Hollow Fragment 1
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
Hello folks. Inspired by Omnicron's quite in-depth review of the Final Fantasy series, starting from FF1 through to (as of writing) FF8, I'm giving my own spin on things a go with the Sword Art Online franchise. I'm pretty fond of the concept and general world depicted within Reki Kawahara's light novels, although they do have their flaws, and figured I might as well cover the videogame spinoffs seeing as there's like... six of them?
*checks Wikipedia*
The site informs me there's eight, actually, but 'Accel World vs SAO' and 'Code Register' are non-canon to the videogame timeline and a mobile gacha game, respectively... and thus likely also non-videogame canon. Yeah, I said videogame canon, as this series apparently has an entirely different plotline vs the source material stemming from changes brought about as the first game's plot hook.
@ZerbanDaGreat did an in-depth review of said game, Hollow Fragment, back in 2014 on his PsVita, so there's already a LP of what I'll cover first. Tis also from 2014, vs my Steam PC copy, however, so my screenshots are gonna be improved at the very least. Can't promise anything on the humour front, Zerban probably has me beat there. Now, there's two ways I could give playing the game a go thanks to the game being developed in Unreal Engine, and I'm gonna try them both out - regular monitor adventures on a TV screen, and mimicking the game's core concept with the magic of modern technology.
That's right, I'm gonna try playing in virtual reality, courtesy of my Meta Quest 3 headset. It, uh, probably isn't gonna be forever as this device only has ~2 hours battery life standalone, but it's definitely gonna be attempted. Or so I had planned. Turns out that current VR headsets don't make it easy to take screenshots while playing, and when they do, it's of the game screen alone, not any other vr simulated environment surrounding it. So, uh, scrapping that for a regular monitor playthrough much to my disappointment. I was also noticing the mouse going nuts on the title screen during said VR playthrough, seemingly unsure where to point in regards to my headset and/or controller messing with mouse simulation, which would've been very annoying, very quick, I imagine.
The game begins with Aincrad, showing us the titular floating castle hovering in the sky, the ground below obscured by clouds. I'd actually forgotten, or perhaps never knew, it had those little sections to the sides - thought it was entirely vertical, like a triangle. First thing after pressing start is going into the options menu, so I can fiddle with text display speeds (I'm a fast reader), and overall things seem fairly standard there. VSync, various display filter and graphical options, borderless window mode which I turn on immediately so this LP is easier to type...
No way to change button prompts from standard PC/Xbox though, so as a Playstation controller player this is gonna confuse me a bunch during the playthrough. We'll muddle through somehow.
Interestingly 'New Game' doesn't begin like most adventures, and you start by seeing a flashy 'link start' cutscene for the NerveGear (where the language is set to Japanese for protag-is-Japanese reasons), before we get the option to load old save data from the SAO beta. This is, of course, Kirito's save data, and we can next proceed to customise our virtual avatar. Who's Kirito, because of course the first SAO game isn't gonna let you play as anyone beyond the series protagonist... in which case I do kinda question why they still let us change his looks.
I proceed to fiddle with settings til we have fem!Kirito instead, who I shall henceforth dub Hayate as I'm a fan of Lyrical Nanoha and very vaguely made them resemble the girl. Mainly as accessories are tied to hairstyles, and while there's 39 of them none quite fit. The other customisation options are kinda funny, actually, as height/width is literally just resizing the modal to be bigger/smaller without adjusting proportions. I also couldn't really tell a difference between genders beyond the arms being pinned to her sides or hanging loose, as certainly it didn't affect the bust, limbs or face that much. I also fully expect this to be ignored in cutscenes and we'll see male Kirito doing stuff, instead. During the chargen process I also got PS buttons displayed, as it turns out I had Steam Input disabled.
We start off in the mysterious Hollow Area in December 2024, and I don't recall SAO timeline lore enough to say when that is. A bluette girl is running through a forest, face obscured by a hood, and has a sudden collision with Kirito as she's traversing the area - admittedly he teleported into her path, so there wasn't really any chance of avoiding the guy.
She stumbles back as our protagonist gets his bearings, stunned briefly, and the camera focuses on her little player crystal - those indicator SAO had to show hostility levels and disposition. In this case it's orange, showing her to be a criminal player, having committed some dastardly deed or other and been thus barred from towns and cities. This was generally murder, from memory, as while larceny also triggered it, that tended to fade with time.
Kirito is understandably shocked to find a player killer right before him, and she doesn't even take the chance to explain her situation, instead leaping right into combat. They clash a few times, swords swinging, before with a great plume of smoke something falls from the sky and interrupts their battle. It's a familiar face from the story, a memorable dungeon boss resembling a skeletal... crab? Mantis? Maybe it doesn't fit living animals, but the Skull Reaper is an imposing sight nonetheless. We also get a timeline hint, as Kirito recognises it, placing us past... uh, everything barring the final clash with Heathcliff on floor 75, I think? That happened right after the boss fight, pretty sure.
At which point we should be logged out, so this is sure mysterious.
Kirito confirms we're past the 75th floor fight, mystery girl admits she was trying to flee from it, and doesn't wanna divulge any info to 'the likes of us'. Kirito saves her from an attack, to her surprise, and proposes a teamup to battle the enemy. She's wary and distrustful, asking why he'd trust her not to stab him in the back, and he counters that right now they both wanna live, and anything else can come after. Then we begin the tutorial fight.
The tutorial informs me we need to time our blows to land close to one another, so they're chained and improve damage, and right off the bat I can see the character and enemy models are... basic. But then this is a game which originally released on the PSP, so I wasn't expecting too much. We also have a quick step move which provides temporary invulnerability for a brief window, and is essentially our dodge skill. We can't use it when our burst gauge (orange) is drained, however, otherwise we'd be spamming it everywhere to never die. Presumably.
We also learn about the Risk Gauge, a marker to the right of Burst Gauge, which slows the latter's recovery as it grows higher. We need to switch out with our ally to reset this, and fighting with a high risk gauge leads to increased damage. Not the worst way to implement the 'switch' mechanic SAO had, I guess, even if lore-wise it was the players abusing an AI limitation of sorts (it took a moment to readjust to new targets iirc).
A minute or two of button mashing later the boss dies, and we get a nice portrait vew of our lady companion. Kirito expresses relief this version of the reaper had lower stats, as they'd be dead otherwise, and both confirm it's weird a floor boss is hanging about here. Wherever here is. Kirito tries to reason with the bluette waif, she asks if we really aren't 'one of them', and questions why we aren't more hostile towards her for the orange cursor above her head. She then admits she killed someone, which understandably gives Kirito pause, and tries to take the moment as a chance to flee the area. Kirito stops her, inquiring where the heck they are, and she admits she's also unsure beyond that she found herself here a month back.
She's had to fight to survive, and been too busy for exploration, which isn't too helpful. Kirito muses it must be an anti-crystal area, which prevents teleporting elsewhere via consumable items, kinda like dungeons. This is then proven immediately wrong when Kirito checks, and realises he can use inventory items as per normal. He offers one to the lady, only to get refused, but before she can explain why a mysterious voice echoes about, reporting the 'Hollow Area' data access restrictions have been lifted.
Kirito gains a mark above his hand, the two express general confusion at the situation, and bluette admits recognition towards the pattern - she's seen it elsewhere in this area. They form an uneasy alliance, mainly on her part re: trust, and she tells us her name: Philia. Next up, exploration! And there's a very odd floating orb all but begging for it. We can also see my avatar outside of the busy combat screens, and...
I really don't look much different to Kirito, lol. You can see the background is mostly a single picture, with blurred, low-res textures for the ground we're standing on. Character models are decently rendered, though!
I promptly discover NPC enemies don't stop moving when I was busy trawling through my inventory, checking out the various options in the start menu. Which, well, doesn't pause anything in this game. I've got numerous DLC items for different outfits, boss fights, areas and equipment, a skill tree for leveling various weapon types and learning new attack moves, corrupted versions of Kirito's endgame SAO weapons in his inventory, for some reason access to Sachi's inventory (she's dead! What?) alongside Asuna (married couple, probably an ingame thing) and a guild menu which has lots of graphs and numbers within it.
That confirms the timeline, at least - we're past the 75F Heathcliff reveal, yet still in SAO proper. Odd. We've also got some quests to complete on a checklist, a number of... probably npc guild members to safeguard during boss battles, and an outline of how strong everyone is right now. I'll probably get more context around this later. After I wrap up there we make our way down the hills, heading towards the big orb, and enter a cave system the tutorial helpfully informs me is my first dungeon. It also reiterates I need to work with npc allies to do well, that I should switch often and praise them with 'X' upon doing things together. So I guess there's an affection meter?
Along the way Kirito and Philia get to chatting, and he confirms he has no clue how he got here - one moment he was exploring a dungeon, the next he was teleported here, just like Philia evidently. The glowing hand mark is new, however, and Philia hasn't encountered it before. She suspects it opens the big sphere from before, which she hasn't been able to enter. The mystery voice chimes in again, announcing an aptitude test is set to begin, and we're probably gonna have to fight for it. Kirito's excited, much to Philia's exasperation.
Hollow Missions are the story quests here, I guess? Or optional content? The game tells me I can flee from NM monsters, so presumably we just need to make it to a destination, vs fight everything in our path.
*five minutes later*
Despite the game telling me to be careful and use bonus combat skills to give me an advantage against the NW enemy, I defeat it easily. By button mashing attack, to boot. We get another mystery announcement of having cleared the aptitude test, with both characters pondering what it means, and Philia reveals that she views herself as a treasure hunter. SAO has no job system or titles, so it's entirely a personal occupation thing, but she prefers finding treasure in dungeons vs fighting monsters or exploring. Classic rogue archetype, fitting her using a dagger in combat.
We find a rocky floating cube with a symbol matching Kirito's glowing tattoo, and upon touching it find ourselves teleported into... a weird sci-fi looking place. It's classified as a safe zone, where no enemies spawn and we can't die, and we split up to investigate. I poke the keyboard ahead and learn we're in the Administrative Zone, while Philia investigates a stone plaque and figures out it's a teleport gate. She declines to go through, leaving Kirito to use it by himself, who reassures her that provided the teleport gate exists he can just come back anytime. He wants to explore, as this weird new area has piqued his interest.
We teleport out, but the cutscene remains with Philia. She tries to follow us, cautiously, only to be denied by the mystery system voice from before. She's forbidden for some reason, it seems. Kirito meanwhile has reappeared back in Arc Sophia, a name completely foreign to me but which I presume is the endgame town for SAO as of floor 75. He confirms he can return to the Hollow Area, having poked his teleport settings, and ponders the situation around Philia - she doesn't seem like someone who'd kill people.
And then we get Leafa out of nowhere. What? You shouldn't be in SAO at all, so what the heck's going on? And in her Alfheim Online outfit too, or something close to it. She's even got the pointy elf ears. Silica shows up too, close behind her, and explains Kirito completely vanished from their location display; the friend's list allows you to see where other players are in a general sense iirc. Kirito reassures that he isn't dead, the Monument of Life on 1F would've shown it, then... mentions they can't check it anymore? In the sense it was destroyed? Or they can't go back there? Dunno.
Asuna also arrives, flustered, and we learn Kirito has vanished for an entire day. And then Yui shows up and pouts at us, being... a full-size girl? Wait no, that's normal for SAO, but not at this point of the timeline. She should be data in Kirito's headset, not walking about the place right now. He gets a scolding from the girl, apologises to Asuna, and heads back to the inn they're staying at. At which point we find Lisbeth, of course, as it seems everyone's showing up right now. Who next, Sinon?
I was joking, game!
This is horribly confusing. Two of the characters shouldn't even feature in this death game arc, and yet they're hanging about nonetheless. After they berate him for vanishing, like the others, we learn Sinon and Leafa somehow got teleported into another world... presumably VR world, as we've had no indications this is an isekai so far. Yui confirms hidden areas in Aincrad exist, but are sealed off from players, before mentioning Cardinal is unstable and it might be from a bug.
Kirito reveals he met Philia there, and they all start glaring at him. It's a bit funny, as he didn't even reveal their gender before the frowns came out. Once the scene wraps up, we get a prompt to 'think back on what happend in Aincrad', and presumably find out what's causing all this weirdness in truth. From memory, and a brief check of Wikipedia, Hollow Fragment is technically the second game in the videogame series - an expansion pack to the original title, Infinity Moment, with its own story and new areas. So, uh, most likely they just dumped you in the new content from the start without context for what caused everyone to show up. Time to find out why I'm so confused.
