Sword Art Online: Progressive

Sep 13, 2015

metafalica

Recommended

Preliminary (22/? chp)

Sword Art Online: Progressive is an alternative version of the main SAO story. It attempts to cover all the events that happened in SAO in the order that it happened from the 1st floor all the way up to when they finally clear the game. Luckily, the book is also written in a way that allows you to jump in at any point.

The story in SAO: Progressive is exactly the same as the original. Kirito is one of 10,000 players trapped in a game called "Sword Art Online" and in order for the players to escape, they must go to the 100th floor and beat ... the final boss. What differs from the original is that they cover most of the story events from each floor (currently up to floor 3). They show how Kirito obtains his Anneal Blade and how Kirito learns hand to hand combat skills. Each volume functions as a stand alone story as well. It is possible to start reading from book two and be able to understand most of the situation along with some character relationships.

The artwork in this novel is great. The characters are depicted in a way that makes them appear similar to the anime. The pull page art in each volume are well drawn with details in the background instead of just a character focused piece of art. It helps to bring the environment and atmosphere into focus as well as the character. The covers also show the characters that are going to be the main focus of each volume.

The best thing in Progressive is the character development. The original series was missing a lot of this because it had skipped a lot of events. We get numerous mentions of "noodle incidents" like the time that the Army was nearly wiped out by the 25th floor boss or the fact that Kirito obtained his weapon for the first boss from a quest. The problem is that we never saw this and just have to assume it happened. With Progressive though, we see every major event ever discussed from the moment Kirito entered the game to when he meets Asuna to the moment Asuna begins to fall in love with Kirito. This helps to fill a lot of unknowns about the characters. What harms the series a little is the fact that the point of view jumps between Kirito and Asuna at various points and it is not always consistent.

If you are a fan of SAO, you should definitely give Progressive a try. It greatly expands on the original and each volume showcases some issues with either the Nervgear or the new SAO world. Some of these also foreshadow problems that arise later on in the main SAO series. The problem is that you have to have read the original SAO in order to get these references. The anime largely cut these scenes out or put them out of context and it makes it difficult to understand without having read the book.

If you are a fan of SAO, you should definitely give Progressive a try. If you have not read SAO before, Progressive is also a good place to start and eliminates the problems that arise from events being out of order when you start a story near the climax. On top of that, each volume actually works fairly well as a stand alone story despite being part of a larger series. It is still easy to understand because it follows standard storytelling elements with an exposition and introduction to the current situation.

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Jul 17, 2012

Mitsui_to

Recommended

Preliminary (20/? chp)

Mode Note: This review was written for the first volume, Sword Art Online: Hoshinaki Yoru no Aria.

Quite surprising no one has reviewed this novel yet.
It's surprising because the story takes place one month after the SAO incident, tells you about the premature condition of the main characters in SAO.
Well, i have to say the story has a quite surprising turn, Kawahara Reki has a very brave decision to tell us the condition one month after the SAO incident.

The surprising part is, level 1 hasn't been cleared.

Those who have read the main story must receive a quite strong shock in their brain.
The story setting gave a ...

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Mar 5, 2017

elrond99

Recommended

Preliminary (4/? chp)

Sword Art Online gets a lot of hate these days. I enjoy the franchise despite its obvious flaws. I don't disagree with people who complain about those flaws, I just personally feel that the good outweighs the bad. That being said, Sword Art Online: Progressive is a different beast altogether. All of the flaws of the original story are tossed out the window in what is essentially a reboot - I think some people view this as a "filling in the blanks" approach to the original series, but there's enough retconning going on that I think you really have to view this is a blank ...

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Jun 27, 2015

K1ngHoward

Recommended

Preliminary (14/? chp)

I was browsing along my local bookstore and was surprised to find this on the shelves. I wasn't expecting a new Sword Art Online book in a few months time and having the number "001" on the side seemed to be going against the numbering of the original novel series. You will be surprised as I was to find out that this is a reboot. Not just any reboot, but a reboot that is going to focus upon the game of "Sword Art Online" from floor one to seventy-five, going at a pace of two floors per novel. This is the novel series that many ... fans, haters, and the author have and wanted to read.

Story
Now that the entire game of "Sword Art Online" isn't restricted to a single light novel (not counting the side stories of the second light novel) the story isn't restricted to having time skips or quick pacing throughout the book like its predecessor. This has enabled the story to progress without fear of having limit on the length of the book. This has also provided us with a view of the game as its own world, with bosses, towns, npcs, side-quests, and the subsequent struggles of being on the front lines with a rag tag team of low level adventurers attempting to complete the game. The first book only contains the first and second floors of the game, but just those two floors gives the world so much life that the original novel series pales in comparison. This novel also takes time in explaining the workings of the game systems like, weapon upgrades, skilling, fighting abilities, and the inner workings of different items.

Art
Illustration is done by the same artist (abec) as in the previous "Sword Art Online" novels and I believe he has really outdone himself with the art on this new series. Just the art cover and its colors left me wetting my appetite with each time I looked at the novel cover. You don't know how many times I have stared at this cover art when it was out on a shelf staring straight at me. I personally see it as his best cover art of any of his Sword Art Online illustrations.

Character
While the previous "Sword Art Online" novel had to keep its focus upon the main characters with minimal spotlight on the side characters, I can happily say that this new series greatly fleshes out its side characters as much as the main characters and I am hopeful that this will stay constant throughout the "Progressive" series. This novel brings to light characters and experiences that weren't previously as well known, like: Argo the Rat, the beginning friendships of Agil and Kirito, the budding relationship of Kirito and Asuna, the abuse of scamming, and even the struggle of keeping the horrors of PVP out of this world. This novel allows for this new world to become populated by the characters of not just Asuna and Kirito, but by every side character that you came across in the previous novel series (minus Lisbeth and Silica, but they are waaayyy down the timeline), and the book does become richer because of this fleshing out of old and new side characters.

