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* AdaptationalFriendship:
** In the original story, it is implied during a conversation between Asuna and Yuuki that Yuuki didn't really trust Kirito that much, thinking of him as a guy with heavy issues. This is changed in the game adaptation where Kirito and Yuuki are really close and very much like brother and sister.
** Recon, Leafa's real life friend, had a rocky relationship with Kirito in the origina story due to his unrequited feelings for Leafa and his idea that Kirito also wanted to be her boyfriend. However in the gameverse, due to Kirito actually revealing the truth of his family bond with Suguha to him, Recon instead acts towards Kirito as some sort of little brother and acts very respectful towards him.
** In the original story, it is implied during a conversation between Asuna and Yuuki that Yuuki didn't really trust Kirito that much, thinking of him as a guy with heavy issues. This is changed in the game adaptation where Kirito and Yuuki are really close and very much like brother and sister.
** Recon, Leafa's real life friend, had a rocky relationship with Kirito in the origina story due to his unrequited feelings for Leafa and his idea that Kirito also wanted to be her boyfriend. However in the gameverse, due to Kirito actually revealing the truth of his family bond with Suguha to him, Recon instead acts towards Kirito as some sort of little brother and acts very respectful towards him.
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* CulturallySensitiveAdaptation: There's one change i nthe gameverse regarding Kirito's sense of boundaries with Sinon in ALO. In the original story during the Calibur arc, Kirito had no qualms about grabbing Sinon's Cait Sith tail, without her consent, as a teasing joke. Lost Song has a scene with a similar premise where the girls would get obsessed with Cait Sith's big ears and would desperately want to hold them. In such, Kirito is also presented with the opportunity to grab Sinon's Cait Sith ears without her consent, this time though he immediately refuses.
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* CulturallySensitiveAdaptation: There's one change i nthe in the gameverse regarding Kirito's sense of boundaries with Sinon in ALO. In the original story during the Calibur arc, Kirito had no qualms about grabbing Sinon's Cait Sith tail, without her consent, as a teasing joke. Lost Song has a scene with a similar premise where the girls would get obsessed with Cait Sith's big ears and would desperately want to hold them. In such, Kirito is also presented with the opportunity to grab Sinon's Cait Sith ears without her consent, this time though he immediately refuses.
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* AdaptationalSecrecyDowngrade: In the original story, Leafa's identity as Kirito's sister is kept a secret to him for all of the Fairy Dance arc due to it being a major plot point. However, in the game universe, the secret is revealed right off the bat with Kirito realizing the truth very quickly right after Leafa's introduction during Hollow Fragment. Going forward, the story never treats their sibling bond as a secret, going as far as quickly revealing it to Leafa's friend Recon early in Lost Song, which completely changes the dynamic between him and Kirito.
* CulturallySensitiveAdaptation: There's one change i nthe gameverse regarding Kirito's sense of boundaries with Sinon in ALO. In the original story during the Calibur arc, Kirito had no qualms about grabbing Sinon's Cait Sith tail, without her consent, as a teasing joke. Lost Song has a scene with a similar premise where the girls would get obsessed with Cait Sith's big ears and would desperately want to hold them. In such, Kirito is also presented with the opportunity to grab Sinon's Cait Sith ears without her consent, this time though he immediately refuses.
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* MirrorBoss: The boss of the Hollow Area is [[EvilKnockoff Kirito's own Hollow Data AI copy]], who is just as strong as the real Kirito.
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* MirrorBoss: The boss of the Hollow Area is [[EvilKnockoff [[spoiler:[[EvilKnockoff Kirito's own Hollow Data AI copy]], copy]]]], who is just as strong as the real [[spoiler:the real]] Kirito.
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** Yuuki shows up in ''Hollow Fragment'' as a secret boss if you choose to investigate the strange area after defeating Heathcliff. She ends up being glitched into SAO and requests a duel with Kirito. Defeating her allows her to be recruited on a NewGamePlus.
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** Yuuki [[spoiler:Yuuki]] shows up in ''Hollow Fragment'' as a secret boss if you choose to investigate the strange area after defeating [[spoiler:defeating Heathcliff. She She]] ends up being glitched into SAO and requests a duel with Kirito. Defeating her Winning the duel allows her [[spoiler:her to be recruited on a NewGamePlus.NewGamePlus]].
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* AdaptationalIntelligence: [[spoiler:Sugou is still a BigBadWannabe in ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'' but he's significantly smarter than his canon counterpart and has no problems [[BitchInSheepsClothing attempting to pose as a humble player to avoid suspicion]]. Kirito and Asuna can still see through the act but at least Sugou deserves some credit for trying. He's also competent enough to carry out his EvilPlan involving EngineeredHeroics and [[NearVillainVictory even had the heroes at his mercy]] by paralysis before [[BigDamnHeroes Strea takes away his admin privileges out of nowhere]].]]
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* AdaptationalIntelligence: [[spoiler:Sugou [[spoiler:Sugou]] is still a BigBadWannabe in ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'' but he's significantly smarter than his canon counterpart and has no problems [[BitchInSheepsClothing attempting to pose posing as a humble player to avoid suspicion]]. suspicion]] involving EngineeredHeroics, in order to carry out his EvilPlan. Kirito and Asuna can still see through the act act, but at least Sugou deserves some credit for trying. He's also competent this time the evil plan was carried out competently enough to carry out his EvilPlan involving EngineeredHeroics and [[NearVillainVictory even had the heroes at his mercy]] by pretty much on their knees]] via the use of paralysis before [[spoiler:before [[BigDamnHeroes Strea takes away his admin privileges out of nowhere]].]]nowhere]]]]. So credit is in due for being a bit smarter in this continuity.
* ForgottenFirstMeeting: In Lost Song it is stated that Strea and Philia didn't actually meet each other during the events of Aincrad before Kirito introduces each other seemingly for the first time in ALO. However, this is a contradiction to the events of Hollow Fragment where Philia has many interactions with Strea in cutscenes along the other girls, even being on the receiving end of one of Strea's famous strong hugs (something that apparently was also a first for Philia in ALO).
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** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Kirito starts considering the possibility he's a Hollow Data copy and not the real Kirito, although his friends snap him out of this and a test from Yui confirms he's the legitimate Kirito.
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** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Kirito starts considering the possibility he's a Hollow [[spoiler:Hollow Data copy copy]] and not the real Kirito, although his friends snap him out of this and a test from Yui confirms he's the legitimate Kirito.
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Misuse for an entry on Crutch Character; as Fukaziroh (and the rest of team LPFM) only actually join significantly later in the game (after the battle for squad leadership), and on the other hand, while pretty much every party member at the start of the game are higher level than the Player Character and Ar FA-sys, this makes the latter two count as Magikarp Power instead.
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** Fukaziroh in ''Fatal Bullet'', due having high VIT and DPS, and the "Graviton Shot" ability that pulls enemies into a place, which makes it easier to shoot and hit them.
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* MagikarpPower: The player character and ArFA-sys are this in ''Fatal Bullet'' when compared to basically all other party members that you can add to your party at the start of the game, although justified since the player character is a newbie who just joined GGO sometime after her childhood friend Kureha invites them to the game, and ArFA-sys's level and stats are adjusted accordingly to their master, which cannot go any higher than their master themselves. They do eventually catch up to the point of no level difference between them and the other party members, not to mention that you can customize their stat allocation, weapons, skills, and gadgets, while everyone else has pre-set weapons and builds.
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* UniquenessDecay: In Hollow Fragment this happens to Kirito's weapons. Dark Repulser and Elucidator are supposed to be some of the rarest and strongest weapons in all of Aincrad. However in the game they get outclassed very quickly and they would be even considered low tier weapons by the late game. Also not only you can forge multiple copies in Lizbeth's shop and even find them on some chests, but also both swords are gifted as a last attack bonus from two bosses.
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** [[spoiler:Quinella proves herself to be one of Kirito's more dangerous opponents in the source material but the moment Kirito cuts off her remaining arm, [[DirtyCoward she calls it quits]], only for Chudelkin to show up and [[KarmicDeath incinerate her out of nowhere]]. This Quinella? She survived her initial confrontation against the Ruild trio and posthumously orchestrated the Calmamity Plant crisis. She's also beefed up following her resurrection, requiring Medina's BatmanGambit to give the Ruild trio and their allies the upper hand.]]
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** [[spoiler:Quinella proves herself to be one of Kirito's more dangerous opponents in the source material but the moment Kirito cuts off her remaining arm, [[DirtyCoward she calls it quits]], only for Chudelkin to show up and [[KarmicDeath incinerate her out of nowhere]]. This Quinella? She survived her initial confrontation against the Ruild trio and posthumously orchestrated the Calmamity Calamity Plant crisis. She's also beefed up following her resurrection, requiring Medina's BatmanGambit to give the Ruild trio and their allies the upper hand.]]
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** [[spoiler:Quinella proves herself to be one of Kirito's more dangerous opponents in the source material but the moment Kirito cuts off her remaining arm, [[DirtyCoward she calls it quits]], only for Chudelkin to show up and [[KarmicDeath incinerate her out of nowhere]]. This Quinella? Not only she survives her first confrontation against the Ruild trio and Cardinal during the first act of ''Alicization Lycoris'', but she's also a lot tougher to the point where Medina pulled a BatmanGambit to give Kirito the much needed edge to beat her. She even went out like a champ after being finally defeated by the Ruild trio.]]
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** [[spoiler:Quinella proves herself to be one of Kirito's more dangerous opponents in the source material but the moment Kirito cuts off her remaining arm, [[DirtyCoward she calls it quits]], only for Chudelkin to show up and [[KarmicDeath incinerate her out of nowhere]]. This Quinella? Not only she survives She survived her first initial confrontation against the Ruild trio and Cardinal during posthumously orchestrated the first act of ''Alicization Lycoris'', but she's Calmamity Plant crisis. She's also a lot tougher to the point where Medina pulled a beefed up following her resurrection, requiring Medina's BatmanGambit to give Kirito the much needed edge to beat her. She even went out like a champ after being finally defeated by the Ruild trio.trio and their allies the upper hand.]]
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** ''Last Recollection'' covers the events of ''War of the Underworld'' except this time, [[spoiler:Kirito has more RW allies at the start of the game, [[SparedByTheAdaptation none of the UW characters are killed off]] (due to Gabriel brainwashing the Dark Territory natives earlier), the war in UW is short-lived thanks to the girls in Kirito's party receiving UW deity super accounts from Kikuoka and calling for [[TheCavalry a much bigger backup]].]]
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** ''Last Recollection'' loosely covers the events of ''War of the Underworld'' except this time, [[spoiler:Kirito has more RW allies at the start of the game, [[SparedByTheAdaptation none of the UW characters are killed off]] (due to Gabriel brainwashing the Dark Territory natives earlier), and the war in UW is short-lived thanks to the girls in Kirito's party receiving UW deity super accounts from Kikuoka and calling for [[TheCavalry a much bigger backup]].]]
