Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris Gets Screenshots & Info on Characters, Dating, Microtransactions, & More

The Japanese arm of Bandai Namco Entertainment released new screenshots and details on the upcoming JRPG Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris.

This integrates the press-release sent by the western arm of the publisher a few days ago.

First of all, we get an additional look at Renly Synthesis Twenty-Seven, Sheyta Synthesis Twelve, and Sortiliena Serlut, who will be playable, on top of Hersyrian. 

He appears to be a sort of antagonist with a connection to the Axiom Church. He is interested in Medina, who he calls a savior. 

Three more characters showcased are the empress of the northern empire Kayode Nolangalus, a “giant” who lives to fight, and a mysterious “black knight.”

We also get to see more of the sacred artes that Kirito can use, based on various elements. 

Like in previous games of the series, the ability to having chats with friends returns, and even to date them. You can hold hands, hug, and even carry them princess-style.

More information were provided about update plans and microtransactions, which were introduced in the previous press release.

Daily quests will include simple tasks like defeating a number of enemies, finding certain materials, using a number of sword skills, or attacking with a certain character a number of times. 

Completing daily quests lets you earn CUBEs, which are basically loot boxes including items like costumes, weapon skins, accessories, consumables, emotes, and more. Those don’t provide stats advantages when used..

You can purchase (with real money) SAO Coins that can be used to buy specific items that can be found in the CUBEs, but you cannot buy the CUBEs themselves. 

Basically, there’s no way to use real money to gamble on random items. You can only pay to buy specific items. On the other hand, you can play the game to earn the CUBEs, which provide random items.

The price range of items is 100-400 SAO coins. In Japan the pricing is 100 yen (a little less than $1) for 100 coins, 500 yen (just over $4.5) for 600 coins, 1,000 yen (just over $9) for 1,500 coins, and 1,500 yen (just under $14) for 2,100 coins.

According to Bandai Namco, the purpose of SAO coins is to help in catching up for those who purchase the game a few months after release, and to provide a time saving shortcut for players who can’t play every day.

At the moment, pricing for the west has not been announced.

Post-release a free update will add a new raid quest including a new voiced scenario, new bosses, balance adjustments, and more. The bosses can be challenged both online and offline.

The two DLC episodes coming with the premium pass have a scenario that is about 200,000 characters in size, excluding sub-stories. 

You can enjoy all the images below.

If you want to learn more about Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris, you can enjoy more gameplay, the latest screenshots, another gallery, the recent reveal of the traditional fanservice scenes in bed, two gameplay trailers featuring Kirito and Asuna respectively, on top of a video showing the first meeting between Asuna and Alice, the first look at Tiese and Ronye, extensive gameplay from a few months ago, and the previous trailer and screenshots.

You can also enjoy the original announcement trailer, another promotional video, more gameplay from a few months ago, more screenshots, another trailer, and even more semi-recent  gameplay.

Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris will launch in the west on May 22 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC, one day after the Japanese release.