Echoes of Aincrad Brings Big-Budget Anime RPG Adventures to Steam

The quiet season is over. The sales are done, and the big-budget games are flowing once more. Coming from Game Studio (the fakest-sounding developer) and Bandai Namco today is Echoes of Aincrad, a single-player hack n' slash action RPG based on the popular Sword Art Online franchise; a constellation of manga, anime, and games set in and around a virtual reality MMO.

Unlike most of the SAO games you can pick up on Steam today (at least nine others), Echoes of Aincrad is the first one to actually not be online. While mostly solo-focused, previous games all offered online co-op or PvP modes, but this one's a purely single-player experience with a mostly-linear story. What is more in keeping with the series is a middling slate of initial reviews. As with most other things Sword Art Online, both major sites and user reviews are saying the same thing: It's mostly okay.

So, perhaps not a 'rush out to play immediately' kinda game, but one to keep an eye on in sales and once patches have sanded down the worst of the rough edges. Rather than put you in the shoes of SAO's overpowered wish-fulfilment protagonist Kirito (though he does make an appearance), Echoes of Aincrad has you creating your own custom protagonist and leader of a chatty party of NPC partners.

Despite the game bearing the Souls-like tag and combat having some similar aspects (but doesn't everything, these days?), this is more of a casual hack n' slash experience, with fodder enemies common and frequently popping like piñatas, leaving behind clouds of MMO-inspired loot. This is an RPG set inside an RPG, after all.

Echoes of Aincrad is out now on Steam for £55/$70, with the Bandai Namco standard Deluxe and Ultimate editions clocking in at Way Too Much (£75/90 or £95/110), respectively. Absurd pricing, considering that the expansion pack (featuring the only planned story expansion at present) isn't due for release until December at the earliest. The only real perk of the Deluxe edition is an early unlock of 'Death Game Mode', which is just a standard ARPG Hardcore mode that deletes your save file on death. At least there's a demo, so they're not asking people to jump in blind.

As a personal aside, while I've bounced off most mainline Sword Art Online stuff, I do recommend checking out spinoff anime SAO: Gun Gale Online, set within a battle royale tactical FPS. It's a remarkably low-stakes 24-episode series that fully understands what kind of sickos binge on high-skill shooters.