ALFHEIM ONLINE RPG

BASICS: ALfheim Online (abbreviated as ALO) is a Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG) that was released a year after the beginning of the Sword Art Online incident (where millions of people were trapped and doed in the VR world). The game features nine races of fairies, whose goal is to reach the top of the giant World Tree, in order to meet the Fairy King Oberon. It was said that Oberon would turn the first starting race to reach the top of the World Tree into the legendary race of ALFs, with the ability to fly for unlimited time, but this later proved to be a lie. Once ALO was acquired by Ymir, unlimited flight, except in dungeons, was granted to all fairy races.

BACKGROUND: ALfheim Online pursues skill development and encourages killing other players. This kind of system attempts to eliminate the enormous gap between new and old players that exists in level-based games. After Argus went bankrupt due to the Sword Art Online incident, its servers and data were acquired by RECT Progress Inc. and used to create the VRMMORPG ALfheim Online. ALO is loosely based on both fairy lore and Norse mythology, drawing elements from other legends for its setting as well.

SYSTEM: The system makes the player choose one of nine races of fairies for their avatar, each with different abilities and affinities toward magic. Unlike Sword Art Online's system, the player has their game avatar created randomly and only have the freedom to choose their avatar name and select the race of the character. However, for an extra fee, players can reconstruct their characters to their liking. The sex of the player's avatar will match the player's sex in real life by default, and the player cannot change it by any means. Skills are developed by the player's own abilities and by repeating them over and over, so a new player with good skills can match a veteran player almost evenly in battle. The game is famous for being the first game to allow the player to fly for real. It uses a flight engine to enable the player to fly. The flight system also focuses on the player's own ability. It has a "controlled flight" mode, in which the players make use of a controller to fly, at the cost of being able to use only one hand to fight, but, with enough experience and ability, the player is able to learn «Voluntary Flight» and, with it, can use both hands while flying and gains more maneuverability and speed. In this world, the currency is called Yord.

VR EXPERIENCE: As ALO is based on the core programming of SAO as a complete virtual reality MMORPG, the ALO system is capable of rendering the entire ALfheim environment with incredible realism, extremely similarly to the level of SAO. By stimulating nerves in the brain, it is possible to taste food, feel the wind and weather, move one's body, and live in ALO as if it were an alternate reality. However, there are several major differences that set the ALO environment apart from the real-world experience. First, no pain is actually felt in any situation due to a feature called «Pain Absorption». As a result, gamers can undergo severe injuries and still only feel a tingling sensation. Though certain stimulation, such as magical explosions, can result in negative feedback, like headaches and dizziness that last for several hours. Second, there is no blood; in its place are orange virtual gashes that are seen in the place of damage. Third, magic is implemented to produce a variety of effects, with the incantations being based on strings of words.

While playing ALfheim Online, gamers still feel fatigue and hunger (even if their real bodies are not hungry), yet they can also eat in-game to dispel hunger in the real world, which has developed into a form of dieting for some people as a result.

Death or deletion in the game is visualized by fragmentation into thousands of polygon shards. All monsters and items go through such a process. However, players go through a different death scenario: they are engulfed in flames and then leave a Remain Light which lingers for a set amount of time, during which the player can still observe his or her surroundings and be revived with magic or special items. If a player is defeated in combat, they are reduced to pixels and will respawn in the capital of their race's territory.

ALfheim Online has a «Moral Code» feature similar to that of SAO, however they are not exactly the same and ALO's cannot be disabled.

SETTING: The original ALfheim Online was set in the continent of Alfheim, which was divided into territories, the main ones consisting of racial territories and the minor or smaller ones being controlled by neutral players. At the center of the land was the neutral city of Alne, which was at the base of the World Tree.

Upon the release of New ALO after the scandal generated by Sugou Nobuyuki, a patch was later included to introduce New Aincrad, the floating castle, to ALfheim.

The original basis of ALO is that of a land of faeries, which seek an audience with the king, Oberon. ALO draws material for its setting from a wide range of mythologies, including the Arthurian Excalibur and Norse mythology. Instances of Norse mythology references include the naming of the nine worlds of Alfheim, such as Jötunheimr, the presence of Aesir deities from the Norse forum, such as Thor, Urðr, Verdandi, and Skuld, as well as quests based on Norse mythology, such as The Holy Sword of the Ice Palace.

GAMEPLAY: Upon first signing in to ALO, a player must first select a race, each of which has special attributes and skills unique to their race; however, the appearance of the selected character is randomized. Customization of the visual aspects of the character are allowed later on, but every change requires an additional fee. After the race is selected, they will be spawned in the race's hometown.

RACES:

Cait Sith (Cat fairy family): Skilled beast tamers with improved eyesight. They are recognizable through their cat ears and tails. Their capital is Freelia.

Gnome (Earth fairy family"): Largest fairy race and users of the earth. They are styled in brown. Their capital is Legrue

Imp (Dark fairy family"): Masters of night, great night vision. They are styled in purple. Their capital is Nightrel inside the Twilight Mountain

Leprechaun ("Blacksmith fairy family"): Blacksmith race, their wings have a mechanical appearance. Their capital is Hevatus

Pooka ("Music fairy race"): Users of music which is used to confuse, attack, or support. Their capital is Muscalii

Salamander ("Fire fairy race"): Considered the strongest race in terms of attack, they have superior fire spells and are styled in red. Their capital is Gattan

Spriggan ("Shadow fairy family"): Masters of illusion and treasure seeking. They are styled in black. Their capital is the Hollow Ruins

Sylph ("Wind fairy family"): Considered the fastest race and users of wind, they are denoted by the color green regularly. Their capital is the Swilvane.

Undine ("Water fairy family"): Healers and masters of water. They are styled in blue. Their capital is the Undersea Temple

COMBAT: Combat in ALO contains multiple elements and strategies. With the introduction of flight, it allows for duels to take place in aerial battles or on the ground. In the original incarnation of ALfheim Online combat was either between players or monsters, and, since there were no Sword Skills, combat consisted of either sword swings or magical attacks. It was noted that general combat involved just the trading of strikes and that high-speed battles

In the newer version of ALfheim Online, the introduction of features such as sword skills and the creation of the Original Sword Skill system allowed for combat to diversify, and duels could be set to be either flying or ground duels. Duels, like in Sword Art Online, are of three types: first strike, half-life, or total victory. Total victory being the kind where one player loses all his life to the other player or if one of the players resign.

When a player dies, they will become a Remain Light and lose some of their stat progress. The attacker will also receive some of the killed player's items and currency. If a player dies due to a self destruct magic, they will suffer a much greater death penalty than for normal deaths.

Monster battles are the same as those in Sword Art Online, with the difference of including magic and the absence of Sword Skills in the original incarnation.