We're back on floor 75, right when Kirito has his final duel with Heathcliff. They begin sparring, fighting one another for survival, and strange glitches start affecting the area. Giant glowing rifts tear through the world, before vanishing moments later, and Heathcliff finds his weapons and body glitching and fuzzing. It provides an opening for Kirito to stab, directly into his chest, only for the man to vanish just as his sword is about to impact. The battle seemingly over, Asuna runs over to hug him, relieved her boyfriend still lives, and we learn Heathcliff is nowhere to be seen. The other guild raiders congratulate him, assuming the game has been cleared, and start celebrating and musing on what they'll do now the death game is over.
SAO blatantly refuses to log them out, however.
Agil runs up and reveals the door to the 76th floor is now open, to my surprise; wasn't expecting him in the raiding party. The group head upwards for lack of other options and we get a summary of the SAO plot up to this point, with screenshots from the anime adaption if my eyes don't decieve me. Upon entering 76F everyone notices their equipment items are all glitchy, while their skills have just outright bugged out and reset to zero, or nearabouts. Level remains the same, but teleport crystals prevent you going below the current floor, and after some brief hesitation the group resolves to push onwards and clear all the way to 100F. Not like they've got anything else to do, if beating Heathcliff didn't free them.
We learn converting the messed-up name items spawned Yui back into SAO... somehow. Lisbeth and Silica show up on 76F for a visit, only to be unable to return, so it seems getting there works as per normal at least. Leafa is encountered in a forest much to the confusion of both Kirito and Asuna, in her ALO avatar, and resolves to join the battles towards 100F, fighting alongside her brother. Sinon literally drops from the sky, falling from a glitchy portal in midair, and Kirito catches her with a sliding tackle into his arms. She has no memories of how she got here, her name at all beyond 'Sinon', and has to be taught how to use the SAO menu. Kirito remarks that after all this, the Hollow Area stuff I've covered happened, and we get an anime opening song to kickstart the game proper.
If it feels summary-ish, well, the cutscenes were super short for why X arrived on 76F. It, uh, doesn't get much explanation for the latter two. I confess seeing the entire cast (barring Alicisation characters) here so early is quite unexpected, and while I don't mind havingbest-girl Sinon running about I also didn't expect to see her til the GGO game.
We pick back up in Agil's inn, where Klein reveals that he can use the teleport gate to the Hollow Area as well, and decides to go have a quick look. Cautiously, once Kirito reminds him about the skull reaper boss he fought there. Agil prompts our protag to spend time with Asuna today, as he worried her vanishing like that, and Klein comes running back in to report he couldn't teleport after all. Investigation reveals Kirito has to be the one to initiate teleportation and he can only bring a single buddy with him, for some reason, and Klein extracts a promise to take him later so he can get treasure and XP. We finally get control of the player once more, and thus a chance to explore the town and wider world... but I've written 18k and so feel it's a decent stopping point.
*checks Wikipedia*
The site informs me there's eight, actually, but 'Accel World vs SAO' and 'Code Register' are non-canon to the videogame timeline and a mobile gacha game, respectively... and thus likely also non-videogame canon. Yeah, I said videogame canon, as this series apparently has an entirely different plotline vs the source material stemming from changes brought about as the first game's plot hook.
@ZerbanDaGreat did an in-depth review of said game, Hollow Fragment, back in 2014 on his PsVita, so there's already a LP of what I'll cover first. Tis also from 2014, vs my Steam PC copy, however, so my screenshots are gonna be improved at the very least. Can't promise anything on the humour front, Zerban probably has me beat there. Now, there's two ways I could give playing the game a go thanks to the game being developed in Unreal Engine, and I'm gonna try them both out - regular monitor adventures on a TV screen, and mimicking the game's core concept with the magic of modern technology.
The game begins with Aincrad, showing us the titular floating castle hovering in the sky, the ground below obscured by clouds. I'd actually forgotten, or perhaps never knew, it had those little sections to the sides - thought it was entirely vertical, like a triangle. First thing after pressing start is going into the options menu, so I can fiddle with text display speeds (I'm a fast reader), and overall things seem fairly standard there. VSync, various display filter and graphical options, borderless window mode which I turn on immediately so this LP is easier to type...
No way to change button prompts from standard PC/Xbox though, so as a Playstation controller player this is gonna confuse me a bunch during the playthrough. We'll muddle through somehow.
