Philia & Strea

[Kiritsuna]

Did they really take A FREAKING YEAR just to add 2 returning characters??? The worst thing is that they didn't even put a single ounce of effort in their addition

What a disappointment they were. They don't have any of their memories, and they didn't even get pillow talks...

If they are planning to give a filler role to all the other heroines just to quell the ones who want them, I rather not even have them in the first place. If you are erasing their memories, and they won't even participate in the story, AT LEAST give them pillow talks.
It's even worse than what we had in FB (some heroines not having a pillow talk with Kirito). YOU HAD A YEAR!!!! This game doesn't stop disappointing me, it's incredible how little they care.

If they dare to add Argo, and do the same thing with ther.... I'll 100% give up on the game. They better not give my waifu a sh*tty treatment.

P.D: I also wanted to see more of the brother-sister relationship Yuuki has with Kirito, or the one she has with Asuna.

[Solo Swordsman]

Well I'm thinking they may try and do a good job with Argo if they add her. She's an important character in SAO progressive and the movie is coming out sometime this year. So it'd make sense advertisement wise if they added her in with a lot of content for her.

But that's just me saying that. The devs haven't shown us an ounce of respect with this game, so I'm not going to get my hopes up to high.

Well I said what I had to say here. Anymore and I'll just be beating a dead horse at this point.

[NightmareHollow]

Originally posted by Kiritsuna:

Did they really take A FREAKING YEAR just to add 2 returning characters??? The worst thing is that they didn't even put a single ounce of effort in their addition

What a disappointment they were. They don't have any of their memories, and they didn't even get pillow talks...

If they are planning to give a filler role to all the other heroines just to quell the ones who want them, I rather not even have them in the first place. If you are erasing their memories, and they won't even participate in the story, AT LEAST give them pillow talks.
It's even worse than what we had in FB (some heroines not having a pillow talk with Kirito). YOU HAD A YEAR!!!! This game doesn't stop disappointing me, it's incredible how little they care.

If they dare to add Argo, and do the same thing with ther.... I'll 100% give up on the game. They better not give my waifu a sh*tty treatment.

P.D: I also wanted to see more of the brother-sister relationship Yuuki has with Kirito, or the one she has with Asuna.

I highly doubt we will get anybody besides the gameverse heroines at this point.

[Spirit]

well , the reason why they dont recognize you is explained in this (not so) short video (of 40+ min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyjZHW4rji8

[ForThatB]

Yes, they wasted one year before they caved in and added two return characters to please fans. They didn't even try at all, I haven't even trigger Strea or Philia bed scene. Is there even bed scene idk, but I tried. Honestly, I don't think there even is one. I get more kicks from SAOARS right now.

P.S. I have no problem with beating on dead horse. Don't read down from here it just ranting.

They really just tried too hard to sell the new character Medina in the game story. Even Futami and whole one person found the true ending led to no where. After watching Shield Hero last year, new red hair female characters like Medina with description that similar you know who is just bad idea. In the end, they wasted too much resource on Medina and got nothing to show for all that work. Now they behind schedule and force to keep game alive while on life support to fulfill the paid dlc. They had a year based on interviews and Bandai Namco track record of game supporting.

In article, Futami does try show Medina as test model for new character and story, but it looks like it didn't work and back to Kirito story now.

[Wonder of Kaza]

I'm half expecting this to blow up in my face but oh well.
I'm definitely there with OP and most when it comes to being disappointed with how they implemented Philia and Strea. I expected nostalgic reminiscing, 2 new pillow talks, and some good interactions, so that on top of the 4th free DLC not hitting as hard as the others made for a saddening time. And there are definitely future disappointments coming since it'll be like this a few more times with the others until Eydis. And only because she's actually in the underworld.

I don't think they "caved in" though. This little maneuver actually feels planned. As to why, it's something that nobody in these threads seem to wanna bring up or simply remember. While I was disappointed, I was simultaneously intrigued.

