On March 22, Bandai Namco and Dengeki held a stream for Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris revealing the game’s second story trailer, new characters, around 20 minutes of new gameplay, and many new story details. Singer ReoNa and Game Producer Yousuke Futami were on stream and both played the game.
The gameplay featured a party with Kirito, Alice, Fanatio, and Solterina senpai aka best girl of the Alicization arc. This is the first time we’re seeing her in action.
We first saw ReoNa playing the game and exploring Rulid Village. We saw the various shops in the village, including those selling ingredients for the cooking system that lets you make stats buffing meals. There’s even an NPC that tells you the weather forecast for the region.
Producer Futami also explained the game’s world map and its various icons. Most of it is self-explanatory as certain icons are in English. You can show a small version of the map on the screen at all times too, which is incredibly useful.
After that, Producer Futami explained the story trailer, seeing it’s full of one-liners that don’t tell us that much, and introduced the new characters shown in it, revealing their profiles.
As a reminder, SAOAL first follows the story of the first part of the Alicization arc: Kirito and Eugeo going to sword school, etc, and it goes up to episode 24 of the anime. After that, the game splits from the story and goes with its own original story in its second part. In this stream, we learned mode details on that second part.
Renly and Scheta both end up joining the party in the second part of Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris and are among the new characters revealed in the trailer. Renly, just like in the anime and novel, uses the Twin Edged Wings. In the game, Twin Edged Wings are both his Sacred Object and a specific type of weapon that only Renly can equip.
Producer Futami also chatted about Medina a bit, and mentioned “she’s 90% made of Tsun”. He also explained how she initially hates Kirito for killing the Administrator since she wanted to become an Integrity knight to restore her family’s honor.
We then got introduced to Hashilian, another new original character in Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris. He seems to be the main villain. He has mysterious goals and plans to revive the Administrator. He claims that only Medina has the power to do so, calling Medina the savior. Hashilian is voiced by Jun Fukuyama. Medina ends up listening to him and gets manipulated by him, without paying attention to Kirito and co’s pleas.
Next, we have three more brand new characters appearing in Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris. First, there’s Kayorde Norlangarth. She’s the empress of the Norlangarth North Empire. Producer Futami didn’t reveal whether she’ll end up becoming an enemy or an ally.
Next, we have giants. They constantly seek power and fight in order to prove their existence. Kirito and co will end up fighting them for some reason.
Lastly, we have the Dark Knight. Nothing is known about them, they might be a ghost from the past, or an invader from the Dark Territory. Producer Futami said they’ll reveal more on the Dark Knight later.
Note that the official localizations for the new characters’ names will probably be spelled differently than in my own translations above.
Following that, Producer Futami explained the Sacred Arts system of Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris. There are 8 different elements:
- Thermal: Frontal offensive magic.
- Cryogenic: Frontal offensive magic and AoE magic centered around the character. It can also freeze and stop enemies.
- Aqueous: Offensive magic, buff magic.
- Aerial: Buff magic that increases movement speed.
- Metallic: Physical defense buff magic. It can also create footholds.
- Crystalline: Offensive magic. Counter magic that repels and sends back enemies’ attacks.
- Luminous: Healing magic.
- Umbral: Debuff magic.
You spend SP to use Sacred Arts, and you can upgrade each element to unlock new Arts. The Sacred Arts elements are the same as in the novel and anime, and I imagine anyone who read this article this far already knows this stuff.
Next, we learned how Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris lets you go on dates with other characters, hold hands with them and princess carry them. You can do all that with any playable character. Theses features are returning from past SAO games just like the bed scenes.
Players in Japan who register to the Beater’s Café will also get this bonus costume for Medina. It’s unclear for now how we’ll be able to get this costume outside Japan.
Lastly, we got some details on the Dengeki Online shop only limited editions of Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris. There’s the Underworld Edition, which includes acrylic key holders of Kirito, Asuna, Alice, and Eugeo drawn by Abec/Bunbun. And there’s the Asuna and Alice edition, which includes a 140 x 210 cm sheet of Asuna and Alice in underwear drawn by Yumiko Yamamoto. She’s one of the anime’s character designers. We don’t know yet if these goods will be available outside Japan in some way.
【SAOアリリコ】
『SAOアリリコ』3月の最新情報生配信は終了いたしました。
ご視聴いただき誠にありがとうございました！#SAO #sao_game #SAOAL #アリリコ pic.twitter.com/rlPE9fBXIP— ソードアート・オンライン ゲーム公式情報 (@sao_gameinfo) March 22, 2020
The usual end of stream photo, with Dengeki’s journalist, Producer Yousuke Futami, and ReoNa.
The stream is embedded below. Here are the timestamps for the gameplay. Note that as usual, the game is in debug mode, so the party members don’t die even when they reach 0 HP.
- 12:00-19:45 ReoNa playing and exploring Rulid village
- 21:46-31:20 Producer Yousuke Futami fighting against a giant crab, showing Solterina and Fanatio’s Finish Arts at 23:54 and 31:00.
Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris will launch on May 21 in Japan and May 22 worldwide, on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. If you wish to support us, you can preorder it via Amazon.
The post Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris Gets New Characters, Story Details by Iyane Agossah appeared first on DualShockers.