Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Sword Art Online Review

Ah, Sword Art Online. One of the most hyped anime of 2012. The big shot of the year. The disappointment of the year, if you ask me. But, that’s my first opinion. Will this anime turn out like Fallout 3, or just be an endless cycle like Everquest? Let’s find out. But this review will be different. I’ll review the game (SAO) and then the anime and the characters.
Let’s start with the game. Sword Art Online is a VMMORPG created by Kayaba Akihiko. The main story of the game is beating Castle Aincrad, by clearing all 100 floors and beating all the bosses. You can level up, and raise certain skills, like swordplay, archery etc. There is something that bothers me about it... COOKING? CRAFTING?  FISHING? BARTENDING?!!! WHY THE HELL ARE THESE SKILLS IN AN RPG GAME? Since the game is not on hardcore mode (or else only 5 people would’ve survived), these skills are mostly useless, and distract people from the main quest of the game:BEATING...THE....DAMN....CASTLE!!!!

Another thing that bugs me with this: Isn’t the game supposed to be an MMO, as Massive Multiplayer 
Online? As in...Ads everywhere?



-THAT’S how the game should’ve looked like. So people would buy SAO Special Edition, with Adblock plus as Bonus Feature                                                                                         













Other that that, Aincrad looks exeptionally beautiful, both the castle inside, and the surrounding cities.
Now, with the anime: this is a story of a boy named Kirigaya Kazuto, alias Kirito, who is lame at everything in his life...exept for video games. So he starts playing SAO. Then, the Game Master, Kayaba Akihiko, decides that the 10000 players that were playing in that moment, were stuck in the game, being unable to log out. The only way to log out, is to clear castle Aincrad, and beat SAO... well, damn. Beating an MMO? Never heard of someone doing that? When was the last time you’ve heard someone beating “Everquest”?
Kirito, and the rest of the other players, decide to clear the game at all costs (even though he decides to take a break for like 2 years, to play houses with his waifu).
They reach the 75-th floor, until Kirito (who apperantly is the hero of the whole game, by having a skill that no one had) finds out that heathcliff , was Kayaba. Probably because his life never got below half. That can be a false accusation. He might be a kick-ass player, better than all the noobs that were playing. Anywho, Kirito kills Heathclliff (more like a double KO) and all of the players who survived, finally, logged out. Or did they?? *dramatic music*
Aparentlly, 160 player were stuck in the nervegear... but we’ll talk about that later.
The series has 15 episodes(plus another arc that i’ll talk about later), and there will be a season 2, “Gun Art Online”...? Don’t know much about it, but i’m skeptical.

Characters: Kirito, the lame hero. Known as the black swordsman (casue of the coat), he is just a scardy-cat. And a pathetic liar. It would’ve been better to tell your lv.20 friends that you are lv.60 (so at least Sacchi wouldn’t have gotten killed :’(    ) . and it is really disturbing that fact that he wants to skip war to stay with Asuna. YOU ARE PLAYING THE GAME TO EARN YOUR FREEDOM, NOT TO HAVE SEX, GODDAMN IT!!



-it’s not like we got any scenes, just some ecchi.













Actually, many people wouldn’t be dead if Asuna didn’t push kirito’s ass in the battlefield. (I know, he could get killed etc, etc, but if they thought of living there forever, doesn’t that make Madara a good guy? )
Kayaba Akihiko/heathcliff: A genius in it’s own way? Ok, what he did was cruel and heartless, but you have to admit, it was a smart thing. Probably his psychotic genius might be a good thing for the whole anime.
Personal opinion: I didn’t enjoy it that much.  The fighting scenes are average(exept for the ones against heathcliff), the romance was horrible (I know i am alone in this),and many people would’ve survived if Kirito wasn’t a “beater” (just a title gave him guilty feelings...)

















-feels...






+art sltye
+concept
± battle scenes
-romance
-plot development
-game skills were mostly unecessary
-everything after episode 2, in a nutshell
Final rating 7.7/10
What did you think of it? Do you think it really deserves to be game of the year? Or do you think this game should be put at the bottom of your game shelves? Let us know in the comments below J

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