Sword Art Online

[DeathlyForce]

Originally Posted by EHero09

Well, this had been revealed AFTER the full release. Before that, the logout and revival options were still there. It was the first day of full release that it happened, so no one knew what was going on until it was far too late.

And apparently, it takes them TWO YEARS to clear the game. As it said at the end of the episode, no one had even got to level two within one month.

Sorry, but I don't get your point...

A small correction, it was the first floor that nobody cleared within a month.
But that brings me to the question how they survived irl without drinking/eating for a monthn since time goes equally.

About my first remark, maybe I should told it different...
How does it come that the authorities let the players trapped and don't take action after he removed the log out in the real game. Are they just unable to help? Maybe everone dies if they take of the internet or something.
Also, couldn't they just let the internal battery die out to free them...

Oh well, maybe I'm a bit to critical... :P

[Nihatclodra]

^

The authorities CAN'T help. If they tried, everyone hooked up to the game would die. They are probably trying to track down the guy who made SAO to get him to stop this, and maybe doing research on the virtual Reality headsets they're hooked up to, to see if they can stop it... but that's the extent of what they can do. My guess is, once the authorities realize none of them can leave the game, they will get all the players they can find that are in the game on IVs.

[Zaig]

Originally Posted by wealthystick

This might just prove to be the best show of the season. Damn you Zaig.

FOOL! I was aware this was going to be the best show of its season before the anime announcement. >D And you're too slow, because I've been reading the light novels since before the latter was made. No way was I going to let another character moderator claim this to work on. Only the best for me!

Loving it so far but needed more Asuna in the first episode, besides that one-second showing of her "frozen" while Kirito thinks to himself. At least I don't believe seeing her other than that. However, I can wait. Looking forward to the next episode.

[oninosweeney]

Originally Posted by Zaig

FOOL! I was aware this was going to be the best show of its season before the anime announcement.

did you just Excalibur us?? oh no you didn't!!!

[EHero09]

Just wondering, how long should one expect SAO to be? 12 episodes seems like it wouldn't do much justice... I don't know why, but I can't help but see it having 24 episodes like Accel World.

[TheCoffeeGod]

Originally Posted by EHero09

Just wondering, how long should one expect SAO to be? 12 episodes seems like it wouldn't do much justice...

It's 2 seasons.

[EHero09]

Originally Posted by TheCoffeeGod

It's 2 seasons.

So 24 episodes. Good, that way it won't be rushed.

[DeathlyForce]

Apparently SAO is 25 episodes long if Wikipedia is correct.
Twelve episodes would idd be to short imo.

[TheCoffeeGod]

Originally Posted by DeathlyForce

Apparently SAO is 25 episodes long if Wikipedia is correct.
Twelve episodes would idd be to short imo.

Aniplex hasn't solicted the DVD/BDs yet, so it's currently unknown as to the exact amount of episodes, however, it is known to be 2 seasons (or more specifically 1/2 a year) long.

[valondar]

Episode 1

Originally Posted by wealthystick

I just hope they keep in line with the MMORPG themes, so that I can connect with this series more as a former MMO player.

Just so. This is a very promising start as-is, but a series that's specifically drawing on a lot of MMO stuff is doubly interesting. The acknowledgement by Kirito that he's spent so much time being inside and relating to Sword Art Online well, I've been there.

The way his friendship began with Klein - beta tester helping new player learn the ropes, that player indicating he had friends from a previous game where he'd been a guild leader - that rung true too. It made me wonder whether or not Kirito made any friends during beta testing, or if he had gamer friends generally (he seemed familiar with the VR headpiece, and we know there were games on it before the release of Sword Art Online).

Also ringing true was, of course, the guy with a girl avatar joke - I was wondering if the series would ever acknowledge this omnipresent mmo thing, and they managed to get in a joke about it and then permenently dismiss it as an issue... which means whenever we meet that girl from the ED, I won't get to snarkily speculate that she's really a man.

Actually on the subject of MMOs, I guess I want to just want to make a few rambling observations because why not.

- I'm wondering how this 'progressing floors' stuff will work. Clearly the general idea is something like an MMO's raids, where parties of players kill bosses for loot and progression... but the map seemed to show that there's literal floors to it. So what, will they go up a floor, kill a boss, and find themselves in a new 'world' directly above the existing one? I dunno, I'm sure how this works is something the series will cover at length.

- Kirito's observation about farming (collecting resources in MMOs) and thus the need to immediately find an area to farm other people aren't using is dead on the money... partly. It's true that material in certain areas will be overfarmed, but I've never heard of an MMO without respawning materials, monsters, et cetera. His little monologue at the end almost seemed to make it sound like that resources have a permenent scarity and thus there will never be enough, which... would be bad game design and thus not what I'd expect Sword Art Online's beta would have - so even if the game has permanent scarity right now, it's not something he'd know off-hand. We did briefly see that the boars respawn, so we know that respawning happens.

- I did kind of find it funny that when creatures die they disappear in a shower of sparks. It's ten years into the future, we have functioning Virtual Reality helmets, and that's the death animation a top-tier MMORPG is gonna go with?

- While a fantasy MMO, Kirito comments that it has 'no magic', which I assume means that the so-called Holy Trinity of RPGs (tanks, dps, healers) isn't how this game works. Kirito's talk about how the sword-stance works - and, indeed, the name of the game - suggests that all players are basically melee. Still I wonder if we'll see other weapons used - axes, crossbows, knives, so on.