Echoes of Aincrad Review – A Strong Story Held Back by Repetitive Gameplay

Echoes of Aincrad is an action RPG that takes clear inspiration from Souls-like games, but it offers a much more forgiving experience. While you’ll still need to dodge, block, and time your attacks carefully, the combat is much more accessible, making it easy for newcomers to enjoy without the frustration that usually comes with the genre.

The combat is easily one of the game’s highlights. There are plenty of different swords, weapon skills, and abilities to unlock and experiment with, allowing you to build a fighting style that suits you. Battles feel satisfying, especially against larger bosses, and switching between different skills keeps the action fun during the first half of the game.

Unfortunately, that excitement doesn’t last forever. Enemy variety is surprisingly limited, and after several hours you’ll begin fighting the same enemies repeatedly. While new abilities help keep combat enjoyable, the lack of fresh enemy types makes battles become repetitive much sooner than they should.

The story, however, is where Echoes of Aincrad truly shines. This was easily my favorite part of the game. Instead of simply retelling the anime, the game tells its own story while letting you create your own character and experience Aincrad from a new perspective.

Throughout your journey, you’ll meet many companions, each with their own personalities, backstories, and side quests. Spending time with these characters makes the world feel much more alive, and many of their personal stories are just as enjoyable as the main plot. The game does a great job making you care about the people fighting alongside you, and that emotional connection keeps you invested until the end.

Exploration is a bit more mixed. The environments are beautiful, and there are plenty of side missions, collectibles, hidden treasures, and optional activities to discover. Taking your time to explore often rewards you with useful gear, extra lore, and valuable resources.

However, exploring the world can also become one of the game’s biggest frustrations. The map isn’t always clear, and it’s surprisingly easy to spend a long time trying to reach a location, only to discover that it isn’t accessible yet because of story progression. This happened more than once during my playthrough and quickly became one of my biggest complaints.

The world is also packed with enemies, and in many areas you’re almost forced into combat every few steps. Since you can’t easily avoid or run past groups of enemies, exploration often turns into fighting the same encounters over and over again. Instead of rewarding curiosity, the game constantly interrupts exploration with repetitive battles, making it less enjoyable than it should be.

The dungeon design doesn’t help either. Many dungeons share very similar layouts, making them feel repetitive after a while. Combined with the limited enemy variety and constant enemy encounters, exploration slowly loses its excitement as you progress further into the game.

One of my biggest disappointments is how the world is structured. Even though there are several areas to visit, you can’t freely explore every location whenever you want. Many maps are only available during story missions or by replaying completed missions later. For a game that encourages exploration, this restriction feels unnecessary and makes the world feel much less open than it could have been.

Despite these issues, Echoes of Aincrad still offers a good amount of content. There are plenty of side quests, character progression systems, equipment upgrades, and optional activities to keep players busy. Fans of Sword Art Online will especially appreciate how faithfully the game recreates the world of Aincrad while allowing them to experience it through their own custom character.

Echoes of Aincrad is a fun action RPG with enjoyable combat and one of the best stories in the series. While repetitive enemies, similar dungeons, frustrating navigation, constant forced combat during exploration, and restricted exploration stop it from reaching its full potential, the memorable characters and emotional story make the journey well worth experiencing.

Game score: 6/10

Reviewed by: Ruba Jaiousy