Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of a Deep Night, the review: how to change a fate

Many Sword Art Online fans will know that the film premieres on October 31 at Lucca Comics and Games example. let’s start the review of the new movie in the series Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of a Deep Night saying that we got to see it as a preview and that we also wanted to see it one more time in theaters before the official release.

We wanted to clarify this for two reasons: the first is because in the context of Lucca Comics, everything has a different vibe and even the preview of a product has a “different flavor”. The other reason is that thanks to Dynit, the film was shown at the Lucca fair, the first outside Japan. Coming back to us, this can be considered as the second installment of the Progressive series, which reinterprets Aincrad’s history from Asuna’s point of view.

For the uninitiated, to give a minimum of context, the first film had already shown us a different course change compared to the story in the anime and somehow we expected our expectations to be lower in this second as well. chapter would be confirmed.

Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of a Deep Night is the second film of Sword Art Online: Progressive and takes the story just below a month later the end of Aria from a starless night.

During the time jump, Kirito, Asuna and the rest of the top players managed to make it all the way to the boss on the fourth floor. However, there is a growing problem that threatens to halt their progress, and it’s not the dungeon itself.

In the previous movie, Kirito united the best players by becoming a bit of the bad puppeteer in their eyes. While this worked in the short term, the growing dominance of two frontline guilds, “Dragon Knights Brigade” And “Aincrad Liberation Squad”, has strongly polarized the player base. With different leadership styles and philosophies, the two guilds constantly clash. However, neither guild has enough high-level members to raid safely, even if solo players or smaller guilds lend a hand, without each other’s help they wouldn’t be able to survive and are therefore forced to work together. Below is the official trailer released on YouTube:

Fireworks and cheating

We continue the review of Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of a Deep Night by saying that as always the general plot of the film revolves around our heroes trying to navigate the situation, which gets especially dire when they realize the implications are of what would happen if one of the two guilds gains a significant advantage over the other.

At the same time, there is the rise of the PK people who have decided to use the almost hopeless situation as an excuse to live out their lives. darkest desiresthat is to use Kirito’s words, the taste for death. And of course, these PKers would like nothing more than to see the Dragon Knight Brigade and the Aincrad Liberation Squad turn on each other in a desperately inciting carnage that would almost certainly make further progress impossible in the future.

Asuna, Kirito, and the vanguard have just passed the boss of the fourth floor when the first two frictions begin between the two guilds leading the climb.

Our protagonists know this all too well no need to argue to beat the death game they were trapped in and then team up with Aincrad’s best informant, Argo, to find a solution.

Before the New Year’s party, Asuna and Kirito discover that some infiltrators want to blow up the celebrations between the two factions, prompting one of them to go to the floor boss alone to get a precious drop.

During their investigation, crucial information will emerge to prevent a clash between the two guilds that could jeopardize the climb to the top floor of the castle. It will still be up to us two swordsmen to remedy situations in the classic Sword Art Online, also aided by an old acquaintance from the film.

We had already seen it in the first chapter, Sword Art Online Progressive: Scherzo of a Deep Night confirms it change size who wanted to be added to the series with the Progressive project.

One of the most popular criticisms of the SAO anime, which has found fertile ground, is that of over-speeding up the part dedicated to Aincrad, distorting a narrative idea that might have deepened the characters and their relationships more .

Experience Aincrad fully

We come to the conclusion of Sword Art Online Progressive: Prank of a Deep Night and say that due to the power struggle of the guild and the PKers,

Scherzo of a Deep Night shows us the first problems facing the thriving society within the video game. Put the basis for the status quo which we see in the main story and explains the origins of the different factions that are prevalent throughout. It’s a solid world building.

On the other hand, we have the most personal side of the story. Similar to Aria of a Starless Night, Scherzo of a Deep Night is Asuna’s story. Not only do we focus heavily on her and Kirito’s growing friendship, but we also see the continuation of her rocky relationship with Mito, her true “one true friend.”

In addition, Asuna spends a lot of screen time trying to find her first friend in the game world, Argo.

While he’s little more than an occasional supporting character in the main series, the movie does a great job of showing how important Argo is to our heroic couple in these early days.

And also, through the relationship between the two girls, we see Asuna continue her growth and change from the lonely and damaged girl to the strong warrior we know and love.

Sadly, while the film’s overall dilemma and Asuna’s character building are both relatively solid,

Scherzo of a deep night is far from perfect. It repeats many of the same character beats already seen and familiar in the previous chapter, especially when it comes to Kirito and Mito, making things more predictable and less emotionally powerful.

It does not matter how good the action sequences areif you can guess every dramatic revelation before it happens, much of the impact is lost.

But let’s not jump to any hasty and wrong conclusions: this movie is really damn good and successful.

The background designs are vibrant and colorful, and the animation is fluid and dynamic throughout. The boss fights in the movie are an absolute highlight, especially the latter which makes heavy use of 3DCG in both the combat and boss design.

This is enhanced by a soundtrack full of classic Sword Art Online music remixes that make things familiar and new at the same time.

In Sword Art Online Progressive, however, in addition to finally Asuna as the protagonist, the story finds a completely different speed. In fact, no more than 4 days pass in the film, which gives us the opportunity to do just that Fully experienced Aincradgive more space to secondary characters and highlight the Isekai/RPG component.

Aincrad is one of the most intriguing locations in the world of Sword Art Online. Progressive thus manages to revive one of the most beloved parts of the franchise and tries to give us a new point of view. All in all, Sword Art Online Progressive Scherzo of a Deep Night isn’t a bad movie, nor is it particularly powerful. It’s just a new chapter that serves as a change of direction.