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Previous edit is a successful restoration attempt due to an accidental deletion earlier.
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** ''Last Recollection'' covers the events of ''War of the Underworld'' except this time, [[spoiler:Kirito has more RW allies at the start of the game, none of the UW characters are killed off (due to Gabriel brainwashing the Dark Territory natives earlier), the war in UW is short-lived thanks to the girls in Kirito's party receiving UW deity super accounts from Kikuoka and calling for [[TheCavalry a much bigger backup]].]]
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** ''Last Recollection'' covers the events of ''War of the Underworld'' except this time, [[spoiler:Kirito has more RW allies at the start of the game, [[SparedByTheAdaptation none of the UW characters are killed off off]] (due to Gabriel brainwashing the Dark Territory natives earlier), the war in UW is short-lived thanks to the girls in Kirito's party receiving UW deity super accounts from Kikuoka and calling for [[TheCavalry a much bigger backup]].]]
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** In ''Last Recollection'', [[spoiler:Gabriel didn't kill Shasta, Lipia, and Bercouli because he was too preoccupied with Alice (though did brainwashed the former two). He also betrayed Dee Eye Ell, who would later [[EnemyMine team up with the heroes]] to get {{Revenge}} on him and Leafa didn't kill her as a result.]]
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* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: In Hollow Fragment, while not physical, the girls take advantage of Kirito’s honorable man status way too much when they’re all in a group. This goes from putting him in situations where he’s extremely uncomfortable to outright harassment at some points. While the girls mean no harm, at times, they genuinely stop caring about Kirito’s opinion on the subject. Also, the way they treat Klein is outright mean, even though it’s PlayedForLaugh
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* DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale: In Hollow Fragment, while not physical, the girls take advantage of Kirito’s honorable man status way too much when they’re all in a group. This goes from putting him in situations where he’s extremely uncomfortable to outright harassment at some points. While the girls mean no harm, at times, they genuinely stop caring about Kirito’s opinion on the subject. Also, the way they treat Klein is outright mean, even though it’s PlayedForLaughPlayedForLaughs.
* TheDreaded: Kirito is this even more so in canon. In ''Hollow Fragment'', one event has Kirito and friends filling in at Agil's bar on a busy night. When Silica encounters trouble with two scary customers, Kirito goes to check out what the commotion is about. The customers immediately recognize him, apologize for being jerks to Silica, and proceed to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere bail the scene in fear]].
* DuelBoss: A common staple in games, where usually there is an important storyline boss (and in the first two games, the PostFinalBoss) fought this way:
** In ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'' there's Heathcliff, and Yuuki.
** In ''Lost Song'' there's Sumeragi, and Rain.
** In ''Hollow Realization'': Genesis.
** In ''Accel World vs Sword Art Online'': Black Lotus, Silver Crow, Oberon, Alice, and Eugeo.
** In ''Fatal Bullet'', Death Gun.
* EarlyBirdCameo:
** Sinon and Yuuki make their first voiced appearances in ''Hollow Fragment'', which was a whole year before SAO II had aired.
** Alice and Eugeo debut in ''Hollow Realization'' DLC, which is years before ''Sword Art Online: Alicization'' had even been announced. They go on to make subsequent appearances in every game after this.
** LLENN, Fukaziroh, Pitohui, and M all make their first appearances in ''Fatal Bullet'' a few months before the anime adaptation of ''Literature/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'' had begun airing.
** [[spoiler:Subtilizer]] makes a surprise appearance in ''Fatal Bullet'' DLC, a month before ''Sword Art Online: Alicization'' was set to air.
* EngineeredPublicConfession: In ''Hollow Realization'', Kirito tricks Genesis into giving one while Seven is listening, giving the SA:O admins the proof they needed to terminate his account and send a warrant for his arrest.
* EvilKnockoff:
** In ''Hollow Fragment''. [[spoiler:Kirito's Hollow Data counterpart is the FinalBoss of the optional Hollow Area story arc, and it's just as strong as the real Kirito, effectively making it a MirrorBoss.]]
** In ''Fatal Bullet'', several players have a doppelganger [=ArFAsys=] impersonating them, including: Kureha, Itsuki, Zeliska, Kirito, Asuna, Dyne, Yamikaze, and Musketeer-X. Although in Kirito and Asuna's case it's not a perfect copy with their [[GoodColorsEvilColors color schemes being an inverse]] of the originals. The Player and their party are forced to fight several of these imposters.
* {{Fanservice}}: Both of the copious amounts of MythologyGag that reference and homage countless things from the anime and light novels alike along with plenty of {{Foreshadowing}} of later things to come, and also in the sense that every game continued to amp up the fanservice designs and scenarios. It gets to the point that by ''Hollow Realization'', only a handful of female characters ''aren't'' wearing a short skirt and prone to a panty shot. ''Fatal Bullet'' toned this down significantly by comparison, keeping the fanservice almost entirely to affinity events.
* FortuneTeller: In Hollow Fragment there’s a fortune teller hidden in the back of one alley that will read your future for a fee. If you have one of the girls in your party at the time your fortune is read, they’ll raise their affection a bit. There are also a few side stories involving fortune tellers giving some sort of prediction that always involves Kirito and the girls.
* FreakyFridayFlip: In ''Hollow Realizations'' Leafa somehow swaps avatars with Lisbeth and quite enjoys being the Blacksmith, but awkwardness ensues when she runs into Kirito and she decides to take the opportunity to find out what Kirito thinks of her (Leafa). While Lisbeth (as Leafa) is very annoyed by the development having returned from her break with her appearance changed. Kirito never figures out what's going on despite 'Lisbeth' calling him "Onii-chan", referring to herself in the third person, and asking very personal questions about Leafa.
* FrightBesideThem: In ''Hollow Realizations'', one event has Kirito and Philia questing in a cave, where Kirito promptly decides to put out the torch before telling Philia to back against the wall and keep quiet. Philia is under the impression that Kirito wants to make out with her and is startled when her hand is held. [[spoiler:However, when Kirito relights the torch, Philia is shocked to discover Kirito was standing on the other side of the cave, and the one holding her hand was actually a monster. Turns out Kirito was testing if the monsters were attracted to light and Philia is really pissed off at being misled]].
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Leafa and Sinon have one concerning their story in the game and the way the player can have them regarding leveling. Using alternate methods like Solo Multiplayer or leveling in the Hollow Area, you can get both girls to really high levels at the beginning of the game, even surpassing Asuna. Yet, the cutscenes later will make a deal about how they are the most inexperienced ones of the group and how they need lots of help with leveling to be at the level of the other girls.
** Also in ''Hollow Fragment'', you have Sinon who supposedly is very wary and reluctant to talk with Kirito after she arrived to Aincrad, and it isn't until a cutscene after you clear floor 78 that she decides to open herself to him and trust him. However, during this time, you can level up her affection like normal and even get her into your bed for pillow talks.
** In ''Fatal Bullet'', Sinon will not have her PM Hectate II (listed in-game as "AMR Tiamat") at the start of the game, but instead equipped with a MAS FR F2 (listed in-game as "Sangfroid"), until a certain point at the game, in which a quest that takes place where the PlayerCharacter helps Sinon defeat a boss to get a drop of what would be her signature weapon in the original Anime source... or alternatively, reaching a point where she hits level 40 will have her automatically equipped with the PM Hectate II, even if the after mentioned cutscene and quest haven't been reached.
* GardenOfLove: In Hollow Fragment there’s a special garden at the north section of the Abandoned Area. This garden is treated as a safe zone which means you can take your partners there to have chats and raise their affection level. You can also get a special cutscene with every girl after fulfilling a series of special quests in the Hollow Area with each of them. Notable for being the only place where you can get a special cutscene with [[spoiler: both Sachi and Argo]].
* GoodGuyBar: Agil runs one in Arc Sophia in SAO, as well as in Svartalfheim in ALO.
* GrandRomanticGesture: In Hollow Fragment, as a CallBack to the original series, Lizbeth forges a sword for Kirito at no cost. Just like in the original series, Liz makes the sword as she finds herself overwhelmed by the intensity of her feelings towards Kirito. At this point, she comes to the realization that what she feels isn't just a simple infatuation, but actual real love, and this allows her to make the "Lingering Heart" sword which is arguably one of the best weapons in the game. Just as it is a big love gesture storywise, it's also a big deal from a gameplay perspective, given that forging a sword is considerably expensive and you wouldn't really do it in regular gameplay (unless you're grinding Col like crazy)
* GuideDangIt: ''Fatal Bullet'' has a case of MultipleEndings, but it doesn't even attempt to explain how to get the GoldenEnding. [[spoiler: You need to rewind time after completing the game with either normal ending at least once [[note]] Contrary to popular belief, Kirito Mode completion isn't mandatory, but you'll be missing out on details in the ending if you don't clear Kirito Mode.[[/note]], have at least rank 4 affinity with the gauge 75% full (basically all of the final date scenes) with the game's personal original characters (which are [[PermanentlyMissableContent missable]], and at least the second main affinity scene of every SAO character (besides DLC and ''Alternative'' cast members) before completing the SBC Flugel boss fight. Only after all of this, will your [=ArFA-sys=] give you a charm - that actually has no bearing on the plot and just serves as an event trigger. If that weren't enough, you also have to shoot the FinalBoss in their mouth when they charge a specific attack up, or else you'll get one of the bad endings anyway.]]
* HardModePerks: ''Fatal Bullet'' has Extreme mode difficulty, which ramps up the enemies' strength by increasing their level by ''70(!)'', but also upgrading their dropped weapon ranks by ''three whole ranks'' and increased chance for rarer item drops. The [[EasyModeMockery inverse also happens if you're playing on Easy difficulty]], but only applies to the decreased chance for higher rarity item drops.
* HaremGenre:
** The games crank up the harem aspects of the series, by introducing the 'Courting System' where Kirito can share a bed with every girl (and [[HoYay some guys]]) in the game. Some main girls like Lisbeth, Silica, and Sinon, who had explicitly decided to give Kirito and Asuna space in the main series, all continue showing very obvious attraction to him in the games.
** In addition, several other girls have been added to the harem including: Strea, Philia, Yuuki, Rain, Seven, and Premiere.
* HeroicMime: The PlayerCharacter for ''Fatal Bullet'' is one. While their voice can be heard in combat, cutscenes have them being completely silent save for the occasional response selected from a list of options.
* HonestAxe: In ''Hollow Realizations'', one quest had Lisbeth reenacting this fable, only with the ax replaced with her blacksmith hammer. While Lisbeth plays out most of the story the same way, by being honest to the forest spirit and admitting her real hammer was not the gold or silver one, but her iron one, before being rewarded both hammers for her honesty. However after acquiring said precious hammers and feeling how heavy they were, she further adds that she felt wasn't ready yet for said hammers and thought it better she stuck to her original one. The forest spirit is amazed by her level of honesty and as a further reward decides to enchant her original iron hammer to maximum efficiency which Liz overjoyed by.
