Echoes of Aincrad from Bandai Namco Entertainment and Game Studio Inc is a fresh take on the Sword Art Online franchise. This time around, your playable character is the star of the show, and it’s not Kirito or Asuna like we’re used to.
The game certainly looks gorgeous, and since it’s based on the Sword Art Online franchise, it caught my attention from the get-go. Does it actually deliver, though, and is it worth checking out?
Echoes of Aincrad
Echoes of Aincrad kicks off with a very hefty, almost 3-hour-long tutorial segment. You will take part in the in-game world’s beta before being thrust into the game’s final release. This tutorial segment gets you up to speed with everything with regard to the game’s mechanics, and while it’s a slow burn, it is an essential part of the story since it lays down the foundation for the things to come.
Once you get through the in-game beta, you’ll enter the real “VRMMORPG” world of Aincrad, and it essentially plays out like you would expect it to if you watched the Sword Art Online anime. Except for the fact that you’re the protagonist now, so things are slightly different since it’s from a new perspective.
Gameplay and Combat
So you might be thinking to yourself, “Ok, this sounds great so far” but don’t let this fool you. If you played the game’s demo or even the tutorial, you’ll be in for a world of disappointment to learn that the content in there is about as complex or as deep as it gets. Echoes of Aincrad is going to be a very polarizing game for a number of reasons which I’ll get to shortly.
The core gameplay loop involves setting out into the game world to explore, defeat monsters, acquire loot and return back to the town to upgrade your weapons. The gameplay itself is a mixture of “Soulslike” hack and slash combat with some very light item management that involves buffing your character or healing them in-battle. You also have a companion that you can team up with to deal some massive damage or let them have free reign as to what they are going to do in battle.
Artificial Time Inflation and Repetitive Gameplay
On paper, all of this sounds great but it’s the execution where it falters heavily. First and foremost, apart from the hefty tutorial segment, the game suffers from immense artificial time inflation and time wasting. For example, you will have to sit at every “Checkpoint” in order to unlock more of the game world because of walls that prevent you from progressing unless you unlock them at the checkpoints.
The main storyline involves quite a lot of backtracking and when you add in the sidequests which are an immense let down, the game becomes incredibly repetitive very quickly.
Combat in Echoes of Aincrad is enjoyable with attacks feeling strong and powerful. However as with most things in this game, it’s also let down by the fact that there’s so little variation between enemies, it really feels as if you’re fighting the same thing over and over and over again just with different colour schemes and slight variations to their attacks.
The amount of boars and kobolds I’ve slain in-game is crazy! We could have at least gotten some unique enemy designs or something to spice things up a bit but nope, that’s not the case here.
World Design and Exploration
Other aspects of the gameplay are also incredibly disappointing because despite the game world being incredibly detailed and gorgeous to look at, everything is basically locked off or out of bounds. You see a gorgeous wide-open area in the distance? Well too bad, you can’t explore it because you can only go about as far as the world map allows you in a specific region during a quest.
This isn’t a completely open-world game and it’s such a let down because the world is truly beautiful but you can’t even explore it at your own pace or with your own free will. You have to do a quest just to explore which is shockingly bad game design for a title releasing in 2026.
Dungeons, Loot and Equipment
The actual dungeons or quest areas in the game are also recycled and rehashed a bit too often and can feel incredibly samey very quickly too when you’re out on quests. Again, this feels like artificial time inflation since you’ll have to do these quests to level up to take on tougher foes.
Unfortunately even trying to get the hidden chests and items inside them is a chore because some of these are defended by some really tough enemies and it’s not even worthwhile trying to get them because the rewards contained within aren’t worth it. The armour sets in the game are severely limited and even the weapons are too. Item infusion involves sacrificing your weapons at the Blacksmith to infuse their benefits into other weapons and this is quite standard fare.
A World Devoid of Life
Back at the towns, there’s so many NPC characters running around and some have some really beautiful designs too. However, none of them talk to you! The world is filled with characters but it’s plain and straight out devoid of life. There’s no banter, no in-game random NPC dialogue to read or listen to and the few characters that you do get to speak to are just the ones involved with item purchases or the Blacksmith for example.
For a “VRMMORPG”, the game world is severely lacking in things that make it feel alive and this is another huge let down.
Does Echoes of Aincrad Have Fun Moments?
While it seems like I might be slamming this game for a lot of things, Echoes of Aincrad is actually quite fun. When the game doesn’t get in the way of letting you have fun, you will be having lots of fun. It’s almost as if the developers needed a year more development time to iron out all of the issues plaguing this title and it would have been a truly great Sword Art Online game. Alas this isn’t the case here and what we have is the definition of a mediocre or average title.
Graphics, Soundtrack and Voice Acting
Graphically, the game world is so beautiful. Character animations are fine and even the flashy effects are on point. The soundtrack is also excellent with some great music on offer here. The voice acting is also very well done with reputable voice actors taking on the roles of the characters you encounter.
Disappointingly and to the game’s detriment, the developers opted to make your playable character into a mute who can only nod or disagree and this was a wasted opportunity too. Some voice acting would have gone a long way in helping them come alive instead of being this generic piece of meat that you’re supposed to self-insert as.
Usually I don’t mind this kind of stuff but for a game like Echoes of Aincrad, you really should have had a voiced main character and more nuanced responses to story cutscenes and conversations.
Story and Sword Art Online Content
The story of the game is not bad to be quite honest but it does abruptly cut off at the second floor of the world which is disappointing to say the least. There’s 100 floors in Sword Art Online’s Aincrad and we only got two here? A lot more could have been done or condensed into the game.
Final Verdict
In Summary, Echoes of Aincrad is what feels like a truly generational fumble by Bandai Namco and Game Studio Inc. They created a game world that simultaneously looks amazing but feels devoid of life. A world that encompasses so many great aspects of Sword Art Online itself but feels as if it’s actively choking you to death because of game mechanics that honestly feel like they belong in the dustbin of history.
The game plays like a decent “Soulslike” but has so much repetition that you’ll fall asleep trying to traverse the same dungeon or area looking for chests or fighting the same enemy types over and over and over. Also shockingly, there’s no co-op and the game could have really used it given the companion system that’s in here.
I’m actually so torn about this game. I want to love it but there’s just so much inherently wrong here that I cannot in good faith give it a good score and recommend it at full price. Grab this one if it’s half price or play the demo and see for yourself if it’s worth diving into.
The game does have its moments and there’s genuinely some great ideas here but it’s just too unrefined and underwhelming where it really counts. It’s the definition of a 6/10 and only a 7/10 if you look at it with rose-tinted glasses as a Sword Art Online fan. Bandai Namco, please, if you’re reading this, we know that you have a DLC expansion planned for this game.
Please take the feedback from the reviews and users seriously and fix what’s inherently wrong here. You have the basis for a great game, it just needs to not be held back by artificial limitations. You can make Echoes of Aincrad into something great! As it stands right now, it’s just “meh” and gets an average score from me sadly.
This review was based off a PC playthrough.
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The game was provided to us for the express purpose of reviewing.
