AnimeSuki Forums

Register Forum Rules FAQ Members List Social Groups Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   AnimeSuki Forum > Anime Discussion > Older Series > Sword Art Online > Past SAO Anime

Notices

View Poll Results: Critique of Episode 05
10 out of 10: Near Perfect... 35 22.88%
9 out of 10 : Excellent... 41 26.80%
8 out of 10 : Very Good... 29 18.95%
7 out of 10 : Good... 30 19.61%
6 out of 10 : Average... 8 5.23%
5 out of 10 : Below Average... 2 1.31%
4 out of 10 : Poor... 4 2.61%
3 out of 10 : Bad... 1 0.65%
2 out of 10 : Very Bad... 2 1.31%
1 out of 10 : Torturous... 1 0.65%
Voters: 153. You may not vote on this poll

Reply
 
Thread Tools
Old 2012-08-05, 00:51   Link #161
Divini
Senpai!
 
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by styr View Post
You'd think that with Kayaba, who was proclaimed a genius and all, would have devised a system such that falling asleep would activate a "safe mode" for players within SAO that would automatically decline duels, trades, etc to prevent abuse or exploits.

Sleep PK is a very weird exploit already.. I can only imagine the outcry from MMO players if Sleep PK was possible in games now.
I would bet in a 'normal' VRMMO, sleep would make you log off.
Divini is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 00:53   Link #162
Vocah
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clarste View Post
Again, who the heck goes to sleep inside a game?
Why not?
Spoiler for and:
Vocah is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 01:45   Link #163
arkxkra
全力全開
 
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Non-management 97th world
Quote:
Originally Posted by Utsuro no Hako View Post
Those were nice moments, but this was the best part of the episode:

Images
Sorry; dynamic content not loaded. Reload?
This is priceless
__________________
arkxkra is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 01:46   Link #164
Sakuyakun
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Boring episode. -_- <i like the previous 4 ones though>
Sakuyakun is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 02:05   Link #165
LoweGear
Secret Society BLANKET
*Graphic Designer
 
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: 3 times the passion of normal flamenco
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clarste View Post
Again, who the heck goes to sleep inside a game?
Given that this is a game that's essentially your other life, why wouldn't you? It's not like going into a virtual world negates your need to sleep or anything. People have died from lack of sleep due to gaming for hours on end.
__________________

Against all the evil that hell can conjure, all wickedness that mankind can produce... We will send unto them, only you.
LoweGear is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 02:14   Link #166
Clarste
Human
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Age: 37
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoweGear View Post
Given that this is a game that's essentially your other life, why wouldn't you? It's not like going into a virtual world negates your need to sleep or anything. People have died from lack of sleep due to gaming for hours on end.
It's not your other life when you're asleep, because you're asleep. I'm not saying that people shouldn't sleep, I'm saying that most people would log off before they take a nap. Given how Kirito was shown in episode 1, it seems like the "proper use" of the NervGear involves lying down on a bed first, so why would anyone sleep on the road instead of just logging off and sleeping on their own bed? There's nothing stopping them from logging back on when they wake up.

Of course, this is in the hypothetical situation in which Kayaba did not trap them in there and turn it into a death game, but since the beta testers were playing in that situation, it's understandable that no one would care what happens to sleeping characters.
Clarste is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 02:33   Link #167
creb
Hiding Under Your Bed
 
 
Join Date: May 2008
I actually think the sleep pk exploit is rather clever, and further cements my joy at the proof the author has actually played old-school mmos, where figuring out ways to unintentionally (intentionally of course) flag other players so you could slaughter them was a far more noble pass time.

I'm hoping for something even more clever for how these murders are taking place, though I admit I can't really think of one based off what we've been told so far. At the very least, I'm hoping it'll be an "oh, why didn't I think of that" reveal, rather than a deus ex machina.
__________________
http://myanimelist.net/animelist/creb
http://myanimelist.net/mangalist/creb
It feels like years since they've been updated, btw.
Also, cake.
creb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 02:43   Link #168
justinstrife
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: Galt's Gulch
Age: 44
Send a message via AIM to justinstrife
I gave this a 7, it wasn't as good as the previous episode. Except for the sleeping tree part, Asuna didn't really impress me much this episode.
justinstrife is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 03:55   Link #169
styr
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Age: 38
Ok, I took a screencap of the scene where Egil appraises the murder weapon and I flipped the image and cropped out everything else after zooming in a bit. Unfortunately I am not a CSI pro so enhancing the image did not make it any clearer. If anyone else wants to try, the scene happens around 13:45-13:54 during Ep5.

