Since Sword Art Online dropped its first season way back in 2012, I’ve always assumed a video game tie-in would be a no-brainer. Previous attempts to recapture the magic produced on screen by A-1 Pictures in video game form were met with mixed reception, and fans felt the developers didn’t seem to understand what made SAO special.
So, when I was offered the chance to go hands-on with the most promising SAO video game development to date, Echoes of Aincrad, I broke the Nerve Gear out of retirement and couldn’t wait to strap in. What Echoes of Aincrad does is bring players into a full-fledged season of Sword Art Online before the conclusion of the First Arc, and lets fans off-leash in a sprawling Aincrad. This Aincrad is loaded with challenges to take on and lush biomes to explore, exploding off the screen with visuals that are hungry for the player’s eyes. Sword Art Online is finally back.
I was able to play through three segments of Echoes of Aincrad, the first being the prologue (and the tutorial). For the SAO faithful, you start your journey in the middle of a generic level to explore in Aincrad. Echoes of Aincrad (like Sword Art Online) starts in the Beta of the game of the same name, and it takes place in the 100-floor floating castle of Aincrad, and fans will instantly amalgamate. This segment injects you into the life stream of the SAO universe and explains what all the keywords and functions are, giving you bearings on terminology and key terms (for the SAO unfaithful or those who need a refresher).
“What Echoes of Aincrad does is bring players into a full-fledged season of Sword Art Online before the conclusion of the First Arc, and lets fans off-leash in a sprawling Aincrad.”
In SAO, players wear VR devices called Nerve Gear headsets to dive into full-fledged VRMMORPGs that engage all the player’s senses. This includes pain, taste, and other functions that the human body imitates. Sword Art Online is the name of the game being played on Beta and is comparable in popularity to World of Warcraft (from the early 2000s). Echoes of Aincrad is a game set in the Sword Art Online universe, where you play a character in the game Sword Art Online. Everyone in the universe wants in on the ground floor of Aincrad, and you just so happen to be lucky enough to be playing the Beta.
One thing is readily apparent: Echoes of Aincrad really emphasized the beauty of Sword Art Online. Spelunking through cave systems reveals the highest of ceilings, and even when stuck inside, there’s an air of grandiose adventure you just can’t shake. Biomes are incredibly detailed and flush with anime-graphic details that allow the world of Aincrad to feel lived in. I devised all of this by just checking out the cave-setting digs in the opening. Aincrad feels cavernous, and your character is an ant in the grand scheme of things. It’s safe to say Echoes of Aincrad nails the feeling of SAO to a tee.
The Beta (tutorial segment) puts you through the motions of learning the game, and it does a good job. After learning the ropes and meeting a few memorable characters (even some companions that you will travel with later on!) the Beta concludes, and the prologue ends. In the next segment, it becomes clear where in the Sword Art Online timeline you fit into, and it’s the beginning.
Echoes of Aincrad allows Sword Art Online fans to finally live out their dreams as a player character in Aincrad, and it starts with the opening of the game’s servers. Just like the anime, the game starts right when the servers for SAO open, but thankfully, unlike the anime, you aren’t jury-rigged to Kirito and Co. at the outset (like every other game in the series), and you’re able to explore a separate narrative from the main storyline in Sword Art Online. A seriously excellent choice.
Echoes of Aincrad begins in the Town of Beginnings, and the game’s creator, Akihiko Kayaba, reveals that the logout button has been removed. Players are then told that dying in the game—or tampering with the real-world headset—will instantly kill them in real life, and, to the dismay of many who have created in-game characters, Echoes of Aincrad doxes every character and transforms them into their real-world counterparts.
With the stakes as high as they can go, I jumped into the third segment of gameplay to see how far things go, and I was not disappointed. Echoes of Aincrad tasked my group with travelling to a far-off town. Of course, there are numerous threats along the way, so I had to check my equipment and make sure everything was ready for travel. In Echoes of Aincrad, you will travel from safe zone to safe zone while fulfilling missions, and you’re able to travel to and from each zone when you make it to one (similar to Diablo IV’s waypoint system).
During each mission, you’re able to bring along a comrade, and they’re very helpful in which abilities they can equip. I almost always choose an extra healer when playing RPGs, so I chose a side-character (no spoilers here) that uses heal and many variations of heal. This proved to be a good idea, considering the typical fare of Aincrad hit hard. While many other ARPG games use a levelling system that scales the player to their surroundings, Echoes of Aincrad tells you to get good, and forces you to level before confronting certain missions. This adds a notable feel of progression to the stage, and I dig it.
“Echoes of Aincrad allows Sword Art Online fans to finally live out their dreams as a player character in Aincrad.”
During combat, everything moves fluidly, and you’re able to throw skills at enemies with reckless abandon. While they do have cool downs, Echoes of Aincrad functions very much like a traditional ARPG with beautiful anime graphics (think the Tales series, but with Granblue Fantasy’s combat system), and the staggering feeling of Aincrad’s beautiful scenery never stops pressing the gas pedal.
Some Sword Art Online fans will notice skills pulled directly from the anime can be used in-game, including the stabbing thrust Kirito uses in the OP for the anime, and they feel powerful in practice. I also noticed that when using a one-handed sword for a while, my proficiency with the weapon went up, and I was able to equip new skills. This is a cool concept that feels even better in-game, and I love the idea that individual weaponry has its own experience trees and skill bars. Today’s gaming landscape is loaded with skill trees (even Madden has them), but somehow Echoes of Aincrad balances its levelling system with compelling abilities to unlock that make the grind feel worthwhile.
Near the end of my quest (and tearing down every monster on the way over), I fought against a hulking boss fight that put my skills and awareness to the test. After dealing enough damage to the enemy, I was able to deploy a co-op skill that did massive damage. I was also able to control my healer at will and drop needed AoE heals on the battlefield to keep myself healthy (there are also potions if you’re in a pinch). Balancing between when to attack, when to defend, and when to assault the enemy with skills is the name of the game in Echoes of Aincrad, and it’s a blast in practice.
After we triumphed over the boss fight, an excellently animated cutscene (filled with solid voice-overs) ensues. Sometimes, it feels like you’re watching an episode of a separate anime, set in the same setting as Sword Art Online, when playing Echoes of Aincrad, and it’s awesome getting lost in the animation of it all.
Echoes of Aincrad is shaping up to be a solid adventure in the world of Sword Art Online. It feels like the developers have finally listened to the fans and have produced a game that lets players live out their dream of also being held hostage in the server of Sword Art Online, and at the very least, Aincrad has been captured in full with a swarm of biomes that puts beautiful visuals front and centre. Echoes of Aincrad already feels like the best game produced from the world of Sword Art Online, and when it launches on July 9, I’ll break out the Nerve gear (or Steam) and dive back in to see more.
