Sword Art Online is an anime that brought hype onto the anime as well as into the gaming community. It made the isekai genre explode in popularity as well as make many fans wonder what would happen if a game like Sword Art Online was actualized.
As the series progresses, more video games are introduced to us, as it is the basis of the light novel turned multimedia franchise. The most recent to garner attention is the VRMMORPG that was introduced in Sword Art Online: Alicization. While a lot of the video games are entertaining, some were a miss. We are ranking the best in-universe games from best to worst.
6 BEST: PROJECT ALICIZATON
Project Alicization is the best in-universe video game in the Sword Art Online universe. Project Alicization may be a top-secret government project created for suspicious purposes, but everything about it would be an amazing scientific feat if made in the real world. The AIs within the world are the most advanced with different personalities akin to humans, like Alice and Eugeo. There is also no game menu, which makes for a more immersive experience, instead there being a status window called Stacia.
There is something called Secret Art Finishing Moves, or Secret Moves, which is familiar to how Sword Art Online had Sword Skills. However, unlike Sword Skills, Secret Moves are limited to a player's sword and durability. Project Alicization takes components of Sword Art Online and builds a better video game off of them, which is why it is the best. There is no wonder why most fans dive into Sword Art Online again after reading or watching the anime, for the newest VRMMORPG has been the coolest.
5 BEST: ORDINAL SCALE
Unknown to casual watchers of Sword Art Online, Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale was a side story that took place in-between Gun Gale Online and Alicization. This arc was also not written by Reki Kawahara originally but had a light novel adaption after it was released. While the movie was released and Sword Art Online: Alicization was announced afterward, this makes it place odd. However, the video game we were introduced to was quite impressive.
By using a high-advanced augmented reality console called Augma, an alternate to the AmuSphere that was the successor to the NerveGear that caused survivors to be trapped within Sword Art Online, you could enter a game known as Ordinal Scale. Unlike other games, Ordinal Scale was the first ARMMORPG (Augmented Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) and as the name suggested, allowed people to play in real life. Instead of sitting at home, you could actively play together with people anywhere.
4 BEST: ALFHEIM ONLINE
When fans think of Sword Art Online, most do not talk about ALfheim Online, the video game Kirito dived inside to save Asuna. You cannot blame the fans for trying to forget the memories of Asuna being sexually assaulted by the Fairy King, but the game is not to blame at all.
ALfheim Online is probably the safest game Kirito and the others have played. After escaping from the horror that was Sword Art Online, players wanted a game where they could relax and not focus on fighting. ALfheim has players become fairies and use magic as opposed to weapons, albeit Kirito somehow still used swords, and nothing dire ever happened to make anyone have PTSD.
3 WORST: UNITAL RING
We begin the worst in-universe games with what will be the final arc of Sword Art Online, Sword Art Online: Unital Ring. While the Unital Ring Arc shows how much Reki Kawahara has grown over the years as an author and how he stopped depending on the mistreatment of women and undeveloped characters, the game in question is a bit too daring.
Unital Ring was created after every world in The Seed is combined and makes one video game where everyone is level one. Everyone loses their items, equipment, magic, and abilities, but keep their Sword Skills. While the concept of the game is intriguing, based on what happened in the first Sword Art Online game as well as others, it doesn't seem safe to play.
2 WORST: GUN GALE ONLINE
After having Sword Art Online with swords and ALfheim Online with magic and fairies, Gun Gale Online was the next big VRMMORPG in the series. It was developed by an American company named Zaskar, and its main attraction is the multi-player versus tournament that is called the Bullet of Bullets.
It coined as the most popular science fiction VRMMO game in the Sword Art Online universe. Then why is it one of the worst games, you ask? Because of how many things were allowed to happen within the video game. The game allowed in terrorists known as Laughing Coffin and allowed Kirito to use a gun and still be overpowered. In this retrospect, the stats are a bit broken.
1 WORST: SWORD ART ONLINE
The worst in-universe video game in the Sword Art Online universe is the title, Sword Art Online. You may be thinking why this is, but it is a simple fact. Sword Art Online was initially about how millions of people were stuck inside a VRMMORPG and died when they died in the video game. They could neither log out and had to cope with living inside a virtual world for years. 3,853 people died in total, and 6,157 survivors still have PTSD from the horrible experience.
Sword Art Online and the Sword Skills within the game are cool. But that does not excuse Kayaba Akihiko, the development director and man behind all of these deaths, from committing mass murder. From a development standpoint, there are too many flaws in the video game itself to make it a good game.