SWORD ART ONLINE Alicization Lycoris

As someone who's kept up with the anime and is a big fan of the series, I adore and love this game. It does have it's downsides, but am hoping on updates and patches to address the issues i'll bring up.
The Bad & Nitpicky:
- Framerate & Optimization (Work in progress)
You can have a decent/mid range PC to run this at 60fps such as myself, however... It's never stable. If it rains, or you are in a place with a lot of enemies, cities etc... You will 100% lag, from what i've seen even with higher end/better builds. It seems that you can't avoid the frame drops.
(UPDATE) As of 9/15/2020 - Framerate has become a lot more stable, with updates the problem has been worked on and seems to only get better!
- 8 Hour's AND THEN you can customize your character but...
Okay, I love playing as Kirito, but man. what da heck. You need to play through all of the 1st chapter to customize your character. Which I suppose is understandable but the thing that drives me nuts, in cutscenes... You'll magically transform back to Kirito. A heads up to those who are hopeful that your waifu or ya boi Eugeo will call you by name, yeah... No. You'll be called Kirito throughout the game no matter what.
(UPDATE) As of 9/18/2020 - Implimentation of Lightmode and Semi-Auto mode, those who want to focus on the story (More anime/manga based) you can unlock lightmode at the beginning of chapter 2! While Semi Auto is simplified combat and focuses on the main story.
- Camera
The biggest issue i've personally had with this game is the camera, it's really difficult sometimes with how the camera will swing and do silly things such as going into enemies... It's a big peeve that I have with the game, i'm hoping will get fixed.
(UPDATE) As of 9/18/2020 - The camera has been tweaked!
- Customization limited
Compared to a game like Fatal bullet in the series, I feel that it had a lot more hairstyles but eh.
The good
Combat:
The combat in this game feels flashy and immersive and reminds me of a final fantasy 7 remake kinda feel. Everybody fulfills a sort of role and you can really make the characters powerful with others. On top of flashy combat, you have a pretty nice skill tree to work on. You can level certain weapon skills and can really tell the difference in power and damage. Out of the SAO games i've played, the combat in Alicization Lycoris is satisfying!
Affinity:
Wanna romance ur waifu/s or the best boy Eugeo??? Cool, cause I romanced Alice huhuhu. You unlock prize outfits as well as traits that help in battle.
Content:
I can't help but feel that although people complain about this, you definitely can make it worth while. There's a lot of fun quests and places to explore while leveling up your characters. I obviously need to play more than I have but it's been fun so far. This game has made me stay up pretty late the last few nights.
Balanced:
When I play the game, I don't ever think it's ever too easy or too hard, of course if you stack your party with crazy abilities and fight with a full 4 squad then absolutely, the game becomes a walk in the park. However, you may find some satisfaction or more challenging gameplay turning the difficulty up in Kirito's tent.
Fan Pleasing:
Again, someone following this anime almost religiously, this is such a pleasing game to play.
Suggestions
CONTINUE TO ADD CONTENT!
I believe that if this game continues to add content, the game has incredible potential to be amazing and one of the best games in the SAO series... If you leave the game how it is, it has also a great potential to be put down after a full playthrough.
More costumes, hairstyles, faces etc
This would make me damn happy. lol, I spend a lot of time making characters and would love to make characters that don't look like others. It would be really awesome to make a character completely unique
Be able to use different 'Enhanced Armament' or 'Release Recollection'
I personally love Alice's and Eugeo's E.A, it would be really awesome to be able to use the Blue Rose sword or the Osmanthus sword to achieve this!
More affinity interactions
I love the affinity system, cause i get to romance my ultimate waifu Alice. Would be cool to have more things to do, such as dates or even kissing. I swear to god im not crazy :(
More weapons
The weapons in the game are great, but new sword arts would be cool beans yenno?

(I will continue to add to my review as I progress through the game and spend more time in it!)
This game is by no means perfect but I can see the potential it has, loved the anime and love the game.
What I would recommend to people who are skeptical of the game, wait for a sale.

