i hate Sword Art Online. It’s not the worst anime ever, but it’s an anime with the most wasted potential I’ve ever seen. The premise of a hilarious action anime set in an MMORPG where dying in-game means dying in real life actually opens the door for some really compelling character drama. What we got instead were a few seasons of endless isekai tropes, harem tropes, weirdly dated gender politics, and a power fantasy hero so blatant that he makes Goku look nuanced.
When they started making video games based on them Sword Art OnlineI was intrigued by the prospect because I thought gaming could be the perfect place to realize the unrealized potential of anime. Unfortunately, all we got were these weird single-player ARPGs that fit the aesthetic of MMORPGs, while refusing to move past Kirito and his friends. When you only focus on the cast of the anime, but fail to replicate the stories in the anime, you very easily enter the “filler episode” territory that all games have.
I tell you all this now so that you know my expectations when I go in Echoes of Aincrad. The marketing for this game has been a little weird, to say the least. From the initial blurb of the “new action RPG from Bandai Namco” to its many trailers and titles, it seems they’ve really played down the fact that it’s an SAO game. The game’s full title, Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online, isn’t even used in any of the digital store listings, and the subtitle on the box art is so small you’d be forgiven for missing it entirely.
I thought it was weird at first, but now that I’ve played the whole game I think it might have been the right call. Because Echoes of Aincrad It seems to have been made entirely with the intention of attracting new players who enjoy RPGs, whether or not they include the source material. If you’re a card-carrying member of the Kirito hate club like me, I’ve got good news for you.
The game begins with a lengthy tutorial prologue cleverly disguised as a Beta Version of an upcoming game. Sword Art Online MMORPG. You’re given a pre-made avatar that you can’t customize when dealing with multiple game systems. You’re introduced to combat, crafting, leveling, questing, but most importantly, you’re introduced to the cast of supporting characters. During the prologue, you befriend Cal, Argo, Iori, and a few others who bond over their mutual love of actual video games. You all become friends online and promise to have fun when the full game starts.
After the beta, you’re allowed to create your own character for the “full game”, but this startup goes horribly wrong as the game’s design locks out all players, unlocks them, and changes all their avatars to actual face-scanned faces. This is where the avatar you make is “revealed” to be your custom character. And of course, if you die in the game, you really will. What begins as a healthy experience turns into a desperate struggle for survival.
I think it’s here Echoes of Aincrad indeed reveals his true intentions. It’s not a game that cares about retelling the story of the anime, and it cares less about Kirito and his friends. Anime events mostly take place off-screen. In a particularly inspired section, a major A great action sequence in the anime, Raid Boss plays at a distance, with you and your party simply backing up and fighting. A little anticlimactic? Maybe, but I was grinning from ear to ear.
see Echoes of Aincrad it does what an anime should do. It tries to get into the hearts of people who love RPGs and why they play the games they do. Each character you meet has their own play style, as well as their own motivations for why they love the game. Cal wants to connect with his estranged brother by introducing him to this game he loves, Iori likes to exist in a world without borders or real world baggage, Stina is a real gnat who really loves Japanese games and uses them to learn the language. It’s not the most inspired post, but it’s very persuasive and compelling.
Other than what I thought was a great story, Echoes of Aincrad it’s a bit of a mixed bag. I’ll get the positives out of the way before I actually get into the game. It’s visual amazing. The developers combined realistic 3D environments and lighting with beautifully shaded character models to create this gorgeous mixed-media pastiche, which may look a little rote in screenshots, but looks gorgeous in action. Characters and monsters look amazing and have expressive animations. The particle effects really make the battles read.
All of this is complemented by a fantastic background score that seamlessly transitions between battle music and low key ambient soundscapes. Breath of the Wild. The cumulative effect of this aesthetic and soundscape is that Echoes of Aincrad It perfectly captures the semi-meditative experience of zoning as you explore a gorgeous MMORPG world.
The actual combat that drives it all is pretty good too. Instead of trying to approximate the hotbar-driven style of traditional MMOs, Echoes of Aincrad is a light-hearted affair where you lock on to enemies and roam around while crushing light and heavy attacks drawn from the stamina bar. In addition to the basic combat moveset, you also get “sword skills”, which are special abilities that work on a recharge mana bar. The moment-to-moment rhythm of combat involves getting your hits in while waiting for your abilities to prepare, then throwing your cooldowns at mobs. Enemy variety keeps this from getting old, and using your skill set wisely will allow you to get through fights more quickly.
You are always accompanied by a partner character who can spice things up. Unlike most games, the partner AI is actually skilled in combat and follows orders, and each partner has their own special abilities that can really help you out in a pinch. Wyzeman is a tank, Iori is a healer, etc. Bringing the right partner on the right quest can make life easier, but I stuck with Iori throughout the game because it made the most sense story-wise and I was never punished for it. The enemies themselves pack quite a punch, and even on normal, I was often fighting for my life, but there are easier settings for those who want to experience the story.
Combat is enhanced by a very simple but effective progression system. You gain XP for leveling up, and each level up gives you some battle points to put into your stats. You can add or remove stat points at any time without penalty, or even reset your entire build at no cost. This is useful when you want to switch weapon classes, as each weapon type has a completely different moveset and different stat scales. This system may not be compatible with lore Sword Art Onlinebut it’s an absolutely great thing to have in an action RPG.
There’s also a fairly rudimentary crafting system where you use materials gathered as you quest to craft and upgrade your gear. It’s great, although I found it a little lacking because there’s no way to buy stuff you don’t have. It’s also difficult to know which materials are available in which area or dropped by which monsters. There’s an in-game dictionary that will tell you all about materials and monsters, but I’d argue that you won’t find the dictionary defeating its purpose.
But my biggest problem Echoes of Aincrad is its structure. While it’s technically an open world, you’re never allowed to go out and explore at your leisure. You can teleport between towns, but the only way to get out of town is to select a mission from your quest log, and depending on the mission you’re currently on, you’re only given specific parts of the map. I can see the vision in not wanting to overwhelm players with scale and keep their eyes on the prize, but the bottom line is that you’ll see open paths in front of you that if you try to take, the game will simply send you back to the “exploration area”. In a few cases I was able to get close enough to a chest or door to open the “interact” symbol, but the moment I pressed the button I was teleported 10 feet away from it. This could easily be remedied by simply adding a “free roam” option that lets you explore the entire map to grind and collect without any quests to guide you, as right now it makes exploration more frustrating than fun.
Outside of the open world you also explore dungeons with bosses and the best loot, but these were very repetitive in terms of layout and design early on. After collecting credits in the story, you unlock the roguelite endgame mode, which adds procedurally generated dungeons that reveal just how bare-bones the dungeon crawling aspect of this RPG is.
The only thing that brought in the end Echoes of Aincrad down is some boring world design and an odd setting that drags down the pace of an otherwise excellent story. But luckily, unlike the characters Sword Art Onlineyou always have the option to log out and take a break, which is something I highly recommend. Because when you take it Echoes of Aincrad trying to grind slowly, instead of one quest at a time, can be something really special.