Here's the screen cap. Sorry for poor quality.. but it required a lot of zoom. Hopefully we can all try to decipher it together. I've managed to figure out most of it, but a few parts stump me. Here's what I got so far, words that I don't know/am unsure of will be placed in (parenthesis):

Code:
                     Appraisal

        Guilty Thorn
        Short Spear / One hand
Range: Middle               Type: Pierce
Attack: 180-225             Durability: (410, 460?)

Weight: 65                    (???): 32
Equip (+)7                    Night (Saving, Slashing, ??)

     Made by (Grimrock, blocked out by menu button)
Yay for gratuitous English! I think it is pretty cool we got a little bit of info about the weapon system used in SAO and how the stats are shown. I guess as a nerd numbers make me fuzzy inside
styr is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 04:15   Link #170
Kafriel
Senior Guest
 
 
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Athens (GMT+2)
Age: 35
Good episode, at first I also thought the girl was the killer and made Keins kill himself somehow, but since she got sniped at the end of the episode, I suppose the murderer was just too far to be seen...maybe you can kill someone by using skills out of a safe zone by using a range exploit? Wearing an AGI+20 ring would certainly help with that...
Kafriel is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 05:12   Link #171
GoddyofAus
Level 5 Pyrokineticist
 
 
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Australia
I was going to say Yoruko was the murderer, until she got shanked in the back that is. Now I don't have a clue.
GoddyofAus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 05:57   Link #172
eupseudes
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by Justice Knight View Post
is it just me or the pace of the story is just weird.Kirito meets a different girl every single episode and helps her,the outcome is like

ep1 asuna alive
ep2 gal dead
ep3 silicia[sp?] alive
ep4 gal dead
ep5 gal alive?????
"Yep!" The original LN author even apologizes for it in his author notes...
eupseudes is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 06:04   Link #173
Triple_R
Senior Member
*Author
 
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Newfoundland, Canada
Age: 42
Send a message via AIM to Triple_R
This was an excellent episode in that it had a lot of excellent and interesting scenes. It also featured the start of a decent mystery-thriller story. Finally, what I liked the most (even though it was very brief) was how it did a great job of introducing a compelling philosophical conflict between Asuna and Kirito.

It's impressive how this episode says so much with so little exposition.

I think that Asuna tends to view SAO simply as a place to escape from. That makes sense, of course, given how it's been turned into a virtual deathtrap, and given how a lot of people in it would naturally be eager to get back to the real world.

But Kirito thinks a bit more deeply about it. He's grown to kind of accept life in SAO. That's why Kirito can enjoy the nice weather (artificial though it may be), and pace himself better.

This doesn't necessarily mean that Kirito wants to live in SAO for the rest of his life, and has no desire to return to the real world. But it is to say that even in the midst of trying to clear the game, Kirito recognizes the value of taking hold of the finer things of life that even SAO itself can provide. The game is not without its simpler charms, and since you're going to be living inside of it for many months, if not years, you might as well make the most of it.

Asuna's approach is understandable, and even admirable in a way, but I can't help but think that it runs the risk of leading to personal burnout, whereas Kirito's approach is the one more conducive to balanced, psychologically healthy living.


And I think this philosophical conflict enables us to better understand that disagreement between Asuna and Kirito at the beginning of the episode. I think it shows how Kirito is completely immersed in this game. Its villagers are almost like real people to him; its towns are basically the same as real towns. So Kirito thinks about luring a dangerous boss into the town almost like a person living in medieval times would think about luring dangerous animals into a real town.

Asuna recognizes that the NPCs are just NPCs, and that towns are simply places you stop at in your journey to clear the game. But to Kirito... they're more than just that, which is why he doesn't want them ravaged by a boss.

It's a very compelling and interesting philosophical conflict. And the fact that SAO gets this across with skillfully subtle implications rather than lengthy exposition is something that I really appreciate.


