Echoes of Aincrad

不錯~雖然不到完美~但是還是很棒的作品

repetitive, lacks depth, level design is extremely poor locking you from free roaming . such a shame entry to the SAO series

[b]tl;dr[/b] - SAO-flavored (fun references and callbacks), hack-and-slash action RPG with Souls-like elements. It is impossible to justify the $70 price tag for this game--it should be, at best, in the $20-$30 range--given the content. Nevertheless, I think it was still fun, and, as of writing this review, the demo especially should be played first before deciding to commit. [u]Story[/u] - The premise starts with the same early SAO (Progressive) story that anyone familiar with the series already knows, and because of that, there is a common assumption that the game focuses on the progression through Aincrad. That is a misconception. The Aincrad progression is something that happens in the background, and the player character's only involvement in it is the Floor 1 boss raid. From there, the game's story divorces from the floor progression side and instead goes in a different direction. The implied significance of the story does feel disjointed in the overall scheme of Aincrad, especially considering this all happens during (Progressive) Floor 2--the stakes feel imbalanced and far too high considering how "early" into the game the players are. That being said, do not go into this game expecting it to revolve around the floor progression--this follows a different but parallel storyline. As an aside, the ending does feel rushed, but more in the vein of "this feels like it should be the start of what is actually supposed to happen" rather than "everything was handwaved into resolution." [u]Characters[/u] - All of the mainline Aincrad cast shows up in one form or another but as side characters you can bring along. The main "cast" isn't bad in comparison. While the story doesn't focus on Kirito, neither does it focus on the player character--instead, the center of attention and main point of reference is going to be Iori. This is yet another SAO spin-off title where the player character is just the vehicle that carries the driver along. In short, the player character is like Orca to Iori's Kite, if Orca didn't get data drained and was instead a silent Jeigan for the entirety of the quadrilogy. I also like how the characters are portrayed as far as the "real people trapped in a death game" scenario goes. There are a few moments where the characters are humanized in a (comparatively) believable way, and I think that captures the most interesting and compelling part of the SAO-verse: the human response to being put in such a situation. [u]Music[/u] - Basically all forgettable except for the Aimer song, especially when it plays for the final boss. That's really all that matters. Bless Aimer. [u]Gameplay[/u] - As mentioned before, it is a hack-and-slash with Souls-like-elements--bonfires, perfect-timing dodges and guards, a stamina resource, an very limited Estus flask, respawning enemies, etc. The equipment system with the EX-MODS is a fun customization bit, if different from the source material's own upgrade system--each weapon only has a single unique line, but even then, it feels like the optimal build (preference aside) is to build dagger and stack as much sprint speed as possible--while the armor is pick-and-choose the preferred bonuses while playing dress-up with a surprising amount of color-way customization options. On the topic of sprint speed--the "overworld" is inconveniently oversized relative to the traversal options available, in that there is only walking/running. Climbing is unreliable at best and unusable at worst--drops are deceiving, but unlike in older Souls games where hopping off a railing will kill you, in Echoes, it will instead return you to the last spot you had solid footing. My overview of the combat is fairly limited--after the first few wipes on Death Game mode, I settled on daggers, and every fight became rinse-and-repeat cycle of "close in on boss, shotgun a fan of knives, break away and wait for cooldown." That being said, for a much easier time getting through Very Hard Death Game, build dagger, balance AGI and VIT, and stack as much mitigation and sprint speed as possible (build in screenshots). I have been told this is a very unethical build, but if the game allows it, then it is all ethical to me. [u]Conclusion[/u] - I really like the game. It was intensely frustrating at times, and I have lost tens of hours over the course of however many deaths I had. Some of the systems are very questionable (character animations, deliberate time wasters, the flow of the game), but the presentation and the immersion of being "in a game" carries a lot of the burden that would have otherwise bogged down another game. Of course, I also immensely enjoy SAO as a franchise. 10/10.