* HonorBeforeReason: In Hollow Fragment, after beating the final boss of the 100th floor, the revelation that [[spoiler: Heathcliff wasn't defeated at floor 75 but instead teleported away to solve the malfunction of the Cardinal System as Administrator]] drives Kirito to demand a new boss battle instead of just accepting that they finished the game and could go back to the real world. Although in his defense, he also demanded that everyone else should be returned to the real world, only leaving him inside to fight the new final boss.
* HopelessBossFight: In ''Fatal Bullet'', during a main quest in the Lost Gate area, a certain boss, Dirty Scissor, appears at rather high level of 50 while the player is most likely around mid-30s, and hits very hard and is hard to kill at this point. The player is supposed to avoid it's attacks and activate nine terminals to unlock the door to open the door to [[spoiler: get the third and last part of their [=ArFA=]-sys functions.]] Can be [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], however, as a well-prepared player with high level and a strong weapon can possibly kill the boss, eliminating the main threat of the quest. This can be also achieved by pure persistence and skill of being able to survive long enough while having enough ammo to take down the boss, even by pure accident.
* HotterAndSexier: ''Fatal Bullet'' in relation to the anime's portrayal of GGO. Sinon now wears a form fitting, spandex suit that displays more of her bosom (though her midriff is now covered). Leafa (who never played GGO in the light novel/anime) wears a similar form fitting outfit. Silica (who joined GGO ''after'' the Phantom Bullet arc in canon) now shows off her midsection. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] for Asuna, Lisbeth, and Yuuki.
* IncestSubtext:
** The game continuity dials back Suguha/Leafa's BigBrotherAttraction to Kirito. That doesn't stop Kirito from taking his [[BrotherSisterIncest sister]] (read:[[KissingCousins cousin]]) to bed with him (complete with pillow talks).
** Hollow Fragment takes the subtext to a whole new level in one of Leafa's Aincrad side missions. In the mission, Leafa takes Kirito in a quest to find a lost pendant that an [=NPC=] said would reunite an old spirit (of the moon) with his lover (a spirit of the sun). Nothing weird so far. After finding the pendant, the quest requests both Leafa and Kirito to go to a forest and perform a ball dance between them to bring back the spirit of the lovers. Okay, cool, dancing with siblings is not a bad thing... Then when the spirits return, it is revealed they're actually siblings themselves! One would think this new revelation would now lead to both spirits change their interactions into a portrayal of family love, right? But no, the [=NPCs=] dialogue continue implying that the spirits are in fact in a couple relationship before leaving. Alright, guess... weird [=NPCs=] can be weird... But then you get a long conversation where Leafa would actually try to convince Kirito that ''love between siblings can be much more than that!!'' With her literally asking him if it is really strange for brothers and sisters to love each other, before suggesting that they can be siblings AND something more... and then '''kissing him!!!''' ([[spoiler: in the cheek]]). Thankfully the sidequest would never be brought up again later.
** In Hollow Fragment there's a cutscene where every other girl gets jealous of the closeness Leafa and Kirito have because they're siblings, so Yui suggests they all roleplay as Kirito's sisters to achieve the same closeness. It goes without saying that what follows is plenty of uses of this trope. The most extreme case though is Lizbeth literally asking Kirito to marry her... While roleplaying as his sister!!! Kirito of course, ask them to stop after things begin to get very awkward.
* IndirectKiss: Has happened a few times with Kirito.
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', when Kirito finds Silica working as a maid and gets served by her, he tries some of the food and offers some to Silica too. Silica obliges and loves it, before suddenly becoming flustered and claims it's because a maid isn't allowed to eat on the job. She is then heard muttering "indirect" to herself as she walks off.
** In ''Hollow Realization'', Kirito helps Yuuki complete a quest for a drink called a Honey Bee. After completing it and Yuuki is rewarded with the sugary sweet drink, she offers Kirito a taste too. However, Yuuki notices they used the same straw and wonders if that meant they indirectly kissed.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: ''Memory Defrag'' during February 2020 had one with ''VideoGame/Persona5'', especially ''Royal'' with the addition of Kasumi.
* InterfaceScrew: A ''massive'' and spoiler-ridden one near the end of ''Fatal Bullet'': [[spoiler: Itsuki, now deciding to be the BigBad of the story, has Taipan log every GGO player off from the server, including the player. This ''boots you back to the main menu''. To continue the story, you need to log back in/continue from the 'last' save. This is the PointOfNoReturn for the GoldenEnding.]]
* InterruptedIntimacy: In Hollow Fragment, Yui interrupts Kirito and Asuna when they were about to have some quality time. And since she was obsessed with babies at the time, the already awkward situation gives room to an even more awkward situation.
* IntriguedByHumanity: In Hollow Fragment, Yui shows interest on many aspects of human emotions across the game. Mostly family bonds like brother/sister relationships, something that turns into a whole thing when she finds out that her parents could make a baby in the real world.
* LethalChef:
** In ''Hollow Fragment'' Leafa got her hands on a very rare food item and she insisted on cooking the dish for Kirito despite her not having her cooking skills maxed on the game (just because she got jealous after Kirito mentioned Asuna). It turned out so bad, it gave Kirito food poisoning to the point he needed to drink an Antidote to get better, and even then he passed out.
** When Kirito tries his hand at cooking in ''Lost Song'', he makes something that's too spicy for normal people to safely eat. Of course, Kirito's [[BizarreTasteInFood sense of taste is far from normal]] so he had no problem eating it.
* LetsYouAndHimFight:
** Philia and Kirito clash blades after a CrashIntoHello has her mistaking him for an enemy.
** Yuuki serves as a PostFinalBoss in ''Hollow Fragment''. Now you can fight the best ''with'' the best!
** Rain is the TrueFinalBoss of ''Lost Song'' after defeating Seven. Kirito forces a duel out of her after suspecting she hadn't shown a fraction of her power. Turns out she has an even bigger [[IAmNotLeftHanded trump card]] than Kirito and might very well be the WorldsBestWarrior of ALO.
** The PlayerCharacter of ''Fatal Bullet'' and Kureha face off against Kirito and Asuna at the start of the game to compete for the [=ArFAsys=]. They end up as friends shortly afterwards.
* LighterAndSofter:
** ''Hollow Realization'' also does this, making the game safe so that you don't have to worry about being killed. {{Averted}} for the [=NPCs=], however, who are all unique beings with their own personalities [[spoiler:on account of being low-level AI]].
** Pretty much the whole video game version continuity is LighterAndSofter as [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil characters like Sugou and Shinkawa]] have their worst moments AdaptedOut, Yuuki didn't suffer the terminal illness, and the first game even starts with alternate end of the Aincrad arc which didn't involve Asuna and Kirito nearly dying.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: The games add this dynamic between Kirito and Yuuki. The two of them share quite a few scenes together, where Yuuki loves to tease Kirito like a cheeky little sister, while Kirito looks out for like he does with Suguha or Silica. In ''Hollow Realization'' Yuuki and Kirito having a tickle fight during a pillow talk, while in ''Fatal Bullet'' Kirito piggybacks an exhausted Yuuki home to which she remarks this is what it felt like to have a big brother.
* LooseCanon: ''Rising Steel'' unlike other games follows the canon plot of Alicization quite faithfully, even adapting scenes from the light novels that didn’t make it into the anime. While the game still includes CanonForeigner Eydis Synthesis Ten among the main cast, her inclusion is added in such a way that she does not disrupt any of the canon events at all, as she only features in scenes that were ‘offscreen’ in canon such as before Alice leaves Central Centoria to arrest Kirito and Eugeo, or while Alice is unconscious when Kirito carries her up the tower.
* TheLostWoods:
** In ''Infinity Moment'' and its ''Hollow Fragment'' ports, the forest-themed Floor 85 has a Straggler's Trail. Until he gets a key map item, Kirito will get sent back to a specific BrokenBridge area, wondering if he already passed it.
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', the Hollow Area's own Forest Maze has four maps with exits that send Kirito in circles.
* MirrorBoss: The boss of the Hollow Area is [[EvilKnockoff Kirito's own Hollow Data AI copy]], who is just as strong as the real Kirito.
* MistakenForGay: In Hollow Fragment, after Klein and Kirito got the best item from a fortune teller who gave rare items only to the most compatible pairings, the girls (who all got lousy results with Kirito, except for Silica who got a rare item as well) started thinking that maybe Klein and Kirito could be hidden in the closet. Something that both immediately deny.
* MsFanservice: The main girls are all this to some degree, but the biggest one is Strea due to being a [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl Shameless]] / InnocentFanserviceGirl.
* MultipleEndings:
** ''Hollow Fragment'' features multiple endings depending on who is your partner in the final battle. You'll get both a prolonged special conversation cutscene with your partner after beating the final boss and a post credits epilogue scene.
** Also in ''Hollow Fragment'' you get a small variation of a good and a sad ending depending on if [[spoiler: you cleared the high difficulty test in the Hollow Area to rescue Strea]] before enterirng the 100th floor boss battle. This doesn't really change all of the ending though, just a part of it.
** ''Fatal Bullet'' has two Bittersweet endings depending on whether [[spoiler: Kureha or Zeliska performs a HeroicSacrifice to save the player character]], and a GoldenEnding after certain conditions are met to prevent the tragedy from either of the previous two endings from happening.
* MythologyGag:
** ''Fatal Bullet'' gives Kirito and Sinon different outfits for GGO than the ones they had in canon, especially Kirito who looks like his real self instead of his AttractiveBentGender avatar. However, in the Bullet of Bullets Tournament which adapts the ''Phantom Bullet'' arc, both of them are given their canon appearances. In the case of Kirito it's an alternate account which is named "[[GenderBlenderName Kiriko]]", which was once a [[AscendedFanon fan nickname]].
** The DLC that introduced Alice and Eugeo into ''Fatal Bullet'' armed them with the Daewoo [=USAS-12=] shotgun and the Steyr AUG assault rifles as their respective long guns. These two weapons first appeared during the novels' Alicization arc, with the [=USAS-12=] in the hands of [=ROK=] operators, and the Steyr AUG in the hands of the 12-man team from Glowgen Defense Systems.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: The unnamed raid guild that attempt to stop the Sleeping Knights in ''Mother's Rosario'' is named Shamarock in ''Lost Song''.
* NewGamePlus: A common feature in several games, in which generally, most of your inventory carry over:
** Some equipment in ''Infinity Moment'' are only obtainable from the 2nd playthrough onwards.
** ''Hollow Fragment'' carries over items, money, level, Implements, skills (as well as their mastery and number of times used), ally parameter costumes, and more. The level of the enemies in the main part of the game (Aincrad) have their level increased by 10 for each NG+ loop. Strangely enough, the Hollow area progression is retained and never reset through NG+.
** In ''Accel World VS Sword Art Online'', you retain levels, and items (except for Wings from Accel World quests, Pixie Tears, and Trinity Rings). Most quests also have their status reset, allowing the player to do them again.
