Echoes of Aincrad Reviews
Fans of Sword Art Online can certainly thank Bandai Namco for rescuing their favourite game series from the dark ages, as for the first time ever we’ve been treated to modern, well-made and beautiful digital adventures featuring Kirito and his friends.
Review in Polish | Read full review
It’s just that we’re in the middle of a flood of high-quality JRPGs, from indie through to the big blockbusters, and Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad does limit itself in a way that doesn’t do it any favours.
It doesn't excel in any particular area, or offer anything that's genuinely new, but Echoes of Aincrad is an enjoyable single-player action RPG experience once it really gets going.
Sometimes, the most disappointing thing about a game is realizing that its best moments prove the developers genuinely know what they're doing—only for its most repetitive and tedious stretches to reveal that they never figured out how to tie those great ideas together into a satisfying whole. Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad is exactly that kind of game. At its best, it has enough strengths to make it worth revisiting in the future, especially once its price comes down, and it could even introduce more players to the world of SAO. Until then, however, it remains little more than another decent release aimed primarily at those who are already dedicated fans of the franchise.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad is a fun action RPG, but it falls into the same trap as many of this publisher's recent RPGs: its open world. While the game offers enjoyable combat and a solid core experience, its open world often feels like a big hub that link areas together rather than a meaningful part of the adventure
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad isn't a bad game for the franchise; in fact, it has memorable moments that really stand out from the other entries. However, the ambition and fantasy it initially promised are too far removed from the actual gameplay experience, with issues related to pacing, quality of life, and content reuse that overshadow its many strengths.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
An unnecessarily frustrating action RPG with a story that lacks bite, despite the excellent source material.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad is a charming game that has intuitive combat and rewarding character growth. Although its repetitiveness brings down the experience from time to time, I still couldn't help but want to keep playing so I could see where my chums would end up next. 🌐
Echoes of Aincrad feels like the long-awaited promise the Sword Art Online franchise has owed its fans for years - and it comes frustratingly close to fulfilling it, which somehow makes it even more disappointing than if it had never tried at all.
Review in Unknown | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad is an odd one for me; I do like it a lot, but I found myself getting just a little annoyed at the lack of variation in enemy types and the battles getting easier because of this. There is a lot to like about Echoes of Aincrad if you are new to the SAO universe, but fans of the anime might find themselves getting a little frustrated at themes they have seen before. I would recommend this to those of you who enjoy a good RPG and who want to invest in the lore of the SAO universe.
Echoes of Aincrad offers an enjoyable action combat system, satisfying cooperation with companions, epic multi-phase boss fights, and a beautiful world. Unfortunately, repetitive enemies and quests, empty locations, uneven responsiveness, and a gradually stagnating story make the roughly fifty-hour adventure feel underdeveloped, especially at its premium price.
Review in Czech | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad is a good game with an interesting narrative, a beautiful world, and simple but effective combat. Despite some strange design choices and repetitive elements, there’s a lot to like here for both Sword Art Online fans and newcomers alike. It’s easily the best Sword Art Online game yet.
Echoes of Aincrad had a huge opportunity in its hands and squeezes almost every good idea into a shallow, disappointing execution.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad turned out to be a pleasant surprise. This time, the developers decided to go for a much freer, more 'MMORPG-like' approach, giving players a game that manages to pay tribute to the nature of the work while also being fun and satisfying. This is also thanks to a fast, technical, and entertaining combat system, even if, in the long run, it tends to get a bit repetitive. If I really wanted to nitpick, I’d say I didn’t enjoy the beginning much—it’s just too slow and boring, which could turn more than one player away from a game that actually knows how to entertain and excite.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad captures the thrill of survival within the floating castle through a highly dynamic real-time action combat system with Soulslike nuances, deep avatar customization, and a comprehensive alchemy and blacksmithing system—making it an unmissable RPG adventure for fans of the genre, despite suffering from some repetitiveness in its enemy roster.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad is a title that, at first glance, offers a world full of potential for Sword Art Online fans and even newcomers. But the deeper you go, the more you encounter only repetition and weakness.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad is a prime example of an excellent conceptual vision ruined by a gameplay experience that is unnecessarily drawn out and lacks any real boldness in its design. Although the melee combat system offers genuine moments of fun and the smithy ensures considerable depth in weapon customization, the game collapses under the weight of outdated game design, recycled content, and a narrative progression that drowns its more mature themes in a slow pace. This is a game that may perhaps entertain the most die-hard fans of the universe created by Reki Kawahara for a few hours—those drawn in by the visual fidelity and the charm of an adventure experienced from the perspective of a beta tester—but for any other fan of action RPGs, it will prove to be a repetitive experience that hit the market before it was fully mature.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Echoes of Aincrad delivers one of the most immersive Sword Art Online experiences yet, thanks to its satisfying combat, meaningful progression, and fully customizable protagonist.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I enjoyed my time with Echoes of Aincrad. It successfully does something different with the Sword Art Online formula by allowing players to experience the Aincrad incident through an entirely new perspective, and that alone makes it feel fresh. Strong combat, enjoyable progression, excellent presentation, and a genuinely engaging story make it an easy recommendation for fans of the series.
Echoes of Aincrad faithfully recreates the visual universe of Sword Art Online and offers a functional combat system with extensive equipment optimization possibilities. Its smooth performance—using Unreal Engine 5—and the polished aesthetic of its main environments demonstrate a significant improvement in production compared to previous installments in the franchise. However, this new SAO is limited by a monotonous mission design, an exploration system restricted by invisible barriers, and a marked reuse of enemies and bosses. So, unless you're a die-hard fan of Reki Kawahara's work, it's difficult to overlook some of its shortcomings.
Review in Spanish | Read full review