Sword Art Online - Episode 16

Here we go again

My first impression of Alfheim Online is that it seems inferior in comparison to Sword Art Online. While SAO focused on risky close quarters combat in which one wrong move meant death with no chance of revival, ALO is essentially a fantasy world filled with fairies doing battle in a no-risk environment. Like Kirito said, in comparison to SAO, a game without a risk of death is a piece of cake. The lack of fear and anxiety in the players also decreases the intensity of each fight drastically. While I do admit that the ability to fly is quite awesome, I still don't think the whole ALO arc will be as entertaining in terms of the setting. That said, just like how Kayaba Akihiko was involved in SAO, Sugō Noboyuki will almost surely make an appearance towards the end of the ALO arc—as a final boss presumably—and I'll definitely look forward to that.

Upon Kirito's realization that he still had his SAO skills, I couldn't help but laugh at how unfair the game will end up being. Out of all the players who could've benefited from a glitch, it just had to be the hero of SAO. In the next couple of episodes, I'm expecting no less from Kirito than utter annihilation of the players in his way. At this rate, ALO shouldn't even take half the episodes as SAO, leaving room for possibly another arc to wrap up the series. However, I do hope that there will be at least some form of challenge for our main protagonist—whether it's difficulty rescuing Asuna or finding even just one person who has the ability to go toe-to-toe with him doesn't really matter to me. On that note, I'd very much like to see Mr. Creeper getting owned at the end.