Though this series will only be released two floors per book, one book per year, it will possibly be a great ride just based upon this first book in the new "Progressive" series. If going through the entire fleshed out game of "Sword Art Online" one floor at a time with Kirito, Asuna, and company sounds like an interesting prospect to you, then I highly recommend this novel series.

Hmmm... Maybe I should hold off this review for 37 years until it finishes.

End.

Note: This review is based off the first novel, "Sword Art Online: Progressive 001", and not any of the novels afterwards. I will probably get those books when they do release, but having a release schedule of 1 book per year is going to be hard to review the series as a whole.

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Mar 13, 2018

iamchurch

Recommended

Preliminary (20/? chp)

For the sake of time, I'm going to assume you are aware of the original's numerous issues with pacing, character, plot holes, etc.

There isn't much to be said about SAO. Most of the community seemed to enjoy the anime for the most part until the end, and then we all realized that this self-insert escapist fantasy #1 actually has so much wrong with it that most now agree that it is trash. It is an excellent example of a good idea executed extremely poorly, and most of us already know that and have written off the series as a result (and rightfully so)

However, much to ...

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Feb 22, 2017

Androxalius

Recommended

Preliminary (3/? chp)

I like to think that the progressive series is the true form of SAO since it is full of details on each floor; questing, leveling up, getting equipments, skill descriptions and usage in combat, thoughts and development of the characters, interaction between Kirito and Asuna not in a romantic way but as a Party. This is really what SAO should be. Everything that the haters say that the original SAO is lacking is in this series.

I read until the volume 3 of this LN and this series captures what i imagined SAO would be and what i wished it would be. Each floor is ... interesting and has its own unique setting and the exploration on each is just too good. Also, different characters are explored much more in this series than in the original, for example Argo. I think that characters here have a much more development than in the original. How i wish that this is the original SAO
I remember seeing Sword Art Online on my recommended list and read the synopsis. Just from reading the synopsis i was really excited since it looked very promising.

I watched the first episode and i thought "holy sh*t this is really going to be good and i have a whole 25 episodes of this" and i just got more excited when they cleared the first boss. I thought that is was gonna be a floor by floor exploration (which is what the progressive series is) since they always emphasize how aincrad has 100 floors and all that stuff. I was kind of disappointed on episode 3 as they skip into 20-ish floor which is a HUGE problem for the original SAO as they skip a lot of floors but i thought that there is no helping that if they want to focus on the floors near the 100th floor since there is only limited episodes. But the way they ended the aincrad just made me feel betrayed and disappointed.
I wish that Reki Kawahara would just say f*ck it and just remake the Aincrad arc using this series and just finish until the 100th floor all the way. But i think that it is next to impossible.

I think that many people watched the anime thinking that it would be what progressive is like (Myself included). Which is why i think lots of people hate on SAO because it is different on what they thought it was gonna be and it has so much potential wasted. This series is for those who hate SAO. I recommend this whoever liked the original SAO series. It will make you love it more. But i recommend this LN specially to those who hate the SAO series. Because I understand why you hate the SAO series and the progressive offers what you think is bad or what the original series or anime is lacking

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May 27, 2018

ZenryTheBard

Recommended

Preliminary (5/? chp)

This applies to volumes 1 to 4 (So the first 5 chapters) as canon of the golden rule hasn't been translated.

This is the SAO that I have always wanted, the original novels and anime always had some sort of problem whether it was pacing, bad plot or just unbelievable characters. This solves some of the problems that the original had, Kirito in SAOP is not a blank slate anymore as he comes out as a wise ass trying to act cool but sometimes ends up being immature and to my delight, ASUNA GETS TIME TO SHINE!!! The last time Reki truly wrote about Asuna ...

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Jun 22, 2018

Engrishlol16

Recommended

Preliminary (6/? chp)

Disclaimer: I have read up till volume 4 and I input it as 'I have read 6 chapters' since there are 6 major arcs/ parts in vol 1-4.
MIGHT HAVE SLIGHT SPOILERS UP AHEAD.

Sword Art Online the anime have been either A) being praised as the 'BEST anime', or B) being berated as the most overrated/ worst anime ever made. I have mixed feelings with the anime itself (feel free to check out my review on the anime in my profile). This series is exactly what the anime should have been.

Sword Art Online: Progressive is being written by Reki Kawahara with the aim to fill ...

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Jun 14, 2020

YoshJW

Recommended

Preliminary (6/? chp)

As of writing, I have read books one through six. I think the other reviews do a good job of explaining why this is good so I'd just like to get this out here. The original Sword Art Online was Reki Kawahara's first published story and it was written for a competition with a word limit and such. Which is why the source material and anime is presented the way it is and is as flawed as it is. Therefore I would say it's fair to say that with those problems in mind, the show and source material is good. The purpose of SAO Progressive ...

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Oct 29, 2020

Jijia

Recommended

Preliminary (45/? chp)

My enjoyment for SAOP volume 1 was just ineffable. The premise, characters, and pacing of the story was an upgrade from the original SAO itself; the latter substantiated by the fact that this novel published after Reki Kawahara, the author of this magnificent series, has palpably improved his writings. Furthermore, the myriad details which dawn the more auspicious personalities for our protagonists: Kirito & Asuna. Albeit taken aback by the notion of revitalizing the Aincrad series, there is gain from doing so; Reki Kawahara has improved his writings from the dozens of novels he had written in the past, and took those experiences, thus exploiting ...

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