Fatal Bullet. Specifically the first 3 DLCs. For the people that played them, doesn't how the Gameverse girls being implemented come off as oddly similar to the entire plot of those? Data on players being made into actual avatars. The weirdest thing is that the ending of the 3rd one was obviously setting something up that was never followed up on in the 4th DLC or anywhere else for the longest time. Not even in the base game of Lycoris. Never even really referenced. (Except maybe for Yuuna but I'm not sure, might have to replay.) But that same strategy is now being used HERE for friendlier means and it makes sense because it was something that happened before in FB. I actually completely wrote it off as them deciding against that storyline until now. Especially the Subtilizer part. But it kinda makes sense now, the guy never needed to do something like that in the main canon so why do it in FB? When it comes to him, they were either going to go with the original plot of the novels(if so, why add that in the first place), or something completely different for his inclusion(which this is pointing towards). Lycoris begun development during the DLCs for HR. The last DLC for HR dropped nearly a year before Fatal Bullet started on it's DLC. Only off by 2 months. Even with SUPER conservative estimates, that's a good 8 months of them figuring out wtf to do. That could've possibly extended to DLCs. And we're now seeing some things overlap. If I'm allowed to go a bit more into the Subtilizer thing, there's one line that has been sticking with me since the 4th DLC and the drama CDs.

"The rabbit will light the way to Wonderland"

Once again, I treated it as throwaway for the longest time. But with what we have now, I noticed that it seemed like a bit inconsistent if compared to canon material. There's no metaphorical rabbit there. It's just getting on the sub and doing a job. In the drama CDs, the girls refer to the connection to Underworld as a "hole". Now we have the "rabbit" and a now fitting rabbit "hole" to our whole Alice in Wonderland metaphor this part of SAO is built on. Leading me to believe that just like how the girls are relying on another opening to get into the Underworld, so is he, as his one way to get in. These two things are clearly overlapping, I'm not pushing it. And if that's how they're alluding to Gabriel getting in, it goes to argue that there's no reason for the other girls not to get in the same way. Getting both a big antagonist and our girls. Especially with how much they were pushing the possibility of another opening. I more or less watch things in something I'm calling an "attentive trance" where I'm still taking in the info while not thinking much, but I remember being broken from it and thinking "You seem oddly sure of that. Maybe the writers are trying to be a bit on the nose with confirming it, cool". It jumped out to me because of how much they were pushing it. Now this is where I'm just being hopeful but in the key visual for Myosotis, there's a sword in it that Futami decided not to elaborate on. I forgot the wording and I can't find it without sitting down and boring myself, but the general gist was that he was either told not to or had to talk himself out of doing so. I feel like if that was just the sword Eugeo used when he turns evil, that'd be ok to say. Especially since we get spoiled on that kinda stuff. So part of me is hoping it'll be Gabriel's and he'll show up near the end to lead into the 2nd paid DLC. But that's just me being hopeful. No real evidence, just baseless speculation.
So essentially (and getting back on track), I think this is just a temporary state. I'd be willing to bet that the girls *actually* come into the Underworld at some point. There are still two beefy DLCs on the way and we know next to nothing about what they contain. There's also the Itsuki stuff from the Abyssal dungeon update, and since it was close to Lycoris' release, I'm sure that'll come up eventually.

Though as for Yuuki and Argo, I got nothing for that. I'd like to see both since I love them both, but they haven't been mentioned. With all the Alicization characters, the roster is already bigger than the other games. And tbh...the characters are more interesting. I rather see more instances of stuff like Deusolbert interacting with Fizel and Linel than the usual harem antics. But don't get me wrong, those are great too.

Oh, and I just came to open the floor for discussion since nobody's mentioning the FB link. and very few aside from that one guy above me brought up the drama CD. This was more for the general populace. Idc if OP quits the game. People can play what they want. We can like and dislike different things. Sure as heck won't try to convince someone. And I rather not look directly at someone crying over "waifus".

