Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris Reviews
Ultimately SWORD ART ONLINE: Alicization Lycoris takes too long to get to the point both in its combat and story, leaving the player disinterested before it even really begins. There is a good game here if you do commit to it, with some great character and world design, enjoyable combat, and interesting game systems, but it's just not worth the slog to reach it.
Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris features many compelling ideas, but its technical foundation needs more work.
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris will certainly be a welcome addition to the gaming series as it’s the only one to follow a portion of the original story.
Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris attempts to revamp the franchise and breathe new life into it, with very polarizing results.
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is not the title we were promised. Torn apart by a recurring dualism that contrasts originality with loyalty, the simplified management of the party with the excessive woodiness of the combat system, and so on, Bandai Namco's new proposal is constantly looking for its own dimension.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris does little to step beyond using Sword Art Online to sell this experience. It's poorly optimized, looks, at best, okay, tutorials have little forethought, subpar gameplay, and questionable effort was put into this experience. As nice as the Alicization experience is, there is nothing in this game that motivates me to play it over simply watching the anime or reading the source material. It's unfortunate, as these games could really be engaging and have so much more to them than we've seen with this and other releases.
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycaris offers a compelling experience, but only forgiving players will ever get to fully enjoy it. Others may be frustrated by its strange design flaws.
Players with a passing interest aren't going to put the hours in to get past the initial chapter, and in doing so, are going to miss out on an enjoyable experience with a lot to offer for both casual players and hardcore fans. Stick with it.
Overall the game is a fun action RPG with engaging storytelling and some fun mechanics. However, it is hindered by some technical issues
I enjoyed my time playing Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris, especially after all the recent updates. The game has a decent story, very fun combat, a well-implemented soundtrack, beautiful environments and great looking characters. However, it is still affected by technical issues, an absurdly long first chapter, a questionable use of character creation, the omission of characters such as Yuuki and the CUBE shop system which shouldn’t be there in the first place. It took me about 121 hours to beat the main story while doing side missions and Bond Events as well. Once you beat the story, you can tackle Raid Dungeons, try to test your mettle against high level foes, try to get high rarity weapons or even try to unlock all the event CGs. So there’s still some things to do even after beating the game. Would I recommend paying $60 for this game? I would only recommend doing that if you’re a hardcore Sword Art Online fan like me. If you’re not, I recommend waiting for a sale or waiting for the technical issues in the base game to be mostly fixed. If you do decide to take the dive, know there’s an immense amount of content waiting for you.
A game developed without thinking neither in the fans of the franchise nor the fans of video games, it has so much problems to be able to recommend it.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is a mediocre game, ambitious but incapable of realizing its vision, plagued by an inadequate and lazy realization. Only for the most dedicated fans of Sword Art Online.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Overall, while there is some fun to be had in the game and a narrative that's genuinely interesting albeit flawed, Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is too filled with issues to be anything worthy of being recommended to those who aren't hardcore fans of the series, and the Switch port, unfortunately, still has a lot of the existing issues seen in other platforms. As a result, I'd suggest a different, better-optimized game to play for those interested in delving into the virtual world of Sword Art Online.
At the current state of the game, I cannot, in good faith, recommend this to anyone looking to buy it. This is mainly due to all the flaws it currently has. Even if you’re a big fan of the series, I’d advise you to wait until the game is adequately patched before making the purchase.
Fun combat and decent characters aren't enough to save a convoluted story, terrible pacing, and tons of performance problems.
People have been waiting for years to finally get what could be considered a really good Sword Art Online game, but the fourth time is certainly not the charm for developer Aquria with probably the most disappointing attempt yet due to the overall squandered potential in Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris.
A poorly structured first half, questionable gameplay design, and ill-conceived introduction of mechanics aside, Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris also suffers from numerous technical issues and performance drops. There are moments that will entertain you, but these are few and far between and you're left to contend with bothersome frustrations time and again.
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris takes forever to get moving. By the time the training wheels come off, players will likely have switched off in frustration. Pacing is a big issue for the first half of the game, with hours spent in unskippable cutscenes or repetitive tutorials before the best features become available. There is a decent game locked away behind the multiple missteps and technical issues, and if you've got the requisite patience and high regard for the source material, there are things to like - most notably the smooth, engaging combat. The problem is that getting to it feels like work rather than play.
If you’re a huge Sword Art Online fan, or are simply after an expansive JRPG to sink your teeth into, you will get some enjoyment out of Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris.
Marked by its myriad of technical and structural issues, Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris manages to be one of the worst games ever released under the franchise, with even its hits being limited by all the mistakes made in a project that at every moment feels like it was rushed and released without the necessary care and polish.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review