Have all you boys and girls been watching Toonami? I hope you have. I don’t want to get the jumper cables again. One of the new shows that Toonami has been airing is an anime called Sword Art Online, an anime all about why you shouldn’t buy at launch. In the show, SAO is an MMORPG that traps all of the players in the game until someone completes the final floor. I know what you’re thinking, and no, this is not the same thing as Dot Hack. To be quick, in Dot Hack people getting trapped in the game is an isolated incident, at the most only affecting a couple people at a time. In Sword Art Online, every single one of the players is trapped. There’s a lot more differences, but you shouldn’t get me started on that unless you’ve got a lot of time to kill.
Anyway, SAO is a pretty good show (I heard it goes to crap, but I haven’t gotten that far yet). I’ve already written about how I want a Dot Hack MMO, so of course I’m going to look at the titular game in SAO. Just so we’re clear, I’m talking about the game as if it was released with today’s technology. That means no nerve gear. At most this game can be played with an Oculus Rift and a vibrating chair. Now let’s get started.
Let’s play.
What really bothered me once I got maybe halfway through the series was that there was a lot missing in the game. First of all, the main character eventually gets a special ability that no other player in the game can get. What is this amazing power, you ask? It’s dual-wielding. When the other characters saw his mind-boggling skill that lets him hold a sword in his left hand while he has one in his right hand, their minds are blown. How in the world does a game called Sword Art not have dual-wielding? In Dot Hack there’s an entire character class based on that technique.
Don’t forget that the game is a role playing game, too. And what is in just about any RPG ever made? No, not nudity mods. MAGIC. And do you know what Sword Art Online doesn’t have? MAGIC. I’d excuse it if SAO were a sci-fi RPG like Mass Effect, but the game is swords and mideval armor and dungeon crawling. Even The Old Republic has magic if you count The Force!
MAGIC SPELLS? NEVER HEARD OF ‘EM!
But there are some good things about the game. The game has a huge scope that I don’t think any real life MMO has accomplished. There are a hundred “floors”, and once a floor is cleared there is an entire new area cleared for the players. Not only that, but the game is so hard that it took the entire community of originally 10,000 players over a month to beat the first boss. And speaking of the bosses, wow are they amazing. I love the designs of every one of the bosses. I’m disappointed that we only got to see a handful instead of the 99 that the game was supposed to have.
If SAO was real, I think it would be a pretty good game. Maybe not great, but worth playing as long as it doesn’t come with a monthly fee. I’d still rather have The World, though. Before I finish this article, there’s one last thing I want to say: screw Kirito. Seriously, I hate that guy.
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