Sword Art Online (still in development)

Sword Art Online (SAO) is the world's first VR-based MMORPG. It features 100 floors that players must conquer to complete the game. This game uses a device called the Nerve Gear that scans the player's brain system.

This game was created by Kayaba Akihiko.

Prior to official launch, "Sword Art Online" Closed Beta was available to 1,000 beta testers for a one month period throughout August 2022.[† 1] During that period, "Sword Art Online" was lauded as an incredible experience, and it received extremely positive reviews despite the actual difficulty of the game. After the Closed Beta Testing ended, the Beta Testers were given the opportunity to pre-order the game.

Only 10,000 copies were printed in the first batch of the game, and online sales sold out within seconds. Hard-core gamers waited in line for days to purchase the first few hard copies from many stores.

"Sword Art Online" officially started server service at 13:00 on November 6, 2022 and obtained infamy when the creator succeeded in trapping 10,000 people in the game, and making it so that in-game death would mean actual death for the player. During the two-year period the game remained active, "Sword Art Online" evolved into an innovative yet complex society of individuals with mixed feelings about the possibility of clearing the game.

Psychologically, many players experienced extreme despair, grief, insanity and sadness during the course of the death game. Of the total 3,853 deaths, over half occurred in the first month of SAO. Combined with lethal dungeon traps and bosses, Player Killing (PKing), crime, suicides, a slowly dwindling population, and increasing difficulty on the higher floors, the prospects generally looked very bleak.

The game was prematurely ended on the 75th Floor, instead of the intended 100th Floor, when the final boss, Heathcliff, revealed to be Kayaba Akihiko himself, was defeated in a duel against Kirito.[1] A total of 6,147 survivors were supposed to be logged out from it at 14:55 (Aincrad Standard Time) of November 7, 2024.

Aincrad (アインクラッド, Ainkuraddo?) is the first "Realized World" shown in the Sword Art Online series and the stage for the first VRMMORPG, "Sword Art Online", created by Kayaba Akihiko. It later became one of the nine realms of New ALfheim Online and the stage for the game's second Grand Quest. It has 100 floors which must be conquered to finish the game, and return to the real world.

According to legend, in the long-distant past, there was a world called The Ground, with the huge Uniel Continent at its center.[5] In that world, the forest elven kingdom Kales'Oh (カレス・オー王国, Karesu Ō Ōkoku?), the dark elven kingdom Lyusula (リュースラ王国, Ryūsura Ōkoku?), the human Alliance of the Nine (九連合王国, Kyū Rengo Ōkoku?) kingdoms, the underground realm of the dwarves, and various other nations and races were established. While there were skirmishes at times, the land was at peace.[6]

But one day, a hundred varied regions from around the world were cut into circles from the earth and summoned up to the sky. The circles were under three kilometers across at the smallest and over ten kilometers at the largest. They were stacked in a conical formation to form a gigantic floating fortress a hundred floors tall.[6] After the Great Separation (大地切断, Daichi Setsudan?), the civilizations left behind on The Ground declined, becoming small villages, barely surviving.[5]

The castle held its countless towns and villages, mountains, forests and lakes, and never again returned to earth. The magic powers that caused the old civilization to flourish were lost, and with them, the nine kingdoms of man. This is known as The "Forfeiture". The production means and technologies for long-ranged projectiles—or bows in other words—were lost for eternity as well as in The "Forfeiture". As such, Aincrad lacked skills like Bowcraft or Archery. Most towns reverted to maintaining themselves, and the floors lost contact with one another. A great length of time passed. Legends and tales of the Great Separation still exist among the two elf races, the only people to keep their kingdoms intact from that fateful time.[6]

Aincrad is an iron-and-stone made floating castle that has about ten kilometers floor base diameter and consists of a hundred floors stacked straight upwards, meaning that each floor's diameter is a bit smaller than the previous one. On each floor, there are a couple of large cities along with countless small scale towns and villages, forests, plains, and even lakes. Only one stairway links each floor to another, and the stairways exist beyond the boss room of each Labyrinth. The "Teleport Gates"[7] of every unlocked city are connected to one another. It is possible to climb the outer circumference of Aincrad, but trying to climb beyond a floor that has not been unlocked will result in being blocked by a barrier and a visual error.[8]

"Sword Skills" (剣技ソードスキル, Sōdo Sukiru?) are "Sword Art Online's" combat movements that are assisted by the system. Most Sword Skills are named in English,[† 1] the only exception being Katana and certain Martial Arts category skills, which are named in Japanese, but written in the English alphabet.[† 2]

