Introduction

Despite my complicated feelings on Sword Art Online (it’s very much a love-hate relationship), I will admit I genuinely like many of the games. Not every one has been great — like many anime-based titles, you can tell when a developer wants to make a quick buck versus putting real love into it. That’s exactly why I was so excited for Echoes of Aincrad. Developed by Game Studios and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment, Echoes of Aincrad seemed like the closest any game has come to making you actually feel like a player trapped inside the world of SAO and Aincrad. My excitement only grew after playing the demo (which served as both an intro to the game and a simulation of playing the SAO beta), and the very next day I pre-ordered the Ultimate Edition. Yes, I spent $120 after tax on Echoes of Aincrad. So the question now is simply: was it worth it? Should you buy this newest SAO game or keep waiting for real NerveGear devices (minus the whole being-trapped-in-a-death-game part)? Let’s find out in our Echoes of Aincrad review for PS5!

Gameplay

In Echoes of Aincrad, you assume the role of a Beater. Those labeled as Beaters are looked down upon by many players since having participated in the SAO beta gives them an early advantage. In a normal game, this wouldn’t matter much. In a game where death in the digital world means death in the real world, it’s a different story entirely.

The premise is simple: your player must scale all 100 floors of Aincrad to beat the game and return home. Don’t get your hopes up too much if you think you’re really climbing all 100 floors here though. Echoes of Aincrad currently covers only 2 floors, but don’t click away just yet. Despite being 98 floors short of what SAO fans might have hoped for, those two floors are not going to fly by in a few minutes.

As a new player, the core loop is straightforward enough: take on quests, defeat enemies, complete quests, level up, and repeat. Echoes of Aincrad beats with an RPG soul at its core, and that’s completely fine. There are plenty of elements that work well here, alongside a few that are a bit lackluster and will likely be the sticking points for some players.

Combat is simple to grasp but deeply rewarding once you settle in. Like the anime, players use a combination of quick attacks, heavy attacks, and sword skills that consume SP and carry cooldowns but deal the most damage and apply various effects. Several weapon types are available (sword and shield, mace, daggers, and more), each feeling genuinely useful and worth experimenting with. On my main character I use a dagger, chaining quick sword skills before letting my AI partner step in to deal damage or buy me time to recover. SAO fans will notice how faithfully Echoes of Aincrad translates the series’ combat into something playable, more so than even previous games in this space.

Progression is front and center. Enemies scale upward the higher you climb, and while the monster variety isn’t exactly diverse (get ready to see a lot of familiar enemy types over extended play), their threat level stays real. Get cocky and spam high-end sword skills on every boss and you’ll die quickly. Echoes of Aincrad reads what kind of player you are and adjusts accordingly. Those who learn to parry, perfect dodge, and use skills thoughtfully will find even Normal or Hard a satisfying challenge (though nothing at the level of Elden Ring). On Very Hard or with Death Game active, the difficulty creeps closer to that benchmark.

Death Game mirrors the anime’s core premise: if your HP hits zero at any point, it’s truly game over. Your entire save is wiped and you start from scratch. It’s brutal, it’s not for the faint of heart, and even on Normal I’ve come closer to death more times than I’d like to admit. You can adjust the starting difficulty to make Death Game more manageable, but I fully intend to eventually attempt Very Hard with Death Game active. I love a challenge.

Echoes of Aincrad has a lot going for it: a solid leveling system with clearly laid out Growth Points you can allocate to specific stats, a diverse weapon system, AI partners with unique abilities, and a genuinely challenging formula. So why, if you look online, is there so much criticism floating around? Some of it is predictable SAO negativity, but Echoes of Aincrad does have real flaws, and they’re worth addressing.

The first is exploration. The large floors feel impressive until you realize they’re populated almost exclusively with enemies and chests. There are no NPCs wandering the world, and if you stray too far from a quest area, you hit an invisible wall that pushes your character back. The first time I spotted a sprawling map in Echoes of Aincrad and eagerly ran toward the horizon only to bounce off an invisible boundary, I was genuinely confused. Invisible walls in an open-world-style RPG in 2026 feel like a relic that never should have made it into the final build.

The second issue is the gameplay loop. Leveling up is fun, fusing weapons together to make enhanced versions is satisfying, but this is essentially all you do across the entire game. Kill enemies, level up, kill stronger enemies, fuse weapons, repeat. By hour three I was mindlessly running quests to reach the end objective as fast as possible, skipping any optional exploration entirely. The loop grows repetitive faster than it should.

