just can't help but think this could have been something really special if it had embraced exploration more. For me, that's the difference between a 7/10 and a 9/10.

i am the furthest thing from a reviewer but with all the hate i have to say something lol. this game is 100% a souls like but for employed people. the games not bad at all it feels simple enough to be "basic" but complex enough to be intriguing. I'm only just now getting to floor 2 and I've had more fun in this than Elden ring. maps being locked for each quest gives a sense of direction rather than wandering aimlessly. i know open world is the thing but in a narrative sense locking zones to quests is extremely smart in my opinion. it feels like less stress of "oh am i missing this or that", you go to each safe area and locate things in those areas some at times showing things you can get later on. and side quests being a key for different mechanics or leveling features is so nice for example in order to get transmog you must complete the side quest for in the town of beginnings {TOB} and if you don't return there from tolbana you may not see that quest till later on. same thing with skill leveling after a point you go back to the TOB and there's a side quest for skill leveling. i feel as though the hate for this game is unjust i get there was cut content but that's every game look at destiny 1 for example, games have gotten overly complex and i feel as though this is finally bringing back some simplicity to the industry. i got this out of love for SAO and now play it for the love for the game. I have also noticed a lot of folk saying there's only 2-4 enemy types that is accurate-ish but not accounting for the different styles of enemy types, each one has different moves and attack patterns. even still games like Skyrim you fight the same npc framework for each humanoid enemy, this is similar to that but imagine each humanoid variant {ex: skeletons, druagr, nords} had different move sets that's how this feels. refreshing is the word id use. needed to touch on that for my sanity. lastly the character creator and the silent character i will say the creator could use some love and separation between heads and facial hair as well as hair types i get its an anime game a lot of styles are similar but more variety would've been nice. the silent character i love its always gave me a chuckle reckon i played a lot of jump force so i was expecting a head nod type beat, but YOU GOT YURI LOWENTHALL for one of the male voices for the switch i would've had an option of silent protag or voiced especially in a game like this were story is everything. overall the game isnt bad, we have just gotten used to over achieving games that dont want to be simple or basic anymore. these are just my thoughts as a player and a sao fan. thank you for reading if you do :)

If you enjoy Sword Art Online you will enjoy this as an expansion to the series, getting to experience the beginning of the franchise. The gameplay is simple and the general experience is the same throughout, playing casual is fun and can be a bit of a challenge but it won't blow you away. The story is a fun time and enjoyable but it leaves a lot to the imagination and it feels quite empty overall. A lot of the characters are kind of just there and those you meet throughout the journey come and go without much explanation which is a bit of a shame because some of them have good potential and are quite interesting to explore. It lacks a lot of what you would want from the gameplay, I found myself wanting a lot more out of each part of the game- the characters, weapons, gear, story, progression and particularly the sword skills- I wanted so much more out of it, it was a shame they didn't have some of the actual skills (Sonic Leap, Nova Ascension). It all felt lacking in some way but overall came together for a fun time nonetheless. It's a new take on the existing formula they have went with but the older games in the series have a lot more content so hopefully more comes out in the future. I had fun, Sword Art Online is one of my favourite franchises so the experience for me was great. If you are a fan you will enjoy. If you are a big fan you will find it lacking in many ways but could find the enjoyment out of it. I would give it a 8.5/10 for me personally, I wished there was more, more story, floors, content, more all of it really. But rating it properly, I would give it a 5.5/10~ It isn't the best in the franchise and it doesn't give me a reason to go back until they add the expansion pack towards the end of the year. The other time they let you add an OC into the game was Fatal Bullet, that had a lot more content and more of a reason to go back. This at sometimes didn't feel like SAO and I wished it did. for what it is, it's worth playing.

