Video Game / Sword Art Online

Journey through Aincrad, again!

The video game continuity for Sword Art Online which exists as an Alternate Continuity from the original story of the light novels/anime. Published by Bandai Namco Entertainment (the same company that published the .hack games), they feature a third person role-playing gameplay, with the majority of games having Kirito as the Player Character. Fatal Bullet is the first game which offers a customizable player.

The games have been released on an annual basis since 2013 and has spanned the majority of story arcs for the main series, along with some original story lines.

List of games featured

• Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment for the PSP.
• Sword Art Online: Hollow Fragment for the PS Vita and a social network game for Japanese smart phones called Sword Art Online: End World. Hollow Fragment includes an enhanced version of Infinity Moment and was released outside of Japan to Asia with PSN releases in the Americas, Europe and Oceania.
  • Sword Art Online Re: Hollow Fragment is an Updated Re-release for the Playstation 4 and arrived in summer 2015 in Europe and North America. Notably, it features a vastly better translation than the PS Vita version. A PC version was later available early 2018 as a Pre-Order Bonus for Fatal Bullet, and months later, it was sold separately.
• Sword Art Online: Lost Song, Asia-wide release in early-mid 2015, with a European and North American release in November 2015 for the PS Vita and Playstation 4. A PC version was later released in late 2018. Lost Song is a direct sequel to Hollow Fragment and takes place in Alfheim Online.
• Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, released for the PS Vita and Playstation 4 on October 2016 in Japan and November 2016 everywhere else, with a PC release worldwide in October 2017. A Nintendo Switch version was later released in 2019. A sequel to Lost Song, it takes place in a new VRMMO called "Sword Art: Origin" which appears to be eerily similar to Aincrad.
• Accel World VS Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight, a video game crossover with Accel World based in ALO for the PS Vita and Playstation 4 released in Japan during March 2017 and in the west in July 2017.
• Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, a third-person shooter role-playing game released in February 2018 worldwide for Playstation 4, XBOX One, and PC, with a Nintendo Switch version released in 2019. A sequel to Hollow Realization, it takes place in Gun Gale Online and uniquely does not have Kirito as the main character, but a player-created avatar filling the role.
• Sword Art Online: Integral Factor, a free to play MMO for mobile devices. It adapts the Aincrad arc starting from Floor 1 and gradually exploring every floor one-by-one (Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment started at Floor 75). It allows playing as a player-created avatar rather than Kirito. It is set in its own Alternate Continuity from both the canon and the other gameverse timelines.
• Sword Art Online: Alicization Lycoris, released for Playstation 4, XBOX One, and PC in July 2020. Unlike the preceding games, this game was announced as a straight adaptation of the Alicization anime (and by extension, the light novel)... which was completely false, as the game's story diverges massively from the source material in its second half due to the actions of original character Medina Orthinanos.
• Sword Art Online: Last Recollection, released for Playstation 4, Playstation 5, and Xbox Series X & S on October 4, 2023. A sequel to Alicization Lycoris, the game adapts the War of Underworld arc and follows Kirito and company as they battle the forces of the Dark Territory while also working to unmask the story and history of Dorothy, the game's original character.

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Tropes:

• Actor Allusion:
  • In Lost Song, Strea's avatar gets taken over by Black Lotus. Both of them are voiced by Sachika Misawa.
  • In Accel World VS Sword Art Online:
    • Another one for Sachika Misawa, where Strea is able to perfectly imitate Kuroyukihime's voice.
    • Haruyuki had commented how Niko and Silica have similar sounding voices. In fact they do have the same voice, with both of them being voiced by Rina Hidaka. The two of them consider the possibility that they're related, but end up dismissing this and settle for being 'voice related' instead.
  • In the SAO crossover with Persona 5 over both Memory Defrag and Integral Factor has two examples. All of the SAO cast have units where they dress in Persona themed outfits. Asuna is dressed as Haru/Noir, while Yuuki is Futaba/Oracle. This is because both sets of girls share the same voice actresses in Haruka Tomatsu and Aoi Yūki respectively.
  • In the Tales crossover in both Integral Factor and Unleash Blading, Kirito dresses up as Law. A nod to the fact they're voiced by the same person.
• Adaptational Angst Downgrade: As a result of Eugeo and Cardinal surviving their first confrontation against Quinella, Kirito's three volumes worth of Angst Coma is way shorter in Alicization Lycoris.
• Adaptational Badass:
  • Kirito appears to be stronger in the game adaptations than he is in canon.
    • Unlike canon, during his duel with Heathcliff, Kirito fares much better to the point where he isn't pressured into activating a Sword Skill, thereby preventing Heathcliff from shattering his sword. The only reason he doesn't succeed in killing Heathcliff is because the glitches start buzzing in and teleport Heathcliff away just as Kirito stabs him through the chest.
    • He doesn't lose to Yuuki in their duel when he got beaten in canon.^note This is because in the game continuity, he was trapped in VR for longer (3 years as opposed to 2), giving him an extra year of Full Dive to become stronger.
    • In Alfheim Online, Kirito is able to use the Sword Skill "Starburst Stream" having successfully recreated it as an OSS, while in canon he stated this was the one Sword Skill he was struggling to recreate.
  • Lisbeth and Silica were not strong enough to be Assault Team members in canon, being mid-level players at best. But in Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment, they are strong enough to accompany Kirito on the hardest missions and boss fights.
  • 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, she calls it quits, only for Chudelkin to show up and incinerate her out of nowhere. This Quinella? She survived her initial confrontation against the Ruild trio and posthumously orchestrated the Calamity Plant crisis. She's also beefed up following her resurrection, requiring Medina's Batman Gambit to give the Ruild trio and their allies the upper hand.
