History FanFic / SoulsArtOnline

* WhamChapter: Chapter 21, marking the 6 month point of the game where the 1.01 Patch is released.
* YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive: The average player's luck when going up against a BlackKnight – they have all the skills lore says they should, and are just as dangerous as expected because of it.

* NonPlayerCharacter: The [=NPCs=] in the game are more responsive, almost alive in a sense. When Kirito warns Oscar to be cautious on the rooftop, this enough for him to avoid being severely injured by the demon like in canon. Later on, he befriends Kirito after they tackle the Abyssmal Demon.

* SequenceBreaking: Kirito ends up in part of a raid with Solaire and end up facing off against Nito in Chapter 13. They fail, badly.

* FantasticRacism: The game itself encourages this since a number of NPC only interact with Human players, most being shopkeepers, while Hollowed players are instantly hated by them and can only communicate with each other and will have to steal humanity.

* SenseLossSadness: Being turned Hollow means having to cut off all your sensory inputs tied to touch and taste, making everything taste like ashes and preventing you from having a real 'feeling' of objects. It was disquieting.

* FriendOrIdol: Chapter 10 boiled down to this: Does Kirito save a hollowed player, or does he grab the Twin Humanity and use a Homeward Bone, saving himself. [[spoiler:He saves him and gets it courtesy of a little help from Solaire of Astora.]]

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: A fair number of players develop this mindset, especially when the game is capable of inflicting a death lasting hours before you finally shatter into pixels. At leasy a OneHitKO is painless.

* SchmuckBait: If a valuable item is lying in the middle of nowhere, it's a trap. Case in point, the Twin Humanity in the sewers starting the cutscene for the Gaping Dragon Boss.

* EliteMooks: The Draggers in the Sewers are the first of their kind and have regenerating health and take twice as much damage to put down.

* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: A fair number of players develop this mindset, especially when the game is capable of inflicting a death lasting hours before you finally shatter into pixels.
* ClusterFBomb: Kirito, at the end of Chapter 5, once he realized that [=Kingseeker=] planned to make him and five newbie players take on an 80-player raid boss.

* MaddenIntoMisanthropy: Kayaba, apparently.

* QuestGiver: Various NPC give out quests. Kingseeker, the AI controlling the game, can involve the players by taking their declarations and forging quests from them, such as when Kirito promises to help Silica and her friends get to the Firelink Shrine.

* ClusterFBomb: Kirito, at the end of Chapter 5, once he realized that [=KingSeeker=] planned to make him and five newbie players take on an 80-player raid boss.

* EverythingTryingToKillYou: It's easier to make a list of what isn't trying to kill you.

* ClusterFBomb: Kirito, at the end of Chapter 5, once he realized that KingSeeker planned to make him and five other players take on an 80-player raid boss.

* CrapsackWorld: They're in the Dark Souls world. Let that sink in.

* LanguageBarrier: In Chapter 2, it's revealed that Human Players and Hollowed Players ''literally'' cannot understand one another (or see each others' name). They need an NPC to mediate.

* QuestGiver: Various NPC give out quests. KingSeeker, the AI controlling the game, can involve the players by taking their declarations and forging quests from them, such as when Kirito promises to help Silica and her friends get to the Firelink Shrine.

* VideogameCrueltyPotential: Nothing stopping the players from preying on one another here, nor creating a form of [[FantasticRacism Fantastic Racism]] over the living and dead.

* NonstandardGameOver: In-story example, but if all the bonfires are extinguished, then no player can come back to life. Everyone dies. For reference, a single piece of humanity buys a bonfire a week.

* NonstandardGameOver: In-story example, but if all the bonfires are extinguished, then no player can come back to life. Everyone dies.

* NonPlayerCharacter: The NPCs in the game are more responsive, almost alive in a sense. When Kirito warns Oscar to be cautious on the rooftop, this enough for him to avoid being severely injured by the demon like in canon. Later on, he befriends Kirito after they tackle the Abyssmal Demon.

* YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive: The average player's luck when going up against a Black Knight – they have all the skills lore says they should, and are just as dangerous as expected because of it.

--> '''Kayaba:'''ou hide your true selves behind a facade of politeness. You betray and backstab at the slightest opportunity, and you boast your humanity as if it meant anything, as if 'being human' was your fundamental right, your most cherished point of pride. Well...I have decided it is not. What happens when your life is hanging on the line? What happens when your very soul is the price to pay? I have decided you will be tested, all of you, all fifty thousand players of SAO, and I have decided this because I have the power to do so.

* LanguageBarrier: In Chapter 2, it's revealed that Human Players and Hollowed Players ''literally'' cannot understand one another. They need an NPC to mediate.

* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Being eaten by a dragon alive counts. So does being engulthed by acidic slimes and melting for hours before you die.

* PlayerVersusPlayer: Participants in this rendition of the death game are just as capable of fighting amongst themselves as in canon, with racism springing up between the players possessing Humanity – and thus a human form – verse those currently undead. Even the NPC are getting into it.

* PlayerVersusPlayer: Participants in this rendition of the death game are just as capable of fighting amongst themselves as in canon, with racism springing up between the players possessing Humanity – and thus a human form – verse those currently undead. Even the NPC are getting into it.
* PlayerVersusEnvironment: The game is filled with traps and nasty surprises, from rolling boulders, sudden pit floors and a lack of Fog Doors differentiating Boss areas from the anything else.
* BetterToDieThanBeKilled: A fair number of players develop this mindset, especially when the game is capable of inflicting a death lasting hours before you finally shatter into pixels.
* YouHaveNoChanceToSurvive: The average player's luck when going up against a Black Knight – they have all the skills lore says they should, and are just as dangerous as expected because of it.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Being eaten by a dragon alive counts. So does being engulthed by acidic slimes and melting for hours before you die.
* VideogameCrueltyPotential: Nothing stopping the players from preying on one another here, nor creating a form of [[FantasticRacism Fantastic Racism]] over the living and dead.