** ''Fatal Bullet'' allows you to retain inventory items, money, skill points and level as usual, and unlocks Extreme difficulty setting which adds more purchasable items and drastically bumps up the enemies level and their item drop quality.
* NoPokerFace: In ''Hollow Fragment'', the gang decide to play a game of Texas Holdem. Leafa evidently has a very poor poker face and her brother Kirito is able to see right through her bluff. However the biggest offender has to be Klein, who tries to bluff with an All-In when he only has a measly hand of a pair of 4's, which Kirito immediately picks up on and beats him to.
* OddballInTheSeries: While most of the ''Sword Art Online'' video games are action Role-Playing Games, ''Fatal Bullet'' is instead a third-person shooter (Justified in this case, since it takes place in GGO, a game where guns are prevalent and make up the primary choices of weaponry.) In addition, it focuses on the customizable PlayerCharacter as the main character, though it does have a side mode that returns the focus back to Kirito.
* OneWingedAngel: Most NPC villains in the game will have a monstrous battle form which serves as a boss fight.
* OptionalCharacterScene: In Hollow Fragment, many of the cutscenes involving all the girls, will also include Philia if the player has completed the Hollow Area before reaching the cutscene. Since this is a hard task to complete at the start of the game, many will miss plenty of cutscenes where Philia could actually participate if she was in Aincrad. To have the full cutscene experience of the Aincrad story, a New Game playthrough after completing the Hollow Area in a previous playthrough is recommended since all the Hollow Area advances will be transferred to the new game, including Philia being in Aincrad.
* {{Permadeath}}:
** Zig-zagged in ''Infinity [=Moment/Hollow=] Fragment''. As in the anime, anyone who dies in SAO dies for real, so any member of the Assault Team who dies is gone for the rest of the game. For main characters like Asuna or Klein, however, their death constitutes an automatic GameOver, the same as if Kirito dies.
** Also played with in ''Hollow Realization'': players such as Kirito, Asuna, and some [=NPCs=] can respawn if they die. In-universe NPC characters, on the other hand, don't: if they die, they don't come back for the rest of the game.
* PermanentlyMissableContent:
** Both trophies/achievements "Beta Tester" and "Not on my Watch!" are missable if you're not paying attention during your Aincrad run in Hollow Fragment. The former requires you to get every last attack bonus from every boss in every floor which means that if you miss one, then you'll have to start over in a new game playthrough. The later is achieved when you finish the game without having any member of the assault team killed. This means that if you get careless and have one of your teammates die at any point of the game, then the trophy/achievement is gone and you'll have to start a new game to get another attempt.
** The achievements/trophies "Powering Up" and "Second Helping" in ''Fatal Bullet'' are missable, especially on [=PlayStation 4=], if the tasks for unlocking these two achievements were performed on a trial version of the game that is later upgraded to the full version. [=PS4=] demos cannot unlock trophies. The only way to obtain these achievements in such a case is with a new character or a NewGamePlus.
* PointOfNoReturn: In ''Fatal Bullet'': After completing the [[spoiler:Mother Claudia]] quest, it's possible to be locked out of the GoldenEnding if [[spoiler:the player doesn't meet the affinity requirements for dates on most of the characters.]] After [[spoiler:coming back from a login after a forced log out,]] the PlayerCharacter has to [[spoiler:1v1 against Kureha, after in which she removes the player from your friend list, resulting in her (and later, Itsuki and Zeliska) no longer available for the player's party.]] The specific quest and battle itself is a ''Nasty'' example, since it's possible to get stuck on said battle without restarting the game, as the player cannot leave the area without winning the battle. Aside from that specific example however, the rest of the Point of No Return after that itself fills the ''Tough'' part, in which the player still can grind as much as they want before the FinalBoss, which triggers another PONR, but this time it's ''Polite'': [[spoiler:A pop-out information screen will tell that the player won't be able to progress through Kirito Mode if the player hasn't already finished the substory there, and Arfa-Sys will ask the player if they wish to confront "Death Gun", with the player given the choice two layers of confirmation before heading to the area where they fight the FinalBoss.]] Additionally, [[spoiler: The player can rewind the time after defeating the FinalBoss instead of starting a NewGamePlus in order to achieve the otherwise missed requirements to achieve the GoldenEnding, and in fact encouraged since one of the requirements is to finish the game with one of the two regular [[BittersweetEnding Bittersweet Endings]].[[note]]Unless the player reached level 100 beforehand, which skips the otherwise mandatory requirements for the GoldenEnding.[[/note]]]]
* PostFinalBoss:
** Yuuki shows up in ''Hollow Fragment'' as a secret boss if you choose to investigate the strange area after defeating Heathcliff. She ends up being glitched into SAO and requests a duel with Kirito. Defeating her allows her to be recruited on a NewGamePlus.
** Silver Crow is one in ''Accel World vs Sword Art Online'', where he and Kirito have a [[DuelBoss duel]] after the main story campaign ends.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Kirito and Asuna are already an established OfficialCouple in the game-verse, but since ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'' completely skips over the first 75 floors of Aincrad, the game instead provides it's own version of TheirFirstTime. Kirito and Asuna [[spoiler: spend a special night together in their cottage on floor 83 (Asuna herself calls it a honeymoon.) Kirito confesses that he's worried that he'll lose Asuna, and Asuna assures him that they'll always be together. Kirito initially suggests that they go to sleep, leaving Asuna disappointed. However, after some prompting, Kirito and Asuna kiss and ultimately make love (the scene of them doing the deed is a tad more explicit than the light novels/anime, but it's still tastefully handled, and nowhere near as graphic as the infamous ''chapter 16.5'')]]
* TheRival: Sumeragi takes Eugene's place as Kirito's main ALO rival.
* SecretCharacter: In Hollow Fragment you can unlock both [[spoiler: Sachi and Kibaou]] in the Hollow Area. They’re hidden in secret areas though and you have to follow certain events not specified in the game to get them. Also, you can’t take them out of the Hollow Area.
* SecretLevel: Also InUniverse, the Hollow Area of the video game spin-off ''Hollow Fragment'' is a secret world hidden in SAO where secret research and development is conducted. [[spoiler:The Hollow Area is also home to AI duplicates of SAO players, including [=PoH=] and Sachi.]]
* SequelHook: Several games will tease at the events of the next game through an EarlyBirdCameo of character who is yet to appear.
** Yuuki shows up as a PostFinalBoss in SAO during ''Hollow Fragment'' despite not being scheduled to appear until the Alfheim Online game.
** Kyouji/Richter's avatar gets used by [=XaXa=] during ''Hollow Realization'' where he speaks with Kirito and warns him about making him pay for his transgressions, teasing at him being a villain in the next game.
** [[spoiler:Subtilizer]] shows up in ''Fatal Bullet'' DLC to coincide with appearances from Alice and Eugeo, paving the way for the Alicization arc.
** ''Fatal Bullet'' gets a second one at the end of ''Dissonance of the Nexus'', where [[spoiler: Itsuki shows up to talk to Eiji about their mutual interest in the protagonist, and implies that he's working with Shigemura and even Rath behind the scenes. It caps off with Itsuki departing - but not before sending an anonymous message to the protagonist with a friendly WeWillMeetAgain.]]
* SequentialBoss: ''Hollow Fragment'' has two consecutive bosses near the end of the Hollow Area storyline. Die to either and face CheckpointStarvation; Kirito must fight both bosses all over again.
* SherlockScan: In ''Lost Song'', Kirito is able to figure out that Rain was lying about being a new player, and she had been the one who had been stalking him, based on her shoes being of high level quality. He also worked out how strong Rain was and that all this time she was actually [[IAmNotLeftHanded hiding her true power]].
* ShipTease: Kirito with ''every'' girl in the main cast, even ones who didn't explicitly have crushes on him in canon and the game original characters, especially through the 'Courting System' where Kirito can sleep in the same bed as a girl of his choosing and have 'Pillow talks' with them. The list includes: Asuna, Lisbeth, Silica, Leafa, Sinon, Yuuki, Strea, Philia, Rain, Seven, Premiere, Alice, and even Klein and Eugeo.
* {{Sleepyhead}}:
** Kirito loves taking naps, often in public places and in broad daylight. In ''Lost Song'', when Alicia Rue offers to hire Kirito as a renegade in exchange for three meals and naps, Silica and Sinon immediately tease Kirito over how he keeps napping on the spot anytime, anywhere.
** Leafa is revealed to be one in ''Hollow Realization'', where Kirito states her superpower is being able to fall within seconds of finding a comfortable spot. During one event with a sleepover, she literally plops down onto the bed and talks about how much fun they're going to have before literally falling asleep and disconnecting from the game (since the Amusphere automatically logs out anyone who falls asleep while playing) so fast that everyone but Kirito wonders what just happened. [[spoiler:She logs back in right as Lisbeth is telling a ghost story, which manages to freak all of the assembled out with her utterly oblivious]].
* SparedByTheAdaptation:
** While Kirito and Asuna didn't ''truly'' die in canon, in ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'' their HP never hit zero during the fight against Heathcliff so they weren't even endangered to begin with.
** In ''Lost Song'', Yuuki gets spared the fate of her canon counterpart, surviving her TragicAIDSStory and becomes a permanent member of the main cast.
** In ''Fatal Bullet'' during the [=BoB=] Tournament, Pale Rider narrowly manages to avoid his canon counterpart's fate where Sinon instead chose to snipe him rather than Death Gun, so that he gets killed and taken out of the game before the SerialKiller could do it in real life.
** In ''Alicization Lycoris'', [[spoiler:both Eugeo and Cardinal survive the battle against Quinella.]]
* StatusQuoIsGod: Whenever one of the girls try out a temporary new look, they always end up reverting back to their standard attire shortly afterwards, with the usual InUniverse explanation being they get embarrassed over Kirito staring at them.
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Sinon tries on a pair of glasses that Kirito buys as a gift but takes them off since she doesn't need them in VR and she got suspected Kirito was thinking of dirty thoughts.
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Leafa unties her hair and lets it flow down, which leads Kirito to be taken aback by how different she looks. Despite Kirito's positive thoughts on her new appearance, Leafa puts it back in her usual ponytail as she doesn't want Kirito to keep staring.
** In ''Hollow Realization'', Sinon tries out a ribbon, but after Kirito thinks it's cute she immediately discards it in anger.
** In ''Hollow Realization'', Yuuki is having fun making ribbons and teaches Kirito how to do so, to which Kirito suggests she should try one on since she made so many. Yuuki complies and Kirito approves of the look, but she gets rid of it as she's embarrassed over how Kirito keeps staring at her. Then as payback, she makes Kirito wear the ribbon ''he'' made.
** Subverted in ''Fatal Bullet'' and ''Last Recollection'', where every single returning character is redesigned, with the former even giving new designs to the regular cast, with Kirito and Sinon's ''canon'' Gun Gale Online avatars only being used for a side mission.
