Before I start, I want to say the following: I’ve gotten tired of assholes right now. If you want to criticize the series, then be my guest. I’m doing that too. But from now on I reserve the right to delete any comment that insults people for liking or hating this series, and depending on my mood I’m going to ban the posters of those comments from this site. I want this site to be a place in which we can just peacefully discuss these anime. Not hate on each other for having different tastes.
Anyway, Sword Art Online: the new arc has really started now, and my suspense of disbelief is being tested like no other. I’ve got a background in computer science, and I just cannot believe some of the things that the programmers included here. Why on earth was half the game of Sword Art Online copied to that elf game? Who on earth bothered to transfer all that data. That doesn’t just happen by accident, you know? The most baffling thing is that Yui is suddenly back though. Not with her admin powers, but instead as a random program. She was supposed to be there for maintaining player’s mental health. She’s useless here because people can log out now. The image of what she’d be like in real life is just bizarre. Can you imagine being in a marathon-session of World of Warcraft with suddenly a cute little AI-programmed girl approaching you and comforting you?
The episode ended with that elf girl appearing, and Kirito kicking everyone’s ass now that his character still is the same. My impression of her is… “meh”, but that could be because we hardly got to see anything of her. This was all about Kirito getting the chance to impress another girl again by being at the right time at the right place again.
There is one good thing about this arc: it’s different. I like variety, but it’s a double edged sword. If you want to be different you of course need to also be good, otherwise this misses the whole point of variety. This arc furthermore has another big disadvantage: there is very little tension in the fights now that death has become a momentarily annoyance. The end of this episode for example: it made such a big deal of what? Losing a bit of experience?
Rating: 3.5/8 (Enjoyable)
“Why on earth was half the game of Sword Art Online copied to that elf game?”
That’s not what happened IIRC. What happened was that both games run on the same system, although Alfheim Online runs on a slightly more dated version of the system. We are not even told why Kirito has his SAO parameters, just that he does have them, and you basically have to assume that it was a glitch.
But, what is of note is that your game avatar in Alfheim Online is supposed to only be as strong as you are in real life, but because Kirito has his SAO stat parameters, he is basically a superman in this game, whose stats exceed anything that can be seen from a typical ALO player. He is the strongest character after logging in for the first time ….
Tl;dr, he’s even more of a Gary Stu. His character doesn’t have a chance to grow and mature, because he doesn’t have to struggle to achieve much beyond rescuing his e-waifu. I mean, WTF is character development?
The elf girl is his cousimouto. Calling it now.
What I find hilarious is that everyone who criticizes this show comes up with different arguments.
“The elf girl is his cousimouto. Calling it now.”
Whats the point of calling it now? The ending pretty much confirms it.
I thought it was pretty obvious from the 2nd OP that the blonde girl is his cousin XD
I am not a programer but the impression I got was that they didn’t transfer the data. It was just already there as the company took over the servers. I think ALO is just a modded version of SAO. And they didn’t flush out the old data because…laziness and plot convenience maybe.
I don’t know I can’t remember the details from the novel.
First:
My bad psgels, I have overreacted in my previous comments. I, and many others I’m quite sure, are just irritated that this series is overrated because I don’t feel it deserves the hype it’s getting. I apologize if I have offended you in any shape or form.
Second:
As a younger, more recent viewer of your blog (ironically, I was introduced to it through your bashing of Persona 4), I enjoy reading your posts and opinions. Please don’t be put off by such critics and do what you enjoy best; ever since getting introduced to your blog, I’ve taken your judgement on anime as a guideline for what I should watch on a seasonal basis.
I again apologize for any over the top criticism I may have done.
He isn’t put off by critics, he is put off by assholes.
Anyway SAO best show ever, and each episode just cements it’s place in anime history. Can’t wait until it is enshrined in the anime hall of fame, and all the haters cry me a river!
LOL
ALO has a number of things people will find hard to accept:
1) Kirito’s stats. Well, he obviously needs to be amazing to get the support of others and get anywhere in the tiny 1 week window before the marriage. And I could never sit through 2 more years of grinding.
2) Yui. Again, with only 1 week, Kirito needs a super hack to make it as easy as possible to reach Asuna. She wasn’t part of the original novel – the author realised she was needed in ALO so added her to Novel 2 – the SAO side stories.