I check these things to engage in some good discussion and theorizing about the game but it's usually just 50 ways of "game bad". From raids, to performance, to other junk. I've grown numb to it anyway. Though personally, my game runs really fine with a 1060 GTX. On release, I had to play on 30 FPS mode or turn things way down to get it stable. Now I can just turn everything up and take FPS mode off and be good. Wish it was like that on release, but eh. Now, extreme raids, while annoying, are manageable, and that's without maxing out my equipment and using a +6 or so rapier. If anything, it just reminds me of HF. But I guess if people can bag on Doom Eternal, nothing's safe. This horse has been beaten, killed from the beating, beat some more, ran over with a Toyota, and has had it's horse family found and beaten to and after death. I want to vent my frustrations about what I dislike so badly but I can't, since I'm beat to it 100 times over XD. That and I'd feel bad for the devs that are working hard if I added to that. Also if I say something positive however small to even it out, it's all downhill from there. If there's the usual negativity, I'm ignoring it. Not a single person who hates this game is rational enough about it to make discussion interesting and worthwhile. But speaking of which...

This game is great. Favorite SAO game. There are things I dislike, but there's a lot more I love. This is the hill I choose to die on!

[ForThatB]

Originally posted by Kazagiri:

Fatal Bullet. Specifically the first 3 DLCs. For the people that played them, doesn't how the Gameverse girls being implemented come off as oddly similar to the entire plot of those? Data on players being made into actual avatars. The weirdest thing is that the ending of the 3rd one was obviously setting something up that was never followed up on in the 4th DLC or anywhere else for the longest time. Not even in the base game of Lycoris. Never even really referenced. (Except maybe for Yuuna but I'm not sure, might have to replay.) But that same strategy is now being used HERE for friendlier means and it makes sense because it was something that happened before in FB. I actually completely wrote it off as them deciding against that storyline until now. Especially the Subtilizer part. But it kinda makes sense now, the guy never needed to do something like that in the main canon so why do it in FB? When it comes to him, they were either going to go with the original plot of the novels(if so, why add that in the first place), or something completely different for his inclusion(which this is pointing towards). Lycoris begun development during the DLCs for HR. The last DLC for HR dropped nearly a year before Fatal Bullet started on it's DLC. Only off by 2 months. Even with SUPER conservative estimates, that's a good 8 months of them figuring out wtf to do. That could've possibly extended to DLCs. And we're now seeing some things overlap. If I'm allowed to go a bit more into the Subtilizer thing, there's one line that has been sticking with me since the 4th DLC and the drama CDs.

"The rabbit will light the way to Wonderland"

In Fatal Bullet, those clones of SAO characters were AIs make by Lievre. Which is connected to Gabriel, since he is Lievre's master. In SAO AL, the argument they running is that Wanders are by product of Medina's module to create npc that based on real world data/game data connected by the SEED. Which video above does hint that the underworld downloaded player data from both GGO and Origin to create those wander npc. Strea create tiny hole to send AI version of themselves over. This clear, those are characters are added into game.

The link between Aincard and underworld is there in free dlc 4 with silica and blue demon.

"The rabbit will light the way to Wonderland"
This referring to Alice's Adventure Under Ground which older version of Alice in Wonderland. If take quote in pieces.
So Wonderland = Under Ground = underworld so that connection is cleared.
Rabbit will light the way = is the 9 girls or Strea creating tiny hole to underworld to send their AI counterparts to help Kirito.
Light the way can referred to someone went through tunnel and light the directions to take from entrance to exit. In this context can be tunnel from GGO to Underworld.
Strea's actions sending that data for their AI counterparts can be referred as light the way. This suggest that a path to underworld can be created, but the questions how to widen that hole for more people to go through.

In FB dlc 4 to abyss, it hinted seed nexus has been acting up with it spiting large amount of data into other games. This where Itsuki has been ordered investigate and report on. This how we got Yuna and Sachi in FB. I can imagine seed nexus some accident can widen the hole that both the girls and Gabriel or anyone can take leading into underworld. This just theory there no evidence beside connecting some information.

I doubt the writer can take note of previous games, so no hope there. In-game, Kirito is reset to nothing compare to previous games where he was on top of everything. Medina is the plot device, that serve keep Eugeo from dying, get paid dlc story excuse going, and so forth. The purpose of chapter 2-6 was filler in the end. I mean FB main story was mix between filler, but that was point it was our character not kirito's story so filler was fair game. This time Kirito's story that ended being filler.

[Wonder of Kaza]

Only one thing: I'm well aware of the Alice in Wonderland comparisons. And everybody else is aware, which is why I didn't want to fixate on the links too much, and I brought it up soon after where you cut the quote off.
To everything else, I give you a single "Umu".