* StoryBreadcrumbs: Every single Hollow Mission in the Hollow Area has an actual storyline behind it. Many details about ancient weapons, zombies terrorizing villagers, kings from ancient times seeking revenge or redemption, etc. Sometimes even extending the story through multiple Hollow Missions you have to complete back-to-back. However, all these stories are only transmitted to the player through the mission description. Otherwise, the missions are pretty much the same as any monster fight in the game.
* SwappedRoles: After the many times Silica has been caught by NaughtyTentacles, Kirito decides to take the initiative to remind her about these traps... [[ExplainExplainOhCrap only to step on a vine trap himself]]. [[SwappedRoles Now it's Silica's turn to rescue Kirito from the vine that has snagged him]] by flying up to slice the vines. However she's ''still'' subjected to the danger of a panty shot due to the angle Kirito is in. When Kirito tries to warn her, she accidentally kicks his face in panic.
* TeamUpSeries: The whole point of the ''Accel World vs Sword Art Online'' crossover was to have the ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'' characters teaming up with the ''Literature/AccelWorld'' characters.
* TheMostDangerousVideoGame: This is a SAO adaptation so of course this example is a given. Interestingly, you get a different perspective from this trope by applying it to your NPC non main character partners who can die at any moment and won’t come back for the rest of the game.
* ThemeNaming: Some guns in ''Fatal Bullet'' follow a certain theme in their names.
** All the optical weapons are named after constellations and celestial bodies.
** The three guns chambered for the [=5.7x28mm=] round (Five-[=SeveN=], P90, and AR-57) are all prefixed with "[=SPB=]" and then suffixed with something relating to their wielder.[[note]]The [=Five-SeveN=] is suffixed "Night Sky", referring to Kirito's usual colour scheme. The P90 is suffixed "Potassium", from either [=LLENN=]'s first or last name initial (K). The AR-57 is suffixed "Rapier". This of course seems like an odd suffix and doesn't fit Clarence, but it is instead referring to who first wields this gun in-game, Asuna, who uses rapiers for melee weapons.[[/note]].
** The Krebs Custom [=KTR-09=], in the exact same form that it appeared in ''Literature/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'', complete with the 75-round RPK drum mag, is called the "AR East & West". The AK is an Eastern European weapon platform, while Krebs Custom is an American manufacturer, thus the West.
** Some weapon re-names also serve to reference something about the weapon's wielder within the main continuity (The Steyr AUG is named "AR Blue Rose", referencing the "Blue Rose" sword wielded by Eugeo), while the simple appearance of the weapon can also do the same (The TDI Vector, appearing as the "SMG Technical", is used by Gabriel "Subtilizer" Miller, referencing the account he uses during the Alicization arc to dive into the Underworld).
* TitleDrop:
** ''Hollow Fragment'': [[spoiler:Near the end of the "Hollow Area" story, Philia thanks Kirito for helping her overcome her CloneAngst: before they met, after having faced her Hollow clone, she felt like little more than a "Hollow Fragment".]]
** ''Lost Song'': [[spoiler:The most powerful event boss is literally named "Lost Song", and defeating it unlocks [[BigBad Seven]], who so happens to also be [[IdolSinger a singer]], as a playable character]].
** ''Fatal Bullet'': [[spoiler:The final main quest, if the requirements for the GoldenEnding are met, is named "Fatal Bullet" , where the player character has to protect both Kureha and Zeliska, preventing the need for one or the other to perform a HeroicSacrifice to take the attack from [[FinalBoss the GM]], then defeat it's OneWingedAngel form, [[TrueFinalBoss Last Judgement]], to escape the death game.[[note]]If the requirements for the GoldenEnding are not met, "The Clincher" instead appears as the final quest.[[/note]]]]
* TrueFinalBoss:
** [[spoiler: Heathcliff]] shows up as the true boss for ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'' after the defeat of [[spoiler:the Strea merged boss]].
** Rain serves as this of sorts for ''Lost Song'' after the defeat of Seven, where Kirito has a friendly duel with her. Kirito even calls her this word-for-word.
** ''Fatal Bullet'' has also the OneWingedAngel form of the FinalBoss fought in order to get the GoldenEnding, after the certain conditions are met.
* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: Kirito reminds Leafa at two points in ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'' that just because she has great skills in the real world doesn't mean they can be applied to use in the game without using skill leveling.
* UnwantedHarem: Kirito's harem is ''much'' more prevalent in the games, what with the 'Courting System' that allows him to share a bed with any of the girls and have 'pillow talks' with them.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: This is a plot point in the ''Hollow Realization'' game, where the [=NPCs=] [[spoiler:are in reality AIs]] who permanently die if killed, while players revive. Using [=NPCs=] as bait in the game is a legitimate, if frowned upon by some, tactic, and the system brutally punishes players who actually attack [=NPCs=] to minimize this.
* WhatIf:
** ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'': What would happen when a glitch interrupts the death duel between Kirito and Heathcliff, forcing the players to continue clearing to the 100th floor while some players from ALO arrive in SAO?
** ''Lost Song'': What if Sugou was never involved in ALO and the players could enjoy the game peacefully as it was intended to be?
** ''Hollow Realization'': What if a game resembling the original Sword Art Online was recreated, but without [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame the death game]] threats on it's real-life players?
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman:
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Kirito starts considering the possibility he's a Hollow Data copy and not the real Kirito, although his friends snap him out of this and a test from Yui confirms he's the legitimate Kirito.
** As in canon Kirito and the rest of the party are very respectful towards AI, generally treating them as if they were humans, with Yui, Strea and Premiere all effectively being part of Kirito's family.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue:
** ''Last Recollection'' ends with one, explaining what has become of the cast, including the ''Fatal Bullet'' characters.
* WolverinePublicity:
** Leafa and Sinon are featured in ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'', despite this being chronologically before their appearance in the canon story line. Nonetheless they are heavily featured as they are too iconic to leave out.
** Starting from ''Hollow Realization'', Alice and Eugeo are featured in every game as part of the DLC due to their overwhelming popularity.
** The cover and banner for ''Fatal Bullet'' prominently features Kirito and Sinon with the appearance taken from the ''Phantom Bullet'' story arc while the main characters aren't those two, and Kirito and Sinon wear something different most of the time.
** Death Gun gets [[AdvertisedExtra heavily advertised]] for ''Fatal Bullet'' and even headlines the opening, despite being a side boss and not the main focus of the story.
* TheDreaded: Kirito is this even more so in canon. In ''Hollow Fragment'', one event has Kirito and friends filling in at Agil's bar on a busy night. When Silica encounters trouble with two scary customers, Kirito goes to check out what the commotion is about. The customers immediately recognize him, apologize for being jerks to Silica, and proceed to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere bail the scene in fear]].
* DuelBoss: A common staple in games, where usually there is an important storyline boss (and in the first two games, the PostFinalBoss) fought this way:
** In ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'' there's Heathcliff, and Yuuki.
** In ''Lost Song'' there's Sumeragi, and Rain.
** In ''Hollow Realization'': Genesis.
** In ''Accel World vs Sword Art Online'': Black Lotus, Silver Crow, Oberon, Alice, and Eugeo.
** In ''Fatal Bullet'', Death Gun.
* EarlyBirdCameo:
** Sinon and Yuuki make their first voiced appearances in ''Hollow Fragment'', which was a whole year before SAO II had aired.
** Alice and Eugeo debut in ''Hollow Realization'' DLC, which is years before ''Sword Art Online: Alicization'' had even been announced. They go on to make subsequent appearances in every game after this.
** LLENN, Fukaziroh, Pitohui, and M all make their first appearances in ''Fatal Bullet'' a few months before the anime adaptation of ''Literature/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'' had begun airing.
** [[spoiler:Subtilizer]] makes a surprise appearance in ''Fatal Bullet'' DLC, a month before ''Sword Art Online: Alicization'' was set to air.
* EngineeredPublicConfession: In ''Hollow Realization'', Kirito tricks Genesis into giving one while Seven is listening, giving the SA:O admins the proof they needed to terminate his account and send a warrant for his arrest.
* EvilKnockoff:
** In ''Hollow Fragment''. [[spoiler:Kirito's Hollow Data counterpart is the FinalBoss of the optional Hollow Area story arc, and it's just as strong as the real Kirito, effectively making it a MirrorBoss.]]
** In ''Fatal Bullet'', several players have a doppelganger [=ArFAsys=] impersonating them, including: Kureha, Itsuki, Zeliska, Kirito, Asuna, Dyne, Yamikaze, and Musketeer-X. Although in Kirito and Asuna's case it's not a perfect copy with their [[GoodColorsEvilColors color schemes being an inverse]] of the originals. The Player and their party are forced to fight several of these imposters.
* {{Fanservice}}: Both of the copious amounts of MythologyGag that reference and homage countless things from the anime and light novels alike along with plenty of {{Foreshadowing}} of later things to come, and also in the sense that every game continued to amp up the fanservice designs and scenarios. It gets to the point that by ''Hollow Realization'', only a handful of female characters ''aren't'' wearing a short skirt and prone to a panty shot. ''Fatal Bullet'' toned this down significantly by comparison, keeping the fanservice almost entirely to affinity events.
* FortuneTeller: In Hollow Fragment there’s a fortune teller hidden in the back of one alley that will read your future for a fee. If you have one of the girls in your party at the time your fortune is read, they’ll raise their affection a bit. There are also a few side stories involving fortune tellers giving some sort of prediction that always involves Kirito and the girls.
* FreakyFridayFlip: In ''Hollow Realizations'' Leafa somehow swaps avatars with Lisbeth and quite enjoys being the Blacksmith, but awkwardness ensues when she runs into Kirito and she decides to take the opportunity to find out what Kirito thinks of her (Leafa). While Lisbeth (as Leafa) is very annoyed by the development having returned from her break with her appearance changed. Kirito never figures out what's going on despite 'Lisbeth' calling him "Onii-chan", referring to herself in the third person, and asking very personal questions about Leafa.
* FrightBesideThem: In ''Hollow Realizations'', one event has Kirito and Philia questing in a cave, where Kirito promptly decides to put out the torch before telling Philia to back against the wall and keep quiet. Philia is under the impression that Kirito wants to make out with her and is startled when her hand is held. [[spoiler:However, when Kirito relights the torch, Philia is shocked to discover Kirito was standing on the other side of the cave, and the one holding her hand was actually a monster. Turns out Kirito was testing if the monsters were attracted to light and Philia is really pissed off at being misled]].
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Leafa and Sinon have one concerning their story in the game and the way the player can have them regarding leveling. Using alternate methods like Solo Multiplayer or leveling in the Hollow Area, you can get both girls to really high levels at the beginning of the game, even surpassing Asuna. Yet, the cutscenes later will make a deal about how they are the most inexperienced ones of the group and how they need lots of help with leveling to be at the level of the other girls.