  • As the head honcho of Laughing Coffin, PoH proves himself as a credible threat, even against Asuna in her Stacia account, but he's already worn out by the time he's fighting a recently awakened Kirito, who was able to pulverize him with some difficulty. This PoH fares much better against the heroes in Last Recollection, even killing the regular accounts of Asuna, Lisbeth, and Silica in their initial confrontation (though they later came back as UW deities) and Kirito needed some help from Dorothy to finish him off.
  • Gabriel's Final Boss creds have bumped up to insane levels in Last Recollection despite not killing any of the UW characters and losing his Vecta account to Kirito sooner: In addition to his "True Gabriel" form, he has two more transformations that prove to be more than a match for the heroes and while Kirito deals the deathblow on him like in canon, it took every hero, every major UW character on both sides, and even every UW deity super account available to bring him down.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Leafa and Sinon debut during Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment which is the Aincrad arc adaptation, even though in canon they don't appear until after SAO got cleared. The explanation given at first was that they got glitched into SAO from outside the game, but as the story advances it is revealed that Leafa didn't get glitched into the game but purposefully used a NerveGear she got from a friend to transfer her character from ALO into SAO in order to reunite with Kirito because she couldn't stand being helpless while his body slowly got weaker in the real world and Sinon was supposedly taking part in a hospital test case to see if MediCuboids (whose technology derives from the NerveGear) could be used for therapy purposes. The glitching in SAO registered several of these NerveGear derivatives as SAO players and "imported" them into the game, including her.
    • Also applied for Integral Factor, albeit with a more basic reason that they just logged onto the game when it launched.
  • Sugou shows up in SAO as Alberich, where he serves as the new Big Bad after Heathcliff's dissapearance on Floor 75. Even though in canon he only showed up after SAO was cleared during the Fairy Dance arc. The explanation given was that he noticed the glitching in SAO as well as Heathcliff's disappearance, and tried to take advantage of both to get more subjects for his mind-control experiments, but ended up trapped in the game with his admin privileges intact.
  • Yuuki has an Early-Bird Cameo as a Post-Final Boss in Hollow Fragment, even though she doesn't appear in canon until much later. Though she does make her proper debut there as a playable character.
  • Alice and Eugeo make their first appearance in DLC for Hollow Realization, which is chronologically set before the Alicization arc.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment explores all 100 Floors of Aincrad, by having the game continue after Heathcliff's defeat on Floor 75. Integral Factor also does the same.
  • Hollow Fragment also explores the new "Hollow Area" as a secret side area in Aincrad. It contains higher-level monsters, as well as many characters from SAO making a return as Hollow Data versions of characters such as Sachi and PoH.
  • Lost Song features a literal ALO expansion, introducing the new realm known as Svartalfheim, a series of floating islands.
  • Fatal Bullet shows Gun Gale Online in much greater detail outside of the Death Gun and the "Bullet of Bullets" Tournament that the anime focused on. A lot more locations and maps, game mechanics, and quests are shown off that the anime glossed over.
  • Memory Defrag shows off the Asuka Empire for the first time outside of Sister's Prayer, along with bosses and monsters available in the game.
• Adaptational Friendship:
  • 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.
• Adaptational Intelligence: Sugou is still a Big Bad Wannabe in Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment but he's significantly smarter than his canon counterpart and has no problems posing as a humble player to avoid suspicion involving Engineered Heroics, in order to carry out his Evil Plan. Kirito and Asuna can still see through the act, but this time the evil plan was carried out competently enough to even had the heroes pretty much on their knees via the use of paralysis before Strea takes away his admin privileges out of nowhere. So credit is in due for being a bit smarter in this continuity.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Dee Eye Ell is a downplayed case of this. While she's still a sadistic Card-Carrying Villain and a racist, she's not above forming an Enemy Mine with the heroes if it means she could get back at Gabriel for backstabbing her.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • Kirito is portrayed as a socially clueless and lovable dork this time around, which is actually Truer to the Text from the original light novels, contrasting his more no-nonsense personality in the anime's Aincrad arc.
  • Sinon's overall attitude in the games is a mix of her in-game and real-life selves.
• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: Kirito and Sinon's Fire-Forged Friendship they had in canon is averted and they become friends straight away. This is due to the awkward situation^note confusing Kirito for a girl and accidentally seeing Sinon in her underwear that led her to be mad at Kirito never happening. Rather than beginning as rivals and slowly coming to trust Kirito like in canon, she is taken under Kirito's wing as his apprentice early on. Although as a Mythology Gag to the anime, Fatal Bullet still did a version of said incident that got Sinon and Kirito off on the wrong foot.
• Adaptational Secrecy Downgrade: 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.
• Adaptational Wimp: Last Recollection downplays this with Gabriel, who is never a pushover by any means but he's not the same Invincible Villain from the light novels. On one hand, he didn't kill Bercouli (since he was too busy pursuing Alice and brainwashed Shasta into fighting him instead), lost his Vecta account sooner (this time to Kirito) during his first fight with the heroes, and when confronted again by them after logging back to UW and taking over the Obsidia Castle, he wasted no time transforming to his "True Gabriel" form instead of fighting them as Subtilizer. On the other hand, he's in much better shape before fighting the heroes and does have two stronger transformations to make up for his lack of credibility as the game's Big Bad.
• A Day in the Limelight: For the games, Sinon gets her own spotlight in the advertising for Fatal Bullet for one good reason... She's always been known as the girl from Gun Gale Online, and Fatal Bullet takes place in Gun Gale Online.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
  • In Hollow Fragment, where the system creates a Hollow copy of PoH, who is just as Ax-Crazy as the real one and nearly succeeds in killing every player. And at the end of the main story, Strea gets corrupted and becomes the last floor boss.
  • Tia in Hollow Realization also goes down this path, carrying out the wishes of her former master, Genesis, bring about Ainground's destruction. She gets better.
  • Lievre in the Fatal Bullet DLC storyline, who is an ArFAsys who seeks to destroy the SBC Glocken by removing the parameters that make it a combat free zone. She holds a Fantastic Racism towards humans and wants the machines to take back what is rightfully theirs. Though it's subverted when it's revealed she's acting under the orders of a human player, Subtilizer.
