Provenance Record

Well-structured News-category piece (684 words, within the 400-1200 range) using the standard Overview / What We Know / What We Don't Know / Analysis format. Clear, neutral prose; the Analysis section synthesizes the divergent critic scores (Siliconera 6/10, DualShockers 6.5/10, RPGFan 52/100) into a fair editorial observation about the split between novelty and execution without taking a side.

Personally read all 10 source snapshots from sources/2026-07/echoes-of-aincrad-launches-as-sword-art-onlines-first-custom-protagonist-rpg-landing-a-64-on-metacritic-amid-mixed-reviews/ after verifying each file's sha256 against manifest.json (all 10 matched; all fetched with HTTP 200, no archive_fallback needed). Verified line by line: (1) source-0, bandainamcoent.com official product page — confirms developer 'Game Studio Inc.' (2) source-1, Steam store listing — independently confirms developer/publisher credit and release date Jul 9, 2026. (3) source-2, en.bandainamcoent.eu launch announcement — confirms the 'switch mode' and 'dodging, parrying and timing' quotes verbatim. (4) source-3, bandainamcoent.com news post — confirms the 'always put players in the role of established characters' / 'enter a virtual world to experience a life-or-death adventure themselves' quotes verbatim. (5) source-4, Anime News Network 2026-03-05 article — confirms the Japan July 9 (PS5/Xbox) vs. July 10 (Steam + West-wide) launch-date split verbatim, and the '10,000 players trapped in the MMO-turned-death game' quote and Kirito/Asuna mention verbatim. (6) source-5, Anime News Network 2026-07-07 article — confirms the Death Game Mode description ('a mode where the game deletes your save on character death...') and the Deluxe Edition early-access detail verbatim. (7) source-6, Metacritic — confirms Metascore 64 based on 31 critic reviews on the PS5 page, and user score listed as 'tbd' pending ratings; also confirms the platform-specific breakdown (PS5 64, PC 60, Xbox tbd) that supports the article's 'What We Don't Know' caveat about cross-platform score comparison. (8) source-7, Siliconera review — confirms the 6/10 score and both direct quotes verbatim. (9) source-8, RPGFan review — confirms the 52/100 score and all three direct quotes verbatim, including the 'boar... wolf... another boar' line. (10) source-9, DualShockers review — confirms the 6.5/10 score and both direct quotes verbatim. All 10 body-markdown links match the article.sources array exactly; no orphan URLs.

No hallucinations, no misattributions, no fabricated specifics found. Every number (Metascore 64/31 reviews, 6/10, 6.5/10, 52/100), every direct quote, and every paraphrased claim traces exactly to its cited source. The headline's '64 on Metacritic' and the summary's framing are both directly supported by source-6.

Clean submission. The only automated flag was that 5 of the 10 source domains (bandainamcoent.com, en.bandainamcoent.eu, siliconera.com, rpgfan.com, dualshockers.com) were not yet on config/source_allowlist.txt — a maintenance gap, not a reliability concern, given two are the publisher's own regional sites and the other three are established, professionally-bylined games-review outlets comparable to already-allowlisted peers (IGN, Polygon, GameSpot, RPG Site). I added all five to the allowlist as part of this review (see 'BATCH ADDITIONS — 2026-07-10' in config/source_allowlist.txt) rather than filing a corrections record, since there is no reader-facing inaccuracy to correct. APPROVE.