SWORD ART ONLINE Alicization Lycoris

So first let me get some common misconceptions out of the way:
This will be a very detailed review, read the bold print for the main points
1.) This is NOT a cash grab. Far from it actually. I am halfway through the main campaign with ~50 hours of play-time which is well above average for campaigns nowadays.
2.) You do NOT need to have played the other games previous to this one to enjoy it. The storyline for this one actually has your main character forget a lot of the past.
3.) You DO have to like the Sword Art Series to some extent to enjoy the game. The game is extremely exposition heavy (more on this later); so, if you do not like the general premise of Sword Art Online, then you probably won't like the game just because you'll be constantly interacting with SAO characters. It'd be like expecting to enjoy an Michael Bay film if you don't like to see explosions and lots of actions - doesn't make sense.
4.) Online Co-op is actually there but you have to play through Chapter 1 of the story to unlock it. There's actually a lot of content that you could play Co-op, but if you do a 'long-play' through Chapter 1 (not skipping any dialogue and choosing to opt for the 'long-play' option) then expect anywhere from 10-18 hours for Chapter 1 to be completed. There is an option to do a 'short-play' of Chapter 1 which I assume skips unnecessary dialogue so you can just grind through the missions - some people say it takes like 2 hours that way. There are 6 Chapters in total, so you still get plenty of time playing the campaign together.
5.) Difficulty scaling seems fair enough, but you don't get this option until AFTER Chapter 1. So Chapter 1 is more or less a tutorial teaching you all the mechanics (and they can be surprisingly complex for a brand new person to the series). After you finish Chapter 1 (which was likely a bit easy if you're like me and did some exploring), you can change the difficulty from Normal to either Hard or Hardest. In Chapter 1 I felt over-leveled because of my extra time exploring.
6.) Re-playability seems quite high. So you start off with your one-handed sword skills, but in total there are 9 different weapon types (according to Google- so like bows, warhammers, broadsword, etc) to play and for the most part they're fairly different from one another. They all have their own unique play-style and timing to chain attacks together changes pretty drastically between the different styles. I think when you fully unlock the magic system you get access to 24 new abilities essentially. This doesn't even get into how you can customize your AI's behavior and Extra skills.
7.) There is an in-game store with premium currency. Mostly, these contain cosmetics. I guess you could argue that it's a little pay-to-win, but not really. Like yeah, there is a ring from the premium store that can give you a chance for extra drops or more experience earned, but those mechanics also exist in the game and if you really want to boost your drops, just turn the difficulty up since drops scale off of difficulty... You can also get some of those items for free by doing the daily quests- so it's not all barred behind the premium currency. As far as prices go, the highest tier stuff (fancy costumes or sword skins and whatnot) costs like $4.00 each - so in comparison to a game like Apex Legends, it's extremely cheap.
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GAMEPLAY
So the game plays like a mix of Skyrim and X-Men Legends II (2005) with the addition of anime style cut-scenes/exposition in the form of a visual novel.
-----A.) First off, I'm not arguing SAO is better than Skyrim, but I do love both these games. Skyrim obviously popular for the open-world go wherever you want and do a quest that some random stranger gave you - you get similar vibes playing this game. Skyrim, when you think of it, also plays like a hack-and-slash - there is actually more strategy in SAO when it comes to fights than Skyrim. This is especially true when you turn the difficulty up. Like Skyrim, turning the difficulty up also makes some enemies extreme tanks that deal increased damage. In Skyrim, higher difficulty is more or less how good your gear is whereas in SAO you better be timing your blocks more effectively and chaining your attacks better- even changing your team composition.
-----B.) X-Men Legends II (2005) is fairly similar here because again those games were also open-world-ish. X-Men Legends is a top-down game where you have a team of 4 characters all with different abilities and different damage types work together to go through the story, find extra gear, and customize how your abilities function. Your special abilities in X-Men Legends use a "mana-pool" so sometimes you have to use normal attacks or potions to start using your special abilities again. In SAO, you have your normal attacks that you use to build up a "Special attacks" bar, which allows you to use more powerful attacks and chain them together. You get to block incoming attacks, buff allies, etc. Certain abilities are more effective against different enemies and what the enemy is doing so your ability choice is quite important. Also, just like X-Men Legends, your characters start off kind of boring with one ability and not much gear. So you have to level up which is easier to do in SAO and enjoy than X-Men Legends.
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Story-line - Visual Novel - Exposition
As a visual novel, you have to expect a lot of reading (since it's not dubbed in English). So in Skyrim, you get a main quest to go clear out some bandits and the only other time you interact with the quest-giver is when you finished the quest... and you're like: I killed those bandits for you, now pay up. In SAO, you get a main quest to go clear a dungeon of beasts. Unlike Skyrim, you arrive at the entrance and then the characters of the story interact with each other (in the form of a visual novel most times). You then enter the dungeon and find the beast --> more dialogue/visual novel. You kill the beast --> more dialogue. You return to the quest-giver --> more dialogue. That's why I said earlier you have to at least like the premise of SAO or be an existing fan. You can skip these scenes, but the combat will then feel choppy and you'll feel like you're grinding (at least for the main quests).
-- I'm not going to rate the story-line. It's good enough but way too subjective. Sometimes there are bad parts, sometimes there are really good parts... probably like most stories?
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Open World
Yes the game is open-world. No, you can't explore it all at the start of the game if you wanted to. I am halfway through the story and only have the Northern and Southern parts of the empire unlocked.
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Character Customization
1.) Your Character: After Chapter 1, you can customize your character. The story will always portray you as the main character, Kirito. I guess there is a lot you can do though.
2.) Your Partners/Allies: You can equip different skins if you unlocked them. For the most part, you can't customize their looks too drastically (unless there is like paid store items that I don't know about... but there are free customization options too). If you played X-Men Legends II think of the Allied customization like that - you just have them put on a different suit of armor, but Wolverine still will look like Wolverine.
3.) Allied AI: So playing with a certain allied character eventually can give you some complex options to adjust how their AI will behave. You can personally go into their behavior and tell them to use certain skills at certain times depending on enemy distance, party distance, party health, enemy stance, etc. It is A LOT... way too much to cover here though.

