The Steam Next Fest demo for Echoes of Aincrad, an upcoming action RPG based on massive anime and light novel series Sword Art Online, takes me right back to the days when I was 19 and SAO was the coolest thing in the world. Given that it's the third-ranked demo for the whole Steam event, I'd say I'm not the only one who feels this way.
The presentation is spot-on. So far, Echoes of Aincrad is a convincing portrayal of an RPG styled after an imagined MMO – and not just any MMO, as the series hook goes, but a "full-dive" game where you are cybernetically transported to a digital world while physically controlling your character's body as if it were your own. Bandai Namco has fortunately seen fit to exclude the feature that fries your real brain upon death.
