REVIEW: ‘Echoes Of Aincrad’ Gets Stuck In Its Own Way

Coming off a promising preview, Echoes of Aincrad felt like it had every piece in place. The combat clicked, and the companion system gave fights a real strategic layer. The atmosphere sold the death-game fantasy better than any previous Sword Art Online game had.

Developed by Game Studio Inc. and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Echoes of Aincrad is an action RPG that ditches Kirito as the player character. Instead, players build a custom avatar and step into an original story set across Floors 1 and 2 of Aincrad’s tower. The concept is right, and the first few hours deliver on it. Echoes of Aincrad peaks early, though, and spends the rest of the game grinding those highs into dust.

After getting through the prologue, players learn they are trapped inside the death game in the Town of Beginnings alongside thousands of panicking strangers. From there, the story runs parallel to the events of the original Sword Art Online arc. Kirito, Asuna, and Argo still follow their established roles, but the focus stays on the player’s own group. Iori, a fellow beta tester and the primary companion, anchors most of the story’s emotional beats.

Combat is the strongest piece of the puzzle in Echoes of Aincrad.

Echoes of Aincrad leans into the darker side of the premise. Isolation and fear come through in the story, along with the psychological weight of being stuck somewhere where death is permanent. That tonal shift gives the game more bite than any previous SAO game has tried. But the monotony of the actual gameplay keeps those moments from ever hitting the way they should.

Combat is still the strongest piece of the puzzle. Light and heavy attacks combine with unlockable Sword Skills to create a foundation that borrows from the Souls-like playbook while staying faster and more forgiving. Stamina management keeps encounters honest, and the parry system rewards you for committing to its tighter windows. The combat could hit harder, but there’s a satisfying rhythm to it when everything connects.

It stops growing too early, though. By the midpoint of Echoes of Aincrad, the combat has shown everything it’s going to show. Fights that felt tense in the opening hours start to blur together, and familiar encounters stop demanding attention.

The companion system is the best thing Echoes of Aincrad has going for it.

Weapon variety exists on paper. Six types are available, and each one handles differently enough to justify trying. But Echoes of Aincrad makes experimenting frustrating. Swapping weapons means going back to the inn chest, and since you can only leave town by accepting a quest, the whole process becomes a tedious cycle of menus and loading screens. It might fit the game’s vision, but it wastes time.

Crafting and weapon synthesis are rewarding early on, but by Floor 2, the loop feels derivative. Swords stayed reliable throughout the playthrough, and while other weapons offered different attack patterns, the hassle of switching kept pulling me back to what worked.

The companion system is the best thing Echoes of Aincrad has going for it. The game offers multiple NPC partners as the story progresses, and they all play differently. Iori stood out for my aggressive playstyle. Flying headfirst into battle is dangerous, and I needed a good healer to back it up; Iori fills that role well with her Healing Circle ability. Their attacks are nothing to scoff at, either. 

The world of Echoes of Aincrad is where the cracks show hardest.

Switch Mode lets you hand aggro off to a companion while you fall back to heal. That one mechanic is what keeps the companions from being forgettable. The bond system adds some depth to combat pairings, though outside of combat, relationships rarely develop beyond cutscenes. Even so, the companion system is the one part of Echoes of Aincrad that never gets old.

The world of Echoes of Aincrad is where the cracks show hardest. Floor 1 makes a strong first impression, with detailed environments and a Town of Beginnings that bustles with NPCs. But the further you get, the more that density turns out to be surface-level.

NPCs fill the streets with nothing to say, and exploration quickly becomes set dressing you run through on the way to the next fight. Floor 2 opens up slightly in size but doesn’t change the formula. The world looks great but doesn’t reward curiosity.

Echoes of Aincrad looks great and runs well.

Quest design is where Echoes of Aincrad falls apart. Go to town, pick up a quest, head into the field, fight enemies, gather materials, return, upgrade, repeat. That loop never breaks. On top of that, main quests and side quests can’t be taken on at the same time, which forces you through the cycle one objective at a time. The grind wears you down, and by the time the story picks up, hours of repetitive missions have already burned through your patience.

Echoes of Aincrad looks great and runs well, with strong art direction and stable performance. Character models hold up across both gameplay and cutscenes. The soundtrack is a genuine highlight, picking up the slack when the gameplay can’t.

The no-pause mechanic, which felt like a smart choice during the preview, holds up in combat but gets annoying during cutscenes. Death Game Mode is a cool addition that raises the stakes with permadeath, deleting your save if you fall. But locking it behind a full playthrough or a premium edition takes the wind out of it. Replaying a game that already struggles with repetition just to access a harder mode is a tough sell.

Echoes of Aincrad is the best SAO game yet, but it never builds beyond its foundation.

Echoes of Aincrad is the best Sword Art Online game to date. That bar has never been high. The combat and companion systems lay a foundation that could support something special, and centering an original story around a custom protagonist is the right call.

But Echoes of Aincrad never builds beyond that foundation. Quests repeat endlessly, and the world looks alive while feeling hollow. The pacing stalls before the story ever finds its footing. The base game doesn’t feel complete, and the announced DLC expansion already feels necessary. Sword Art Online fans will find something here that no other game in the franchise has offered. But as a standalone action RPG, Echoes of Aincrad needed more time to live up to its own concept.

Echoes of Aincrad is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC