SAO, But the Writing Isn't Garbage - SAO Alternative: GGO 

When you said SAO's villain had no motive, I literally had an instinct to jump in and go "No, he-" and then tell you SAO *ABRIDGED'S* villain's motive. Guess that says more about SAO Abridged than anything else

unfair advantage. She has a smaller hit box. Game 1/10

As a 175cm woman I can say that I identify with the protagonist of GGO Alternative. Still waiting for the Isekai Truck to hit me and make me reborn as a pint-sized moe ball in a fantasy world.

SAO had a lot of potential. Too bad they condensed 2 years of story into like 15 episodes, and then Deus ex machina'd the ending.

If SAO was in a harem anime, Geoff would be the tsundere.

The main character is clearly cheating. Anyone who played Goldeneye knows how much of an advantage picking a short character gives you.

"Group of girls from her school" i think it's important that those girls were an entire school level below her. The main character was a college student with her new friends being highschoolers. She never sought to be their friend either, instead she was a passing stranger and was jealous of their cuteness while they were jealous of her model like demeanor. They only become friends through the game and that's just as good as being friends through school or work or club or whatever and I think that distinction it's a very important for the series point.

I’ve only watched the first couple episodes and what I can take away is: PUBG: the anime

According to Gigguk, with this anime, we will see if people actually hate SAO, or just Kirito. It’s clear, people hate Kirito.

Oh come on, Kaiba totally had a reason to kill everyone! It was cause of Metacritic.

Okay, I do have one question: Why do all these Seed games have no personalized customization of characters? Seriously, it's like one of the primary things players look forward to in an RPG, is the ability to make your own unique character.

Something she is good at: The Classic P90 B rush

"Empowering female characters... *with guns*..." Did anyone else hear the scream of a Bald Eagle just then?

Hold up. That "creepy author who's obsessed with guns" guy from the anime was an author insert? That's so stupid it's genius.

10:15 "The story would instantly be stronger if he had any motivation at all" *"Suggestion : SAO abridged Episode 11" appears* That is way more subtle than it had to be, sir.

My friend sat me down and made me watch this whole show because she knows I hate SAO, but she said "It's SAO, but good." So I was intrigued and watched it, and you know what? She was right. It was genuinely good.

2:45 Empowering female characters *with* *guns*

There are legitimately fanfiction writers who write Kawahara's story better than he himself does. Look up "Fairy Dance of Death," a long-ass story that combines the game world of Alfheim Online with the concept of the Aincrad arc. It's good. - Lewis

Geoff: "like Agil" Me: Agil? Oh! He means Tiffany!

I think this was a great show. Especially since Kirito isn't there.

"Just because SAO is in the title doesn't mean you don't have to watch it" *A good chunk of the anime community:* That's where you're wrong kiddo

"It's the people and their experiences that make it real, not the threat of death." Excellent advice for both writers AND game designers!

Finally, a Karen we can respect and like as a character!

This reminded me of how horrible they went with the motivation (Or lack of) Kayaba Akihito had for creating for SAO. I literally came up with an actual motivation that (While has flaws) could still pass as an acceptable if crazy motivation for creating the equally crazy death game. (plz note, I made this on the spot, so its a fixer-upper) ~~~~~Akihiko Kayaba, having experience the horror humanity have committed on one another. He wants to really see if it's possible to make a society of humans that, united by a common goal, will work together as a functional society to achieve it(Again this has major flaws). He grabs a small but proficient number of people (10,000), puts them in life or death situation where the only way to get back home is to scale all 100 floors of Aincrad. He knows that MMORPGs themselves are often cause for working together to achieve a goal. So by putting them in a situation where it is literally fight, die, or forever live in a game. In theory, all 10,000 people would want to fight and work together to get out of the literal death game. But this is where it gets bumpy. A couple of months in and they still haven't cleared the 1st floor and 2,000 people already died horribly. Already a sign that the plan is not gonna work. But when the floor is finally cleared one player stands above the rest, Kirito. Kayaba takes this as a sign that his plan is finally working and that Kirito will be the figurehead in which all the other players will unite under, in order to clear SAO. But heres the thing, he's an asshole loner that people persecute for being a beta tester, (The beta testers were actually also there to possibly become what Kayaba sought in Kirito) and shun him for being a cheater, to Kayabas chagrin. Eventually it gets to the point that although the people are just barely scraping by and clearing the bare minimum of the floors, so he enters SAO as Heathcliff to be that figurehead that he wanted Kirito to be. He creates the largest and most powerful guild, recruits the top players he can find, (Kirito will also have been offered a spot but he refused) and uses this to be the greatest and most powerful united force in all Aincrad. This also happens to be flawed as Kuradeel, a laughing coffin member, was easily able to infiltrate their ranks and almost successfully took out Kirito, but also ended up killing Godfree (The tool). This is also why he makes a raid on Laughing Coffin, not just because there murdering other players but their a great threat to what is meant to be his master plan. Eventually he is discovered by Kirito, not because of that super speed bs the original show had, but because Heathcliff was too perfect a leader. He showed up out of nowhere with an absolutely flawless fighting technique and sword skills and somehow knows how to perfectly counter and prepare for every single boss. He knows each new boss's unseen abilities and somehow can prepare his men to deal with it almost instantly, almost as if HE DESIGNED THEM HIMSELF. No one had ever even heard of this guy and he somehow unites the top players into his guild and then they somehow start clearing floor after floor with ease. 2 months had passed without him and they had barely cleared the 1st floor, but after he showed up they were able to get to floor 74 within 2 years. A little clue to Kirito shows up is that Heathcliff's menu (Something he makes sure to almost never use around other players) is strangely larger and possesses more features, this is just a small factor that pops up when Kirito walks in on him in another room. One little thing happened that finally revealed Heathcliff. (The boss will be altered for this part) When the boss's slashes hit a player, they instakill on most players, if it hits them and they don't die, it simply doesn't kill them. However if the attack its main attack completely misses HAVE to tank the attack, or be fast enough to get out of the way. (You notice a lot of bosses have a stunning lack of diversity in attacks). When they're fighting the boss, Heathcliff is preparing to block it's attack, but one of his subordinates bravely (& Stupidely) tackles him out of the attack's way, thinking he had saved his commander. But the thing here is, when the mine is placed down, it activates the powerful slash, killing the subordinate, but not Heathcliff, as his avatar is an immortal object. Kirito sees this and doesn't thing much of it until after the battle, where he sprints off and stabs him to see if it will work again and test his theory, he's right.~~~~~ Well that's how I would take it. But let me know what you think. Even though it's flawed put some real elbow grease into this.

That "make people not feel so good" joke got me good.

It's kinda sad when what's basically fanfiction is better than the original .-.

Something I love about this spinoff is how it actually represents gamers in shooters pretty well you got your sweats the lmg spammers the players who think there good but are not and the casuals

3:15 "Ren's outfit contains 3 times as much fabric than Sinon's, even though she's half her height" XXXD

9:13 "Shut up, Klein... come back when you're a MAAAIN character"

Having a hot pink SMG and dumping stat points into speed is totally something I would do in a game, stunningly accurate

The SAO animes just moved WAY too fast, the first 10 floors could have been a whole season. Then they could have sped up as the floors got smaller, moving to 50 in season 2, and then exiting the game early in season 3. Season 4 would be elfworld and then season 5 GGO. There was no reason to redline the pace so that no one understands what is going on other than bullet points. The PKers should have been a 3 season long side arch that would get left behind in season 4 and then would be recalled in season 5 with GGO and death gun. It would have been better to slow burn this series.

Sao was writing a concept Sao alternative was writing an actual story with characters development

Who the hell is Agil? ........Oooooooh! You mean Tiffany!

SAO is the perfect example of good idea without execution... Or at least good execution.

The real SAO ended after the first half of season 1. Everything after that is Kirito being a government worker trying to save Players.

I once thought about rewriting SAO, but doubted that I could do something as good as an actual series. Then I remembered how shitty SAO's writing actually is, and the fact that any half-assed fanfic made by _anyone_ would be comically better than the trainwreck it already is.

>”Akihiko would be way better if he had _any_ motivation.” >Suggested: SAO Abridged Ep. 11 Oh, MB, you cheeky bastard.

".....make people "not feel so good" with a bad touch..." YOU DID NOT still a bit salty

Just finished the anime! MY GOD IS IT GOOD It's just like what you said in the thumbnail. This is what SAO is supposed to be. The writing doesn't suck. The characters are realistic, they also act like real gamers. They pull off SAO's theme better, without pulling any of that death game stuff(if you don't count the thing from the second half, but hey, no spoilers). It's just a better show all around. AND I LOVE IT

What I liked about SAO Alternative plain and simple: It Was FUN

*YOU STILL OWE US AN ERASED ED BREAKDOWN GEOFF.* *I WILL NEVER GIVE UP*

Fact: As I was watching SAO Alternative: GGO, I had mistakenly thought it was by the same writer as SAO. I thought "Wow, he really improved his writing a lot, I'm impressed." Now, thanks to this video, I discovered I was wrong. It was written by a different person.