• A.K.A.-47: Fatal Bullet uses real guns (save for the optic ones, of course), but with redesigned models to make it look space-age, also renames, such as "Prosti" for the Norinco Type 54 and "AMR Breakthrough" for the PTRD-41 (Referencing Team SHINC's use of this anti-tank rifle to "break through" M's starship plate shield in AGGO canon). However, there is a theme naming going on with certain weapons in the game, and a few names reference qualities of the guns they're based on, or even the weapon's actual name; for example, the AKM itself is named the "Robust," a reference to the real-life gun's famous durability.
• All Deaths Final: For Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment, if any of the Assault Team members die then you won't see them for the rest of the game. If Kirito or a canon character dies, then it triggers a game over. This also extends to the major characters introduced to the game continuity.
  • This is enforced with Sachi in the console games. Any time she reappears, it's as an AI copy of her that only exists in that game's setting.
  • Notably averted for Yuuki's canon death. She survives, and is playable in almost every game after her debut.^note She does not appear in Alicization Lycoris at all.
• Alternate Continuity: The video games are this: in their continuity, the Sword Art Online and Alfheim Online VRMMOs both exist at the same time, with ALO having been independently developed and launched at least a year before the events of the game.
  • Sword Art Online: Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment starts off at the end of the original Aincrad arc, with Kirito fighting Heathcliff at the 75th floor boss arena. However, after a glitch makes Heathcliff dissapear, the game continues on to floor 76 and beyond. Leafa and Sinon end up trapped inside Sword Art Online due to apparent glitches that brought them into the game. Kirito makes two new friends in the form of Philia, a woman he met in the newly discovered Hollow Area, and Strea, a girl who mysteriously started following him soon after they arrived to floor 76.
    • Also, this game deals with the 'Fairy Dance' arc by having Sugou debut in Aincrad as well, with him being trapped due to attempting to trap players for his mind-control experiments. After he is defeated, he's publicly revealed for his corruption once everyone goes back to the real world, preventing the events of the Fairy Dance arc entirely.
  • Lost Song is a sequel to Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment and takes place in Alfheim, but with a new plot involving a player named Rain and a guild called Shamrock with its leader Seven and nothing with Sugou because he got caught and imprisoned at the end of Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment. Also Yuuki shows up in an adaptation of Mother's Rosario and doesn't die.
  • Hollow Realization is the sequel afterwards and takes place in an all-new VRMMO called Sword Art: Origin, based off the data from the servers of the original SAO. Sinon's sidestory events also include a retelling of the Phantom Bullet arc complete with Kyouji and XaXa eventually appearing and revealing Sinon's Dark and Troubled Past, as well as teasing the antagonist of the next game. At the end of the game, Kayaba returns as a Virtual Ghost due to the actions of the Cardinal System and gives Kirito the World Seed, allowing for the widespread creation of VROMMOs.
  • Accel World VS Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight is a crossover with Accel World, involving elements set in ALFheim Online, but also involves time travel to and from the future. Accel World characters like Haruyuki and Kuroyukihime also join the adventures of Kirito's gang. Overall this game appears to be in its own continuity separate from the other games, due to lack of continuity involving certain characters. Black Lotus had previously made a guest appearance in Lost Song where she met and fought Kirito, however when the two meet again in this game they show no signs of familiarity with each other. Also in Hollow Realization, both Alice and Eugeo had appeared in lengthy DLC side stories, yet when they appear in this game, Kirito doesn't appear to know either of them.^note Partially justified in Eugeo's case as the implication is this is the Eugeo from the canon timeline as opposed to the gameverse timeline. Though it still doesn't explain why Kirito has no memories of him
  • Fatal Bullet is set in Gun Gale Online, and while it incorporates elements from the Phantom Bullet arc, it diverges heavily from the plot. For starters, all of the SAO crew have converted over to GGO with new avatars suited to the game, including new avatars for Kirito and Sinon that look different to their canon GGO avatars^note their canon avatars do make an appearance in the Death Gun event, where in the game's continuity Kirito and Sinon use them to partake in the BoB. Rather than playing as Kirito^note Kirito himself is playable via an unlockable mode, the game features a custom player character as well as other original characters: Kureha, ArFAsys, Zeliska, and Itsuki, who join Kirito's friends in their adventures.
  • Alicization Lycoris is set in Underworld. Since Subtilizer is too busy trying to engineer a Death Game in GGO, both Eugeo and Cardinal survived their (initial) confrontation with Quinella, Asuna and the other four RW girls (Leafa, Sinon, Lisbeth, and Silica) logged into UW a lot sooner, and Kirito goes into the final days of Underworld with the counsel of Cardinal and both Alice and Eugeo at his side...
  • Last Recollection loosely covers the events of War of the Underworld except this time, 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), 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 a much bigger backup.
• And Your Reward Is Clothes: Quest rewards are accessories that can be equipped for the custom Kirito.
• Anger Born of Worry: The party is understandably upset when Kirito disappears mysteriously in Hollow Fragment. Asuna especially is beside herself with worry while Kirito's gone and is consequently the most upset with him upon his return. In Kirito's defense, he had no say in the matter.
• Anime Theme Song: Each game features one:
  • Crossing Field by LiSA for Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment. (the same one from the first arc of the anime.)
  • Cynthia no Hikari by Eir Aoi for Lost Song.
  • Windia by Luna Haruna for Hollow Realization.
  • SxW - Soul World by Luna Haruna and Kotoko for Accel World vs Sword Art Online: Millenium Twilight.
  • Thrill, Risk, Heartless by LiSA for Fatal Bullet.
  • Scar/let by ReoNa for Alicization Lycoris
• Another Side, Another Story: The majority of Fatal Bullet focuses on the custom Player Character. However you can unlock an achievement which allows access to "Kirito Mode" and play from Kirito's POV.