Interestingly 'New Game' doesn't begin like most adventures, and you start by seeing a flashy 'link start' cutscene for the NerveGear (where the language is set to Japanese for protag-is-Japanese reasons), before we get the option to load old save data from the SAO beta. This is, of course, Kirito's save data, and we can next proceed to customise our virtual avatar. Who's Kirito, because of course the first SAO game isn't gonna let you play as anyone beyond the series protagonist... in which case I do kinda question why they still let us change his looks.
I proceed to fiddle with settings til we have fem!Kirito instead, who I shall henceforth dub Hayate as I'm a fan of Lyrical Nanoha and very vaguely made them resemble the girl. Mainly as accessories are tied to hairstyles, and while there's 39 of them none quite fit. The other customisation options are kinda funny, actually, as height/width is literally just resizing the modal to be bigger/smaller without adjusting proportions. I also couldn't really tell a difference between genders beyond the arms being pinned to her sides or hanging loose, as certainly it didn't affect the bust, limbs or face that much. I also fully expect this to be ignored in cutscenes and we'll see male Kirito doing stuff, instead. During the chargen process I also got PS buttons displayed, as it turns out I had Steam Input disabled.
We start off in the mysterious Hollow Area in December 2024, and I don't recall SAO timeline lore enough to say when that is. A bluette girl is running through a forest, face obscured by a hood, and has a sudden collision with Kirito as she's traversing the area - admittedly he teleported into her path, so there wasn't really any chance of avoiding the guy.
She stumbles back as our protagonist gets his bearings, stunned briefly, and the camera focuses on her little player crystal - those indicator SAO had to show hostility levels and disposition. In this case it's orange, showing her to be a criminal player, having committed some dastardly deed or other and been thus barred from towns and cities. This was generally murder, from memory, as while larceny also triggered it, that tended to fade with time.
Kirito is understandably shocked to find a player killer right before him, and she doesn't even take the chance to explain her situation, instead leaping right into combat. They clash a few times, swords swinging, before with a great plume of smoke something falls from the sky and interrupts their battle. It's a familiar face from the story, a memorable dungeon boss resembling a skeletal... crab? Mantis? Maybe it doesn't fit living animals, but the Skull Reaper is an imposing sight nonetheless. We also get a timeline hint, as Kirito recognises it, placing us past... uh, everything barring the final clash with Heathcliff on floor 75, I think? That happened right after the boss fight, pretty sure.
At which point we should be logged out, so this is sure mysterious.
Kirito confirms we're past the 75th floor fight, mystery girl admits she was trying to flee from it, and doesn't wanna divulge any info to 'the likes of us'. Kirito saves her from an attack, to her surprise, and proposes a teamup to battle the enemy. She's wary and distrustful, asking why he'd trust her not to stab him in the back, and he counters that right now they both wanna live, and anything else can come after. Then we begin the tutorial fight.
The tutorial informs me we need to time our blows to land close to one another, so they're chained and improve damage, and right off the bat I can see the character and enemy models are... basic. But then this is a game which originally released on the PSP, so I wasn't expecting too much. We also have a quick step move which provides temporary invulnerability for a brief window, and is essentially our dodge skill. We can't use it when our burst gauge (orange) is drained, however, otherwise we'd be spamming it everywhere to never die. Presumably.
We also learn about the Risk Gauge, a marker to the right of Burst Gauge, which slows the latter's recovery as it grows higher. We need to switch out with our ally to reset this, and fighting with a high risk gauge leads to increased damage. Not the worst way to implement the 'switch' mechanic SAO had, I guess, even if lore-wise it was the players abusing an AI limitation of sorts (it took a moment to readjust to new targets iirc).
A minute or two of button mashing later the boss dies, and we get a nice portrait vew of our lady companion. Kirito expresses relief this version of the reaper had lower stats, as they'd be dead otherwise, and both confirm it's weird a floor boss is hanging about here. Wherever here is. Kirito tries to reason with the bluette waif, she asks if we really aren't 'one of them', and questions why we aren't more hostile towards her for the orange cursor above her head. She then admits she killed someone, which understandably gives Kirito pause, and tries to take the moment as a chance to flee the area. Kirito stops her, inquiring where the heck they are, and she admits she's also unsure beyond that she found herself here a month back.
