Review for Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris. Game for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 09/07/2020 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 10/07/2020 The version for Xbox One came out on 10/07/2020
After the postponement in recent months, also thanks to the delicate issue linked to COVID-19, the new videogame iteration dedicated to Sword Art Online has finally arrived on the market. Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris thus arrives at a particular moment, practically in conjunction with the arrival of the new anime season that will be called to give many answers to all those questions left open. The tragic battle between the world of "humans" and that of Underworld creatures, led by unlikely warriors of the "real" world, has now come to life and the game developed by Aquaria comes at just the right moment. Alicization Lycoris, in fact, promises to retrace the entire journey of the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC Kirito within the virtual world created by RATH, with some welcome additions, for a very interesting overall result on a thematic and narrative level.
To undermine the overall success of the product is, however, once again, a playful structure that fails to better support the excellent work done in narrative and technical terms, two elements that make the experience a real tribute to fans of 'work of Reki Kurokawa, forced to collide with the harsh reality of the facts.
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is therefore a product with a double face? The answer is yes, and we do not hide a pinch of bitterness in having to see yet another wasted opportunity in videogame-speaking transporting such a product. Let me be clear: this is not a bad game, on the contrary, but we would have expected a little more, and we will explain why.
Narrative imprint
On a narrative level Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris retraces all the stages of the anime of the same name, although it takes important narrative freedoms especially in the more advanced stages. For those who have not followed the "original" story, the incipit is practically the same: it starts with Kirito who wakes up in the world of Underworld without memories of what his arrival in that place is, or what that place actually was. new virtual reality in which it would seem to have been catapulted, up to the fateful meeting with Eugeo.
From then on, the story unfolds and takes on increasingly varied connotations, always very consistent with what is the starting point, but then abandoning it to offer an innovative experience if we want. Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris structurally speaking is strongly based on the narrative arc of the same name, without disdaining some important differences on the theme. Among them stand out original characters wisely integrated into the general ecosystem of the game, inserted in the context in a very credible way.
Let's take the example of Medina, a character not present in the anime but who is thrown into the fray in a wise way in the story, well placed in the story in a coherent way, becoming one of the main partners of Kirito of EUGEO.
The plot of Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris continues well beyond what is the first part of the season of the anime, however, assuming different and "original" connotations and thus offering players a breath of fresh air, all in all pleasant, ideal for those looking for novelty from a thematic point of view. However, this is a more than appreciated work, which we feel we can reward, but not with flying colors because we found the animated sequences really excessively verbose and frequent, so much so as to make many passages bordering on boring (knowing the "basic" story we do not hide that we skipped some sequences out of desperation). In terms of gameplay, this translates into a rather classical experience from a structural point of view. The main tasks can be accompanied by secondary ones, often but willingly too repetitive and not very innovative; collecting things, killing creatures and so on is still a mechanic that extends the hours of play in a good way and contributes to the development of the character, a fundamental element also due to the gameplay dynamics that we will analyze later.
Gameplay and combat system
Playfully speaking Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris represents in some ways a step back from previous iterations of the brand. The gameplay is more technical and reasoned than the old SAO games, titles mainly based, if you like, on a rather marked battle mashing, but tries to adapt to the dynamics of a “real” role-playing game.
In Alicization Lycoris there is a more marked structural imprint, with a tendency to give more luster to combo and at character abilities (often linked to the weapons used) to offer a more pronounced role-playing vein. All this, however, heavily clashes with a very heavy background woodiness that gives life to incredibly slow and cumbersome fighting, complicated to carry on both for technical issues we talked about previously and for the very poor feedback of the shots, but also for a decidedly inadequate fluidity of the animations, which becomes even more incisive in the clashes with the various bosses, especially the "human ones ”, That is, those that give life to the inevitable sword fights.
They turn into a forced exchange of blows, which forces the player to learn to parry and dodge at the right time to be able to KO the opponent, who would otherwise be practically untouchable. Added to this is the speech related to the skills unlockable through one skill tree all in all elementary. Net of their basic spectacularity, these are still quite similar to each other and above all unbalanced, since abusing their power is very simple, also given their low cool down time, which makes it possible to exploit them to get the better of the opponents with relative ease. However, since the challenge level is set excessively upwards, especially in some situations, exploiting the skills becomes almost a necessary choice on the part of the player.
A very similar discourse is linked to the "Arts", very dear to fans of the original work. At the cry of "System call generate ..." it is possible to recall one of the Arts linked to the elements, but not only, which in battle, however, are almost unusable due to a command scheme that is confusing to say the least. And, once again, we are faced with a real shame: exploiting this mechanic properly could have offered a sort of second chance to a rather incomplete gameplay, which fails to give players the right boost in exploration and combat, two essential elements for the genre.
Graphics and technique
Technically speaking, the title of Aquaria is a real one hymn to SAO's print and television imagery, and this can be felt in every single detail. Starting from the game menus, which fully recall the technical style of the latest animated iteration of Kawahara-san's work, Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris manages to replicate the same aesthetic nuances of the source material, thus making the immersive factor a mere formality. Everything manages to breathe the air of Centoria, from the design of the creatures to the locations, from the style of the cartoons through the modeling of the main characters, the imprint given to the production is one that is deeply felt and deeply linked to the original work. It is a pity, however, that this great work is compromised by a number of exquisitely technical problems that are difficult to ignore.
First of all, we had to fight against a sometimes unmanageable camera that makes boss fights, especially large ones or with “human” bosses, much more complicated than normal. As if that were not enough, the work of Aquaria (which will be followed by several corrective patches) presents very serious problems in terms of input lag, which make every single fight, especially the most difficult ones, truly at the limits of sustainable. To close a picture that is far from perfect, there is a constantly subdued frame-rate, complex to manage and basically not height of the situation.
In animated sequences (splendid) as well as in clashes or simply walking, especially setting the camera in third person, the frame-rate drops dramatically, making some passages to the limits of the bearable, also considering the anything but supersonic nature of the polygonal mass.
Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris disappointed us, we don't want to hide it. Uninspired gameplay, headed by a frighteningly slow and clumsy combat system, is joined by a large amount of technical problems at times unjustifiable that compromise the general experience once too often. To save the unenviable painting is the artistic sector, which will make the enthusiasts of the original work happy, at present perhaps the only ones capable of truly appreciating the work done in the packaging phase of a product that proves not to be height under practically all points of view.
► Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is an RPG type game developed and published by Bandai Namco for PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 09/07/2020 The version for PlayStation 4 came out on 10/07/2020 The version for Xbox One came out on 10/07/2020
