Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad: PS5 Review 

Developed by Game Studio Inc
Published by Bandai Namco
Platform: PS5

The world of Sword Art Online is of course a perennially popular one.

So the chance to jump back into that Manga-led world for a game that gives you your own protagonist and then lets you develop the world around you is going to prove enticing enough to many.

But the creation of this latest falls a little short in terms of its engagement with players even though you're one of 10,000 players trapped in a world created by someone else.The twist of course is it's a death game you've been pushed into and death in the game means death in real life too, upping the stakes substantially.

But a mechanic that slows you from levelling up and getting further into the game without a grind proves to be one of the game's more problematic elements, leading to growing frustrations with the game. 

Covering 100 floors and inserting you into the world may seem like a great proposition, but the lack of relative freedom inside the game means that it's very easy to feel like you're trapped in the world, rather than living within it. It's not helped by the fact that even though the world itself looks good, and occasionally spawns monsters for you to fight, it feels decidedly empty and unworthy of plenty of time spent within it.

This is a shame, given how well-populated the world of Sword Art Online as a whole is.

Quests and side missions in the game are also a hindrance too, with a need to level up beyond your means to progress. It's a real barrier for the game and the idea of completing one mission to then have to go back and grind before you can take on the next feels like a really disappointing mechanic to have to endure.

All in all, Sword Art Online: Echoes of Aincrad may deserve praise for deepening some of the Manga lore around it, but the lack of real progression ability and the need to replay and grind proves to be a fatal flaw in its execution - especially for the casual player who's not massively aware of the intricacies of the Sword Art Online world itself.