• Artificial Intelligence:
  • Strea is revealed to be another MHCP and Yui's "sister" of sorts.
  • All of the Hollow Data versions of characters in the Hollow Area of Hollow Fragment are AIs created from player data.
  • Turns out in Hollow Realization that every NPC in Ainground is an AI, though on a far lower level than Yui or Strea, and by killing them, they cease to exist and a new one is generated to take their place. In effect, they're living in a death game just like SAO players.
• Artificial Stupidity: Your party members throughout the games basically require you to take the lead in every battle, as they're insanely incompetent on their own. Hollow Fragment pushes you to babysit some people that venture into the wilds as a result, as they're likely to pick a fight with an enemy that will kill them permanently.
  • Nowhere is this more apparent than Fatal Bullet, given the game's difficulty doesn't mix well with how stupid your partners can be. From lagging behind you in dungeons if you play any faster than a casual jog, to having no strategies for independent foes besides "spam support abilities and not understand what weak points are" and blindly rushing in with photon swords even if it's suicidal to do so. It's entirely possible to see your ArFAsys run into a room you just got downed in, and stand there in the open, getting shot as they wave at your body. In prior titles, party members at least followed your movements a lot more precisely, and were capable of keeping the pace in battle - but in Fatal Bullet, the game being so much more fast-paced, dodge-centric and intense gameplay means your party members are simply not competent enough for surviving. This is particularly more noticeable at 60 frame per second settings.
• Art Shift:
  • The games feature 3D rendering for gameplay while switching to 2D style for most cutscenes. Though there are certain cinematic cutscenes that are still animated in CG.
  • Hollow Realization uses a noticeably different art style to previous games, with different texture and finer feel.
  • Fatal Bullet went and used 3D CG art even for the cutscenes, with the occasional anime style still shot.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Supporting characters like Lisbeth, Silica, Yui, Klein, Yuuki, and especially Argo all get much more focus in this series with many scenes of Kirito interacting personally with them.
    • In Yuuki's case, she wasn't really an official part of Kirito's circle of friends in canon, but here she's a member of the main cast.
  • Even Sugou is given greater focus, as Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment promotes him to Big Bad during SAO.
  • Kirito himself has this in Lost Song for the Mother's Rosario adaptation. In canon he had taken a back seat for this arc and Asuna took over as The Protagonist, but in the games he joins Asuna and Yuuki the whole way through.
• Automatic New Game: The PS4 version of Re: Hollow Fragment skips the title screen and main menu and takes new players straight to the character creation screen. The PC version averts this by providing the main menu from the start, likely to let players adjust graphics settings.
• Auto-Save: In Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment, the game auto-saves only when travelling between maps and trying to enhance weapons at Lisbeth's shop, the latter to prevent Save Scumming.
• Awesome, but Impractical: In Fatal Bullet:
  • Hyper Awareness is a decent skill first used by Kirito which can be unlocked for the player to use upon completion of Kirito Mode. It essentially gives the user a one-hit protection from any sort of hit regardless of the amount of damage, acting as an alternative to the Shield Matrix skill but activating only when the player is hit. The issue is that it has a long 180 second cooldown, which is awfully higher than the rest of the skills available for use in the list, making it a little unreliable for effective use. Although it would be subverted if the Handgun Bullet Arts ability was being used however.
    • Splash Star is a Sword/Sword+Gun skill that has the player charging towards an enemy before thrusting their swords repeatedly at the enemy for some time before ending it with a final, heavier thrust. What made this skill impractical is that the thrusts do not make the enemy flinch, and the user is rooted to the spot for a while (even worse for Splash Star II and onwards, as they make the thrusting last longer), making them a very easy target for other enemies to take them down from a distance.
• The Battle Didn't Count: In Hollow Fragment, the Alevaste boss in the Hollow Area appears early but retreats before Kirito can fully defeat it. This happens twice, and the boss starts off at full health each time. Kirito defeats it the third time.
• Big Good: In Hollow Fragment, Asuna takes over as the new leader of the Knights of the Blood Oath, after Heathcliff disappears.
• Bizarre Taste in Food: Kirito's love for spice is even more emphasized in the game than in the anime. He's eaten excessively hot food with no trouble at all, with many of his unwary friends suffering for due to being unaware of how hot it really is.
• Black-Tie Infiltration: In Hollow Fragment, Kirito and Philia infilitrate a rich guy mansion where a party was taking place. The mission involved them stealing an artifact that was stolen by the rich guy first (making it a recovery mission). Of course, Kirito had a tuxedo prepared to blend into the crowd during their escape, and a dress for Philia too.
• Bladder of Steel: There is no pausing in Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment. Battle skills wear off, and enemies can respawn and attack while Kirito is standing there. Justified because SAO wouldn't have a pause button, either.
• Body Horror: Strea merging with the final boss of SAO in Infinity Moment and it's adaptation, Hollow Fragment, is a particularly chilling sight.
• Bonus Dungeon:
  • Ruins of Fjorm in Lost Song, which also has a Boss Rush segment. There's also a part where the final boss can also be refought at the maximum level of 1000, and with Excalibur as the main drop.
  • And then, Hollow Realization has the Deep Data Domain, and after clearing that, there's the Singularity's "Infinite Dungeon" which has 1000 floors! Though, at least for the latter, there's a checkpoint system that allows you to continue from floor 11 after defeating the floor 10 boss, then floor 21 after finishing floor 20, etc.
  • Accel World VS Sword Art Online has the Mugen Dungeon. The enemies spawning in the dungeon can spawn up to the hard level cap of 2000. And it's also nastily difficult.
  • The base game of Fatal Bullet includes Sea Watchtower and SBC Flugel Stern. Both are only unlockable after clearing the game once and unlocking them on Extreme difficulty. The former is a Boss-Only Level with an exclusive Superboss not fought anywhere else.