On the whole, I like Asuna's character. Very no-nonsense, but also with a good caring, human side to her. It's interesting to see how far she's come from her Episode 2 self. I also like how her and Kirito are at odds with one another here, which gives them and their relationship a certain edge and plenty of room to grow.

Asuna also appears to be a tsundere, which I'm honestly not that keen on (the tsundere archetype is way overused in anime today, imo), but at least she's one of the more subtle tsunderes - More Kurisu Makise than KugRie.


9/10 for SAO Episode 5. I really enjoyed it.
__________________

Last edited by Triple_R; 2012-08-05 at 06:17.
Triple_R is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 06:09   Link #174
Arya
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: May 2004
Quote:
Originally Posted by relentlessflame View Post
Well, I think you sort of answered your own question, perhaps; it establishes the re-connection between Asuna and Kirito, if nothing else, and sets the stage for a (possible) new danger to the characters in SAO that may have an impact on the plot going forward.

That said, the pacing of this episode did feel a bit different, obviously, compared to the previous stories because it wasn't self-contained. So, as you allude to, the full implications of this arc won't become clear until the next episode.
It reconnected them in the first part of the episode, and that's the good part of the episode. And knowing now that in that first part
Spoiler for spoiler:
makes me wonder why giving so much room to the mystery instead of giving us more Asuna/Kirito moments (ok, I know I'm being childish here ).
Anyways, letting aside my mystery genre issues I'm bearing, my real problem was not with the pacing nor with the not-self-contained structure of the episode (I usually hate episodic series btw), but with the mood, or the atmosphere, the mystery settings had. That part of the episode lost completely the MMO feel the previous episodes had and that makes this show so enjoyable (to me) even if they are giving us only side stories and the main heroine wasn't there til now. Anyways I'm going to watch the episode again so I could be more soft next time

Quote:
Originally Posted by Leon_Lelouch View Post
I guess these episodes (ep 5 and 6) are needed to give the feeling of Kirito and Asuna becoming friendly again after their meeting at the first floor especially so that in the 7th ep we won't get a sudden development between two of them...
They could have use a quest or a dungeon to do that
__________________

The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude towards them.
Arya is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 06:16   Link #175
Haak
Me, An Intellectual
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: UK
Age: 33
I think this is probably the best episode so far. I was engaged from start to finish. That twist at the end was really something.
Haak is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 06:37   Link #176
Azure King
Snr Spammer
 
 
Join Date: Sep 2006
this series is just getting weirder .. sleep PK? seriously?
i've played alot of MMO in my time and all i can say is that, a safe-zone is a safe-zone and the only one who can kill in a safe-zone is a Admin/GM.
but what i find more disturbing is that player are killing players in a situation where the every survival counts on each other and in this case, a ring... last week it was PKing for fun..
Very disturbing..
Azure King is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 07:55   Link #177
LightningZERO
You are Dominated!
*Author
 
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Earth
Age: 35
Wait, so apparently you can kill someone in a duel? And duels are accepted by the players even though it can kill them?

Nice episode overall. I am intrigued by the mystery and looking forward to finding out how and who killed these people. I think this is a long shot but based on the apparent emphasis on the NPC issues at the beginning of the episode, I think the killer will turn out to be some NPC who was trying to avenge the murdered guild leader because she was nice to him or something
__________________
その再生を破壊する
Destroy This Rebirth
LightningZERO is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 07:56   Link #178
Adigard
Senior Member
 
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure King View Post
this series is just getting weirder .. sleep PK? seriously?
i've played alot of MMO in my time and all i can say is that, a safe-zone is a safe-zone and the only one who can kill in a safe-zone is a Admin/GM.
but what i find more disturbing is that player are killing players in a situation where the every survival counts on each other and in this case, a ring... last week it was PKing for fun..
Very disturbing..
The character's are treating this as an equally serious matter, if that helps any. Asuna, who apparently is hell bent on getting out of the game to the point of sacrificing NPC's and is seemingly considered the leader of boss strategy meetings is willing to stop working on the front lines to resolve it.

And it's supposed to be disturbing, no? People might just die when they're killed, so obviously there's something wrong with those who PK for such trivial reasons. I thought they took a solid approach to both sides of the dilemma.


