Echoes of Aincrad Hands-on Preview: Beneath a Floating Castle

Thanks to the wonderful team at Bandai Namco, I recently had the opportunity to go hands-on with Echoes of Aincrad, the upcoming action RPG set within the world of Sword Art Online. I wasn’t exactly the target audience going into the preview, and I was admittedly a bit skeptical. I watched the first season of the anime years ago, but never followed the franchise much beyond that, nor have I played any of the previous games.

For those unfamiliar with the series, Sword Art Online follows thousands of players trapped inside a virtual reality MMORPG, where death in the game means death in real life. Their only hope of escape is to clear all 100 floors of the massive floating castle known as Aincrad. Despite my reservations, I walked away from the preview wanting to see more.

Echoes of Aincrad takes a different approach than most Sword Art Online games. Rather than placing players in the role of Kirito, the protagonist of the anime series, it allows them to create their own character and experience the world of Aincrad through an original story. If you’re familiar with the premise of Sword Art Online, you can immediately understand the appeal. You’re trapped inside the infamous floating castle, fighting for survival while exploring increasingly dangerous floors and growing stronger alongside your companions.

The preview build provided several save files from different points throughout the adventure, offering glimpses of multiple regions, gameplay mechanics, and story developments. While jumping between these saves made it difficult to fully understand the overall plot, the story turned out to be quite a big surprise. I found myself interested in learning where the game is headed. That’s not something I necessarily expected from a series I’ve never been deeply invested in. I can’t get into the specifics here, so I’ll leave it at that for now.

Combat revolves heavily around the relationship between your character and chosen partner. While the action itself is fast-paced and responsive, partner skills are the star of the show. You can swap between “Switch” and “Free” modes to help manage enemy enmity while coordinating attacks and support abilities. Holding the Left Trigger grants access to both Sword Skills and Partner Skills, opening the door for powerful combinations. The game seemed to encourage using Iori, who was particularly helpful throughout my playtime thanks to her support abilities. 

Despite the game’s emphasis on survival, I found Very Hard difficulty to be quite approachable. The gameplay loop remains the same no matter which difficulty you’re on. Essentially, reaching the nearest safe zone is your first priority whenever you enter a new area. From there, you can explore the surrounding environment, hunt enemies, gather resources, and farm weapon and blueprint drops before continuing onward. The loop felt rewarding, even if it wasn’t quite as punishing as the game’s marketing initially suggested.

Exploration itself appears to be a major focus. The quest I spent the most time on primarily involved reaching the next destination through a network of winding pathways and interconnected environments. Because of this, I’m still curious about how varied the broader quest design is across the full game. The preview offered enough combat and exploration to establish the core gameplay loop, but left me wanting to learn more about its side quests, objectives, and long-term progression.

Character customization also appears surprisingly extensive. Unfortunately, my time with the preview build was limited, so I couldn’t fully experiment with the available options. Even so, it’s clear that Bandai Namco wants players to feel like they’re creating their own Sword Art Online story instead of stepping into the role of a series protagonist.

After spending time with Echoes of Aincrad, I found myself increasingly curious about what the full game has to offer. I want to see where the story goes, learn how its systems evolve, and discover how the exploration and quest design expand over the course of the adventure. While I still have some lingering questions about the experience, such as the quest variety, difficulty balance, and long-term progression, the preview left me with the impression that there’s far more to this game than initially meets the eye.

For someone who went in skeptical and with only a passing familiarity with the franchise, I wasn’t expecting to leave with so many questions. I’m eager to see whether the full game can build on what was shown in this preview and how its survival elements will hold up over the course of the adventure. There’s definitely something here, and I’m looking forward to spending more time with the full game.

Echoes of Aincrad releases on July 10, 2026, and is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam. Learn more on the game’s official website.