  • In addition, Fatal Bullet's DLC packs has at least one introduced with each DLC part: Ambush Of The Imposters has the Forgotten Temple, Betrayal Of The Comrades has Demon Cave, Collapse of Balance has the Lost Gate, and finally, the last DLC pack, Dissonance of the Nexus, has two of these in it's brand-new the White Frontier area: Metrological Institute Ruins and Icicle Prison. Each of them has a Superboss that is by level-wise definitely harder than the Final Boss.
• Breakout Character: Yuuki's Popularity Power allowed her to be Spared by the Adaptation in the game continuity, where she becomes a permanent member of the main cast.
  • For Last Recollection, she gets a unique Goddess account as Gladia.^note For a while, the fans associated her with the unused Moon Goddess Lunaria account. This is notable since only Kirito and those closest to him have one in canon, and it is outright unique to her.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Klein is an even bigger one here than he is in the main series. To correspond with his hopeless romantic behavior being amplified, his friends also treat him with far more annoyance, especially from the girls. He has a long line of humiliating rejections in response to his 'smooth-talker' courting moves.
  • Poor Silica. Here she's constantly assaulted by tentacle monsters, being reminded of her lack of assets, having animal mobs attack her, and nearly damages her clothes. Her first scene in Accel World vs Sword Art Online has her running away from mobs by hiding in a barrel...and then getting stuck and needing help to get out.
• Call-Back:
  • In Lost Song, Yuuki's duel with Kirito at the end of Hollow Fragment as a Post-Final Boss is brought up when the two meet, confirming that this event is canon in the game timeline.
  • In later games, characters like Sinon and Philia recollect Kirito helping them or saving their lives during previous games like Hollow Fragment.
  • In Fatal Bullet, Alice and Eugeo make a return after their appearance in Hollow Realization. Turns out they didn't manage to get back to their own world and instead ended up in GGO.
• Call-Forward: The games often drop a lot of foreshadowing of events to come that light novel readers or anime fans are already aware of.
  • In Hollow Realization, Kyouji/Richter stalking Sinon and being in love with her for her Dark and Troubled Past would resurface in Fatal Bullet. The antagonist is even teased when XaXa uses the Richter avatar to talk with Kirito.
  • In Accel World vs Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight, it's mentioned a few times that Sinon has started playing a shooter VRMMO, which is of course Gun Gale Online.
  • In Accel World vs Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight the Alternate Timeline Eugeo that Kirito meets drops a lot of reveals for the then unaired Alicization arc including the fact they grew up together as Childhood Friends and trained to be Integrity Knights.
• Calling Your Attacks: Unlike the main series, characters will constantly call out the names of their Sword Skills.
• Came Back Strong: The girls in Kirito's party (Asuna, Silica, Lisbeth, Leafa, and Sinon) gained the UW deity super accounts this way in Last Recollection after their regular accounts were slain by either PoH or Vecta's forces.
• Canon Discontinuity:
  • In Hollow Fragment, Leafa and Sinon are brought into SAO through apparent glitch in the systems, which in turn makes the events of the 'Fairy Dance and 'Phantom Bullet' arcs impossible to happen as they did in the original novels. Also since you can meet and fight Yuuki as the Post-Final Boss, the events of 'Mother Rosario' would also end up being very different later.
  • In Lost Song, as a result of Sugou becoming the Big Bad in SAO before being subsequently defeated and arrested, he's completely absent by the time of Alfheim Online. The SAO gang also spend their time exploring the new area known as Svartalfheim rather than journeying to the World Tree like in the Fairy Dance arc. In addition, the Mother's Rosario adaptation is pleasantly different, with Yuuki surviving her fight with AIDS and becomes a permanent member of the cast!
  • Fatal Bullet features a drastically different story line. For one, all of the SAO characters convert over to GGO, while the game's plot is an original story. The Phantom Bullet arc gets adapted as a special side story where Kirito and Sinon's canon outfits are featured as a Mythology Gag.
  • Integral Factor has the biggest changes yet, with Leafa, Yuuki, and Sinon ending up in SAO near the time of launch, while Alice and Eugeo get pulled into SAO rather than a subsequent game.
  • Alicization Lycoris initially seems like it abandoned the entire game continuity to be a more straightforward retelling of the titular arc, some liberties aside for gameplay purposes and original story elements. However, it's actually a Stealth Prequel to Hollow Realization, with things like Eugeo's death being subverted and the entire invasion of the Ocean Turtle by Gabriel's team and the War of the Underworld arc never occurring.
• Canon Foreigner: A lot of characters were made specifically for the games who did not appear in the light novels or the anime including: Strea, Philia, Rain, Seven, Premiere, Kureha, and several others. See the game characters page for more details.
• Casting Gag:
  • In Hollow Realization, Kirito finds a baby dragon as part of a quest campaign and wants to name it Shiro which means white in Japanese, however Alice immediately shoots it down for being too simple of a name. Alice's voice actress played two characters with the word "Shiro" in their name, Mashiro Shiina from The Pet Girl of Sakurasou and Shiro from No Game No Life, with both girls being closely affiliated with a character voiced by Kirito's voice actor.
  • In the Project Alicization arc, Sakura Tange voices Cardinal, who, like Nero Claudius (voiced by the same person), communicates in Antiquated Linguistics, and uses "umu" as a Verbal Tic.
• The Cavalry:
  • In Lost Song, remember that awesome moment in Mother's Rosario where the Sleeping Knights go up against a raid party and Kirito pulls a Big Damn Heroes to Hold the Line? In Lost Song Kirito joins the Sleeping Knights in their raid, while all of their friends (Klein, Lisbeth, Leafa, Silica, Strea, Philia, Sinon, Agil) arrive to keep the raiding party at bay.
