Alicization Lycoris is best described as “another Sword Art Online game,” with only a few small features that make it less of a chore to play. The dull story jumps around in strange ways, the gameplay is average action fare, and the choppy framerate makes it feel all the more clunky.
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris
Developer: Bandai Namco
Price: $60
Platforms: PS4 (Reviewed), and PC
MonsterVine was provided with a PS4 code for review
Sword Art Online games tend to have fairly consistent quality issues, with only Fatal Bullet feeling like a somewhat unique spin on a tired franchise. Unfortunately, Alicization Lycoris follows the primary trend of mediocrity, sharing many of the issues that the source material has while adding on a few of its own.
The story mainly follows the Alicization arc from Sword Art Online while jumping over certain parts and adding in some new storylines. Kirito wakes up in a new game that he cannot log out of, and has to learn to live in this new world of seemingly living characters. The narrative actually has a decent start, as Kirito tries to figure out why these game characters have souls and interact with the features of their game as though it was a religion. Things quickly switch to standard Sword Art Online storytelling from there, with Kirito and his friend Eugeo becoming knights, fighting weirdly antagonistic peers, and attracting every female character within a 10 km radius. The story feels so slow and dull that after twelve hours, I couldn’t take it anymore. None of the characters felt interesting in the least, and the plot seemed adamant about going nowhere.
“The problem is that these visuals are the cause of some harsh performance issues, with an incredibly inconsistent framerate that plagues a good chunk of the game.“
The gameplay of Lycoris is okay, but nothing to write home about. The most enjoyable aspect of it comes from the combo system, which boosts the power of attacks when they’re used in tandem with teammate attacks one after another. There’s a satisfying flow and sense of synergy in these combos, especially when you’re facing a particularly difficult foe. The special attacks themselves look quite good, with Finishing Arts standing out for their animations.
Otherwise, the gameplay is exactly what you’d expect if you’ve played an anime action-RPG recently. You can run around a fairly open world and battle roaming enemies with a variety of basic attacks. You can fish (which is just an animation instead of a minigame,) and cook meals (which is also not a minigame,) neither of which feels especially necessary.
There are lots of side-quests to do, but many of them boil down to “find me this item” or “beat this enemy” with very little substance to them. Considering that a number of the main story quests are similar in their implementation, it’s hard to find the drive to do these side-quests for average rewards.
Visually, Lycoris looks quite nice but suffers from poor performance. The character models and illustrated scenes are crisp and high quality, and there are some nice particle effects spread throughout the game. The problem is that these visuals are the cause of some harsh performance issues, with an incredibly inconsistent framerate that plagues a good chunk of the game.
The Final Word
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is a disappointingly dull action game. The story quickly becomes a slog, the gameplay is occasionally fun, and the alright visuals lead to frustrating performance issues. Unless you’re a huge Sword Art Online fan, I’d Lycoris isn’t worth your time.
MonsterVine Rating: 2.5 out of 5 – Mediocre
