SWORD ART ONLINE Alicization Lycoris

SAO fans, yes, get it on a good sale.
JRPG fans, maybe on a good sale.
Everybody else, nah, the game itself isn't great, and there are plenty of great games you may enjoy more.

If you take the nostalgia blinders off, this is one of if not the best SAO game. Now, SAO games have never been amazing, but this is a pretty solid action-JRPG with a LOT of dialog and story. Decent size open world, a fair variety of monsters and the combat is satisfying for the most part. Duels are... alright.

Now... the graphics are just downright bad. Not in an artistic sense, but a technical sense and even though this isn't a AAA game its inexusable. The LOD pop-in is insane in a game from the last 10 years, let alone the last 5 years. The game can look stunning, but just know even on max settings when you run around, people, rocks, trees, monsters, etc will just pop in very near you (not even fade in). There needs to be some higher settings options for this, its ridiculous.

Note: When starting a new game, when it offers for you to skip to Chapter 2... DO IT. If you don't theres an 8-hour visual novel to click through with basically no actual gameplay of note. Just watch it on Youtube to save yourself the clicks.

So at first I was very hesitant recommend the game but I'll be honest. I had an absolute blast. The musics are nice,graphically it's still decent,I didn't get any bugs. Gameplay wise it was a bit awkward at first but I ended up really liking it.
* You have a skill tree that opens more and more when you get new weapon types,new "classes" which allows you to obtain passive and active skills to equip.
* You also have a weapon mastery system for :
-swords
-dual swords
-rapiers
-daggers
-hammers
-spears
-katanas
-heavy swords
-bows
-axe/shields
-whips
Which is a massive arsenal to be honest. Each have their own combos and special attacks.
* you can do combos with allies,who you can also get intimate with to unlock some cosmetics and some lore.
it's rare but I actually took the time to read for once.
* The game offers a ton of side quests,there's crafting,cooking,fishing,alchemy,etc.
* The game offers you a magic system where you have light,dark,fire,water,ice,steel,crystal and wind elements. Each spell has 3 levels that you can unlock by exploring and each level of spell does a different effect. (wind lv1 makes you jump higher while wind lv2 makes a shield against range attacks while wind lv3 makes you dodge further and faster during battle)
* There's 4 big regions and each contains a lot of big areas that lead to each others.
* We played it coop for almost all the game with my friend. You can skip chapter 1 if you want but basically after chapter 1 you will unlock the ability to customize your character fully (gender,voice,size,haircut,face,etc) and you unlock also coop mode.
Coop works that way :
-you can do the entire story from chapter 2 to the end of the base game together with 1-3 friends and each can have an ally with them,which includes main and side quests aswell as exploration.
-Dungeons,special bosses and dlc bosses can be done in coop aswell
-you can trade materials,dishes and healing items with each others to help each others
-DLC1&2 are the only exception as the rest is entirely doable on coop
* there is a "gacha" system for cosmetics and some optional boost that you can get with tickets you get through loging in the game and daily quests.
Globally,I'd say don't look at the negative reviews,people are complaining for nothing. The story was interesting,it was fun to play,it was actually really good. so I'd say,buy the game,give it a shot,don't let the chapter 1 fool you. Chapter 1 isn't what the game actually looks like,it's the tutorial. Every SAO games has like a long chapter 1 that's a tutorial before the actual game.

This game is 20% gameplay and 80% story dialogue. If you're not into fiction and are expecting heavy RPG gameplay, this isn't the game for you. However, the story is good and the combat system is very satisfying

Sleeper hits as for me. A relaxing play, and a nostalgic vibes of SAO. nice

well start with the cons
-buggy, the game crashed to desktop about 4 times while doing the storyline
-no player base, the barely anyone random will join your world and its based on two things
1. steam profile needs to public. 2. open steam settings and go to the download tab and change download region to "uk- london" the ai "players" only show up if people are playing in your region, the location i mentioned seems to have the most activity (3 "player wayfarers" in about 4 hours of gameplay)
-long conversations, if you have a small attention span move along because youll be eating a novel after about 10 mins of game play for the first 15 hours of the game but after that it gets alot better

pros
sao thats multiplayer, fun with friends
fun boss fights

Amazing detailed world. Easy gameplay and controls. Fun to quest or grind.