3) Some later events I do not wish to spoil. They are “why Japan, why?” moments.
Simply put, ALO to SAO is like Windows 7 to Vista. Same underneath, but with a different GUI and some different features. Some files are the same – like Kirito’s stats – others are different – like his items.
Yui was made into a system item though, which could be read by ALO’s system. Once in the system, she turned herself into a Navigation Pixie – yes, this should require GM access, and yes, this is a plothole.
As Kirito himself says, he is a “cheater” in ALO, and since we were hardly giving SAO many points for plot, you just have to accept it and move on. Or (what I’m doing) ignore it as best you can.
Yui herself said that the game sees her as a Navigation Pixie (at least by my sub groups), not that she made herself into one. Kirito explicitly asked her if she had any power in ALO and she said no. She just later took on the form the game provided for her.
Whether it makes sense or not, she does not have special powers in ALO and became a pixie because the game said she was one.
Yeah, it’s so convenient that she’s the only item which is not marked as ?????? by the new game.
*whistles* Psgels in my time here, you had yet to show a single speck of emotion or comfortableness. I was beginning to wonder whether you had mastered the zen of a monk or whether you just didn’t care at all, lol. I consider my time here a success just for this.
Yeah honestly, I love peaceful talk or even mild debate, it gives me time to render new conclusions/correct possible idiocy on my part. Though people have been a tad bit over the top lately.
As for this episode, a few things did make me uncomfortable. He only has a week or so, his cousin is mildly annoying, but waaayyy less bad than other animes I’ve seen. Though above all I like how they are tying up what should be much more messy. As for the glitch, I think it works like this: The system is a dated similar version as the old company that tanked and no longer hold the rights. The Nerve Gear holds save data from his old game/his little AI was saved their too. Likely the system loaded those files because of glitch. Which isn’t too hard to believe, I’ve played my share of video games, and damn lol some of the glitches I’ve seen range from awesome to downright scary.
People just don’t like to loose. Ever play a fighting game multiplayer online? I play Campcon Vs. Marvel 3. and man, the rage of loosing, especially when other players are cheap. Well as for excitement, at this point a race against the clock/difficulty is the only thing left. Don’t know what else will happen.
This series is teetering on a edgy slope. The ending will make or break this series for most people I think.
Me too. You know, I only saw him getting irritated once in Kevin incident…
For most people? Apparently not considering the sales numbers and ratings it has got from almost every site.
I meant like those who are on the edge/shaky with it. I for one think it will end great and the series will be solid, but plenty don’t agree.
I am with you anyway. The series is nothing above mediocre for me at this point. I was just stating that it is indeed very popular. I guess it isn’t too surprising that a lot of younger kids would eat this kind of stuff up.
I’m guessing if he didn’t make the ALO account under Kirito, the system wouldn’t have restored his stats. Then again, you’d think someone else would’ve registered that name already, since he was famous after freeing everyone from SAO…
The player names were kept out of the news, nothing was public in regards to who they were to prevent retribution of sorts from in game disputes. The only people who should know he was behind clearing the game were those who took part in the final raid and witnessed the final duel. I am pretty sure only Asuna knows the origins of the name Kirito.
alo is a copy of sao then it no suprise he so have all his stats. also alo doesn’t have sword skills like Kirito’s Star Stream Burst, instead all attacks are just swings or attacks which the user knows them selves for example lets say they do kendo so they can use that knowledge in the game.stats not exist in this game but skills yes.alo only took the skills Kirito had from SAO that matched with similar skills in its system. and yui is there nevigation pixie like she said in this episode which mean she is there for guide.
why is this show not cancelled yet?
Because it prints money for the author, the company and everyone involved in making this anime. Make of that what you will.
http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=4402644#post4402644
This post apparently provided a link claiming that Reki’s latest SAO Book sold almost 150K copies in it’s first week. Either SAO is the Twilight of the Anime Genre, or it doesn’t match your taste. Perhaps both.
Except twilight, like Titanic before it, is just a bunch of girls seeing the movie 3+ times to inflate sales. I think SAO has a more gender neutral fan base.
I get the point though. It is overrated in the same sense that twilight is.
gender neutral?!
