Light spoilers...
Story - 4
Dont expect any miracles here - It's fanfiction level of writting, a lot of dumb one-liners and overall lack of any major point of entire season as whole. The thing is that main driving force in SAO 1 was that everything was "real" - you died in the game, you are dead for good. SAO 2 never reached that feel of constant fear, it just tries it by dumb "you cant log off while in tournament" which is nonsense considering the world now knows better after SAO incident.
So first story arc actually starts pretty promising - new VR game - steampunk setting and new problem - some guy cosplaying Darth Vader is having gun that apparently can kill players in real life. Nonsense, right ? So let's call Jesus-kun, a.k.a. Kirito, the underaged kid to solve these murders because that's how things in Japan works I guess... Anyway, later it turns up that things were much simplier. Kirito finds himself in the GGO as a female looking avatar (because reasons) then runs into his new harem member n.5564. Despite anime tries a lot to care about this harem girl and their relationship, adding a lots of teasing, and most of the time it actually works - the problem is - we have been over this over and over. With Asuna, who is now Kirito's girlfriend and where pretty much romance progresion died in SAO. You knew from the begining of the second part of SAO 1 and so as here that it wont go anywhere with these harem girls for one use. First act ends with Sinon joining harem fanclub, end thats where her part in the whole story ends - just an another girl that comes after Asuna. She did her part as simple emotional bait.
And the main vilan ? I have to give credit to creators, I had some good laugh over there (if that was the intention).
Second act is just a filler, doesnt even worth watching, just so MC can be even more OP as he already is.
Third act is a strange one. It heavily plays on melodrama, so it depends if this your cup of the tea or not. I think melodrama can be done well if is not overused, not where it shoudn't be or where we dont care about characters enough, and this it that case. It's really nice to see different MC for a change - Asuna. The entire plot is about her meeting up with one unknown group of players that really want the beat the boss and "they wont be much around after spring" so they want to do it ASAP. You know something is not right after these "subtle" hints, and you will see the "plot twist" from mile away. I really dunno about this, it just feels kinda out of the place, really forced, just for them to introduce this one character to just later... also there is this sub-plot revolving about Asuna and her mother relationship, pretty generic "do what we want from you, it's for your best" done over and over. Thats it. Also Jesus gets his ass beaten so its not that bad part, it had it's moments, also yuri baiting.
But same goes for first arc. There are good moments, but overall anime just feels all over the place like one gaint messy epilogue to SAO 1 which doesn't know where to go.
Art/Sound - 8/9
Yeah, you cant deny the production quality of this anime. Both beautiful backgrounds of steampunk GGO and amazing musical score makes this really a glorified fanfiction.
Character - 4
Lets start with the our savior - Kirito. Once again (except third act) he is a perfect human being with his own harem, with super skills that comes without much efford, etc... Only change is that the writer tried to give him PTSD, but the result is dull and forced since we have seen him before pretty OK with his past. But anime needed something for him with he can relate to Sinon - therefore sudden delayed minor PTSD that washes away like his harem member into background.
Sinon - introverted girl, having some dark memories from the past, with real PTSD, being bullied in school and having that o n e nice guy (hahah). But she is overall fine and interesting, enough for you to care about her. The problem is that after her work for plot is done, she is put away into harem storage room, where she wont get any more screentime to conclude her relationship and character.
Asuna - Not much to write here. She only acts as girlfriend in act one and in act three she is pretty much blank character, portlayed only as that girl that cares, from who's perspective we are watching the melodrama. They trying also for some character development with her, but it doesnt working very well.
Klein - comedic relief
Harem storage room - bunch of girls left over just being in the background
Nice guy - Sinon's fedora guy, that actually went too far
Gman - Japan's version of evil gman that is using 17 years old kids to do his job
Enjoyment - 7
Its glorified fanfiction with big production value. It's decent anime to watch when you are looking for something simple and you don't have many options.
Overall - 6
+ Great audiovisual
+ Sinon and Asuna
+ Good moments in first arc and its promising setting
- Cheap MC
- Story all over the place
- Most of the cast unused and left over
