I was never a huge fan of Sword Art Online, as the gameplay always felt a bit draggy and mundane, but I do think the latest release is a huge step forward.
Echoes of Aincrad from developer Game Studio Inc. and publisher Bandai Namco Entertainment is the latest release in the SAO family. Echoes of Aincrad expands the SAO world, brings a solid story with real stakes, and does its best to uphold traditional JRPG standards while maintaining an open-world feel. For the most part, it achieves those goals, except for enemy encounters and open-world elements found in other games.
Before we get into that, let’s start with the story. The game features a wonderful meta-driven experience, acknowledging that it is merely a game people play. It sells a world where friends and new acquaintances meet and team up to go on adventures. The story even goes so far as to feature a closed-beta version at the beginning, which sets the tone for the main character and their friends, who depend on each other to get through dungeons and quests. Not a bad way to set up a world, if you ask me.
Once the closed beta is wrapped, the game’s story shifts into full-release mode. Enemies become harder, the quests become larger, and the real stakes of the story are revealed. Those stakes revolve around all the players in the game being trapped in their gaming world by the lead developer. That developer sets the rules, which say that if the players die in the game or are unhooked in the real world, their brains will be killed instantly. This is some TRON-level shit that feels horrifying and gives the player purpose in navigating their way through the 100+ hour adventure. In other words, it’s a wonderful setup that truly sets the tone for the rest of the adventure. Giving gamers a purpose and telling them the consequences helps to draw the lines of gameplay and provides a hefty amount of anxiety along the way. This story is one of the best parts of Echoes of Aincrad, if not the best part. It’s strong, impactful, and meaningful, as players will quickly relate to the characters who have to suffer the developer’s consequences.
On the gameplay side of the tracks, it varies with entertainment.
Beginning with the open world, it’s gorgeously big. The devs at Game Studio Inc. seemed to spare no resources in building a gigantic world with many tiers for the player to explore. This is some Final Fantasy-level girth to the world size. I was a bit taken aback by how large everything felt, even though it clearly established linear boundaries for the player to follow. There are moments when the game will restrict players from exploring a certain area that is off limits, which kind of takes that open-world aspect out of the game, but doesn’t detract from the feeling that the world is much larger than can be played. Anyway, I was impressed by the size and the amount of detail that went into the world in Echoes of Aincrad. Lots of good textures, models, and some impressive ray tracing for an SAO game. Typically, it’s a dial-it-in sort of situation with bleh textures and ‘just enough’ to get by. With Echoes of Aincrad, it’s simply a gorgeous game that was artistically well-treated.
On the gameplay side of the tracks, it’s a mixed bag.
While the world of Echoes of Aincrad is huge and real, the lack of enemy variety and large gaps of emptiness in both the wild and in town make the game feel a bit less than it should. For the first four hours of the adventure, I found myself killing boar, wolves, rats, and insects. They came in groups of 3-4 and would repeatedly wander into battle. Even when I changed from the surface world to caverns, the same enemies were repeated. It wasn’t at all a variety of enemies, and I thought maybe the closed-beta part of the gameplay was the reason, but even when the story shifted to the full game, it still featured the same enemies over and over again. It felt like the common enemies were a bit of an afterthought, which simply didn’t bode well for keeping the adventure engaging. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy killing things with authority, but offering an enemy variety or upping the challenge would have given me a bit more excitement, if not a measure of progression.
Now, occasionally, a boss fight would emerge during my questing, which brought a bigger challenge to Echoes of Aincrad, as well as decent rewards for victory. Randomly, and sometimes on purpose, the game will throw a mid-boss or boss into the mix, which the player must defeat to progress to the next piece of the story. Those fights are far more meaningful than the common enemies, as bosses will bring some good brutality and challenge to the adventuring mix, while also providing the player with well-earned goods should they come out victorious. It’s worth the trouble and helps to change up the gameplay quite a bit. Players will first see this ‘uptick’ in challenge and difficulty when they happen upon a giant boar fight before completing the first full-game quest. It comes in three stages and is not easy at all. At times, it can even feel like Dark Souls-unfair. But that change in challenge is worth any amount of frustration that comes with it.
As for fighting such creatures, the game has a decent skills tree and backend system. Players will be able to collect goods after defeating enemies, combine those goods into one single item, and upgrade offense and defense. I know that some games do this sort of material upgrading, but none do it as blatantly well as Echoes of Aincrad seems to. What this means is that all the repeated items that a player collects can be broken down into attribute upgrades to buff the best weapon in their inventory. This ultimately means that efforts against common enemies and bosses aren’t wasted, even when items are repeated as rewards. It’s simple in its concept, but darn good in its execution. It creates extra motivation to stick with the game and push through its repetitiveness, as a benefit can emerge from all that repeated effort. That one gameplay element works very well for the overall adventure.
On the skills tree side of the tracks, players will gain points as they take down baddies and complete quests. This XP allows the player to upgrade their character in a traditional Dungeons & Dragons-style structure. This means upgrading strength, dexterity, endurance, and everything else that looks and sounds familiar. It’s another bit of motivation for the player to keep adventuring, which only stands to benefit Echoes of Aincrad. It’s not complicated, but the changes are obvious during battle when done.
As for the actual fighting, the player is controlled in a new-wave real-time action-adventure style. The game is structured like Final Fantasy XVI’s fighting, as it’s more of a button-mashing fest led by stamina and upgraded options. The game also allows the player to connect with their side characters to fight together or go solo, with everyone on the team fighting in their own way rather than as a group. It’s easy to pick up on and even easier to execute when new moves are assigned. There isn’t a lot to hate in this gameplay category, as it does enough to keep it simple and unimpeding to the gameplay process.
All the above combined, the gameplay elements work well with the long adventure that follows the story closely. While the game’s repetitiveness and empty moments will certainly drag down the excitement considerably, the story will do its best to keep the player’s interest engaged throughout the experience. Ultimately, the story is the reason to play the game, which I can live with as a non-fan of the SAO series. It grabbed my attention enough to keep me pushing through the gameplay. The easy action-adventure RPG elements also help, and the game’s constructed world is beautiful enough to keep players interested in pushing forward. In short, Echoes of Aincrad is a wonderful step in the right direction for the SAO series. Just get those enemies right, maybe throw in some true online co-op, and that might be the perfect SAO experience.
Again, it’s a good step forward, but it still needs a bit more momentum to get into that celebratory run.
Conclusion
Echoes of Aincrad from Game Studio Inc. is a wonderful open-world setup that brings gorgeous graphics, good backend character building, easy-to-get-into controls, and a very solid story. What it lacks is enemy variety and action-adventure elements that keep the gameplay engaging long-term.
