Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris

WayTooManyGamesThomas Medina

7.5/10

If you’re not already a fan of Sword Art Online, go away. This game is not for you. Now say you should ignore my advice and play anyway? I doubt you’d get thirty minutes in before you were slammed with buyer’s remorse. Some games are just exclusively made for their target audiences. Or are flawed in such a way that only someone whose already invested can look past it. SWORD ART ONLINE Alicization Lycoris is very much both of these things. The game’s glacial opening, uneven pacing bet...

COGConnectedThi Chao

70/100

It’s hard to believe that the original Sword Art Online light novels first debuted in Japan over a decade ago and garnered mass popularity that eventually spawned a very successful anime. It was no surprise when games began following its path, as the concept of playing a fantasy MMO VR game couldn’t be any more perfect for fans to be able to further engross themselves in the story. Unfortunately, the previous SAO games haven’t really performed as well as fans had hoped but here we are with the latest entry into the series: Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris. Will it prove to be a worthy suc...

TheSixthAxisReuben Mount

6/10

Ultimately SWORD ART ONLINE: Alicization Lycoris takes too long to get to the point both in its combat and story, leaving the player disinterested before it even really begins. There is a good game here if you do commit to it, with some great character and world design, enjoyable combat, and interesting game systems, but it’s just not worth the slog to reach it.

VGChartzThomas Froehlicher

5/10

A lot of great effort somewhat ruined by serious flaws.With high awareness surrounding the series, a popular anime season airing right now, and favorable first contact at [...]

GameSpewRichard Seagrave

5/10

If you’re a huge Sword Art Online fan, or are simply after an expansive JRPG to sink your teeth into, you will get some enjoyment out of Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris. It requires some patience and persistence, however, and you’ll still be far from impressed by it. Poor performance hampers its gameplay, while long and frequent load times in conjunction with poor pacing often make it feel like a slog. So many times, especially during the first chapter of the game, you’ll be itching for some action only to be hit with an hour or more of story scenes. Eventually, you might be tempted to j...

MonsterVineSpencer Legacy

Visually, Lycoris looks quite nice but suffers from poor performance. The character models and illustrated scenes are crisp and high quality, and there are some nice particle effects spread throughout the game. The problem is that these visuals are the cause of some harsh performance issues, with an incredibly inconsistent framerate that plagues a good chunk of the game.

Video ChumsA.J. Maciejewski

4.7/10

The game-within-a-game series is back with a new installment so let's dive into the virtual world of Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris.

TwinfiniteKeenan McCall

Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is, at best, a passable anime game. It has the bones of a decent action adventure title, and offers a decent retelling of its source material's story, but it's mechanically bogged down to the point of tedium and exhaustion.

GameGrinJudgemental Waifu

3/10

While Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris is ambitious in scope it ends up being a largely unenjoyable title full of technical problems, bugs, and horrible pacing.

TechRaptorAndrew Stretch

2/10

Between the elongated dull story, the boring and monotonous gameplay, and frequent and in your face technical issues there is little to redeem Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris. Fans of the franchise will want to avoid it, and those interested in a bad game won't even be able to get a laugh out of it.

GameTyrant Dean Clark

0/10

So much enjoyable gameplay that they, unfortunately, drowned in lore.

Analog Stick GamingJeff Young

Unscored

While the game is set in the biggest environments the series has seen thus far, the game feels drastically too ambitious for its own good, as this large scale adventure is plagued by incredibly poor texturing, constant pop-up, and significant framerate drops. These issues and more are everywhere, an