Experience SAO in VR
Boom Boom Online is a free adventure video game wherein you can enjoy a glimpse into the world of Aincrad. Developed by realJasony or simply Jason, this indie virtual reality game is a reconstruction of the first VR world featured in the hit sci-fi adventure anime series, Sword Art Online.
Similar to the SAO world in VRChat, Boom Boom Online displays familiar sights related to the series. However, it’s in active development so the playable features are limited and it’s only available on the Oculus headset. Plus, it often has either downloading or performance issues.
An attempt on recreating SAO
Sword Art Online, also known as SAO, is a 2002 Japanese light novel and anime series written by Reki Kawahara and illustrated by abec. Its story revolves around the disastrous launch day of an awaited virtual reality MMORPG, as 10,000 players suddenly find themselves trapped inside the VR mind space and in real danger of dying in the real world if they’re not careful in the virtual world.
The success of the series eventually led to it expanding to numerous story arcs about other VR worlds and getting official video games for different platforms. However, none have really managed to accurately recreate the popular anime on VR yet. Thus, this is where Boom Boom Online comes in, which is an ambitious project on its own. Here, you can play as the protagonist Kirito and wield his iconic swords.
The game is being actively developed so the features available aren’t as vast or as fleshed out yet. There’s a working combat system, with some enemies you can defeat. The inventory menu displays your stats and items. You can also explore a bit of the starting area in the anime. However, there are no quests or multiplayer modes, and the in-game assets aren’t accurate to their anime counterparts.
Needs a lot of love
All in all, Boom Boom Online strives to be a playable version of Sword Art Online but it still has a long way to go and requires a lot more support from its fans. While you can fight and explore the available area well enough, a good chunk of the systems aren’t implemented just yet so it can be pretty barebones. You can always support the developer via Patreon, though.
