Five hours in and still doing tutorials... When does the pace pick up?

[sarang]

This is my first SAO game and picked it up because the gameplay looked great and I actually enjoyed the anime (though it could have been better.)

That said I am at the academy and its just kill x monster then do tutorial with the phantom over and over again. Finally got to the part where I have my own pages (Ronie and Tiesel?)

So far the pace seems really slow. From the gameplay to the story its all slow moving forward.

Is this the general setup for SAO games? Fight X monster comeback watch some still portrait cutscenes that barely advance the story?

So far there doesnt seem to be an overarching bad guy to even motivate the story at all (bullies at the academy dont count lol)

When does the pace pick up? Thanks

[s1ck]

So the tutorial actually ends and the game opens up at the end of chapter 1, it's roughly around 20hours in after Quinella's Boss Fight

[Sel Und Irae]

You pretty much have main anime shoved down your throat and then game starts

[jared.bur123]

Like the previous posts said, the entirity of chapter 1 is basically a tutorial and recap of the 1st season of the SAO Alicization anime. After that it starts picking up quite a bit more.

[Ebon Wolf]

Chapter 1 is paced so poorly. Sucks for people who have seen the show and people who haven't.

[NightmareHollow]

This isn't the overall norm for SAO games, but this is the fault of bringing the Human Realm Arc into the game. It's completely needless. There really isn't much interesting to it from a gameplay stand point. If I wanted to go through all that again, I'd rewatch that part of the series 🤦

It picks up once you've finished chapter 1, and you will get into the original story