"tall girl" but with guns loll but yeah i liked this anime. easy fix for the ending: make the crazy gurl a lil less crazy and instead actually flesh her out and give more backstory to her so we actually care bout her.

I love GGO, but I didn't like SAO at all, I'm not 6 ft tall Japanese girl with self image issues, but I'm 6,1 ft tall Finnish Girl with self image issues,who uses games to escape reality, so I can relate a little bit? I've been a gun nerd wayyy before GGO, so that anime was perfect for me 👌🏻

Feeling uncomfortable about being tall IRL and retreating to a fantasy world where you can be cute and tiny? Yeah, I can absolutely identify with that.

SAO Alternative has taught me to never mess with a loli or her gun unless you want to face loli wrath.

10:50 "Could do something with Phantom Bullet" *2 years and still waiting for that Fixing Phantom Bullet video*

Geoff: Most of us aren't 6 foot tall Japanese girl with body image issues Me: a 6 foot 5 Asian girl with body image issues *surprised pikachu face*

What do you mean Kayaba didn't have a motivation!? He had a damn good one! He got stressed, lost sleep, and fell into a hole of despair and bad decisions after Bethesda insisted he ship the game on time. His efforts as Heathcliff are his way of fixing the giant bloody mess his lethally-glitchy game caused while hiding his identity for obvious reasons. Are we even watching the same show?

Don't forget product placement. Did you see those Sony headphones?!

I loved ggo it was amazing but I didn’t think that they develop the relationship with pito and llyn enough before the second squad jam

2:44 "Empowering female characters. With guns." We do that a lot, in a strange place called "America." *AMERICA, FUCK YEA!*

I relate to this. I play VR chat because I have social anxiety and I feel like it’s been helping me a bit.

But is P-chan not the most kawaii thing ever?

Day 400... still no sign of the Philosophy of Re:creators video

Been addicted to battle royals lately, maybe it's time to rewatch this show... again

A few years back I tought SAO was so good. Then I grew up and realize... It wasn't really as good as I tought it was With age come wisdom... and rank ~Commander Shepard

Ahahahaha, you called him Agil and not Tiffany.

I stayed a lil sad with Alternative GGO ending, but still I hope that Alicization will do better

“I’ll definitely find something substantial to say about at least one of the shootouts in the next animelee” Melee. Guns. *Melee.* Guns. *Melee. Guns*

8:13 confirmed Boku no Hero and Marvel joint universe

Kirito, the Gary Stu of Anime.

My opinion on Sao: love animation, kirito's fights, and other fights. Don't like kirito's harem and plot armor. Opinion on Ggo: loved most of it the action, comedy, and story. Do miss duel sword fighter.

Man I love hearing you this is as entertaining as watching anime I also love your philosophy

The female clothing doesn't reveal much skin? It's most likely just low level armor.

Wierdly enough,I *am* a 6 feet tall *Japanese* girl *with a complex regarding my height* .I think I'll give a go to this spin-off

As a 6ft 3in tall anime fan, 6ft Japanese girls is like my default fetish

You actually make me want to watch this, which I'd never thought I'd say to an SAO series (even if it's a spin off)

I relate to hating being tall (6’ 4”), but for a different reason: I keep hitting my head on everything!!! Like Jesus Christ! During a Scouts Camping Trip, I hit my head 4 times on the entrance to the latrine, 5 times on the rafters of the rifle range, 2 times on the entrance to the mess hall, 3 times on the frame of my tent, and 1 time on the trunk of my scoutmaster’s car!

The fact that the main character is a girl and 6ft is something left field. This show was written very well and the character development is nice

"How can this person help in saying in what I want this story to say" And now I realize part of what helps me enjoy certain series so much and stick with them. Even the random characters _mean something_ and seem _cohesive_

i saw it on netflix one day and went in thinking "great, another season of SAO, k lets watch this cringe so i can get the memes later" and then came out SHOCKED THAT IT WASN'T EXACTLY SAO AND IT WAS OK. Not great, but not SAO bad 😂 Im excited to see more

Wait, Kayaba had a reason. He was under pressure from the publisher and had gone three weeks without sleep to get it done.

Geoff: "who can make people not feel so good" Me: "I understood that reference!"

