welcome to the flashERIKA page about my very cool very awesome SAO roleswap AU! while this is primarily a roleswap, i also just went ahead and changed some things about SAO that bothered me that are unrelated to this concept.

WHAT I HOPE TO ACHIEVE
-give asuna more agency during the fairy dance arc
-make SAO as a game make more sense
-develop on platonic relationships between the cast

CHANGES TO SWORD ART ONLINE
a big problem with SAO as it is in the anime and manga is that it is kind of a bad game. despite being an mmo that needs all sorts of players to keep the economy going, it only has one "class". which is DPS. this means that players who like to defend or support don't really have much to do. not every video game in the style SAO is trying to emulate needs to have the DPS-healer-tank triforce, but as a rule, it's a good idea to make sure you keep support players happy. in pursuit of this, my AU has a light magic system and edits to the leveling/stats system. also idk where to put this so MY SAO lasts a bit over three years and ends on the 100th floor.
A NEW MAGIC SYSTEM
so right now SAO has a "magic system" but it doesn't impact combat. it consists of magical items such as the divine stone of returning soul, which can revive a player, and teleport crystals (which don't work half the time???). my new magic system would introduce a new stat MAG, which allows them to preform and access higher level magic. because SAO is supposed to be a game about swords, magic is going to mainly be support. this would add healing skills to the game, both passive and immediate healing would be available. it would also add buffs, currently, SAO only has two stats, AGI and STR, but i'm adding MAG, HP and DEF. there would be magic skills that can buff or debuff these stats. i considered letting magic inflict status effects, but thought that would be too OP. instead, magic has it's own special status effects that are weaker than the ones inflicted by potions. there would be quite a few magic skills but some examples are: dark vision (exactly what it sounds like), fatigue (healing items have less effect), target (makes the target the focus of monsters), brainwash (turns low level enemies into temporary allies).
NEW SKILL AND LEVEL SYSTEM
okay so the skill system in SAO is kind of busted. you can just? get super OP skills without doing anything (like kIRITO's double weilding skill) and these skills can be one of a kind. so i'm making a pretty linear skill tree for each skill. some skills also have branches. there will be three types of skills. COMBAT: combat skills can be leveled up both by using them and by quest rewards and boss drops. each type of sword in the game (cutlass, shortsword, katana ect) has it's own skill tree, this unlocks specific sword skills (like double weilding). other combat skills include: hand-to-hand and regeneration. SUPPORT skills work similarly and consist of debuffs, buffs, healing and shields. NON-COMBAT skills encompass basically everything else and can only be levelled up through use. they consist of beast taming, cooking, appraisal, blacksmithing, carpentry, fishing and others! all of these skills get levelled up individually, but there is a main PLAYER LEVEL, which increases basic stats and is levelled up with EXP.

CHARACTER PROFILES


BASIC STORY INFO: asuna has lead a sheltered life with few friends. she spent most of her time playing video games, a hobby her parents were happy to fund. when she heard about the SAO beta tests, she immediately began drafting an essay about why she should be chosen. after, she realized it was only supposed to be a brief paragraph. she was chosen for the beta test and there she made friends with argo. on the first day of SAO's public release she meets argo and the two begin saving to purchase a house they liked from the beta. more TBA


BASIC STORY INFO: tba lol