A few things I'd tweak. Optimization of the game. Regardless of what fps I'm running at, or the settings, turning is stuttery. Simply and generally work on optimizing this game to run better on pc. Tying into that first one, a bit, the run cycles in this game are ASS. I'm talking about the animations. The normal jog is fine. The SPRINT animations remind me of Season One RWBY. Seriously, go watch episode 2 of RWBY, and you'll see what I mean. Stiff and frankly, undesirable to look at. Now, if I didn't have to RUN everywhere, I wouldn't care. But I do. And it's an insult to my damn eyes. Three? The game is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ empty. One, this is supposed to be an mmo experience, and many others already complained about that. MY complaint in particular is that this game DOESN'T have multiplayer. Because if I'm gonna suffer through the same repetitive cycle the whole story, I wanna AT LEAST be able to do it with an ACTUALLY COMPETENT ALLY, and not some trashy, glitchy, AI that get's caught up on an enemy 40 meters back south. Frankly, they're just more of a distraction. I feel I'd play better without them present. That doesn't mean I hate them. At times, their specials are nice and goated. But otherwise? Nah, absolutely useless. So multiplayer would be an ASTOUNDING addition to this game. (Should have already BEEN there, but whatever.) And imagine CO-OP Death Game Runs! You want us to have the true SAO experience? Let us do that with REAL Party members who share the same stakes as us! It's a goated Idea, TRUSSSSST~! I'll leave a positive review because of POTENTIAL. But if it's not realized, NEGATIVE IT GOES. Buh-bye~!

Es un juego sin alma,siempre las mismas misiones,NPC con conversaciones absurdas y no vale de nada subir nivel ,apenas se nota . çlas armas y armaduras son simples ,escasas y el dinero vale para algo? comprar pociones . una decepcion de juego

The short version - I took a break and realised I have no desire to pick this game back up. Which I'm just disappointed as a fan of the anime I really hoped for more. The long version (some spoilers proceed at your own risk) I also maxed out the demo so my full time spent in this game is around 30hrs for context. In that 30hrs I completed all of floor 1 and side quests. and a good portion into floor 2 including side quests. I'll start with the good as it goes pretty rapidly downhill from here. The graphics are nice. Nothing to make a grown man weep or anything but plenty to appreciate. For the most part combat is fun enough. There's enough weapons and depth to keep it from being boring. Well thats probably it. The biggest yikes for me was finding out the developers claimed "They could not implement all 100 floors for it would take 10 years of development as each floor is 10km2" As a fan it was disappointing. However, I could still accept 2 floors that are amazing level of quality and polish. In reality we got 2 floors of a almost entirely empty world and plenty of walking. Enemy variety - Floor 1 I would say its bare minimum passable once you get a bit deeper into the first floor. Floor 2 however the enemy variety is just embarrassing. To the point where obvious "cow-like" enemies are re-using the boar sound effects from floor 1. By the time I dropped the game I had fought ilfang the kobold lord 3 or 4 times through the main story and side quests it was a good boss but holy re-use. Difficulty - Super easy I played on hard off rip, outside a couple boss fights it was a breeze. Chests - Having to use a consumable item to access some chests only for it to give you a different consumable item felt like the devs were actively laughing at me with that one. Dungeons - Variety is poor, you go back to the same dungeon multiple times and I think there's supposed to be randomness to the layouts? if there is, its barely noticeable. I played 3 truly different dungeons in my 30hrs Tutorial - Probably the longest tutorial ive every played. with the exception of some key bits of hype. completely unreasonable length and poor design. 100% if you do want to play this game (maybe on a hefty sale) please do this in the demo version as its just a time sink. The demo covers almost the full tutorial/intro Story - From what I got through it was fine. my only real gripe without saying too much "big sad" things happen to characters you don't interact with outside of maybe 3 lines of dialog. So there's just no emotional weight when it happens as its like... and you are? they should have been companions first. Conclusion - On a hefty sale there's something to get out of the game. The dev comments just really rub me the wrong way. This game is full of re-used enemies, models and sound effects. large empty worlds with nothing to discover and a tutorial that wastes your time. If you're going to claim 2 floors is all that was possible maybe don't have it riddled with re-used elements and actually have given us a really in depth and refined experience for the high price. Its unfortunately just another misleading cash grab anime game we all know and love.