Mechanics Sword Skills are activated when a player performs the appropriate "Pre-Motion" (予備動作プレモーション, Pure Mōshon?, lit. "Preparation motion")[2][3][4] for a skill, such as raising a sword atop one's shoulder. As soon as the system recognizes the motion, the player's weapon begins to glow in a color specific to a Sword Skill.[3] The player can then allow the system to take over and automatically complete the skill at a speed that is normally near impossible for a player to achieve and deal much more damage than a regular sword swing.[4] After a skill is completed, the user is temporarily rendered rigid in a state called a "Post-Motion" (技後硬直ポストモーション, Posuto Mōshon?, lit. "After technique stiffening"),[2] during which the user is made vulnerable to any counter-attacks.[5] The higher the level of the Sword Skill used, the longer the "Post-Motion" period is. After a Sword Skill has been used, the skill enters a "Cooling" (冷却クーリング, Kūringu?) period, which is displayed as a cooling icon at the bottom of the player's view.[6] Until this period ends, the same Sword Skill cannot be used, however, any other learned skills that are not in a cooling period can still be used.[6] The amount of available Sword Skills and their type depends on the Weapon Skills that the player has trained.

Kirito was chosen to be one of the one thousand beta testers for the closed beta of Sword Art Online, the first ever Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) for the NerveGear, and later joined the official version of the game. He thus became one of the 10,000 players who were trapped in Sword Art Online, where he remained a solo player for the majority of the game, willingly taking on the role of a Beater to reduce discrimination against other former beta testers, as well as actively taking part in Boss battles as one of the Clearers. Kirito temporarily became a member of the Moonlit Black Cats after helping them safely escape a dangerous dungeon, but returned to being a solo player when a fatal error resulted in the death of the other guild member. At some point in the game, Kirito becomes known as the "Black Swordsman" (黒の剣士, Kuro no Kenshi?) due to his tendency to wear black clothing.

Kirito's clothes later in the game consisted of black pants with a black belt that had a large silver buckle, a black V-necked shirt that was worn underneath a black trench-coat with gray lining going down the sleeves, and black boots with silver plates to protect his shins. He had a silver plate worn on the left side of his coat, and a pair of black fingerless gloves. He wore a strap that went over his right shoulder and under it to wrap around his left side.[14] In the last months of the game, he used "Elucidator" and "Dark Repulser" as his main weapons.

Asuna has long, orange-brownish chestnut hair (strawberry blond in the anime) and hazel eyes.[5] In the early levels of SAO, she wore a dark red leather tunic with a lightweight copper breastplate and leather pants with boots up to the knees along with a hooded cape.[11] After joining the "Knights of the Blood", she wore a red and white uniform that all KoB members wear[5] and wielded a rapier made by Lisbeth, called the "Lambent Light".[12]

Their base is located in the 55th Floor living area, a city known as the steel city "Granzam". Their headquarters is a huge steel tower with silver spears above the gate and white flags with red crosses swaying in the wind (red flags with white/bronze swords in the anime).[4]

Before October 8, 2023, the guild's original base was located in Giltstein on the 25th Floor.[5] Sometime between then and October 15, they moved to a small rural mansion on the outskirts of Nolfret on the 39th Floor.[5] However, the guild eventually had to relocate to Granzam, as their rural mansion at Nolfret was too small and crowded for extended use.[4]

Known Members:

1. Heathcliff The founder and leader
2. Asuna Yuki Sub-Leader Leader of Team B
3. Daizen Sub-leader Head of Finances
4. Godfree Sub-leader Leader of Team A
5. Uzala Sub-leader Leader of Team C
6. Kuradeel Former bodyguard
7. Fultz Member of Team B
8. Muldar Member of Team B
9. Segro Member of Team B
10. Sanza Member of Team B Nautilus
11. Member of Team B
12. Kirito Member

After the boss battle of the 25th Floor, the clearing group endured major casualties due to the boss of the Floor being stronger than expected, as well as the Aincrad Liberation Squad (ALS) rushing into the boss battle after having been given false information about the boss. After the battle, the group's size was reduced to two-thirds of its size due to the large number of deaths and the remaining ALS members leaving the front lines. Therefore, the outcome of the battle put the clearing group into a state of great despair.[2]

At this point, the need for a new guild leading the battle and motivating the players on the front rose and the Knights of the Blood were formed,[2] with its leader, Heathcliff, personally inviting the first members.[3] Proudly marching in at the time of the first field boss strategy meeting on the 26th Floor with customized white and red equipment with Asuna, the second in command, standing at the head of the group, the newly-formed guild greatly increased the morale of the clearing group and has stood at the front lines ever since.[2]