I recommend everyone to turn off their v-sync, once you do the game run smoothly with little load time. I can play on max setting easily even when my spec does not reach the recommend requirement.

While i only 6 hours so far in the game since release, i feel its getting bashed for things people might have "over hyped" or what not, and yes while there is some if an and's, What game doesn't, some more then most, however i am enjoying the game for what it offers, the combat is really nice ONCE you get you're grasp on things and find the weapon type you like. Honestly, the only gripes i have about the game is, The camera is a bit bleh in terms of control and it has a sort of transition when you swap characters and While i dont have the technical problems other people seem to be having i will say like every other review as a reminder, Turn off the V Sync once you can cause that might solve most the problems people are having. All in all i think it is a good game for sao fans, but im also one who of all the current games, there isnt one i like over the other so take my text with a grain of salt if you like.
Edit: I feel the need to make an update into the post, now having a bit more time put into the game now getting into the chapter two content, its safe to say thats when the game picks up, granted the ending of chapter one is pain staking...(I almost feel asleep during the last lengthy cut scene.) Im enjoying the game even more now that i have access to more things in terms of weapons, zone exploration, one thing i will point out is the game has a way of making you look forward to more high level content with the sort of hunts the put in. (Granted most are just over sized normal mobs but does make sense given the current state of everything at this point.) For the most part they just taunt you and force you to go around as they will be greatly over leveled to what you might be at the time. Still, im finding little to truly talk bad about the game, or at least dissuade you from getting the game yourself. And even now i still enjoy the combat, with my current grasp of the system it is very rewarding when chaining together skill combo's of the party for that massive chained burst. All in all, no gripes other then what i mentioned the first time around. 7.5/10

Every player has their own opinion and I think this game is really great. It's a game for true anime fans. SAO: AL marks a new era of SAO games, both graphically and descriptively.
It is an RPG that retells the story of the first of the Alicization season and then progresses to tell it's own original story, introducing new characters along the way and providing you with an RPG experience, that will certainly please the fans of Hollow Realization. If you're coming from Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, know that this one is very different.
The full season is only the first chapter of this game, but it takes around 10-15 hours to complete. It does have a lot of cut scenes. So if you were to skip all of them to get to the good stuff, it will probably take you around 3-5 hours or so. Chapter one works a bit like a very long tutorial. I highly recommend to watch the first season of Alicization before playing this, because the game tells an abridged version of the story, but also introduces a few original story elements. It's more than Alicization which is really nice.
The voice acting is very impressive, but the cut scenes are not so great however. They are poorly paced with a lot of filler dialogues. You can spend ~ 10 minutes in a cut scene without any real story progress and a lot of them have "visual novels" style.
The first chapter will give you quite a few areas to explore. This is not a true open world, instead it has a lot of open areas with loading screens between them, pretty long loading screens I would say!! And within these areas you'll find side missions, boss encounters, chests that contain new weapons and the statues. At first the statues will be inactive, but as you progress they start talking to you and most of them just want you to kill X amount of monsters.. well it’s pretty boring stuff.
You finish the game at around level 40, the final boss fight is a level 50, but in the world you'll find level 80 bosses.
This is not a cheap game, and the good parts of this game are mostly it's RPG mechanics, which have nothing to do with the characters or the show. It's just a solid RPG with a lot of performance issues. The graphics are really good, plus the idea of the game is really unique and fun. I love it and it's definitely worth a bit of your time! 7/10

Material Vendor: I need 30 Rosemir Leaf. (This vendor also happens to sell Rosemir Leaf)
Me: *Buys 30 Rosemir Leaf from this vendor and gives it to this vendor afterwards
Quest: Congrats! Quest completed.
2020 JRPG logic