Why did your parents procreate?
Totally dig the new policy.
As for the show, I watch because I want to see what happens. The crew that made it owes me nothing. So I like what I get. Its kind of like getting a birthday present from someone you never expected to get anything from. You can except it and say “thanks bud”. Or you can talk crap about them to your friends because they didnt give you that hello kitty leather school bag you wanted.
I also agree with the poster who pointed out that the nick Kirito was still open, thus why he got free “loot”.
Yay psgels you took a stand!
Without spoiling I will just say that while your complaints are valid, they do have explanations given (later if not now). Imo the two main weaknesses of this series as an anime, is A) explanations and background get left out so your suspension of disbelief is tretched more ( or perhaps less if you don’t buy the bullshit explanations) and B) the mysteries and such involved might hang for 2-3 chapters in the book so it takes maybe an hour to get them resolved, but here they might be 3-4 episodes down the road and thus almost a month away from resolution or explanation. Basically I feel the arcs might watch better if done in large chunks instead of once a week.
Anyway the series has its flaws but overall both the anime and the novels were/are quite good. Kinda like the New XCOM game. it has plenty of flaws if you care to look, but taken as a whole its a very enjoyable piece of entertainment.
Again, little details that were glossed over that were in the novel. Kirito’s Save Data is in his NERV GEAR. If he made Kirito on that other game system, it wouldn’t have kept his stuff. Kinda like how there was a trick to bring your Diablo 1 save files into Diablo 2. Items that didn’t exist in D2 became garbbled mess that glitched slots until they quietly removed the exploit… anyway – Basically he loaded a copy of Kirito into ALO using a special function of NERV GEAR which becomes pretty important in later arcs that probly won’t be animated.
You should just stop wasting your time blogging this shit anime and blog the better animes that came out this season.
huh so don’t watch it? xD why the hate bro ;D
now the only problem kirito will have in this copy game is the sky fight becouse he need to get used to how much he can fly with the wings and also how to fight in the sky becouse it diffrent
What can you expect? SAO is an invitation to a shitfest party wherever you go. At least the problem isn’t your blog, may you find some solace.
I am also a programmer and I have a question for you: do you not reuse code? Actually this is a simple case of lazy programming. They keped the engine and some of the other components from the old game. Also if data had a local backup in Kirito’d device, the program might have loaded from there. This is really bad programming and have never seen this, but it is possible. The fact that the stats remained is kinda stupid, but considering some of the softare that appeared these days : if the game is produced by the same company the server data of the players can become common. For instance you can use your account for one game to log into another.
lol ^^ sorry for being part of the shitstorm, psgels 🙂
I’m glad I dropped the series for TL;DR reasons.
I came here to say sorry and my comment gets deleted.
Thanks for the fair play.
Have a nice life with your pretty fanboy idiots psgels you will never see me again.
Ack, I made a mistake. I mis-clicked for some reason. I originally meant to delete Armpit’s comment directed at your comment (who should really know better, by the way…). I apologize for this.
Ah, I’m glad I happen to see this.
Okay, mistakes can happen – and only flat characters do not realize if they are ever wrong.
Character development should go for anybody in RL as well. So were off better with forgetting the shit. :=)
Ehh looks like i need to find a new place to talk anime. Sorry Psgels i’m not a big fan of you anymore. You allow trolls like castevania to run rampant, but you censor me because i dish it back to them.
Oh well you can keep the douches, and i’ll just find a new place to frequent. Hope it was worth it. Peace out, this is my last post on this site.
“Why on earth was half the game of Sword Art Online copied to that elf game? Who on earth bothered to transfer all that data. That doesn’t just happen by accident, you know?”
Exactly, it was not accidental but deliberate. The reason is the same of how Asuna was also in the game. The why in the depth would be explained later, I think.
As a big novel fan that has been waiting for the anime, I was left dissappointed and dropped the anime after the fifth episode. Maybe I would pick it up again later when it was finished.
I saw a comment of the type of asshole you’re getting tired of (in this post, dunno if it will get deleted soon).
I find it strange that though the asshole knows what you meant by “asshole”, he/she is still being an asshole. I can never understand them.
Ah, sorry if I don’t really have much to say about the show since I don’t follow SAO *dropped the manga long ago*