  • In Fatal Bullet during the DLC storyline, Lievre starts an invasion on the Glocken and threatens to destroy the devices that are keeping it a combat-free zone. After the boss monsters she summons threaten to overwhelm the heroes, they finally get reinforcements arriving in the form of every GGO character to date: Itsuki, BoB competitors (Dyne, Yamikaze, and Musketeer-X), Squad Jam competitors (Clarence and Shirley), and even Team LPFM (LLENN, Pitohui, Fukaziroh, M).
  • Done beautifully in Last Recollection, where Asuna and the RW girls returned as UW deities and brought Argo, Yui, Yuuki, Agil, Klein, almost all of the main characters from the video game continuity, and even Yuna and Eiji as backup to assist Kirito and his UW allies in fending off Gabriel's summoned monsters.
• Character Exaggeration:
  • The games have a notorious habit of exaggerating Kirito's Accidental Pervert tendencies: his hand is practically a boob magnet, he's walked in or been presented with girls in a state of undress through no fault of his own, and at times he gets put in situations where it looks like he's sexually harassing a girl or cheating on Asuna.
  • Lisbeth's a far bigger troll in the games with her Clingy Jealous Girl traits being played up far more. She's also more inclined to make moves on Kirito whenever even the slightest opportunity presents itself that he and Asuna may be loosening up.
  • Klein's hopeless romantic side gets cranked up and he's made to be far more perverted, while in canon he's a lot more composed and can be badass when he chooses to.
• Character Customization: A staple of most of the console videogames (and Integral Factor):
• Due to the nature of character customization: Kirito can end up legitimately female, though Fatal Bullet sticks to his canon gender.
  • Fatal Bullet and Integral Factor instead has a customizable Player Character, considered an individual character that can be easily self-inserted into. Both have a good amount of appearance details that can be customized.
• Climax Boss: The Duel Boss encounter with Kureha after the completion of the SSB Flugel event. Kureha's Inferiority Superiority Complex and growing jealousy of the Protagonist's skill outpacing her own boils over during the victory celebration thanks in part to some needling from Itsuki, leading her to demand a fight to prove she's the better player. When the Protagonist still manages to defeat her, Kureha leaves the squad, removes the Protagonist from her friends list and demands they not contact her outside the game for awhile so she can focus on becoming stronger by herself. This is followed shortly after by Zeliska and Itsuki both independently announcing that they have to step back from the game for a time as well (though only temporarily and they don't leave the Squad), as well as Kirito and Sinon going away to deal with the Death Gun situation. Dialogue makes it clear all the sudden absences are leaving the Protagonist feeling rather lonely and depressed in the aftermath and marks the moment when the game kick-starts its finale.
• Continuity Nod: Despite being in a separate continuity, the games make a number of nods to the main series.
  • Kirito and Asuna sharing cream topped buns in their first meeting is brought up quite a few times. In Hollow Fragment Asuna manages to recreate the cream and makes it for Kirito and Yui as a surprise. While in Hollow Realizations, Asuna gets a craving for it and sneaks off on a quest for cream so that she can eat some.
  • In Hollow Fragment, Agil still remembers Kirito coldly brushing off his desire to taste the S-Class Ragout Rabbit, so the second time round they get an ingredient Kirito does agree to let Agil have a taste.
  • In Lost Song and Accel World vs Sword Art Online, Alicia Rue and Sakuya once again try to seduce Kirito by each grabbing one of his arms and pretty much wearing him. Some of the dialogue is word-for-word such as Alicia's advertising the perks of working as a mercenary for the Cait-Sith.
  • In Accel World vs Sword Art Online, Sinon still remembers Kirito pulling her tail despite there being no indication of the Caliber arc happening.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • Gun Gale Online existed during the Aincrad Arc. Problem is, GGO was developed from the Seed, which didn't exist until after the destruction of SAO.
  • Ordinal Scale further retcons the video games, by establishing the final boss of SAO is "An Incarnation of Radius" and not the Game Master avatar that Heathcliff used in Episode 1.
  • Integral Factor makes things even more complicated, as both ALfheim Online and Gun Gale Online already existed alongside SAO at the time of launch. Leafa and Yuuki both entered SAO using their ALO avatars just a few days after SAO's launch, while Sinon implies she played GGO beforehand. Also Eugeo and Alice already exist and are teenagers, with Alice already being an Integrity Knight, when in canon they should have yet to even be born for several years.
  • Memory Defrag makes continuity particularly confusing, as the main campaign is exactly the same as the canon story line, while the extra stories integrate video game continuity alongside canon material while treating both as valid. In fact the implication is that the side stories take place inbetween the canon arcs, which leads to a lot of problems when the continuities starts conflicting such as Yuuki's death or lack thereof, Eugeo and Alice meeting everyone much earlier, or the video game exclusive characters like Strea, Rain, Seven .etc. There's also different designs for the same characters, such as the Norse Gods featured in both games.
  • The mere fact that Subtilizer shows up alive and in the (digital) flesh at the end of the Fatal Bullet DLC meant that Alicization Lycoris had to play fast and loose with the story past its initial direct adaptation premise, on top of having to accommodate for why Eugeo can show up in other games by subverting his death altogether.
• Crisis Crossover: Accel World vs Sword Art Online is one of the only games where characters from all over the franchise and Kawahara's other works can all meet up together, all due to the crisis of Persona Vabel invading different time periods and kidnapping Yui.
• Crutch Character:
  • Strea in most games, with her weapon having an exceptionally high DPS and starting at Kirito and Asuna's level.
  • Black Lotus in Accel World vs Sword Art Online. While the Accel World characters in general have strong combat abilities but their lack of consistent survivability, Black Lotus tops it out with high-damaging projectile attacks. Oh, and do we forgot to mention that she is unlocked as early as Episode 2? She isn't as viable for the Bonus Dungeon that is the Mugen Dungeon, though.
• Culturally Sensitive Adaptation: There's one change 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.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • Accel World vs Sword Art Online is this for the video game continuity, headlining with the plot of Yui being kidnapped by Persona Vabel. Followed by the very real threat of Yui dying.
