Echoes of Aincrad
Developer: Game Studio
Publisher: Bandai Namco
Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S (Reviewed), PC
Release Date: July 10, 2026
Price: $69.99 USD – Available Here $109.95 AUD – Available Here
Overview
The Sword Art Online franchise managed to strike gold back when the original anime aired in 2012 and took the airwaves by storm, suddenly spiking the light novel series into one of the most popular of all time and making countless spin-offs and continued stories long past where the original death game took place. Similarly, countless video games following every step of Kirito’s journey across different games and even offering different genres have arrived over the years but this time, Bandai Namco has looked to take things in an entirely new direction. One that goes back to the roots and away from Kirito, instead placing players as a random player at the start of Sword Art Online in Echoes of Aincrad. The question is, does this return to the roots manage to produce results?
Story
Initially players find themselves playing as their non-customizable beta character that is running through a dungeon before the beta ends, trying to meet up with their friends. After encountering a PKer that wipes out their team, the player is helped out by the slightly more veteran fighter Iori who helps them through the rest of the dungeon. Alongside Iori players will spend nearly three hours running through the extended beta and run through the tutorial while meeting friends that they promise will play together when Sword Art Online fully launches in a month.When it does, the player loads up with their unalterable appearance again to find their spawn point has changed from the original game but still manages to meet up with Iori along the way to the Town of Beginnings and even meet up with two of their real-life friends once they arrive, though a third is nowhere to be found despite showing up online.
Suddenly, as everyone knows, a forced teleportation brings every one of the 10,000 players back to the Town of Beginnings to listen to the game’s psychopathic developer reveal that they are now trapped within the game with no way to log out and any attempt to remove their “Nerv Gear” will fry their brain. Those that die within the game also die in real life through the same means and informs the shocked players that the only way to escape is for someone to climb Aincrad’s 100 floors and complete the boss challenge at the top. Before he leaves, he provides a parting gift for every player, finally revealing the actual chosen appearance players want for their character and also revealing that not only is Iori a girl, but also a famous idol. Now, trapped within this death game and eventually finding themselves given a special quest to avoid an apocalypse that will destroy all of Aincrad regardless of player progression, it will be up to the player and their team to complete this quest while the real story happens in the background.
Echoes of Aincrad takes a very long time to get going and while this may work in the spirit of being part of a “beta” as the story intends, it also takes a very long time beyond that point, past the start of the Death Game, for things to even feel like the plot is starting to progress. This is thanks in part to quest design and the fact that the player is a blank slate that practically has zero personality beyond nodding or shaking their head, so they may as well not be involved in the story at all while the bulk of the narration is carried by Iori and the rest of the allies that players will come across along the way. Thankfully these allies, alongside Iori, are some wonderful characters and their banter back and forth during cutscenes is genuinely enjoyable, especially Iori who happens to be one of the best characters Sword Art Online has had in a while.
That being said, there is absolutely no character interaction with the player’s party in the field, nor any romance or even “friendliness” meter players can raise by journeying with the same ally multiple times. Since players will select a single partner, sometimes multiple for some quests, for every mission, one would think there would be incentives to building trust with an ally but unfortunately that simply isn’t the case here. Outside of town interactions and cutscenes the allies serve as nothing more than tools in the field with constantly repeated phrases, partly due to the fact that enemy variety is abysmal.
Now, there are some interesting ideas that come from the way the storyline is told, especially since it paints Kirito in a far different light than the “hero” he eventually became since at the start he was more of an issue for other players than not. Combine this with other signature faces that appear as temporary allies and uniquely impactful scenes that are unlike anything shown in the anime or described in the novel and it seems like there is a lot of potential here at times. But unfortunately again, due to incredibly poor pacing it feels like every story beat takes forever to develop or characters can vanish for hours at a time while players are tasked with obtaining a random piece of material or something similar for a main questline, squandering said potential. Again, this may make sense in an MMO, but it makes for lousy and boring storytelling and that is sadly where Echoes of Aincrad ends up most of the time. Almost every time that players feel like something interesting is happening, it gets pushed down the road further, until the final quarter of the game and the finale at least which is satisfying enough, even if players literally only explore the first two floors of Aincrad.
Gameplay
In many ways Echoes of Aincrad doesn’t feel like it knows the type of game it really wants to be. At its core it is an action RPG but it is stylized in such an obtuse manner that make it more akin to the first two Nioh games than anything else. Players will always set out from a town using the warp crystal to accept a quest and be sent off to a designated portion of the map that may look open but is actually incredibly limited and strict since trying to venture too far off the path will immediately send players back, saying they’ve gone off mission. Similarly, while players can level up and obtain items while out in the field through treasure chests and slaying enemies, they cannot actually use any of these items or apply these stats until they finish the quest and return to the inn.
Similarly, while out on a quest with an ally players will be moving along the mostly linear path and find rest zones that serve as the game’s checkpoints and fast travel system during a mission, though why players would need it is any guess since most quests highly limit where players can even teleport in. Ironically, there are even areas that are locked behind optional mini-boss fights that players can trigger, fight the boss to unlock the zone, only for that zone to be “out of bounds” for the current mission. It is also worth noting that anytime players rest at a checkpoint they will refill their limited free healing crystals and respawn every normal enemy back on the map, exactly like a soulslike game for reasons that aren’t really clear other than to maybe mimic MMO spawn rates.
