hate sword art online. It’s not the worst anime of all time, but it is an anime with some of the most wasted potential I’ve ever seen. The premise of a shonen battle anime set within an MMORPG where dying in the game means dying in real life actually opens the door to some truly compelling character drama. Instead, what we got were several seasons of endless isekai tropes, harem tropes, strangely dated gender politics, and a power fantasy protagonist so blatantly bland that it makes Goku seem nuanced.
When they started making video games based on sword art onlineI was intrigued by the prospect because I thought a game might be the perfect place to realize the untapped potential of anime. Unfortunately, all we got were these strange single-player ARPGs that approximate the MMORPG aesthetic while refusing to leave Kirito and his friends behind. And when you only focus on the anime cast but can’t retell the anime’s stories, you very easily enter the territory of “filler episodes” which essentially all games are.
I’m telling you all this now so that you know the expectations I had when I entered. Echoes of Aincrad. The marketing for this game has been a bit strange, to say the least. From the initial teaser for “a new action RPG from Bandai Namco” to its numerous trailers and even its title, it really seems like they’ve been downplaying the fact that this is an SAO game. The game’s full title “Echoes of Aincrad: Sword Art Online” isn’t even used on any of the digital store listings, and on the box art the subtitle is so small that you’d be forgiven if you missed it entirely.
This seemed strange to me in the lead-up to release, but now that I’ve played the entire game, I think it might have been the right decision. Because Echoes of Aincrad seems to be designed entirely with the intention of capturing the attention of new players who enjoy role-playing games, regardless of whether or not they like the source material. And if you’re a carrying member of Kirito’s haters club like me, well, I’ve got good news for you.
The game begins with a long tutorial prologue cleverly disguised as the Beta version of the upcoming sword art online MMORPG. You have provided him with a pre-designed avatar that you cannot customize while you familiarize yourself with the different game systems. They introduce you to combat, crafting, leveling up, quests, but most importantly they introduce you to the supporting cast of characters. Throughout the prologue, you befriend Cal, Argo, Iori, and a few others, who bond with each other over their genuine love of video games. You all become friends online and promise to be part of the party when the full game is released.
After the beta, you can create your own character for the ‘full game’, but that release goes horribly wrong as the game design locks out all players, removes the ability to lock them, and changes all of their avatars to their real scanned faces. This is where your premade avatar is “revealed” as your custom character. And of course, if you die in the game, you die for real. What begins as a healthy experience turns into a desperate fight for survival.
It is here, I think, where Echoes of Aincrad It really reveals his true intentions. This is not a game interested in retelling the anime’s story, and even less interested in Kirito and his friends. The events of the anime mainly take place off-screen. In a particularly inspired section, a important Raid Boss, which was a bombastic action sequence in the anime, takes place in the distance, while you and your party are just running support and fighting. A little anticlimactic? Maybe, but I was smiling from ear to ear.
See, Echoes of Aincrad It’s doing what the anime should have done. It’s about getting to the hearts of people who like RPGs and why they play the games they play. Each character you meet has their own play style, but also their own motivations that explain why they love this game. Cal wants to bond with his estranged brother by introducing him to this game he loves, Iori likes being able to exist in a world without borders or baggage from the real world, Stina is a real crier who really loves Japanese games and uses them as a way to learn the language. It’s not the most inspired writing, but it’s very believable and compelling.
Outside of what I think is an excellent story, Echoes of Aincrad It’s a bit heterogeneous. I’ll take out the positives first before really getting into the game. it is visually awesome. The developers have combined realistic 3D environments and lighting with cel-shaded character models to create this gorgeous mixed media pastiche that may look a little routine in screenshots, but looks incredibly beautiful in motion. The characters and monsters look amazing and have expressive animations. Particle effects also make battles sing.
All of this is complemented by a fantastic background soundtrack that seamlessly transitions between battle music and low-key ambient soundscapes that seem to have come straight out of 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 unplugging while exploring a gorgeous MMORPG world.
The actual combat that drives all of this is pretty good too. Instead of trying to approximate the hotbar style of traditional MMOs, Echoes of Aincrad is a soul-type light affair where you lock on and attack enemies while performing light and heavy attacks that are gained from a stamina bar. In addition to the basic combat moveset, you also get “sword skills,” which are special skills that are executed with a recharge mana bar. The moment-to-moment rhythm of combat involves landing your blows while waiting for your abilities to prepare and then unloading your cooldowns on mobs. The variety of enemies keeps this from getting stale, and making smart use of your abilities will get you through fights faster.
Plus, you’ll always be accompanied by an associated character who can spice things up. Unlike most games, the companion AI is actually competent in a fight and follows orders, and each companion has their own special abilities that can really help you out in a pinch. Wyzeman is a tank, Iori is a healer, etc. Taking the right companion on the right mission can make life easier, but I stuck with Iori throughout the game because it makes more sense narratively and I was never punished for it. The enemies themselves pack a huge punch and even in the normal environment I was often fighting for my life, but there are easier environments available for those who just want to experience the story.
Combat is enhanced by a very simple but effective progression system. You earn XP for leveling up, and each level up gives you some battle points to put into your stats, with a helpful tooltip on the side that always tells you what each stat does. You can add or remove stat points any time you want without penalty, and even reset your entire settings at no cost. This is useful when you want to change weapon classes, as each weapon type has a completely different moveset and scales to different stats. This system may not be in line with the tradition of sword art onlinebut it’s absolutely great to have in an action RPG.
There’s also a fairly rudimentary crafting system where you use materials collected while doing quests to create and upgrade your equipment. This is great, although I found it a little lacking since there is no way to buy materials you don’t have. It’s also difficult to know what materials are available in what area or what monsters drop them. There is a glossary in the game that will tell you everything about materials and monsters, but you can’t find it, which, I maintain, defeats the purpose of a glossary.
But my biggest complaint with Echoes of Aincrad It is its structure. While this is technically an open world, you’re never allowed to just go out and explore to your heart’s content. You can teleport between cities, but the only way to leave a city is to select a quest from your quest journal, and you are only given specific parts of the map depending on which quest you are currently on. I can see the vision in not wanting to overwhelm players with scale and keep their eyes on the prize, but the end result is that you’ll see obvious paths right in front of you that, if you try to take them, the game will simply teleport you back to the “search area.” In several cases I was able to get close enough to a chest or door to make the “interact” symbol appear, but the moment I hit the button I was teleported 10 feet away. This could easily be remedied by simply adding a “free roam” option that allows you to explore the entire map to grind and collect things without any quest to guide you, because right now it makes exploration more frustrating than fun.
Beyond the open world, you also explore dungeons that house bosses and the best loot, but they became very repetitive from the beginning, in terms of layout and design. Once you earn story credits, you unlock a roguelite endgame mode that adds procedurally generated dungeons, which really lays bare how basic the dungeon crawling aspect of this RPG is.
In the end, the only thing that brings Echoes of Aincrad Below is boring world design and a strange structure that slows down the pace of its excellent story. But fortunately, unlike the characters in sword art onlineYou always have the option to disconnect and take a break, something I highly recommend. Because when you take Echoes of Aincrad Little by little, one mission at a time, instead of trying to binge, can be something really special.