  • Fatal Bullet follows suit, bringing back the 'death game' stakes that were averted after Hollow Fragment, especially the ending where potentially Kureha or Zeliska will die if not all game conditions are met.
  • Alicization Lycoris is even more darker than previous entries. Not only the game itself is Bloodier and Gorier, but the story itself had a far more disturbing themes like torture, child abuse and Come Back Wrong all Played for Horror, with heavy emphasis on examining Underworld twisted reliability on the Taboo Index. Along with several disturbing scenes bordering on Psychological Horror and there's the fact what the game original antagonist, Hesyrian, did to Medina ancestor.
• Depending on the Artist:
  • The physical appearance of Cat Pina varies between the manga and Hollow Fragment.
  • The Norse Gods look very different in Lost Song compared to Memory Defrag.
• Developers' Desired Date: Alicization Lycoris takes the games' dating sim elements almost too far, and it's baffling why the game even has such a feature. Asuna and Kirito are an Official Couple in the franchise, but Lycoris lets you date the other female characters and build up Relationship Values with them, going so far as to let you hold hands and give you an interactive session of laying in bed with them and just gazing at them while you talk. The rewards are customizations and items. Youtuber Austin Eruption sums it up in his second review of the video games as to just how baffling such a feature is:
  Austin Eruption: Your reward for all of this is a bedtime scene where Kirito talks, laying down sideways with whatever lady you desire. I still have no idea why they put in these weird minigames that involves the main character of the franchise actively cheating on his main love interest, and the game makes sure to remind me with a loading screen tip the second after. Like, "Hey, you know what you just did." It's past the point of sleezy sex fanservice at this point, like "Haha, look at the boobs, but also look at us destroy the integrity of our main character." As it turns out, I'm not alone either, as the lead producers of this video game from both Bandai Namco and Aquria didn't want to keep putting them in the game, so uh, I wonder who's fault that is...
• Doppelgänger Gets Same Sentiment:
  • In Hollow Fragment, Kirito encounters a Hollow Data version of Sachi, his deceased first love who he failed to save. Although having suspictions about the authenticity of this enocunter, Kirito is hellbent on fullfilling his role as a protector at all costs so she won't die again. Eventually it is revealed that this version of Sachi was indeed not the real Sachi. The revelation and post remebrance of the tragic events, leaves Kirito distraught and shaken, but also gave him closure.
  • Accel World VS Sword Art Online: Millennium Twilight, due to the time travel shenanigans of the game and the fact the game continuity is an Alternate Timeline to the canon continuity, Kirito ends up meeting a version of Eugeo from another timeline (who is implied to be the canon version). Upon seeing Kirito, Eugeo mistakes him for his Kirito and tries to get him to remember, only to be disappointed that this Kirito has no memories of their time together^note at this point Kirito hadn't met Eugeo yet since the Alicization Arc hadn't happened. However after having a friendly duel with Kirito to test him, Eugeo realizes that while this is a different Kirito, it is still Kirito who fights the exact same way. He then takes up on Kirito's offer to hang out and party with him until he's able to return to his own timeline.
• Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: 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 Played for Laughs.
• The Dreaded: 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 bail the scene in fear.
• Duel Boss: A common staple in games, where usually there is an important storyline boss (and in the first two games, the Post-Final Boss) 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.
• Early-Bird Cameo:
  • 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 Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online had begun airing.
  • Subtilizer makes a surprise appearance in Fatal Bullet DLC, a month before Sword Art Online: Alicization was set to air.
• Engineered Public Confession: 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.
• Evil Knockoff:
  • In Hollow Fragment. Kirito's Hollow Data counterpart is the Final Boss of the optional Hollow Area story arc, and it's just as strong as the real Kirito, effectively making it a Mirror Boss.
  • 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 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 Mythology Gag 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.
• Forgotten First Meeting: 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).
• Fortune Teller: 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.
• "Freaky Friday" Flip: 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.
• Fright Beside Them: 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. 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.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • 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 Player Character 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.
• Garden of Love: 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 both Sachi and Argo.
• Good-Guy Bar: Agil runs one in Arc Sophia in SAO, as well as in Svartalfheim in ALO.
• Grand Romantic Gesture: In Hollow Fragment, as a Call-Back 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)
• Guide Dang It!: Fatal Bullet has a case of Multiple Endings, but it doesn't even attempt to explain how to get the Golden Ending. 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., 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 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 Final Boss in their mouth when they charge a specific attack up, or else you'll get one of the bad endings anyway.
• Hard Mode Perks: 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 inverse also happens if you're playing on Easy difficulty, but only applies to the decreased chance for higher rarity item drops.
• Harem Genre:
  • 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 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.
• Heroic Mime: The Player Character 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.
• Honest Axe: 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.
• Honor Before Reason: In Hollow Fragment, after beating the final boss of the 100th floor, the revelation that 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.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: 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 get the third and last part of their ArFA-sys functions. Can be 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.
• Hotter and Sexier: 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. Averted for Asuna, Lisbeth, and Yuuki.
• Incest Subtext:
  • The game continuity dials back Suguha/Leafa's Big Brother Attraction to Kirito. That doesn't stop Kirito from taking his sister (read: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!!! ( 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.
• Indirect Kiss: 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.
• Intercontinuity Crossover: Memory Defrag during February 2020 had one with Persona 5, especially Royal with the addition of Kasumi.
• Interface Screw: A massive and spoiler-ridden one near the end of Fatal Bullet: Itsuki, now deciding to be the Big Bad 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 Point of No Return for the Golden Ending.
• Interrupted Intimacy: 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.
• Intrigued by Humanity: 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.
• Lethal Chef:
  • 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 sense of taste is far from normal so he had no problem eating it.
• Let's You and Him Fight:
  • Philia and Kirito clash blades after a Crash-Into Hello has her mistaking him for an enemy.
  • Yuuki serves as a Post-Final Boss in Hollow Fragment. Now you can fight the best with the best!