** Also in ''Hollow Fragment'', you have Sinon who supposedly is very wary and reluctant to talk with Kirito after she arrived to Aincrad, and it isn't until a cutscene after you clear floor 78 that she decides to open herself to him and trust him. However, during this time, you can level up her affection like normal and even get her into your bed for pillow talks.
** In ''Fatal Bullet'', Sinon will not have her PM Hectate II (listed in-game as "AMR Tiamat") at the start of the game, but instead equipped with a MAS FR F2 (listed in-game as "Sangfroid"), until a certain point at the game, in which a quest that takes place where the PlayerCharacter helps Sinon defeat a boss to get a drop of what would be her signature weapon in the original Anime source... or alternatively, reaching a point where she hits level 40 will have her automatically equipped with the PM Hectate II, even if the after mentioned cutscene and quest haven't been reached.
* GardenOfLove: In Hollow Fragment there’s a special garden at the north section of the Abandoned Area. This garden is treated as a safe zone which means you can take your partners there to have chats and raise their affection level. You can also get a special cutscene with every girl after fulfilling a series of special quests in the Hollow Area with each of them. Notable for being the only place where you can get a special cutscene with [[spoiler: both Sachi and Argo]].
* GoodGuyBar: Agil runs one in Arc Sophia in SAO, as well as in Svartalfheim in ALO.
* GrandRomanticGesture: In Hollow Fragment, as a CallBack to the original series, Lizbeth forges a sword for Kirito at no cost. Just like in the original series, Liz makes the sword as she finds herself overwhelmed by the intensity of her feelings towards Kirito. At this point, she comes to the realization that what she feels isn't just a simple infatuation, but actual real love, and this allows her to make the "Lingering Heart" sword which is arguably one of the best weapons in the game. Just as it is a big love gesture storywise, it's also a big deal from a gameplay perspective, given that forging a sword is considerably expensive and you wouldn't really do it in regular gameplay (unless you're grinding Col like crazy)
* GuideDangIt: ''Fatal Bullet'' has a case of MultipleEndings, but it doesn't even attempt to explain how to get the GoldenEnding. [[spoiler: You need to rewind time after completing the game with either normal ending at least once [[note]] Contrary to popular belief, Kirito Mode completion isn't mandatory, but you'll be missing out on details in the ending if you don't clear Kirito Mode.[[/note]], have at least rank 4 affinity with the gauge 75% full (basically all of the final date scenes) with the game's personal original characters (which are [[PermanentlyMissableContent missable]], and at least the second main affinity scene of every SAO character (besides DLC and ''Alternative'' cast members) before completing the SBC Flugel boss fight. Only after all of this, will your [=ArFA-sys=] give you a charm - that actually has no bearing on the plot and just serves as an event trigger. If that weren't enough, you also have to shoot the FinalBoss in their mouth when they charge a specific attack up, or else you'll get one of the bad endings anyway.]]
* HardModePerks: ''Fatal Bullet'' has Extreme mode difficulty, which ramps up the enemies' strength by increasing their level by ''70(!)'', but also upgrading their dropped weapon ranks by ''three whole ranks'' and increased chance for rarer item drops. The [[EasyModeMockery inverse also happens if you're playing on Easy difficulty]], but only applies to the decreased chance for higher rarity item drops.
* HaremGenre:
** The games crank up the harem aspects of the series, by introducing the 'Courting System' where Kirito can share a bed with every girl (and [[HoYay some guys]]) in the game. Some main girls like Lisbeth, Silica, and Sinon, who had explicitly decided to give Kirito and Asuna space in the main series, all continue showing very obvious attraction to him in the games.
** In addition, several other girls have been added to the harem including: Strea, Philia, Yuuki, Rain, Seven, and Premiere.
* HeroicMime: The PlayerCharacter for ''Fatal Bullet'' is one. While their voice can be heard in combat, cutscenes have them being completely silent save for the occasional response selected from a list of options.
* HonestAxe: In ''Hollow Realizations'', one quest had Lisbeth reenacting this fable, only with the ax replaced with her blacksmith hammer. While Lisbeth plays out most of the story the same way, by being honest to the forest spirit and admitting her real hammer was not the gold or silver one, but her iron one, before being rewarded both hammers for her honesty. However after acquiring said precious hammers and feeling how heavy they were, she further adds that she felt wasn't ready yet for said hammers and thought it better she stuck to her original one. The forest spirit is amazed by her level of honesty and as a further reward decides to enchant her original iron hammer to maximum efficiency which Liz overjoyed by.
* HonorBeforeReason: In Hollow Fragment, after beating the final boss of the 100th floor, the revelation that [[spoiler: Heathcliff wasn't defeated at floor 75 but instead teleported away to solve the malfunction of the Cardinal System as Administrator]] drives Kirito to demand a new boss battle instead of just accepting that they finished the game and could go back to the real world. Although in his defense, he also demanded that everyone else should be returned to the real world, only leaving him inside to fight the new final boss.
* HopelessBossFight: In ''Fatal Bullet'', during a main quest in the Lost Gate area, a certain boss, Dirty Scissor, appears at rather high level of 50 while the player is most likely around mid-30s, and hits very hard and is hard to kill at this point. The player is supposed to avoid it's attacks and activate nine terminals to unlock the door to open the door to [[spoiler: get the third and last part of their [=ArFA=]-sys functions.]] Can be [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], however, as a well-prepared player with high level and a strong weapon can possibly kill the boss, eliminating the main threat of the quest. This can be also achieved by pure persistence and skill of being able to survive long enough while having enough ammo to take down the boss, even by pure accident.
* HotterAndSexier: ''Fatal Bullet'' in relation to the anime's portrayal of GGO. Sinon now wears a form fitting, spandex suit that displays more of her bosom (though her midriff is now covered). Leafa (who never played GGO in the light novel/anime) wears a similar form fitting outfit. Silica (who joined GGO ''after'' the Phantom Bullet arc in canon) now shows off her midsection. [[AvertedTrope Averted]] for Asuna, Lisbeth, and Yuuki.
* IncestSubtext:
** The game continuity dials back Suguha/Leafa's BigBrotherAttraction to Kirito. That doesn't stop Kirito from taking his [[BrotherSisterIncest sister]] (read:[[KissingCousins cousin]]) to bed with him (complete with pillow talks).
** Hollow Fragment takes the subtext to a whole new level in one of Leafa's Aincrad side missions. In the mission, Leafa takes Kirito in a quest to find a lost pendant that an [=NPC=] said would reunite an old spirit (of the moon) with his lover (a spirit of the sun). Nothing weird so far. After finding the pendant, the quest requests both Leafa and Kirito to go to a forest and perform a ball dance between them to bring back the spirit of the lovers. Okay, cool, dancing with siblings is not a bad thing... Then when the spirits return, it is revealed they're actually siblings themselves! One would think this new revelation would now lead to both spirits change their interactions into a portrayal of family love, right? But no, the [=NPCs=] dialogue continue implying that the spirits are in fact in a couple relationship before leaving. Alright, guess... weird [=NPCs=] can be weird... But then you get a long conversation where Leafa would actually try to convince Kirito that ''love between siblings can be much more than that!!'' With her literally asking him if it is really strange for brothers and sisters to love each other, before suggesting that they can be siblings AND something more... and then '''kissing him!!!''' ([[spoiler: in the cheek]]). Thankfully the sidequest would never be brought up again later.
** In Hollow Fragment there's a cutscene where every other girl gets jealous of the closeness Leafa and Kirito have because they're siblings, so Yui suggests they all roleplay as Kirito's sisters to achieve the same closeness. It goes without saying that what follows is plenty of uses of this trope. The most extreme case though is Lizbeth literally asking Kirito to marry her... While roleplaying as his sister!!! Kirito of course, ask them to stop after things begin to get very awkward.
* IndirectKiss: Has happened a few times with Kirito.
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', when Kirito finds Silica working as a maid and gets served by her, he tries some of the food and offers some to Silica too. Silica obliges and loves it, before suddenly becoming flustered and claims it's because a maid isn't allowed to eat on the job. She is then heard muttering "indirect" to herself as she walks off.
** In ''Hollow Realization'', Kirito helps Yuuki complete a quest for a drink called a Honey Bee. After completing it and Yuuki is rewarded with the sugary sweet drink, she offers Kirito a taste too. However, Yuuki notices they used the same straw and wonders if that meant they indirectly kissed.
* IntercontinuityCrossover: ''Memory Defrag'' during February 2020 had one with ''VideoGame/Persona5'', especially ''Royal'' with the addition of Kasumi.
* InterfaceScrew: A ''massive'' and spoiler-ridden one near the end of ''Fatal Bullet'': [[spoiler: Itsuki, now deciding to be the BigBad of the story, has Taipan log every GGO player off from the server, including the player. This ''boots you back to the main menu''. To continue the story, you need to log back in/continue from the 'last' save. This is the PointOfNoReturn for the GoldenEnding.]]
* InterruptedIntimacy: In Hollow Fragment, Yui interrupts Kirito and Asuna when they were about to have some quality time. And since she was obsessed with babies at the time, the already awkward situation gives room to an even more awkward situation.
* IntriguedByHumanity: In Hollow Fragment, Yui shows interest on many aspects of human emotions across the game. Mostly family bonds like brother/sister relationships, something that turns into a whole thing when she finds out that her parents could make a baby in the real world.
* LethalChef:
** In ''Hollow Fragment'' Leafa got her hands on a very rare food item and she insisted on cooking the dish for Kirito despite her not having her cooking skills maxed on the game (just because she got jealous after Kirito mentioned Asuna). It turned out so bad, it gave Kirito food poisoning to the point he needed to drink an Antidote to get better, and even then he passed out.
** When Kirito tries his hand at cooking in ''Lost Song'', he makes something that's too spicy for normal people to safely eat. Of course, Kirito's [[BizarreTasteInFood sense of taste is far from normal]] so he had no problem eating it.
* LetsYouAndHimFight:
** Philia and Kirito clash blades after a CrashIntoHello has her mistaking him for an enemy.
** Yuuki serves as a PostFinalBoss in ''Hollow Fragment''. Now you can fight the best ''with'' the best!
** Rain is the TrueFinalBoss of ''Lost Song'' after defeating Seven. Kirito forces a duel out of her after suspecting she hadn't shown a fraction of her power. Turns out she has an even bigger [[IAmNotLeftHanded trump card]] than Kirito and might very well be the WorldsBestWarrior of ALO.
** The PlayerCharacter of ''Fatal Bullet'' and Kureha face off against Kirito and Asuna at the start of the game to compete for the [=ArFAsys=]. They end up as friends shortly afterwards.
* LighterAndSofter:
** ''Hollow Realization'' also does this, making the game safe so that you don't have to worry about being killed. {{Averted}} for the [=NPCs=], however, who are all unique beings with their own personalities [[spoiler:on account of being low-level AI]].
