Anime Review: Sword Art Online (SAO)

Hi everyone! Thanks to the vacation, I've been getting enough sleep. :)

Lately, I've watched anime again and I got so hooked! Thanks to my hubby for downloading me Sword Art Online.

Photo taken from Crunchyroll

Actually, this is not my first encounter with this anime. I actually saw a scene of this with my siblings, but it didn't catch my attention since the character illustration was just so-so.

Sword Art Online was originally a light novel, then became a manga, then into an anime. I've only watched 17 episodes of it in the anime (as of this writing, there are only over 17 episodes). This is an anime that is still work-in-progress.

Plot:
Sword Art Online (SAO) is a virtual reality MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) that has a normal leveling system. It comes with a headgear called NerveGear wherein the user wears it to log in to the game after they say, "Link Start!". Think of a 3D virtual reality of Ragnarok with no magic and just swords as weapons. Everyone's a melee (but they do have darts and daggers as long range, small damage weapons). The main protagonist is Kirito, a game beater and beta tester of the game. When the game officially launched, it locked over 10,000 players in-game. They can only log out once the game was cleared - defeating the main boss at the 100th floor. Another kinks in the system is that if they die in-game, they will also die in real life. If they do get disconnected (folks from the real world try to remove them from the virtual world), they will also die. Kirito doesn't go well with other players since he's anti-social and due to a series of events. In the game, beta testers were hated by first timers since they are perceived as selfish and cruel. He meets Asuna, the leading lady, to clear off the first dungeon. But eventually separates when Kirito was found out by his mates as a beta tester and beater. The story revolves around how he manages to survive in the virtual world for more than 2 years and how the game was beaten/cleared.


Basically, the plot kind of reminds me of .hack. And to tell you frankly, it doesn't surprise me much that *toot* was the main villain of the thing. The music and voice actors was above average, not much of a wow there. But I just love how the surroundings were drawn and the game concept itself - it blew me away (except the no log out, respawn and die in real life part). If this were a real MMORPG, I can imagine a lot of people playing this. I think the main selling point of this anime would be the fighting scenes - they're really good!


Being a fan of online games (and console games), SAO was really close to home. So naturally, it got me so hooked to it. And some facts of the story are true:

1. Girl gamers are rare, so they're normally admired by the dominant male population (even more so if you're pretty, single and young).
2. There are guys posing as girls to exploit other guys because of fact 1. 
3. There are game bugs and exploiters of these bugs.
4. Game Masters (GM) have normally characters and mingle with other players.
5. PK-ing (player killing) is loved by many who desire to exploit the weak.
6. You can't PK inside a town - safe place. But you can duel, and it doesn't kill the player. Just hurt them badly. And there is a notification for the duel winner. 
7. Skills vary for each job class or build.
8. There is a currency inflation in-game. 
9. You can't normally kill a dungeon boss alone. It pays to have a party. 
10. Those who are into the game can actually compute moves, stats, damage, etc of their opponent. 
11. Guilds are normally formed by people whom you can trust (and depend your life on) even if you don't know them in real life (IRL).
12. Gamers tend to trust their fellow gamers a lot. Even if they've met only in-game, this friendship can be brought outside to the real world, as if they've known each other for so long. 
13. Love can be found in the game. 

I can really relate to the story since it's quite similar to my online gaming experience - with guild mates, in-game friends and love. I've been to a lot of guilds, met a lot of people and even met my special someone there. And being a girl gamer has some special perks to it too. :D

I can't wait for the next episodes of SAO. And I'm thinking of reading the novel and manga. I've read from somewhere that they are developing a PSP game, scheduled to be released March 2013. Aww. I do hope they build a VRMMORPG or at least a MMORPG. I'd play this, but I wouldn't know what build I'd be. I'm normally a magician or an assist type. Perhaps I'd be tanker or something? Hmm.....

For non-gamer anime lovers, they might find SAO a so-so anime.


 That's enough spoilers, so you better watch this. If you're a gamer, you'll simply love this and wish this game was real.


How about you? Would you love to have a MMORPG game like this? What would be your build? And don't forget to add me up in-game!


If you have MMORPG suggestions, just tell me. :)