Name: Echoes of Aincrad Preview: Already an Anime-Styled Single-Player Action-RPG Delight
Uploaded: 2026-03-07T21:45:18.000Z
Duration: 8 min 50 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Now, sometimes you go in blind on a new game.

That's how it was for me with Sword Art Echoes of Aincrad.

I haven't read the manga, seen the anime theatrical films or live action adaptation, or played any of the games.

My only knowledge of Sword Art Online is that the characters are trapped in an MMO and if you die in the game, you die in real life.

That's a pretty compelling basis for a manga or an anime, but

it's particularly interesting as a video set in a video game.

As it turns out, not knowing much about Sword Art Online made me the perfect guy to sit down with Echoes of Aincrad because, well, it's a little different from what's come.

We dive into that, let's take a quick step back and establish a few things.

First, aside from a short story section of the tutorial that we don't want to spoil, I didn't really see any of the Echoes of Aincrad's story.

Instead, my time with Incred was spent doing a quest called the Lost Log.

But that doesn't mean I can't talk about some of the narrative decisions this single player action RPG makes.

Maybe the biggest departure for the series is that for the first time in its history, you're not going to play as a pre existing character who is part of the story.

When I asked Sword Art Online game series producer Yosuke Futami why they made the switch, he told me there were a couple of reasons.

First, most games in the series have been set in the middle of Sword Art Online's story, which required players to have at least some working knowledge of the series.

Futami hopes that means it will be more approachable for folks who aren't already fans.

Second, he's hoping that by putting the player into the game world as their own character, they'll be able to experience the story of being trapped in a death game themselves.

My journey started in the town of Beginnings.

I spent a little time running around, getting a feel for the place and finding some elven statues that taught me some of Aincrad's lore.

The town of Beginnings feels like, well, a starting town in an mmo.

It's got that dense yet artificial feel of a town in a video game, which pulls double duty in a video game set in a video game.

Because NPCs feeling like NPCs here is a feature, not a bug.

The town also shows off how utterly gorgeous Echoes of Aincrad is.

After seeing the town, I teleported to a nearby terminal.

Picked up a quest, and then teleported to my chest to change up my loadout and level up.

You see, Echoes of Ancres started me with a sword and board build and I decided immediately that I would not be doing that because it just didn't feel like me.

I opted for a great sword and some new gear instead and spent my growth points to maximize what I wanted to do.

One of the neat things Echoes of Incred does is rewards you for hitting certain milestones as you level up.

Generally once you hit five point increments, getting my dex to five, for instance, boosted my sword skill ability damage by 3% while hitting 10 bumped that to 5%.

It's easy to play an RPG and feel like individual levels don't do much to make you stronger, but

every time I got a new level or hit a new milestone in my time with Echoes of Aincred, I felt it.

Something Futami confirmed was intentional when I asked him about it.

And in Echoes of Aincrad, you can reset your parameters whenever you want.

This isn't typical of Sword Art online as a setting, but

it makes Echoes of Aincrad more accessible to newcomers and encourages you to experiment with your build until you find something you like.

Once I was kitted out good and proper, it was time to go out into the world.

Echoes of Aincrad is set in an mmo, but it's a single player game.

When you go out, though, you're not alone.

You can select a companion to go with you.

I had my choice of Iori, a healer, the tankier Wiseman, who operates in more of a utility support role.

I went with Wiseman once we were in the field.

The map would tell us where we needed to go, but I could only see some of it.

As we traveled, our first enemies were wolves, boars and kobolds, all perfect for getting used to Echoes of Aincrad's combat system.

A lot of what's here is stuff you've seen before.

You've got a guard, light and heavy attack, chains that you can alternate between on the floor, fly special attacks, and

Ioris, for instance, create a circle that heals you if you stand in it.

You'll also open up additional attacks if you dodge at the right time or manage to parry as you do, and

What makes Echoes of Aincrag cool is how dangerous everything feels.

Standard enemies can and will kill you if you're not paying attention, especially early on.

And they're not exactly the forgiveness, give and forget type.

They'll follow you for a long time if you pick a fight with them.

Kobolds will block your attack and retreat and try to blind you.

If they do, the screen darkens and is filled with static.

It's a great effect that does exactly what it says makes it a lot harder to see.

Wolves, on the other hand, are nimble and aggressive and travel in packs.

Boars are bruisers that you probably don't want to go toe to toe with directly, and

there are weird plants that attack from range with vines and can burrow under the ground.

And that's not even getting to the elite enemies, which are bigger, faster and stronger and come with additional attacks.

They fly, they shoot poison, they hit pretty hard.

Them boys is tough, so much so that I felt like San Andreas CJ whenever I saw one.

When I asked him about the enemies and specifically mentioned the wasps, he nodded and said ah, wasp.

The rest of our interview was conducted via translator.

Those are the words of a man who knows what he's doing, what horrors he has unleashed on his digital world.

But even then there are ways to deal with enemies.

They can be stunned, opening them up to big damage.

In the case of the wasps, I could knock them out of the air, which is where they're strongest.

If I stunned them, I could chop off their wings, preventing them from taking to the air and forcing them to fight on my terms no matter what enemy I went up against or how many times I saw them.

It was always scary when a fight drew the attention of more baddies and exhilarating when I landed a big hit, nailed a dodge attack or timed a team up attack just so.

What I saw of the world was just as intriguing.

In most RPGs, the worlds are something you navigate between combat encounters, but

in Echoes of Aincrad, getting around is half the battle.

Futami told me that they wanted the world itself to be like a dungeon, and

I felt it when I was playing much of the time I was figuring out how to get where I wanted to be from where I was and what paths I'd need to take to get from one floating orb, which serves as places to rest and restore your potions, but

also respawn enemies to another, finding chests along the way.

By far my favorite thing about the world was finding Arcs, defeating the mini boss.

Enemies sealed inside the Arks will open up other seals scattered throughout the world, allowing you to get chests and other goodies.

it was too dark for me to see what was inside.

Apparently I didn't have the right equipment to light the way.