Quote:
Originally Posted by Triple_R
This was an excellent episode in that it had a lot of excellent and interesting scenes. It also featured the start of a decent mystery-thriller story. Finally, what I liked the most (even though it was very brief) was how it did a great job of introducing a compelling philosophical conflict between Asuna and Kirito.

It's impressive how this episode says so much with so little exposition.

I think that Asuna tends to view SAO simply as a place to escape from. That makes sense, of course, given how it's been turned into a virtual deathtrap, and given how a lot of people in it would naturally be eager to get back to the real world.

But Kirito thinks a bit more deeply about it. He's grown to kind of accept life in SAO. That's why Kirito can enjoy the nice weather (artificial though it may be), and pace himself better.

This doesn't necessarily mean that Kirito wants to live in SAO for the rest of his life, and has no desire to return to the real world. But it is to say that even in the midst of trying to clear the game, Kirito recognizes the value of taking hold of the finer things of life that even SAO itself can provide. The game is not without its simpler charms, and since you're going to be living inside of it for many months, if not years, you might as well make the most of it.

Asuna's approach is understandable, and even admirable in a way, but I can't help but think that it runs the risk of leading to personal burnout, whereas Kirito's approach is the one more conducive to balanced, psychologically healthy living.


And I think this philosophical conflict enables us to better understand that disagreement between Asuna and Kirito at the beginning of the episode. I think it shows how Kirito is completely immersed in this game. Its villagers are almost like real people to him; its towns are basically the same as real towns. So Kirito thinks about luring a dangerous boss into the town almost like a person living in medieval times would think about luring dangerous animals into a real town.

Asuna recognizes that the NPCs are just NPCs, and that towns are simply places you stop at in your journey to clear the game. But to Kirito... they're more than just that, which is why he doesn't want them ravaged by a boss.

It's a very compelling and interesting philosophical conflict. And the fact that SAO gets this across with skillfully subtle implications rather than lengthy exposition is something that I really appreciate.


On the whole, I like Asuna's character. Very no-nonsense, but also with a good caring, human side to her. It's interesting to see how far she's come from her Episode 2 self. I also like how her and Kirito are at odds with one another here, which gives them and their relationship a certain edge and plenty of room to grow.

Asuna also appears to be a tsundere, which I'm honestly not that keen on (the tsundere archetype is way overused in anime today, imo), but at least she's one of the more subtle tsunderes - More Kurisu Makise than KugRie.
That's a wonderfully accurate synopsis of what's going on with Asuna and Kirito. It's a realization Asuna makes at the end of ME1 Progressor's (the boss strategy meeting at the start of the ep). Kirito is 'living' in the world, and Asuna is maybe realizing her way might not be right anymore.

On the Tsun front... I don't know that I agree but we'll see how they roll with it in the anime.

Quote:
Originally Posted by LightningZERO View Post
Wait, so apparently you can kill someone in a duel? And duels are accepted by the players even though it can kill them?
Somewhat.

LN answer
Spoiler:

Last edited by Adigard; 2012-08-05 at 08:55.
Adigard is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 08:03   Link #179
Starlightz
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by Azure_King
this series is just getting weirder .. sleep PK? seriously?
i've played alot of MMO in my time and all i can say is that, a safe-zone is a safe-zone and the only one who can kill in a safe-zone is a Admin/GM.
but what i find more disturbing is that player are killing players in a situation where the every survival counts on each other and in this case, a ring... last week it was PKing for fun..
Very disturbing..
You probably haven't seen players kiting Kazaak (world bosses) to Stormwind (safe zone), or Varedis to Adal, or bringing debuffs to safe-zone, and all of them came from just one MMO - different mechanic, but those kills players afking in safe-zone. Developers are just human, there can always be something "creative" slip past their attention.

About players killing each others, Akihiko said he wanted to create a world, it seems he succeeded. It's the same in real world.
Starlightz is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 2012-08-05, 08:04   Link #180
anigu
Game maker
 
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Ep 5 is really good and enjoyable. Overall, this episode set up for Kirito and Asuna's relationship development and it has done quite well. Now I'm curious about the killer.
anigu is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 16:02.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
We use Silk.