Thread by @gamerturk95

#SwordArtOnline #IntegralFactor F75 review thread.
Short: Good floor, a bit too formulaic at this point, thus drawn out. Unital Ring inclusions and teases are intriguing.
Long: Continue reading thread (Minor UR knowledge ahead)
#SAOIF #SAOIF4周年

Let's start with "the bad" this time. The floor stories have been getting too formulaic at this point.
Meet NPC -> Learn Plot -> NPC is actually a Key NPC -> Convince them -> Clear Floor

The story gets further bloated by that each floor is a borderline clean slate with new lore to establish. Lore & Worldbuilding is great. But it's a problem when it's 90% lore dialogue, 7% actual story, 3% gameplay. I do believe it will get better in the future based on some hints

The reason why I believe that to be the case is, for future "Floors" (purposefully in quotes 😏), we seem to be getting a nice overarching narrative, with less need of setting up a new stage every single time, with more time for actual story.

One of those teases was the Life Harvester from Unital Ring. What a let down... Became a random raid event enemy, no illustration, no model, we didn't even get to fight it. We already have a beautiful depiction of it already, you could at least let us fight it in the story!

I also did not like it being a random field boss. This thing is a jacked up Skull Reaper. Would be amazing if it was Cardinal's attempt to remove Heathcliff after we defeat Skull Reaper, as it enhances SR to become Life Harvester as a true final boss!

That would have been a much better use of F75 ending, rather than a lazy re-enactment of the canon. You are already going completely off canon, why not use it to your advantage? I guess the power of Anime Piss Eyes is too strong to omit... It just didn't benefit at all...

Also, for the love of god, give custom NPC that are vital to your story at least placeholder sprites. It also won't cost a game of this calibre anything to have 2-3 additional custom sprites per floor. Heck, hire @jengkayart or @kiriash_ who have done great work for my videos!

I would complain about their consistently vague and useless teasers with Lueueueueueur and the mystery quartet, but I guess with the next content drop, they will start becoming relevant, so I won't do it this time.

Heathcliff in handcuffs in Black Iron Palace was a great moment. Kind of a shame we knew it was happening since 4 years ago, when they showed it already in their reveal trailer.
Though I expected it would be players and not Cardinal who would do it, so I appreciate the twist.

As you can see, we are transitioning from complaints to praises. The teaser trailer at the end of the Floor 75 story is great, really gets me hyped for the story ahead! #SAOIF #IntegralFactor

And on that note, while I don't have a lot of positives to say about the Floor itself due to the repetition, I am incredibly excited for the future. Other Seed games exist (Cardinal probably did it autonomously in IFverse) and Life Harvester is a massive hint to Unital Ring.

We can see changes to Aincrad too in the teaser trailer (as well as the new splash screen), so Cardinal System is basically taking the reigns at this point, unlike what happens in Hollow Fragment. I think that's also a good path to pursue.

And in the short scene in Asuka Empire, there are 2 key things. First is a small reference to Merida from Sisters' Prayer side story. "Red Bean Porridge" from a "bright green ninja lady" is quite the explicit reference.

More importantly, Seijuro appears to be Kikuoka Seijirou. The other person is uncomfortable calling him "Seijuro" because it's so close to his real name. The EN localization doesn't convey the same idea, as she mutters "Sei-" before saying "Seijuro" but that's likely a (cont)

different matter in Japanese, where she was going with "Kikuoka-san" but switches to "Seijuro-san" instead and mentioning it's weird to use a name so close to his real first name, as they are not on a first name basis in real world.

They even talk about how they are supposed to ignore their authority and just act like normal average players, how the issue with GGO was that it was an "overseas game" making it unfavorable as JP officials. Miss "Natsu"? Nurse Aki Natsuki of course! Thanks a lot @Sleepy_IBH 😉

And well, if Kikuoka is teased here, he'll somehow end up in the story. With Cardinal going rogue and other Seed Games existing and Unital Ring references are creeping more and more, we have an exciting future ahead for "Aincrad" or perhaps something even more! #SAOIF