Echoes of Aincrad

The game is on the right track - getting to create your own character, allocate stat points, and choose from a selection of weapon types with various abilities and customized crafting options. There is a lot of potential here! However, the current game is definitely not worth the listed price. A lot of empty space in the vast world that you need to just sprint through. It takes a bit to get to the chests scattered about, and the single drop of a consumable upon opening is very underwhelming. One of the most annoying parts of the game is the slow motion kills and the companion-skill cut scenes, which greatly disrupts the flow of combat, all to the detriment of the player.

-геймплейно дерьмо редкостное -сюжет моментами норм -билды говно -мир говно -персонажи как куклы вывод: потрачены деньги зря, надо допройти, чтобы не жалко было

i like the game a great deal. it has potential to really be something if updated. one thing that would make this game really good is if there was so type of multiplayer. i understand why they opted to go the single player route. it's hard to make a game that is about a game that is full of players and so expansive. zones feel empty because there isn't any npcs or players but in the sao anime or manga the players are the only ones that venture outside city bounds. the game has potential to be a real hit if they find some way to change that. i've played a bit now i think its great but could be better i hope that they stick with it and don't abandon it.

I have no idea why there are mixed reviews on this game. [b]The graphics are phenomenal, the story is incredible, and the quests are excellent[/b]. [spoiler]The story isn't the exact same as Sword Art Online[/spoiler], which is exactly what I expected. So I'm not disappointed about that. I'm only about halfway through the game (I think, I'm about to go to Floor 2) and I'm so incredibly stoked for what's next. I like the new stuff that's been added that isn't in SAO (Quests, Items, ETC.). [u]Over all I think this is an incredible game and it should have way more attention than it's getting.[/u] I already plan on buying this for a friend in the future because he wants to play it but doesn't have the money for it.

Like many others in the reviews, I'm huge fan of SAO. This game has some charm to it but is ultimately a massive let down. How could this game not be a open world. Why can't you join or create a guild. The party system sucks. Why is there no crafting/gathering system like in SAO where you have to level up. The whole world shouldn't level up with you, like in SAO at some point you should be overpowered in the lesser level areas. For the price of this game you would think there would be more content and better systems than a cellphone game

現状買うべきではない　バグが多くスキル硬直で死ぬことはざらにある　デスゲームモード以外でやる場合はシンプルにつまらない作りになっておりデスゲームモードでやるならバグで死にます　アプデで修正されればデスゲームでお勧めします　アプデ後もフルプライスで買うことはお勧めできません

In its current state and price i cannot recommend at all. The combat is fine even if its nothing impressive or deep but the exploration will absolutely waste every second of your life playing this game. About 80% of the chests are filled with useless consumable garbage u can just buy or craft yourself in town wasting your time looking for them. Hell often u get the same consumable item u just used to get to the chest that was blocked off. The world feels empty and u cant go outside of the limits of each mission. Story would be the good part of the game except it feels like all the resources were wasted on a painfully bland and empty world with about 2 type of area that being forest (floor 1) or desert (floor 2). The characters and emotional moments are actually decent and wish there could have been a ton more of it but all u gonna get is a little chatter at the start and end of the mission with only a very few proper cutscenes and the rest is just basic character dialogue with repeating the same five motion. On top of all this THE STORY IS NOT FINISHED AT ALL. Yes its 70$ for a literally unfinished story that u may or may not get in the future. It genuinely infuriate me that they fumbled this game so hard cuz the potential is there if they would have just made a linear with higher focus on the story and characters game but ended up being a cash grab unfinished mess with probably the best setting in the SAO IP.

I wish we could leave neutral reviews. I would recommend this game to big fans of SAO, purely because of SAO. Without the love of the SAO though, this game does not have enough for players stepping in to SAO for the first time. Pros: +World looks beautiful +Game feels well optimised +Seeing scenes play out from the early parts of the anime, albeit from a different perspective +Combat feels better than recent games, it is more simplified and it has a fun but basic loop when fighting mobs. +Attributes/Weapon: From the very get go you can reset your stats from in town as soon you get access to the first town. This means you can easily try each weapon type out and allocate your attributes however you feel, it costs a bit of money to reset but money is absolutely plentiful. +Feels like a step in the right direction, I feel like if they were to release an Echoes of Aincrad 2 or 3, they would likely finally get the game right, but it isn't quite there yet. +Wardrobe, early on there is a sidequest that unlocks the ability to create a fashion outfit. This lets you wear whatever armour you want, whilst still wearing attire you think looks the best. You can also dye your armour and each part has multiple sections you can colour, this is a nice touch and means you can still visually wear the flutter armour, even when you find something better. Cons: -Mute protag - easily the worst choice of the game design. You can occasionally nod, shake your head or look confused when answering questions and that is it. The silence and awkward pauses do the game no favours. You don't even get to select dialogue options like in other games with a silent protag (BG3, DAO, FO3NV etc) I can't actually describe accurately enough how terrible this design choice is. It was better done in Fatal Bullet. -AI companions / Switch style combat: This feels very poorly done, your AI character will just stand around and occasionally attack an enemy if you are in the lead, they do very little damage and mainly focus on dodging. When "switching" them in, they will often run to attack a different group of enemies instead of the current group you are fighting. They at least fight in this style, but they still do minimal damage and very rarely use their skills (from what I have seen). Party is limited to one AI companion that you choose, considering SAO is life or death, the companions choosing to split up on every question is just nuts. Some quests you will have a third/fourth companion following you, they are absolutely worthless. They do no damage (not exaggerating, they cannot hurt enemies) but will attack/use skills. They are simply there to stop the MC from being swarmed by all enemies. -Combat: Although the combat itself is an improvement over some recent games, it still feels clunky. Recovery times after attacking, or dodging then attacking, limited movement when trying to do combos makes it difficult to attack and simultaneously avoid taking damage unless you rely on dash attacks. Enemies however have insane mobility and skill tracking so even when you move/dodge their skills can still hit you. -Chests: There are so many chests you can find that have a single item in or some Col (money), that they aren't worth actually opening. Some will have a blueprint in for crafting a new weapon/armour but these are usually hidden away and take a bit more effort to get. Can't remember the last time I played an RPG where I actually thought "I can't be bothered to loot those chest". -Crafting/Upgrading: very simple but not in a good way. Upgrading weapons consumes other weapons you have found (which will be a lot because enemies drop loads of items), this is disappointing and I believe they should have stuck to materials giving you more reason to loot chests/items on the floor. You can craft items finding materials in each quest, but in all honesty you get so much money you can just buy the items instead. There are specific items you need to craft a weapon for the first time, but once it's crafted, upgrading no longer uses materials (except for a single quest where you need to go find a specific material to enhance a sword, which is a terrible quest because by this point I already had better weapons, and no other upgrades seem to require materials so far) -You can only access your equipment in town at your room, if you find a new weapon/armour, you cannot immediately equip them. I understand this is likely cause the weapons would be worse without upgrades, but its still a strange choice. -Armor is very limited, you cannot upgrade armour, and so far I have only found a few variants to craft. I don't think I am very far in to the game yet, I have completed the Floor 1 boss fight, but have not yet proceeded to floor 2. I have done all side quests I have came across so far. I may change some of my thoughts (unlikely) as I progress further, or find other positives/cons that I forgot to write here. TLDR: If you love SAO and enjoy JRPG/RPG style games, you may enjoy this. If you don't care about SAO, have never watched it etc, I would probably skip this and give one of the other games a try. I haven't played many SAO games on my steam account as I played them all back on Xbox/Playstation back in the day. Fatal Bullet is my favourite SAO game out of them all.