She's had to fight to survive, and been too busy for exploration, which isn't too helpful. Kirito muses it must be an anti-crystal area, which prevents teleporting elsewhere via consumable items, kinda like dungeons. This is then proven immediately wrong when Kirito checks, and realises he can use inventory items as per normal. He offers one to the lady, only to get refused, but before she can explain why a mysterious voice echoes about, reporting the 'Hollow Area' data access restrictions have been lifted.
Kirito gains a mark above his hand, the two express general confusion at the situation, and bluette admits recognition towards the pattern - she's seen it elsewhere in this area. They form an uneasy alliance, mainly on her part re: trust, and she tells us her name: Philia. Next up, exploration! And there's a very odd floating orb all but begging for it. We can also see my avatar outside of the busy combat screens, and...
I really don't look much different to Kirito, lol. You can see the background is mostly a single picture, with blurred, low-res textures for the ground we're standing on. Character models are decently rendered, though!
I promptly discover NPC enemies don't stop moving when I was busy trawling through my inventory, checking out the various options in the start menu. Which, well, doesn't pause anything in this game. I've got numerous DLC items for different outfits, boss fights, areas and equipment, a skill tree for leveling various weapon types and learning new attack moves, corrupted versions of Kirito's endgame SAO weapons in his inventory, for some reason access to Sachi's inventory (she's dead! What?) alongside Asuna (married couple, probably an ingame thing) and a guild menu which has lots of graphs and numbers within it.
That confirms the timeline, at least - we're past the 75F Heathcliff reveal, yet still in SAO proper. Odd. We've also got some quests to complete on a checklist, a number of... probably npc guild members to safeguard during boss battles, and an outline of how strong everyone is right now. I'll probably get more context around this later. After I wrap up there we make our way down the hills, heading towards the big orb, and enter a cave system the tutorial helpfully informs me is my first dungeon. It also reiterates I need to work with npc allies to do well, that I should switch often and praise them with 'X' upon doing things together. So I guess there's an affection meter?
Along the way Kirito and Philia get to chatting, and he confirms he has no clue how he got here - one moment he was exploring a dungeon, the next he was teleported here, just like Philia evidently. The glowing hand mark is new, however, and Philia hasn't encountered it before. She suspects it opens the big sphere from before, which she hasn't been able to enter. The mystery voice chimes in again, announcing an aptitude test is set to begin, and we're probably gonna have to fight for it. Kirito's excited, much to Philia's exasperation.
Hollow Missions are the story quests here, I guess? Or optional content? The game tells me I can flee from NM monsters, so presumably we just need to make it to a destination, vs fight everything in our path.
*five minutes later*
Despite the game telling me to be careful and use bonus combat skills to give me an advantage against the NW enemy, I defeat it easily. By button mashing attack, to boot. We get another mystery announcement of having cleared the aptitude test, with both characters pondering what it means, and Philia reveals that she views herself as a treasure hunter. SAO has no job system or titles, so it's entirely a personal occupation thing, but she prefers finding treasure in dungeons vs fighting monsters or exploring. Classic rogue archetype, fitting her using a dagger in combat.
We find a rocky floating cube with a symbol matching Kirito's glowing tattoo, and upon touching it find ourselves teleported into... a weird sci-fi looking place. It's classified as a safe zone, where no enemies spawn and we can't die, and we split up to investigate. I poke the keyboard ahead and learn we're in the Administrative Zone, while Philia investigates a stone plaque and figures out it's a teleport gate. She declines to go through, leaving Kirito to use it by himself, who reassures her that provided the teleport gate exists he can just come back anytime. He wants to explore, as this weird new area has piqued his interest.
We teleport out, but the cutscene remains with Philia. She tries to follow us, cautiously, only to be denied by the mystery system voice from before. She's forbidden for some reason, it seems. Kirito meanwhile has reappeared back in Arc Sophia, a name completely foreign to me but which I presume is the endgame town for SAO as of floor 75. He confirms he can return to the Hollow Area, having poked his teleport settings, and ponders the situation around Philia - she doesn't seem like someone who'd kill people.
And then we get Leafa out of nowhere. What? You shouldn't be in SAO at all, so what the heck's going on? And in her Alfheim Online outfit too, or something close to it. She's even got the pointy elf ears. Silica shows up too, close behind her, and explains Kirito completely vanished from their location display; the friend's list allows you to see where other players are in a general sense iirc. Kirito reassures that he isn't dead, the Monument of Life on 1F would've shown it, then... mentions they can't check it anymore? In the sense it was destroyed? Or they can't go back there? Dunno.
