Last week, I had the chance to play a few hours of the latest Sword Art Online game, Echoes of Aincrad, ahead of its release. Though I’m not a big fan of the anime series itself, I’ve found the games to occasionally be fun, so I was down to try this seemingly more refined entry in the franchise, and I had a pretty decent time with this new one. The refreshing story angle and surprisingly brutal combat caught me off guard, and they very well could do the same for you.
Combat is, naturally, a large part of the experience, as a major aspect of the game-within-the-game is battling monsters as you ascend the floors of Aincrad’s tower. The three segments I played featured smooth real-time combat that felt like something between an action-RPG and a hack-and-slash game, with light attacks, heavy attacks, and special moves and abilities forming the core of combat. You often fight alongside allies, too, who can perform flashy team attacks with you to really shave away enemy health. The wide range of allies with different weapons and fighting styles was a good sign for the variety of team-ups the main game will have, and the party members themselves were quite distinct in their personalities.
Credit: BNEA
The coolest thing about Echoes of Aincrad is the impact that certain hits have. This is probably going to sound a bit concerning, but it’s a pretty viscerally intense feeling to perform heavy attacks on enemies and see them lose limbs or get bisected. It’s not gory or anything, as the enemies get slashed into 3D pixels and, at most, leave orange liquid on your weapon, but it makes your attacks feel far more impactful than they would if the enemies were to simply fall backward. There’s a hearty impact to these attacks, and the slight slow-mo segment that occurs when you land the final hit is certainly badass.
Echoes of Aincrad offers a different take on the first Sword Art Online story.
It seems the story of Echoes of Aincrad is essentially the first season of the show (hence the Aincrad in the title), but from the perspective of tertiary players trapped within the game rather than Kirito and Asuna. I like this angle, as I feel the stories of the main duo have been adapted and portrayed pretty thoroughly at this point. Experiencing the horror of being trapped in a fatal VR game from the perspective of random players rather than super-powerful protagonists is a strong hook, and the snippets of interaction I experienced among the game’s main group did sell the idea that this is a pretty normal group of internet friends who ended up in this unfortunate situation.
Credit: BNEA
I’ve got a pretty decent PC, and Echoes of Aincrad looked exceptionally nice on it. The game definitely captures the visual style of Sword Art Online, with the enemy designs and environments looking straight out of the source material. The 3D pixels that pop up when you slay enemies look great as well and give a cool, 2000s tech flavor to everything. Some of the larger environments did tend to blend together as I played further, so I’m a bit worried about navigating some of the major areas before unlocking detailed maps of them, but the themed environments themselves are at least distinct and solid-looking on the whole.
I’m more interested in Echoes of Aincrad than I have been in most Sword Art Online games, as the unique narrative premise and hefty feel of combat set it apart from other adaptations of the first season’s arc. I’m curious to see how a different perspective might shake up this familiar story, and I’m interested in seeing how much deeper the combat gets in the full release. It won’t be too long a wait to see how things play out, however, as Echoes of Aincrad is set to release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on July 10.