Graphics

The visuals in Echoes of Aincrad are a story of two extremes. At its best, the game looks genuinely impressive, capturing the look and feel of the earlier SAO anime seasons in a way that made me feel like I’d stepped inside the show. The Town of Beginnings, when I first booted the game up, had that exact effect. Then I noticed the flat NPC designs, the occasionally uninspired dungeon environments, and the moments where the art direction visibly coasted. Echoes of Aincrad rises to greatness when it wants to impress and then, like a beast after a hard fight, lies down to rest. It’s inconsistent in a way that’s hard to ignore but also hard to stay too frustrated by, because when it does look good, it genuinely looks great.

Sound

Where Echoes of Aincrad earns almost zero complaints from me is the music and voice acting. I played portions in Japanese and the majority in English (for convenience, especially during combat, and because I genuinely like the English SAO dub), and I’m thrilled to report that the original English voice cast returned. Bryce Papenbrook as Kirito and Cherami Leigh as Asuna are back, and the Japanese cast follows with the always excellent Yoshitsugu Matsuoka as Kirito and Haruka Tomatsu as Asuna. The new cast members, including Jessica Peterson (Iori), Rebecca Wang (Saayu), and Alejandro Saab as Musou, all do excellent work and clearly invested themselves in their roles.

The music deserves its own paragraph. I need this OST immediately, and fortunately my version came with a digital soundtrack. Aimer’s opening song Live to Survive genuinely dropped my jaw when I first heard it. The full score consistently captures the feeling of stepping into the deadly world of Aincrad, and not once did any track make me regret using my best headphones while playing.

Story

As someone who has read the light novels, played the games, and watched the entire anime series, I was genuinely worried that returning to one of SAO’s best arcs might diminish what made it special. Fortunately, Echoes of Aincrad takes a pseudo-non-canon approach that incorporates the world, characters, and events of Sword Art Online while presenting them in a way that is accessible to newcomers while still offering something fresh for longtime fans. Without spoiling too much: your characters possess a special ability that allows them to influence the course of events for Kirito, Asuna, and those fighting to clear Aincrad’s 100 floors. What you’ll also discover is that even the strongest and most determined players are still human, and a death game has a way of revealing both courage and cowardice in equal measure.

Ultimate Edition Extras

Echoes of Aincrad comes in four tiers: the standard edition, a deluxe edition, the Ultimate Edition, and the Aincrad Edition. The Aincrad Edition (stickers, a wall scroll, a beanie, and all DLC for $150) didn’t feel worth it to me, so I went with the Ultimate Edition. This version includes the base game, the expansion pass (slated for a future release), a previously unreleased anime movie (which I will be reviewing separately), and some additional extras. Honestly, I bought this edition primarily for the anime movie (I’ll briefly note that I have some regrets about that purchase) and the Death Game add-on. Was $120 worth it? It’s genuinely hard to say yes without reservation. The Death Game unlock (which is otherwise only available after beating the game once) made it feel partially justified, and the expansion pass is said to bring meaningful content down the line. Still, most players will likely be better served by the standard or deluxe editions, which offer strong value at a significantly lower price point.

Overall Impression

Despite its imperfections and the various small (and not so small) issues scattered throughout, I genuinely enjoy Echoes of Aincrad. I’m actively excited to see what the expansion brings, and I’m still playing now, grinding toward the harder difficulty modes and challenges within Aincrad. There are so many pieces here that, with just a bit more polish and ambition, could have made this a truly standout action RPG that mirrors the anime perfectly. What we have instead is a game that echoes the greatness of the franchise while falling short of fully reaching it. And somehow, despite all of that, I keep coming back. I’m not Kirito, but I like to think I’m holding my own in Aincrad.

Conclusion

I wish I could give Echoes of Aincrad a higher score, but as it stands it’s a solid, enjoyable game that doesn’t quite reach its potential. Whether it’s worth $70 at full price, or considerably more for the higher tiers, is a genuinely tough question to answer with a confident yes. That said, SAO fans will find plenty to love here, and action RPG players who can tolerate a repetitive loop will find real moments of depth and satisfaction buried within. My honest recommendation: wait for a sale, or go in with the standard or deluxe edition and enjoy what Echoes of Aincrad does well without overpaying for extras that may not justify the premium.