It is very clear to me, that he is really depending on the character. There is a rather shy girl who has height-complex, a cheerful game-nerd girl, etc (avoiding spoilers hmm) basically, every main character in the anime has a reasonable backgrounds on how they behave and how is their personality (though, somtimes it's little bit..er.. cringe), which is a complete opposite from the original series. Well, I just liked how it is. Yet, i was forced to like this series even more because of the art/visual.
Honestly, there are nothing special about the art. The urban game part has it's "urban game vibe" The peaceful life has it's "peaceful vibe" and that is abseloutely normal. Now, Modern UI of the games are one of the reason why i liked SAO its adding even more interest in the dreamed game, though it didn't appear so much in this anime. That two is not the reason why i liked the art. So, why is it then? Well, it's just the character design, they really did good work making a cute lil' girl :P
Despite how i liked the characters and it's cuteNkawaii design, the story is meh.. Honestly saying, it is indeed hard to think of an idea in a battle royale setting. If i try to think of an idea, i'd definitely stuck with this one or similiar one. (well, it's not like im good at making stories lol) The ultimate story of Character A trying to overpower Character B for B-kun sake is something that you'd see anywhere, So it is "meh". Though, the little bit of character complexity is pretty good additional for the generic story. The thing is, if indeed battle-royale setting stories idea are very limited then it is better try not to make one. SAO universe is very-very big, it's not like there is only 1-3 games there must be a lot more. Even if it's trying to follow up the trends, isn't it possible to make other kind of BR games? (Though it probably would get rid of the SAO aspect little bit.)
Lastly, the sound. Im not a gun nerd. So i can't comment on that, but i trusts the studio with it. But the OST... It is like they are trying to promote ReoNA (Kanzaki Elsa's singing voice) very hardly. They be like "Epic Scene? put Elsa. Peaceful Scene? Put Elsa." Though, it is indeed that she is talented so it's completely understandable.
That's it.
Overall it's a pretty good works from the gun-nerd to cover up original sword art online poor character development. I want to put lower score, but cuz of my enjoyment, i'd raise it a point.
8/10.
