Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online

Sword Art Online (Japanese: ソードアート・オンライン Hepburn: Sōdo Āto Onrain?) (also known as SAO) is a 2009 Japaneselight novel series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. The series takes place in the near-future and focuses on variousvirtual reality MMORPG worlds. The light novels began publication on ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint from April 10, 2009, with a spin-off series launching in October 2012. The series has spawned eight manga adaptations published by ASCII Media Works and Kadokawa. The novels and four of the manga adaptations have been licensed for release in North America by Yen Press. An anime television series produced by A-1 Pictures aired in Japan between July and December 2012, with an Extra Edition episode aired on December 31, 2013, and a second season, titled Sword Art Online II, aired between July and December 2014. Three video games based on the series have been released on the PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4. An animated film featuring an original story by Kawahara has been announced.

Sword Art Online has received widespread commercial success, with the light novels having over 16 million copies printed in several countries including Japan, the United States, Taiwan, China, South Korea, Thailand, Canada, and the United Kingdom.[1] The anime series has received critical praise for the exploration of the psychological aspects of virtual reality, while others criticized the series' pacing and writing.

PLOT:

In 2022, a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) called Sword Art Online (SAO) is released. With the NerveGear, a helmet that stimulates the user's five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds. On November 6, 10,000 players log into the SAO's mainframe cyberspace for the first time and discover that they are unable to log-out. They quickly discover from Akihiko Kayaba, the creator of SAO and NerveGear, they must reach the 100th floor of the game's castle and defeat the final boss if they wish to be free. Those who suffer in-game destruction or remove the NerveGear out-of-game will result in their real-life deaths.

One of the players, Kazuto "Kirito" Kirigaya, is one of the 1,000 beta testers in the game's previous closed beta. With the advantage of previous VR gaming experience and a drive to protect other beta testers from discrimination he isolates himself from the greater group and plays the game alone, bearing the mantle of "beater", or "beta cheater". As the players progress through the game Kirito eventually befriends a young girl named Asuna Yūki, forming a relationship with and later marrying her in-game. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba's program Heathcliff in SAO, who was discovered to be the leader of the guild Asuna joined in, they confront and destroy him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.

In the real world, Kirito discovers that 300 SAO players, including Asuna, have remained trapped in their NerveGear. Several months later, he is informed by Agil, another SAO survivor, that a figure similar to Asuna was spotted on a giant tree (known as "The World Tree") in another VRMMORPG cyberspace called Alfheim Online (ALO). Assisted in-game by his cousin Suguha "Leafa" Kirigaya, he quickly learns that the trapped players in ALO are part of an evil plan conceived by Nobuyuki Sugō to perform illegal experiments on their minds. The ultimate goal is to perfect mind-control for financial gain and to subjugate Asuna, whom he intends to marry in the real world, to assume control of her family's corporation. Kirito eventually stops the experiment and rescues the remaining 300 SAO players, foiling Sugō's plans. Before leaving ALO to see Asuna, Kayaba, who has uploaded his mind to the Internet using an experimental and destructively high-power version of NerveGear at the cost of his life, entrusts Kirito with The Seed – a packageprogram designed to create virtual worlds. Kirito eventually reunites with Asuna in the real world and The Seed is released onto the Internet, reviving the VRMMO industry.

Soon after, at the prompting of a government official investigating strange occurrences in VR, Kirito takes on a job to investigate a series of murders involving another VRMMORPG called Gun Gale Online (GGO), the AmuSphere (the successor of the NerveGear), and a player called Death Gun. Aided by a female player named Shino "Sinon" Asada, he participates in a gunfight tournament called the Bullet of Bullets (BoB) and discovers the truth behind the murders, which originated with a player who participated in player-killing in SAO. Through his and Sinon's efforts, two suspects are captured, though the third suspect, Johnny Black, escapes.