Now after playing some time and leveling up, i am gonna leave my mark here and say what i like and dislike about the Game
Let me say at the start, that i am a HUGE fan of SAO and all the Games that got released (including the later released lost song and the coop accel world one)
I had high expectations in this game and the new battle system including...prepare for it...MAGIC and sacred Arts!
One thing i always wished to see in SAO Games and in GOOD Quality, were sacred Arts and good working Magic that you can use in Fights, not only for utility
But that's just one point.
Now we come to the game itself and if i would recommend playing it:
First of all, if you are fan of the series/books/story of SAO, it's definitly worth a look, even if you give it back after 1-2 hours of playing.
The Battle System is pretty similiar to the one used in Realization, with chain tactics and mass attacks, a high leveled Skill tree and Weapon leveling, with which you are able to obtain even better Skills for the Fight.
The World we play in is the one from the Alicization Season, Underworld also called and works with the Incarnation System ( Further Explaining through the Anime and Manga )
The Cut Scenes and Conversations also remind me of the ones shown in Realization, while instead of Medina, we had Premiere on our side to work with, but that's just a short notice.
Story related events are a way to go and you get pretty fast used to it, that in Order to beat enemies, that you need to become stronger in a hard way.
Coming to the , in my opinion, good points:
- Battles are hardfought, even if you are on the same level as the Boss Characters or a level above.
You need to learn how to use your Spells and little breaks of the Enemies Defense in your favor in order to perform Damage and keep yourself from dieing over and over again.
Patterns and little Lights signal when an Enemy is about to attack and when it's better to grab your sword and Dodge/run away for a period of time.
It's less : "Farm up and oneshot the enemy before it can oneshot you" and more "Get your Ass up and work for the XP you want to earn"
-Second point: Various Numbers of Enemies and their own style/Fight Art/Chests
Every Area's got 2-3 Zones with Enemies above your level, that will kill you within flap of a Birds Wing, BUT the rewards which you can obtain through sneaking through the spawn Zone and grab the Chest gives you a good boost to handle smaller Enemies.
Every Enemy shown in the game has a different Pattern and different Animations which you need to learn in Order to defeat them, from the little Ant which bites you, to the Holy Spirit Beasts which will clap your butt if you don't act carefully enough.
But if you KNOW how to fight them, it's only a matter of time.
You can Dodge/Parry every single ability they use, with the right timing and use the window of actions to perform your own attack to hurt them.
The more you know, the less they hurt!
-The Third Point and i think the most important one
Even tho you are playing the Story of Kirito and Eugeo climbing their Way up to the Administrator to rescue Alice, the whole game offers itself for you to explore.
I've head from friends, that the multiplayer activates itself later in the game and the REAL open World only after the tough fight with Administrator, but after that, the whole Alicization world is open for you and ready to get explored once by your own to hands and eyes!
Enemies encountered in the Anime and the Manga, Armor and Weapons shown in the previous Seasons are injected in the Game and ready for you to use if you know how.
The Game offers you everything Sword Art Online built up until this point and only waits for you to climb up into the sky!
That were the good points i found for myself
Now i've sadly got some bad points aswell which robbed me some sanity
-Long Loading Screens
-Performance Issues (constantly dropping below the 60 FPS mark)
-Bugs where the characters stops moving/bugs itself into the wall/doesn't jump out of the water/isn't able to focus an Enemy and stops Chain attacks
-"Quality of Cutscenes"sometime drops and the image shown of character is a bit fuzzy
-And for the last and for me hardest one: Auto Saving takes way toooo long to react. Sometimes you are even forced to play for more than 10-20 minutes just to reach a new saving point and save from there, because Auto Saving takes way too long time to activate
But that are just some "little" points that i find annoying. The Devs are highly working on fixing them and from today (19.07.2020) there are already many many little hotfixes released to delete these negative points in order for us players to have fun and enjoy playing the Story of our Heroes Eugeo and Kirito.
Sit back and relax in the wide world that opens itself up for you!

Game had technical difficulties at launch, but after all the patches it works great: fast loading times, stable framerate, no crashes in a long time, etc. Combat system could be a bit faster, but overall, it is enjoyable, has a lot of interesting mechanics and depth. Story is decent, a lot of interesting quest and great character development.
Latest patch at the time of review (1.20) added nice amount of new content, Live 2D scenes, new level cap, new equipment, etc. Many thanks to developers for continuous improvements in the game.