Asuna also arrives, flustered, and we learn Kirito has vanished for an entire day. And then Yui shows up and pouts at us, being... a full-size girl? Wait no, that's normal for SAO, but not at this point of the timeline. She should be data in Kirito's headset, not walking about the place right now. He gets a scolding from the girl, apologises to Asuna, and heads back to the inn they're staying at. At which point we find Lisbeth, of course, as it seems everyone's showing up right now. Who next, Sinon?
I was joking, game!
This is horribly confusing. Two of the characters shouldn't even feature in this death game arc, and yet they're hanging about nonetheless. After they berate him for vanishing, like the others, we learn Sinon and Leafa somehow got teleported into another world... presumably VR world, as we've had no indications this is an isekai so far. Yui confirms hidden areas in Aincrad exist, but are sealed off from players, before mentioning Cardinal is unstable and it might be from a bug.
Kirito reveals he met Philia there, and they all start glaring at him. It's a bit funny, as he didn't even reveal their gender before the frowns came out. Once the scene wraps up, we get a prompt to 'think back on what happend in Aincrad', and presumably find out what's causing all this weirdness in truth. From memory, and a brief check of Wikipedia, Hollow Fragment is technically the second game in the videogame series - an expansion pack to the original title, Infinity Moment, with its own story and new areas. So, uh, most likely they just dumped you in the new content from the start without context for what caused everyone to show up. Time to find out why I'm so confused.
We're back on floor 75, right when Kirito has his final duel with Heathcliff. They begin sparring, fighting one another for survival, and strange glitches start affecting the area. Giant glowing rifts tear through the world, before vanishing moments later, and Heathcliff finds his weapons and body glitching and fuzzing. It provides an opening for Kirito to stab, directly into his chest, only for the man to vanish just as his sword is about to impact. The battle seemingly over, Asuna runs over to hug him, relieved her boyfriend still lives, and we learn Heathcliff is nowhere to be seen. The other guild raiders congratulate him, assuming the game has been cleared, and start celebrating and musing on what they'll do now the death game is over.
SAO blatantly refuses to log them out, however.
Agil runs up and reveals the door to the 76th floor is now open, to my surprise; wasn't expecting him in the raiding party. The group head upwards for lack of other options and we get a summary of the SAO plot up to this point, with screenshots from the anime adaption if my eyes don't decieve me. Upon entering 76F everyone notices their equipment items are all glitchy, while their skills have just outright bugged out and reset to zero, or nearabouts. Level remains the same, but teleport crystals prevent you going below the current floor, and after some brief hesitation the group resolves to push onwards and clear all the way to 100F. Not like they've got anything else to do, if beating Heathcliff didn't free them.
We learn converting the messed-up name items spawned Yui back into SAO... somehow. Lisbeth and Silica show up on 76F for a visit, only to be unable to return, so it seems getting there works as per normal at least. Leafa is encountered in a forest much to the confusion of both Kirito and Asuna, in her ALO avatar, and resolves to join the battles towards 100F, fighting alongside her brother. Sinon literally drops from the sky, falling from a glitchy portal in midair, and Kirito catches her with a sliding tackle into his arms. She has no memories of how she got here, her name at all beyond 'Sinon', and has to be taught how to use the SAO menu. Kirito remarks that after all this, the Hollow Area stuff I've covered happened, and we get an anime opening song to kickstart the game proper.
If it feels summary-ish, well, the cutscenes were super short for why X arrived on 76F. It, uh, doesn't get much explanation for the latter two. I confess seeing the entire cast (barring Alicisation characters) here so early is quite unexpected, and while I don't mind having
We pick back up in Agil's inn, where Klein reveals that he can use the teleport gate to the Hollow Area as well, and decides to go have a quick look. Cautiously, once Kirito reminds him about the skull reaper boss he fought there. Agil prompts our protag to spend time with Asuna today, as he worried her vanishing like that, and Klein comes running back in to report he couldn't teleport after all. Investigation reveals Kirito has to be the one to initiate teleportation and he can only bring a single buddy with him, for some reason, and Klein extracts a promise to take him later so he can get treasure and XP. We finally get control of the player once more, and thus a chance to explore the town and wider world... but I've written 18k and so feel it's a decent stopping point.
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