Echoes of Aincrad Review (PS5, Xbox Series X/S, & PC)

If I logged into a video game only to be told that dying in it meant dying in real life, I wouldn’t be rushing to clear quests. I’d probably be frozen in disbelief, trying to process how a harmless gaming session had escalated to something straight from The Hunger Games. Even writing that sentence is enough to make me a little anxious. That’s what has always made the premise of Sword Art Online so compelling. Thousands of players willingly entered Aincrad, only to discover they were trapped inside a game where every mistake could be their last.

Previous Sword Art Online games have naturally focused on familiar faces like Kirito, Asuna, Lisbeth, Alice, and the rest of the series’ beloved cast. They all take a step back in the newest iteration, simply titled Echoes of Aincrad. Instead, they let you take the spotlight. A custom lead protagonist already had me excited. For one, the story could finally tell an original story I had never seen before. There was room for growth, not only on the gameplay front, but to explore so many story and exploration avenues.

Unfortunately, that promise never quite materializes. Rather than embracing a truly original adventure, Game Studio and Bandai Namco fall back on what’s familiar. The end-result is familiar. It’s repetitive. Worst of all? The story still leans heavily on established characters whose abilities and charm we already know by heart. So, then, what was the point of introducing a custom protagonist in the first place? And after yet another missed opportunity, can Sword Art Online games still deliver the experience fans have been waiting for? Here’s my Echoes of Aincrad review, summing up the thoughts I had after willingly re-entering Aincrad.

No Going Back Now

Sword Art Online’s premise has always been a gripping one from the get-go. A virtual reality MMO game that doesn’t let you leave until you reach the end of its 100 dungeon-crawling floors. A death game where losing to an enemy or boss fight means dying in real-life. It’s a story within a story that knows how to establish high stakes from the very beginning. But it’s a story fans of the anime and manga know all too well. So, for Echoes of Aincrad to switch things up felt like a wise choice. This time, you are a beta tester. Your job is to learn the mechanics, knowing how to fight, collect resources, and explore the world. In a couple of months’ time, the VR MMO game is ready for launch. However, things don’t quite go as planned.

All of the players who sign up for the game, around a thousand or so, gather around the hub. They are told they can’t leave the game until they successfully beat all of its grueling floors. It gets worse. Losing to any enemy or boss fight means dying in real-life. As you can imagine, there’s a lot of confusion among the players. A melting pot of hot emotions running wild. It’s here that I find that Echoes of Aincrad has a great opportunity to engage the player. By breaking down the character’s emotional process, and how they survive. And to a degree, you do enjoy certain characters’ unique approach to danger. The main focus will be on the protagonist, though, whom you spend time choosing their face, body, hair, weapons, and armor. 

Your Place in This World

Unfortunately, your protagonist barely gets the attention they deserve. They barely have a multi-dimensional character and personality. During cutscenes, when their character would be more fleshed out, they’d barely say a word. The most they do is nod and shake their head. And even then, their response carries little impact on how your companions choose to move forward with the story. If anything, your companions get more attention. Their background and charm are more fleshed out. For newcomers, they may still struggle to draw closer to some of the supporting cast. But for fans of Sword Art Online, they’ll be happy to meet their fan-favorites once again. 

One of the issues that hurts the story the most is the pacing. In the beginning, you spend too many hours in the beta testing stage. At this point, the players still haven’t revealed their true identities. Only after the launch do their characters truly begin to take shape. But by then, you spend more time on missions. While some boss fights may have character interactions and cinematic cutscenes, they barely scratch deep into the themes that matter. The emotional turmoil that being forced to play a death game must take on each character, and how they are handling it. In the end, the dialogue is full of anime tropes. It’s straightforward, sweet, and predictable. I do appreciate the strong voice casting and full English dub, though.

Finding Hidden Gems

The map in Echoes of Aincrad is pretty huge. It’s open-ended, giving the vibe of limitless exploration. However, you’ll soon discover that you have to connect between hubs to unlock new areas. And even within those hubs, you have to pick a quest, and it’ll unlock the specific, explorable areas for it. So, no, this isn’t an open-world game. It only looks that way, I assume, to fit with the MMO game within a game setup in the Sword Art Online franchise.

Otherwise, you are exploring a semi-open-ended game, connected via hubs. I suppose it would have been a good idea if the map felt too expansive to be overwhelming. But the map is only massive in scale and not full of things to do. If anything, your top two agendas during nearly every venture out into the world will be to locate treasure chests and fight enemies along the way.

The treasure chests are often hidden off the beaten path, which makes them exciting to stumble upon. After a while, though, you’ll begin to collect similar items or barely useful ones. Eventually, the effort of finding hidden chests doesn’t match the reward. As for enemy encounters, they are certainly fun because of the combat system, which I’ll cover in a bit. I sure would have preferred more enemy variety. At present, enemies often feel repetitive to fight. They may even look similar, except for changes in size or color. Since some enemies are pretty easy to beat, you end up getting bored running into yet another enemy you’ve already fought several times before. 

Up Close and Personal

Something else about exploration. You know the annoying invisible walls that always seem like an oversight? The clear path ahead of you that you’re not allowed to take simply because you haven’t unlocked the specific quest for it? Yup. That’s another issue in Echoes of Aincrad.

I was about to dig into the dungeons, and how repetitive their layout and design also feel after a while. But I’ll spare the cons for now. Instead, it’s important to note how fun the combat in Echoes of Aincrad can be. When you have a mix of light, heavy, and special attacks, and dodges and parries that you need to time precisely, combat can be pretty satisfying. Echoes of Aincrad implements some Soulslike elements without the brutality that comes with it. A few strikes, for instance, are enough to take down most enemies. Yet, they still are attached to a meter, which you power through aggression. Rest points are here as well, and they come with the caveat of respawning enemies. 

I also love that weapons can combine to form a stronger version. Or to transfer perks and stat points. That way, finding new weapons often feels exciting to play around with the six or so melee weapons you can equip. During every fight, you can also combine forces with a companion. They are pretty useful, too, helping to distract enemies and even take them down. They do come with their own meters and upgrade paths, though. And I love that they differ too in the passive abilities they afford you. 

Verdict

More things went wrong in Echoes of Aincrad than they did right. So much so that even in the pros I could find, they became marred by the cons. While it’s certainly awesome to be re-entering the world of Aincard and experiencing the death game from a new perspective, the emotional impact and payoffs barely land. The pacing is too slow, and your custom player is barely interesting. Exploration may have the advantage of a bigger, more detailed world. However, it’s barely packed with interesting environmental interactions, NPCs, or side quests. On the combat front, you’ll certainly enjoy its straightforward melee action. But, when enemies are repetitive, it takes away your interest in playing after some time. 

I’m unsure whether the issues in Echoes of Aincrad can be fixed with a magic wand. They feel too innate, whether you’re a newcomer or a veteran to Sword Art Online games. And did I mention that Echoes of Aincrad is single-player only? It’s disappointing given how much potential the premise of a death game has on the story and combat. But oh, well.