Came back to this video after binging GGO on Netflix this past weekend, and I've got to agree with most of your points here. It's a MUCH better and effectively executed story than the original, as much as I personally enjoyed Season 2, and it uses my favorite setting in GGO to boot! Hopefully they make more of the anime, since I believe the Light Novels are still being written? All four of the main characters, and the Amazon brigade are great! As far as not killing off anyone of significance, I'd argue they did that with Yuuki, even if she only came and went with the single arc. I also enjoyed the Tournament of Power, even though I understand why you're throwing a little shade at Dragon Ball Super. Cheers Jeff!

From reading the novels I was under the impression Kiyama's motivation was that he wanted to make the world he imagined into something real... and to achieve that there had to be that threat of real death. Without that threat the emotions, experiences and motivations would be too shallow. Not to say that it was ever particularly well explained in the anime or earlier novels.

Im only happy sao exists becuase it led to the abridged series and this spin off is only icing to the cake the lovely folks who worked on the abridged show. Long live better writers making great stuff outta great concepts that turn into shit when wasted.

I only like SAO because when I see it, it makes me imagine much better and more interesting stories, prompting me to get back into a writing mood. So I usually watch it when I'm dealing with writer's block or whatever. It's just garbage that I use as more of a tool than entertainment.

10:02 I just hear Kayaba saying, "wait! You get my references!?" and being the happiest evil boi for like 2 minutes

i feel like alicization actually turned SAO around bc personally i love it.

SAO, but everytime Kirito isn't involved it gets better

Non horrible SAO? Let me look outside to make sure that the sky is not falling and the seas do not run red with blood!

The bit about core questions from mha really helped me write my comic, so thanks!

9:35 When I saw him my first thought was "oh hey it's Tiffany"

I'll be honest, if I was in GGO, I'd be sporting an all pink outfit and weapon as well.

Empowered women? Clothes that serve as clothes? Characters that are characters instead of figurines to be held and obtained? My only response is words from a wiseman. "They're giiiiirls. If they're not doing gay things to each other, _THEN WHAT ARE THEY GOOD FOR?!_ " ~ Demolition_D

I love this new series I just wish they did more episodes

10:02 YOU GET MY REFERENCES!?!!?!

You know I was thinking to myself that maybe Reki Kawahara would see how well SAO Alternative: GGO was doing and think "Wow yeah, I could learn from this" but instead I get this disappointing feeling that he'll see it and go "Wow... Karen's cute. Let's add her to Kirito's harem"...

I thought it would be another SAO hate train tbh

If you wanted to fix the first part of SAO, I have an interesting suggestion: perhaps the main villain wants to destroy the video game industry with the greatest online mass-murder in history, due to some belief that technology makes man weaker and more corruptible? I'm just brainstorming here, but that's better than no motives at all.

I thoroughly enjoyed this alternative. It was fun and dynamic, and I liked the characters. It even closed up nicely!

I only care about sao for the abridge series.

Reki Kawahara himself admitted he wasn't a good writer when he wrote SAO. That's presumably why he wrote SAO Progressive. If I remember correctly he said he didn't feel like he was actually a good writer until he started writing the Alicization Light Novels. Hence why those Light Novels are so much different from the Web Novel, compared to everything before then.

I liked Sao and ggo about on par with eachother, in general I'd love to see multiple short story style spinoffs centrist on other characters in the original Sao game, maybe someone that spearheads a township being settled or rebels against a warlord.

I dont think every character with screentime needs to contribute to the stroy, there can always just be some characters who are there just for fun.

"If we're really lucky, maybe we'll see Reki Kawahara pick up some pointers from the guy who's writing his story better than he is." Gonna need a Senzu for that one...

Hey Mother's Basement, you should also check out SAO Progressive, it's SAO's story and legitimatively written well, it's a manga spinoff, and within 34 chapters, they've only gone from floor 1 to about floor 29. Plenty good worldbuilding and legitimate Kirasuna relationship buildup.

So randomly I saw this video on my recommendations, then watched the series then actually watched this video! Totally agree great little story, interesting characters, realistic interactions/ friendships. SPOILERS I did actually like the highstakes ending with the crazy character planning to kill herself if she lost as a much better parallel to the overly dramatic 10000 people in this game will die... I also loved the ending were she figures out who her crazy friend actually was and totally looks past her fame to have a deep emotional connection with her.

Me : mom can I have SAO alternative : GGO on the way home Mom : no sweetie we have GGO at home GGO at home : SAO Phantom Bullet