  • Rain is the True Final Boss 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 trump card than Kirito and might very well be the World's Best Warrior of ALO.
  • The Player Character 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.
• Lighter and Softer:
  • 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 on account of being low-level AI.
  • Pretty much the whole video game version continuity is Lighter and Softer as characters like Sugou and Shinkawa have their worst moments Adapted Out, 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.
• Like Brother and Sister: 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.
• Loose Canon: 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 Canon Foreigner 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.
• The Lost Woods:
  • 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 Broken Bridge 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.
• Magikarp Power: The player character and Ar FA-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 Ar FA-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.
• Mirror Boss: The boss of the Hollow Area is Kirito's own Hollow Data AI copy, who is just as strong as the real Kirito.
• Mistaken for Gay: 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.
• Ms. Fanservice: The main girls are all this to some degree, but the biggest one is Strea due to being a Shameless / Innocent Fanservice Girl.
• Multiple Endings:
  • 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 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 Kureha or Zeliska performs a Heroic Sacrifice to save the player character, and a Golden Ending after certain conditions are met to prevent the tragedy from either of the previous two endings from happening.
• Mythology Gag:
  • 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 Attractive Bent-Gender 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 "Kiriko", which was once a 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.
• Named by the Adaptation: The unnamed raid guild that attempt to stop the Sleeping Knights in Mother's Rosario is named Shamarock in Lost Song.
• New Game Plus: 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.
• No Poker Face: 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.
• Oddball in the Series: 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 Player Character as the main character, though it does have a side mode that returns the focus back to Kirito.
• One-Winged Angel: Most NPC villains in the game will have a monstrous battle form which serves as a boss fight.
• Optional Character Scene: 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 Game Over, 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.
• Permanently Missable Content:
  • 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 New Game Plus.
• Point of No Return: In Fatal Bullet: After completing the Mother Claudia quest, it's possible to be locked out of the Golden Ending if the player doesn't meet the affinity requirements for dates on most of the characters. After coming back from a login after a forced log out, the Player Character has to 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 Final Boss, which triggers another PONR, but this time it's Polite: 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 Final Boss. Additionally, The player can rewind the time after defeating the Final Boss instead of starting a New Game Plus in order to achieve the otherwise missed requirements to achieve the Golden Ending, and in fact encouraged since one of the requirements is to finish the game with one of the two regular Bittersweet Endings.^note Unless the player reached level 100 beforehand, which skips the otherwise mandatory requirements for the Golden Ending.
• Post-Final Boss:
  • 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. Winning the duel allows her to be recruited on a New Game Plus.
  • Silver Crow is one in Accel World vs Sword Art Online, where he and Kirito have a duel after the main story campaign ends.
• Relationship Upgrade: Kirito and Asuna are already an established Official Couple 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 Their First Time. Kirito and Asuna 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)
• The Rival: Sumeragi takes Eugene's place as Kirito's main ALO rival.
• Secret Character: In Hollow Fragment you can unlock both 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.
• Secret Level: Also In-Universe, 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. The Hollow Area is also home to AI duplicates of SAO players, including PoH and Sachi.
• Sequel Hook: Several games will tease at the events of the next game through an Early-Bird Cameo of character who is yet to appear.
  • Yuuki shows up as a Post-Final Boss 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.
  • 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 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 We Will Meet Again.
• Sequential Boss: Hollow Fragment has two consecutive bosses near the end of the Hollow Area storyline. Die to either and face Checkpoint Starvation; Kirito must fight both bosses all over again.
• Sherlock Scan: 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 hiding her true power.
• Ship Tease: 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. 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.
• Spared by the Adaptation:
  • 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 Tragic AIDS Story 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 Serial Killer could do it in real life.
  • In Alicization Lycoris, both Eugeo and Cardinal survive the battle against Quinella.
  • In Last Recollection, 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 team up with the heroes to get Revenge on him and Leafa didn't kill her as a result.
• Status Quo Is God: 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 In-Universe 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.
• Story Breadcrumbs: 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.
• Swapped Roles: After the many times Silica has been caught by Naughty Tentacles, Kirito decides to take the initiative to remind her about these traps... only to step on a vine trap himself. 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.
• Team-Up Series: The whole point of the Accel World vs Sword Art Online crossover was to have the Sword Art Online characters teaming up with the Accel World characters.
• The Most Dangerous Video Game: 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.
• Theme Naming: 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..
  • The Krebs Custom KTR-09, in the exact same form that it appeared in Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, 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).
• Title Drop:
  • Hollow Fragment: Near the end of the "Hollow Area" story, Philia thanks Kirito for helping her overcome her Clone Angst: before they met, after having faced her Hollow clone, she felt like little more than a "Hollow Fragment".
  • Lost Song: The most powerful event boss is literally named "Lost Song", and defeating it unlocks Seven, who so happens to also be a singer, as a playable character.
  • Fatal Bullet: The final main quest, if the requirements for the Golden Ending 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 Heroic Sacrifice to take the attack from the GM, then defeat it's One-Winged Angel form, Last Judgement, to escape the death game.^note If the requirements for the Golden Ending are not met, "The Clincher" instead appears as the final quest.
• True Final Boss:
  • Heathcliff shows up as the true boss for Infinity Moment/Hollow Fragment after the defeat of 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 One-Winged Angel form of the Final Boss fought in order to get the Golden Ending, after the certain conditions are met.
• Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: 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.
• Uniqueness Decay: 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.
• Unwanted Harem: 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.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: This is a plot point in the Hollow Realization game, where the NPCs are in reality A.I.s 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.
• What If?:
  • 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 the death game threats on it's real-life players?
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?:
  • 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.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue:
  • Last Recollection ends with one, explaining what has become of the cast, including the Fatal Bullet characters.
• Wolverine Publicity:
  • 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 heavily advertised for Fatal Bullet and even headlines the opening, despite being a side boss and not the main focus of the story.