With Bandai Namco's Echoes of Aincrad topping the Steam Next Fest charts, hands-on impressions from the community reveal minor but potentially frustrating issues that could impact the experience at launch—especially for those planning to tackle the permadeath challenge.
Gravity vs. Survival in the Death Game
One of the most persistent complaints from the trial version is the overtuned fall damage. In a standard role-playing game, losing health from falling off a modest ledge is a minor annoyance. However, in the upcoming Death Game Mode, where dying deletes your save file permanently, this mechanic becomes a major threat.
Players report blacking out after falling from relatively low heights, sparking fears that unintended slips will lead to premature permadeath. If the game plans to keep the high-stakes survival aspect tense yet fair, adjustments to vertical collision and falling thresholds are needed before launch.
The Chatty Companion Dilemma
Another focus of community feedback is the partner system. While the combat artificial intelligence behaves competently—actively executing skills and drawing aggression rather than acting as dead weight—their verbal frequency has drawn comparison to God of War's notoriously talkative companions.
AI characters like Iroi reportedly repeat directions, point out obvious chests, and flag save points with annoying frequency. While some players enjoy the lighter, flirty tone Iroi brings to the journey, others want an option to dial down the dialogue frequency.
Additionally, the ability to revive fallen party members has sparked debate. Some veteran players argue that easy revives diminish the urgency of keeping teammates alive, hoping that higher difficulty levels or the hardcore survival mode will penalize party deaths more severely than the normal demo settings.
Fluid Gear Customization
On a more positive note, the demo's approach to progression has received praise. The lack of rigid classes allows players to swap between different weapons on the fly.
This flexibility is backed by a straightforward crafting system where players can roll unique effects from different gear pieces into a single weapon, removing the stress of choosing between raw stats and special perks. For more details on how early feedback compares to developer promises, see our previous breakdown of combat flow and death game mode rumors.