** Pretty much the whole video game version continuity is LighterAndSofter as [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil characters like Sugou and Shinkawa]] have their worst moments AdaptedOut, Yuuki didn't suffer the terminal illness, and the first game even starts with alternate end of the Aincrad arc which didn't involve Asuna and Kirito nearly dying.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: The games add this dynamic between Kirito and Yuuki. The two of them share quite a few scenes together, where Yuuki loves to tease Kirito like a cheeky little sister, while Kirito looks out for like he does with Suguha or Silica. In ''Hollow Realization'' Yuuki and Kirito having a tickle fight during a pillow talk, while in ''Fatal Bullet'' Kirito piggybacks an exhausted Yuuki home to which she remarks this is what it felt like to have a big brother.
* LooseCanon: ''Rising Steel'' unlike other games follows the canon plot of Alicization quite faithfully, even adapting scenes from the light novels that didn’t make it into the anime. While the game still includes CanonForeigner Eydis Synthesis Ten among the main cast, her inclusion is added in such a way that she does not disrupt any of the canon events at all, as she only features in scenes that were ‘offscreen’ in canon such as before Alice leaves Central Centoria to arrest Kirito and Eugeo, or while Alice is unconscious when Kirito carries her up the tower.
* TheLostWoods:
** In ''Infinity Moment'' and its ''Hollow Fragment'' ports, the forest-themed Floor 85 has a Straggler's Trail. Until he gets a key map item, Kirito will get sent back to a specific BrokenBridge area, wondering if he already passed it.
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', the Hollow Area's own Forest Maze has four maps with exits that send Kirito in circles.
* MirrorBoss: The boss of the Hollow Area is [[EvilKnockoff Kirito's own Hollow Data AI copy]], who is just as strong as the real Kirito.
* MistakenForGay: In Hollow Fragment, after Klein and Kirito got the best item from a fortune teller who gave rare items only to the most compatible pairings, the girls (who all got lousy results with Kirito, except for Silica who got a rare item as well) started thinking that maybe Klein and Kirito could be hidden in the closet. Something that both immediately deny.
* MsFanservice: The main girls are all this to some degree, but the biggest one is Strea due to being a [[ShamelessFanserviceGirl Shameless]] / InnocentFanserviceGirl.
* MultipleEndings:
** ''Hollow Fragment'' features multiple endings depending on who is your partner in the final battle. You'll get both a prolonged special conversation cutscene with your partner after beating the final boss and a post credits epilogue scene.
** Also in ''Hollow Fragment'' you get a small variation of a good and a sad ending depending on if [[spoiler: you cleared the high difficulty test in the Hollow Area to rescue Strea]] before enterirng the 100th floor boss battle. This doesn't really change all of the ending though, just a part of it.
** ''Fatal Bullet'' has two Bittersweet endings depending on whether [[spoiler: Kureha or Zeliska performs a HeroicSacrifice to save the player character]], and a GoldenEnding after certain conditions are met to prevent the tragedy from either of the previous two endings from happening.
* MythologyGag:
** ''Fatal Bullet'' gives Kirito and Sinon different outfits for GGO than the ones they had in canon, especially Kirito who looks like his real self instead of his AttractiveBentGender avatar. However, in the Bullet of Bullets Tournament which adapts the ''Phantom Bullet'' arc, both of them are given their canon appearances. In the case of Kirito it's an alternate account which is named "[[GenderBlenderName Kiriko]]", which was once a [[AscendedFanon fan nickname]].
** The DLC that introduced Alice and Eugeo into ''Fatal Bullet'' armed them with the Daewoo [=USAS-12=] shotgun and the Steyr AUG assault rifles as their respective long guns. These two weapons first appeared during the novels' Alicization arc, with the [=USAS-12=] in the hands of [=ROK=] operators, and the Steyr AUG in the hands of the 12-man team from Glowgen Defense Systems.
* NamedByTheAdaptation: The unnamed raid guild that attempt to stop the Sleeping Knights in ''Mother's Rosario'' is named Shamarock in ''Lost Song''.
* NewGamePlus: A common feature in several games, in which generally, most of your inventory carry over:
** Some equipment in ''Infinity Moment'' are only obtainable from the 2nd playthrough onwards.
** ''Hollow Fragment'' carries over items, money, level, Implements, skills (as well as their mastery and number of times used), ally parameter costumes, and more. The level of the enemies in the main part of the game (Aincrad) have their level increased by 10 for each NG+ loop. Strangely enough, the Hollow area progression is retained and never reset through NG+.
** In ''Accel World VS Sword Art Online'', you retain levels, and items (except for Wings from Accel World quests, Pixie Tears, and Trinity Rings). Most quests also have their status reset, allowing the player to do them again.
** ''Fatal Bullet'' allows you to retain inventory items, money, skill points and level as usual, and unlocks Extreme difficulty setting which adds more purchasable items and drastically bumps up the enemies level and their item drop quality.
* NoPokerFace: In ''Hollow Fragment'', the gang decide to play a game of Texas Holdem. Leafa evidently has a very poor poker face and her brother Kirito is able to see right through her bluff. However the biggest offender has to be Klein, who tries to bluff with an All-In when he only has a measly hand of a pair of 4's, which Kirito immediately picks up on and beats him to.
* OddballInTheSeries: While most of the ''Sword Art Online'' video games are action Role-Playing Games, ''Fatal Bullet'' is instead a third-person shooter (Justified in this case, since it takes place in GGO, a game where guns are prevalent and make up the primary choices of weaponry.) In addition, it focuses on the customizable PlayerCharacter as the main character, though it does have a side mode that returns the focus back to Kirito.
* OneWingedAngel: Most NPC villains in the game will have a monstrous battle form which serves as a boss fight.
* OptionalCharacterScene: In Hollow Fragment, many of the cutscenes involving all the girls, will also include Philia if the player has completed the Hollow Area before reaching the cutscene. Since this is a hard task to complete at the start of the game, many will miss plenty of cutscenes where Philia could actually participate if she was in Aincrad. To have the full cutscene experience of the Aincrad story, a New Game playthrough after completing the Hollow Area in a previous playthrough is recommended since all the Hollow Area advances will be transferred to the new game, including Philia being in Aincrad.
* {{Permadeath}}:
** Zig-zagged in ''Infinity [=Moment/Hollow=] Fragment''. As in the anime, anyone who dies in SAO dies for real, so any member of the Assault Team who dies is gone for the rest of the game. For main characters like Asuna or Klein, however, their death constitutes an automatic GameOver, the same as if Kirito dies.
** Also played with in ''Hollow Realization'': players such as Kirito, Asuna, and some [=NPCs=] can respawn if they die. In-universe NPC characters, on the other hand, don't: if they die, they don't come back for the rest of the game.
* PermanentlyMissableContent:
** Both trophies/achievements "Beta Tester" and "Not on my Watch!" are missable if you're not paying attention during your Aincrad run in Hollow Fragment. The former requires you to get every last attack bonus from every boss in every floor which means that if you miss one, then you'll have to start over in a new game playthrough. The later is achieved when you finish the game without having any member of the assault team killed. This means that if you get careless and have one of your teammates die at any point of the game, then the trophy/achievement is gone and you'll have to start a new game to get another attempt.
** The achievements/trophies "Powering Up" and "Second Helping" in ''Fatal Bullet'' are missable, especially on [=PlayStation 4=], if the tasks for unlocking these two achievements were performed on a trial version of the game that is later upgraded to the full version. [=PS4=] demos cannot unlock trophies. The only way to obtain these achievements in such a case is with a new character or a NewGamePlus.
* PointOfNoReturn: In ''Fatal Bullet'': After completing the [[spoiler:Mother Claudia]] quest, it's possible to be locked out of the GoldenEnding if [[spoiler:the player doesn't meet the affinity requirements for dates on most of the characters.]] After [[spoiler:coming back from a login after a forced log out,]] the PlayerCharacter has to [[spoiler:1v1 against Kureha, after in which she removes the player from your friend list, resulting in her (and later, Itsuki and Zeliska) no longer available for the player's party.]] The specific quest and battle itself is a ''Nasty'' example, since it's possible to get stuck on said battle without restarting the game, as the player cannot leave the area without winning the battle. Aside from that specific example however, the rest of the Point of No Return after that itself fills the ''Tough'' part, in which the player still can grind as much as they want before the FinalBoss, which triggers another PONR, but this time it's ''Polite'': [[spoiler:A pop-out information screen will tell that the player won't be able to progress through Kirito Mode if the player hasn't already finished the substory there, and Arfa-Sys will ask the player if they wish to confront "Death Gun", with the player given the choice two layers of confirmation before heading to the area where they fight the FinalBoss.]] Additionally, [[spoiler: The player can rewind the time after defeating the FinalBoss instead of starting a NewGamePlus in order to achieve the otherwise missed requirements to achieve the GoldenEnding, and in fact encouraged since one of the requirements is to finish the game with one of the two regular [[BittersweetEnding Bittersweet Endings]].[[note]]Unless the player reached level 100 beforehand, which skips the otherwise mandatory requirements for the GoldenEnding.[[/note]]]]
* PostFinalBoss:
** Yuuki shows up in ''Hollow Fragment'' as a secret boss if you choose to investigate the strange area after defeating Heathcliff. She ends up being glitched into SAO and requests a duel with Kirito. Defeating her allows her to be recruited on a NewGamePlus.
** Silver Crow is one in ''Accel World vs Sword Art Online'', where he and Kirito have a [[DuelBoss duel]] after the main story campaign ends.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Kirito and Asuna are already an established OfficialCouple in the game-verse, but since ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'' completely skips over the first 75 floors of Aincrad, the game instead provides it's own version of TheirFirstTime. Kirito and Asuna [[spoiler: spend a special night together in their cottage on floor 83 (Asuna herself calls it a honeymoon.) Kirito confesses that he's worried that he'll lose Asuna, and Asuna assures him that they'll always be together. Kirito initially suggests that they go to sleep, leaving Asuna disappointed. However, after some prompting, Kirito and Asuna kiss and ultimately make love (the scene of them doing the deed is a tad more explicit than the light novels/anime, but it's still tastefully handled, and nowhere near as graphic as the infamous ''chapter 16.5'')]]
* TheRival: Sumeragi takes Eugene's place as Kirito's main ALO rival.
* SecretCharacter: In Hollow Fragment you can unlock both [[spoiler: Sachi and Kibaou]] in the Hollow Area. They’re hidden in secret areas though and you have to follow certain events not specified in the game to get them. Also, you can’t take them out of the Hollow Area.
* SecretLevel: Also InUniverse, the Hollow Area of the video game spin-off ''Hollow Fragment'' is a secret world hidden in SAO where secret research and development is conducted. [[spoiler:The Hollow Area is also home to AI duplicates of SAO players, including [=PoH=] and Sachi.]]
* SequelHook: Several games will tease at the events of the next game through an EarlyBirdCameo of character who is yet to appear.
** Yuuki shows up as a PostFinalBoss in SAO during ''Hollow Fragment'' despite not being scheduled to appear until the Alfheim Online game.
** Kyouji/Richter's avatar gets used by [=XaXa=] during ''Hollow Realization'' where he speaks with Kirito and warns him about making him pay for his transgressions, teasing at him being a villain in the next game.
