SWORD ART ONLINE Alicization Lycoris

I've sat through some slow openings in my time reviewing RPGs, but Alicization Lycoris made me genuinely question whether I'd miscategorized it as an action game by accident. The first stretch of the game leans so heavily on wall-to-wall dialogue that combat barely registers as a presence. We're talking 30-to-45-minute stretches of visual novel segments interrupted by fights that are over before you've warmed up, then straight back into more cutscenes. If the Alicization arc of the anime is sacred to you, there's real faithfulness here in how the story of Kirito and Eugeo's partnership in the Underworld is handled. For everyone else, the pacing is a credible argument for walking away. Once the game loosens its grip on the story throttle, the combat system does earn some goodwill. Swordplay chains into bigger combo multipliers, blocking builds your special meter, and the Sword Arts add a layer of flashy, high-damage techniques that feel appropriately anime. Sacred Arts function as a magic system running alongside the physical combat, giving you and your party options beyond just swinging a blade. The AI companions are not brilliant, but the real-time battles do reward positioning and timing over pure button-mashing. Gear progression keeps the numbers-brain occupied across the long tail of the game, and for dedicated players willing to reach the 100-plus hour mark, there is apparently a lot of game here. The elephant in every room is technical performance. At launch the PC version was badly optimized, with framerates dropping into single digits during combat and constant texture pop-in across the open world. Post-launch patches addressed some of this, but the community has documented workarounds involving anti-cheat adjustments just to get stable framerates, which should not be the prerequisite for a playable experience. Japanese-only voice acting is a non-issue if you grew up watching the sub, but it is a firm dealbreaker for players who want dub support, and the game makes absolutely no concession here. The co-op unlock is its own conversation. Multiplayer gates behind completing Chapter 1, which sits somewhere between 13 and 20 hours depending on how thoroughly you engage with side content. Once it opens, up to four players can explore the open world, tackle quests, and fight raid bosses together, which is genuinely the game's strongest pitch. Raids and mutant beast hunts are where the build variety and gear grind finally pay off. The DLC story content, however, is locked to single-player, which stings if you bought in specifically for the co-op angle. The Metacritic score of 58 and Steam's mixed 61 percent rating both reflect a game that is competent in pockets and frustrating everywhere around them. The honest summary is this: Alicization Lycoris is built for SAO franchise fans first, tolerant JRPG grinders second, and nobody else. If the Alicization arc is your favourite stretch of the series and you can forgive a prolonged, dialogue-heavy opening, the game underneath rewards you eventually. If you need the combat to be great rather than serviceable, or you have zero attachment to the source material, the 58 Metacritic and the hours of unskippable cutscenes are both doing you a favour by warning you off early.

Monika · Scout Team

RPGs

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