With the new improvements made in the recent updates, the game is pretty much average now. Not the best, not the worst. They sped up the combat, and made it easier to chain combos as well as made it easier to get into the original content of the game, which would take around 7 hours before, now around 2. No more weird slowdown in areas that had no reason having it, and minus some pop in, game plays fine.
It's no 10/10 game, but its ok. Find it on sale. Don't pay full price. Also, as of this review (May 12, 2021) there is still little to no point getting the premium pass or whatever its called. None of the DLC's have released yet. Don't waste your money.

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

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.

A lot of people don't know what they're getting into when they buy this game.
This is just a heads-up for all of you thinking about buying it.
This game requires you to go through the LENGTHY story-setup to get really invested in what's going on. Its almost like an anime but with gameplay.
It teases you and slowly teaches you each one of its NEW FEATURES. (Duels, team mate stuff, cooking, whatever)
Its a LONG story. (20 to 30 hours before you even unlock the real story)
The whole startup story finishes before you even start the REAL game, which requires a LOT of grinding, a LOT of min-maxing, and a LOT of crafting / setting up links. You have so many choices on how to build your party, builds you can try on yourself, and some actual fun dungeons and end-game content.
This game is a lot, with really odd systems that will seem like they're not required but end up being very required in the end game...
(I have both PS4 and PC copies, because the PC release had a lot of game breaking bugs, but am now going through it again, bugs seem to be fixed. I'd highly suggest the keyboard setup, controller is a little awkward, but less awkward than Hollow)
I'd highly suggest it if you want to play an MMO with nobody else - or if you loved the series and just wanted to see the same friends (All of the cast from Hollow Realization, season 1, and whatever spinoffs) come back and do stuff.
The story actually gets... okay? If you liked the show, you'll like this well enough.

Great game, aside from the usual caveats of SAO games that feature Kirito and his harem. While it had a rough start at launch, it improved significantly and it appears to get better. We even got spears and boy, they are fun! :D (And stylish!)
I don't care much about it, but graphics look good enough for me (Best of the series so far) and I had no issues after I started playing again recently. I think the biggest thing to be aware of - no matter if you are an SAO veteran or a newcomer - is that you need patience until you reach Chapter 2. Chapter 1 is a very large tutorial, which can be shortened if you tick the "Light play" box in "Other options 2" in the system options ingame.
There are plenty of guides and stuff, so you should have no problem figuring everything out aside from the community which is nice, mostly. Like in all SAO games, the grind is real. But I believe this one is the best one yet when it comes to grinding too. The earlier titles went way overboard with that, it's a bit better here, I feel like.
Tips for Chapter 1; Stick to one-handed swords (It'll get forced on you several times) for it, but equip every type of weapon once to unlock their skill trees which apply too all characters. They have no separate skill trees for each character. You can start customizing your character (Not visible in Cutscenes, it's usually Kirito that is displayed, but still nice) at the beginning of Chapter 2 at your desk in Kiritos tent. In order to get through Chapter 1 comfortably I suggest reaching Level 20 before going for the tower ^^
Now have fun with the game and don't worry too much.

This is a decent game, but needs some love from the devs.
Here is my simple review.
- Questing can be annoying at times. Sometimes the U.I is not very good at explaining where quest items are, or how to obtain them. Asking for more details in many situations often proves completely pointless because no vital information about said quest actually gets told.
- When a quest is accepted sometimes NPC's will lose the quest icon above them until you finish the quests, sometimes it won't. (often makes it confusing when trying to figure out what quests you have completed.)
- The whole U.I could be overhauled to make it more user friendly. For example, better icons on the map for quest locations, relics, etc. A better quest log that doesn't show every quest in the game. Better item management.
- Multiplayer is fun. (This is how I have played the entire game after chapter 1.) However, we have run into some pretty annoying things. Such as: NPC's giving us different side quests (Some of which require a party sync which isn't possible when only one person has said quest.)
- Player customization is purely cosmetic. I find it hilarious that when playing as a female character NPC's still refer to you as mr.
-Anti-Cheat program is absolutely horrible for PC. The smallest thing will lock up your whole system for cheating. So far these things have been detected as "Cheating": Pressing shift 5 times triggering the sticky keys message, Using google chrome while game is running, and using logictec program to program buttons on your mouse.