Kirito is later recruited to assist in testing a state-of-the-art FullDive machine, Soul Translator (STL), which has an interface that is far more realistic and complex than the previous machine he had played to help develop an artificial intelligence for the Ministry of Defense (MOD) named A.L.I.C.E. He tests the STL by entering a Virtual Reality cyberspace created with The Seed package, named UnderWorld (UW). In the UW, the flow of time proceeds a thousand times faster than in the real world, and Kirito's memories of what happens inside are restricted. However, Black uses an injection of suxamethonium chloride to injure Kirito. The MOD recovers Kirito and places him back into the STL to preserve his mind while attempts are made to save him.

SETTING:

The light novel series spans several virtual reality worlds, beginning with the eponymous world of Sword Art Online. All of the worlds are built on a game engine called the World Seed, which was initially developed specifically for SAO by Akihiko Kayaba, but was later duplicated for ALO, and later willed to Kirito, who had it leaked online with the successful intention of reviving the virtual reality industry. Among the virtual reality worlds are:Sword Art Online (SAO) (ソードアート・オンライン Sōdo Āto Onrain?)The first virtual game world, and the setting of the first story arc. A virtual reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game(VRMMORPG), the world takes the form of a giant floating castle called Aincrad, with 100 floors in it. Each floor has a medieval-themed setting and a dungeon with a boss, which has to be defeated before players can advance to the next higher floor. Like most RPGs, it implements a level-based system. However, after the beta testing, the game's creator activated a system to trap the players inside the game, unable to log out; if players die in-game, or the helmets they used are removed, a strongelectromagnetic pulse is emitted, destroying their brain and killing them in real life. Of the 10,000 players in the game, 3,853 are killed, over half of those in the first month.Alfheim Online (ALO) (アルヴヘイム・オンライン Aruvuheimu Onrain?)The second virtual game world, and the setting for the second story arc. The player characters in this VRMMORPG are fairy-based, capable of flight for 10 minutes thanks to their wings. Alfheim, loosely based on Álfheimr and other aspects of Norse mythology, is a large world divided into separate "homelands" for each of its nine fairy races, which include cat sìths, spriggans,sylphs, and salamanders. In Alfheim's center is a very large tree called the World Tree, and the apparent goal of the game is to reach the top, where the victorious player will meet Fairy King Oberon and be turned into a tenth race, the Alfs, who have unlimited flight; however, Kirito discovers during the arc that the existence of the Alfs was a lie. Taking more of an action RPGapproach, the game implements a skill-based system with players increasing their stats by developing both their combat and non-combat skills, and no level-system in play. After the events of the second story arc, Aincrad, the castle of the first game (albeit re-christened as New Aincrad) is implemented into ALO.Gun Gale Online (GGO) (ガンゲイル・オンライン Gan Geiru Onrain?)The third virtual game world, and the setting for the third story arc. It is a first-person shooter VRMMORPG with a main focus on guns, although melee weapons like lightsabers (photon swords) and knives also exist. The game is developed by an American company, Zaskar, and is set in a science fiction world where humanity left a post-apocalyptic Earth but crash-landed upon returning home in a spaceship. Of all the games, it is the most competitive one, as the money earned there can be exchanged for currency used in the real world, drawing high-tier professional gamers to make a living from playing the game alone. One of the more competitive aspects is a tournament known as Bullet of Bullets (BoB), which involves a duel tournament and an open world free-for-all environment. There is also gambling in the game, and like ALO, killing other players (in-game) is supported.UnderWorld (UW) (アンダーワールド Andāwārudo?)The fourth virtual world, and the setting for the fourth arc of the story. It is the first Virtual World setting introduced to not be a game world but rather an AI simulation, set in a Renaissance world where players are encouraged to build the world on their own by discovering new sciences and technology. According to Kirito - one of its developers - it is graphically the most realistic of all Virtual Worlds to date. The flow of time in UnderWorld is variable and can be much faster relative to the real world's. Kikouka claimed that the current rate of its flow is 1000 times the speed of the real-world, and that the maximum rate was 1500 times the real-world's rate.

Watch it for Free here.