** [[spoiler:Subtilizer]] shows up in ''Fatal Bullet'' DLC to coincide with appearances from Alice and Eugeo, paving the way for the Alicization arc.
** ''Fatal Bullet'' gets a second one at the end of ''Dissonance of the Nexus'', where [[spoiler: Itsuki shows up to talk to Eiji about their mutual interest in the protagonist, and implies that he's working with Shigemura and even Rath behind the scenes. It caps off with Itsuki departing - but not before sending an anonymous message to the protagonist with a friendly WeWillMeetAgain.]]
* SequentialBoss: ''Hollow Fragment'' has two consecutive bosses near the end of the Hollow Area storyline. Die to either and face CheckpointStarvation; Kirito must fight both bosses all over again.
* SherlockScan: In ''Lost Song'', Kirito is able to figure out that Rain was lying about being a new player, and she had been the one who had been stalking him, based on her shoes being of high level quality. He also worked out how strong Rain was and that all this time she was actually [[IAmNotLeftHanded hiding her true power]].
* ShipTease: Kirito with ''every'' girl in the main cast, even ones who didn't explicitly have crushes on him in canon and the game original characters, especially through the 'Courting System' where Kirito can sleep in the same bed as a girl of his choosing and have 'Pillow talks' with them. The list includes: Asuna, Lisbeth, Silica, Leafa, Sinon, Yuuki, Strea, Philia, Rain, Seven, Premiere, Alice, and even Klein and Eugeo.
* {{Sleepyhead}}:
** Kirito loves taking naps, often in public places and in broad daylight. In ''Lost Song'', when Alicia Rue offers to hire Kirito as a renegade in exchange for three meals and naps, Silica and Sinon immediately tease Kirito over how he keeps napping on the spot anytime, anywhere.
** Leafa is revealed to be one in ''Hollow Realization'', where Kirito states her superpower is being able to fall within seconds of finding a comfortable spot. During one event with a sleepover, she literally plops down onto the bed and talks about how much fun they're going to have before literally falling asleep and disconnecting from the game (since the Amusphere automatically logs out anyone who falls asleep while playing) so fast that everyone but Kirito wonders what just happened. [[spoiler:She logs back in right as Lisbeth is telling a ghost story, which manages to freak all of the assembled out with her utterly oblivious]].
* SparedByTheAdaptation:
** While Kirito and Asuna didn't ''truly'' die in canon, in ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'' their HP never hit zero during the fight against Heathcliff so they weren't even endangered to begin with.
** In ''Lost Song'', Yuuki gets spared the fate of her canon counterpart, surviving her TragicAIDSStory and becomes a permanent member of the main cast.
** In ''Fatal Bullet'' during the [=BoB=] Tournament, Pale Rider narrowly manages to avoid his canon counterpart's fate where Sinon instead chose to snipe him rather than Death Gun, so that he gets killed and taken out of the game before the SerialKiller could do it in real life.
** In ''Alicization Lycoris'', [[spoiler:both Eugeo and Cardinal survive the battle against Quinella.]]
* StatusQuoIsGod: Whenever one of the girls try out a temporary new look, they always end up reverting back to their standard attire shortly afterwards, with the usual InUniverse explanation being they get embarrassed over Kirito staring at them.
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Sinon tries on a pair of glasses that Kirito buys as a gift but takes them off since she doesn't need them in VR and she got suspected Kirito was thinking of dirty thoughts.
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Leafa unties her hair and lets it flow down, which leads Kirito to be taken aback by how different she looks. Despite Kirito's positive thoughts on her new appearance, Leafa puts it back in her usual ponytail as she doesn't want Kirito to keep staring.
** In ''Hollow Realization'', Sinon tries out a ribbon, but after Kirito thinks it's cute she immediately discards it in anger.
** In ''Hollow Realization'', Yuuki is having fun making ribbons and teaches Kirito how to do so, to which Kirito suggests she should try one on since she made so many. Yuuki complies and Kirito approves of the look, but she gets rid of it as she's embarrassed over how Kirito keeps staring at her. Then as payback, she makes Kirito wear the ribbon ''he'' made.
** Subverted in ''Fatal Bullet'' and ''Last Recollection'', where every single returning character is redesigned, with the former even giving new designs to the regular cast, with Kirito and Sinon's ''canon'' Gun Gale Online avatars only being used for a side mission.
* StoryBreadcrumbs: Every single Hollow Mission in the Hollow Area has an actual storyline behind it. Many details about ancient weapons, zombies terrorizing villagers, kings from ancient times seeking revenge or redemption, etc. Sometimes even extending the story through multiple Hollow Missions you have to complete back-to-back. However, all these stories are only transmitted to the player through the mission description. Otherwise, the missions are pretty much the same as any monster fight in the game.
* SwappedRoles: After the many times Silica has been caught by NaughtyTentacles, Kirito decides to take the initiative to remind her about these traps... [[ExplainExplainOhCrap only to step on a vine trap himself]]. [[SwappedRoles Now it's Silica's turn to rescue Kirito from the vine that has snagged him]] by flying up to slice the vines. However she's ''still'' subjected to the danger of a panty shot due to the angle Kirito is in. When Kirito tries to warn her, she accidentally kicks his face in panic.
* TeamUpSeries: The whole point of the ''Accel World vs Sword Art Online'' crossover was to have the ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'' characters teaming up with the ''Literature/AccelWorld'' characters.
* TheMostDangerousVideoGame: This is a SAO adaptation so of course this example is a given. Interestingly, you get a different perspective from this trope by applying it to your NPC non main character partners who can die at any moment and won’t come back for the rest of the game.
* ThemeNaming: Some guns in ''Fatal Bullet'' follow a certain theme in their names.
** All the optical weapons are named after constellations and celestial bodies.
** The three guns chambered for the [=5.7x28mm=] round (Five-[=SeveN=], P90, and AR-57) are all prefixed with "[=SPB=]" and then suffixed with something relating to their wielder.[[note]]The [=Five-SeveN=] is suffixed "Night Sky", referring to Kirito's usual colour scheme. The P90 is suffixed "Potassium", from either [=LLENN=]'s first or last name initial (K). The AR-57 is suffixed "Rapier". This of course seems like an odd suffix and doesn't fit Clarence, but it is instead referring to who first wields this gun in-game, Asuna, who uses rapiers for melee weapons.[[/note]].
** The Krebs Custom [=KTR-09=], in the exact same form that it appeared in ''Literature/SwordArtOnlineAlternativeGunGaleOnline'', complete with the 75-round RPK drum mag, is called the "AR East & West". The AK is an Eastern European weapon platform, while Krebs Custom is an American manufacturer, thus the West.
** Some weapon re-names also serve to reference something about the weapon's wielder within the main continuity (The Steyr AUG is named "AR Blue Rose", referencing the "Blue Rose" sword wielded by Eugeo), while the simple appearance of the weapon can also do the same (The TDI Vector, appearing as the "SMG Technical", is used by Gabriel "Subtilizer" Miller, referencing the account he uses during the Alicization arc to dive into the Underworld).
* TitleDrop:
** ''Hollow Fragment'': [[spoiler:Near the end of the "Hollow Area" story, Philia thanks Kirito for helping her overcome her CloneAngst: before they met, after having faced her Hollow clone, she felt like little more than a "Hollow Fragment".]]
** ''Lost Song'': [[spoiler:The most powerful event boss is literally named "Lost Song", and defeating it unlocks [[BigBad Seven]], who so happens to also be [[IdolSinger a singer]], as a playable character]].
** ''Fatal Bullet'': [[spoiler:The final main quest, if the requirements for the GoldenEnding are met, is named "Fatal Bullet" , where the player character has to protect both Kureha and Zeliska, preventing the need for one or the other to perform a HeroicSacrifice to take the attack from [[FinalBoss the GM]], then defeat it's OneWingedAngel form, [[TrueFinalBoss Last Judgement]], to escape the death game.[[note]]If the requirements for the GoldenEnding are not met, "The Clincher" instead appears as the final quest.[[/note]]]]
* TrueFinalBoss:
** [[spoiler: Heathcliff]] shows up as the true boss for ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'' after the defeat of [[spoiler:the Strea merged boss]].
** Rain serves as this of sorts for ''Lost Song'' after the defeat of Seven, where Kirito has a friendly duel with her. Kirito even calls her this word-for-word.
** ''Fatal Bullet'' has also the OneWingedAngel form of the FinalBoss fought in order to get the GoldenEnding, after the certain conditions are met.
* UnexpectedlyRealisticGameplay: Kirito reminds Leafa at two points in ''Infinity Moment''/''Hollow Fragment'' that just because she has great skills in the real world doesn't mean they can be applied to use in the game without using skill leveling.
* UnwantedHarem: Kirito's harem is ''much'' more prevalent in the games, what with the 'Courting System' that allows him to share a bed with any of the girls and have 'pillow talks' with them.
* VideoGameCrueltyPotential: This is a plot point in the ''Hollow Realization'' game, where the [=NPCs=] [[spoiler:are in reality AIs]] who permanently die if killed, while players revive. Using [=NPCs=] as bait in the game is a legitimate, if frowned upon by some, tactic, and the system brutally punishes players who actually attack [=NPCs=] to minimize this.
* WhatIf:
** ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'': What would happen when a glitch interrupts the death duel between Kirito and Heathcliff, forcing the players to continue clearing to the 100th floor while some players from ALO arrive in SAO?
** ''Lost Song'': What if Sugou was never involved in ALO and the players could enjoy the game peacefully as it was intended to be?
** ''Hollow Realization'': What if a game resembling the original Sword Art Online was recreated, but without [[TheMostDangerousVideoGame the death game]] threats on it's real-life players?
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman:
** In ''Hollow Fragment'', Kirito starts considering the possibility he's a Hollow Data copy and not the real Kirito, although his friends snap him out of this and a test from Yui confirms he's the legitimate Kirito.
** As in canon Kirito and the rest of the party are very respectful towards AI, generally treating them as if they were humans, with Yui, Strea and Premiere all effectively being part of Kirito's family.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue:
** ''Last Recollection'' ends with one, explaining what has become of the cast, including the ''Fatal Bullet'' characters.
* WolverinePublicity:
** Leafa and Sinon are featured in ''Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment'', despite this being chronologically before their appearance in the canon story line. Nonetheless they are heavily featured as they are too iconic to leave out.
** Starting from ''Hollow Realization'', Alice and Eugeo are featured in every game as part of the DLC due to their overwhelming popularity.
** The cover and banner for ''Fatal Bullet'' prominently features Kirito and Sinon with the appearance taken from the ''Phantom Bullet'' story arc while the main characters aren't those two, and Kirito and Sinon wear something different most of the time.
** Death Gun gets [[AdvertisedExtra heavily advertised]] for ''Fatal Bullet'' and even headlines the opening, despite being a side boss and not the main focus of the story.