Speaking of MMO spawn rates, a certain cartoon joked long ago about how the main characters would max level by fighting boars that spawn non-stop near the town in an MMO and that is pretty much how fights work in Echoes of Aincrad. While running around the field towards the next rest point and making their way to the objective, players will encounter the same boar type enemy at least twenty or thirty times if they are lucky, some wasps, wolves, and maybe even a bear mixed in for variety. Eventually some locations add in Kobolds and other different types of beasts but for the most part players will fight boars nearly non-stop. Fire boars, lightning boars, poison boars, sometimes more than one at a time. Even the bosses will be a boar though they’ll be at least a little tougher and have different stages where the player and their partner will need to shave off chunks of the boss’ body to take it down. Yes, this is a bit of an exaggeration but shockingly not much of one as the enemy variety is truly that bad and only until players reach the second floor of Aincrad will they see the change-up happen and offer more unique foes to fight.
The only place that truly feels somewhat meaty is the combat and how impactful it feels, at least from the player’s end of things. Echoes of Aincrad offers six different weapon types and players will unlock “Blade Skills” the longer they wield certain weapon types though only three of these skills can be equipped at a time, a rather limiting function. Players can string together light attacks into a heavy attack finisher, parry incoming blows or dodge rolls from an attack while managing their stamina. The selected partner for the quest will either fight other foes if set to “Any” mode where they’ll fight anything besides what the player is targeting or “Change” where they’ll stand-by to only move in and draw the enemies attention when the player is rolling or looking to recover. Every partner also has two unique skills that players can trigger when their gauge is filled and vary depending on who they are. Some are straight up offense focused moves that deal large amounts of damage in an area while others temporarily lower the defense of all foes in range.
Now, what makes the combat so impactful is the fact that heavy attacks will split or slice off large portions of defeated enemies, sending them flying into disintegrating pixels. The same oddly cannot be said about the player though as many enemy attacks, at least those that won’t knock them down, don’t register or make the player flinch at all. This is an issue since it can be hard to keep an eye on the HP bar during a larger fight while the character acts as if they haven’t been touched but is nearly dead. It is also worth noting that while it is a “Death Game,” actually being defeated in combat just sends players back to the last checkpoint. The only time it becomes a true Death Game is when players beat the game once and unlock the option to activate Permanent Death which will delete the character’s entire save if they die.
Character leveling and progression is also handled a bit oddly as well, though thankfully not negatively. Players can re-stat at will if they feel like swapping to a different type of weapon and there are various bonuses to increasing certain stats to certain levels, such as increasing the amount of XP earned, increasing running speed, and more. Similarly players can locate weapon and armor blueprints in chests out in the field and use the Blacksmith to help craft new armor and potentially new weaponry. Useless weapons can then be spent to upgrade the player’s current favorite alongside Col (money) or even their partner’s weapon but there is another benefit to fusing certain weapons dropped from enemies together, the random bonuses they contain.
These bonuses are called the EX-MOD system and allows players to really make the most out of what their gear can do and also do wonders for increasing the way players move in the field. This is because various mods include increasing running speed by 20%, increasing damage, and more, with up to four or five per weapon total. This is essential given the amount of random running around players will do and also, forget shortcuts of any kind. Falling into the water or even falling further than seven feet will result in the player character respawning back where they were, meaning even small cliffsides are literally obstacles for no reason.
Audio & Visuals
Echoes of Aincrad is a rather decent looking game with some impressive looking anime styled character models, especially when it comes to actual named characters, and a lot of NPCs milling about town. While exploring out in the actual world though things are quite barren and a bit empty most of the time outside of traveling through various forests, ruins, or caves. Or in the second floor where most of the terrain tends to involve deserts. Oddly enough, despite being designed like an MMO in many ways and even with the threat of Death hanging, there will never be other NPCs out in the field fighting mobs in any way, something that seems like a major oversight. It is also worth noting that outside of the digital dismemberment of enemies, the enemy designs themselves are incredibly repetitive to the point that many are simply recolors or slightly more detailed versions of their weaker selves.
The voice work for the game is handled quite well with Iori and the other allies that join the player all sounding rather impressive while the main character themselves never talks or has any kind of input. The opening theme for the game is rather impressive and the battle theme during bosses and while traveling through towns are quite pleasant and varied, but it is worth noting that general exploration tends to be rather silent which is disappointing.
Overall
Echoes of Aincrad feels like its wearing the suit of one genre while trying to put on the show of a completely different story and neither works out well in the end. While there are some interesting ideas from exploring what the early floors of Aincrad were like for random players and allies like Iori are exceptional, the pacing is just dreadful. Along these same lines while the combat feels and looks impressive in motion, the lack of meaningful enemies to fight, lacking exploration options, and generic mission structure make this feel like the developers were trying to mimic an MMO style from an era most MMOs were failing and for good reason.
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