Sword Art Online, commonly known as SAO, was the most popular media mix work of the 2010s. In SAO, players wear a VR machine and play various competitive games in a virtual world. In this work, players enter and fight in various game worlds, including Alvhelm Online, commonly known as ALO, a fantasy work in which players fight with swords and magic in a fairyland, but the hardest and most realistic of these is Gun Gale Online, commonly known as GGO. Unlike other virtual MMOs, GGO is a game in which players fight with guns instead of swords and magic, and the world view is bleak and has few fantasy elements. GGO has the realism of a real gunfight, and here we would like to explain the GGO system.
Characters are automatically generated in Gun Gale Online
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
First of all, in Gun Gale Online, commonly known as GGO, you cannot select or create the character you use. Characters are automatically generated on your own, which is a troublesome (?) system. At this stage, it is nearly impossible to get a character with the appearance you want, so this may be the first hurdle that GGO players encounter.
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
The protagonist Kirito had a hard time when he got a player who looked like a woman during his first dive in GGO, and he was subjected to curious looks from the male players around him. However, the main character of the spin-off, Len, was happy to get the cute girl he wanted. But what do you think about the fact that character generation is automatic and left to chance as a game...? (lol)
The initial cost of "Gun Gale Online" is 1000 credits
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
The first time you dive into GGO, you only have 1000 credits... that is, money. There are almost no weapons that can be bought with 1000, so it seems better to hunt weak monsters to earn money at first. However, in the spin-off, the protagonist, Ren, is approached by his acquaintance M and receives a huge sum of 10 million credits, which he then uses to equip his companion, Fukajiro.
Gun Gale Online: In-game funds can be converted into real money
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
GGO is a game that has gained many fans with its survival worldview, but what excites players just as much is the fact that the money earned in the game can be converted into real-world money. As a result, it is the only virtual MMO game with professional gamers, and top players are said to earn 200,000 to 300,000 yen a month.
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
You can also convert real money into credits in GGO, so the credits Len received from M were real money. Therefore, Fukajiro, convinced that M was rich, started saying that he wanted to marry M, whom he had never met. In the world of GGO, 100 credits is worth 1 yen, so that means that M invested 1 billion yen in Fukajiro. That's a bit of a silly story (lol)
There are two types of guns that can be used in Gun Gale Online
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
The types of guns that can be used in GGO can be broadly divided into two types: bullet guns and optical guns. Realistic guns are guns that exist in reality, so no explanation is needed, but optical guns are guns that shoot light beams and are considered to be particularly useful in fighting monsters. However, there are few scenes in the game where optical guns are used, and they are difficult to use in human-to-human combat because they are easily avoided and damage is mitigated by a protective field.
Random Drop System in Gun Gale Online
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
GGO has a system called random drop, which allows you to randomly obtain one of the items of a defeated player. For this reason, there are many PKs (player killers) in GGO who target players, and many who specialize in PK rather than fighting monsters.
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
This allows players to obtain very rare items from the other player, but the player who has had their item stolen will naturally fear the risk, and so a typical GGO player will not want to fight a strong opponent with little chance of winning.
The two main systems of Gun Gale Online (important)
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
GGO has two systems, one is the "Bullet Circle" and the other is the "Bullet Line". The former is also called offensive system assist, and it changes the size of the aiming circle according to the player's heart rate, and randomly lands the bullet within the circle. This is a convenient feature that allows you to hit a target with a shot that would never hit in real life, as long as it's within the circle.
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
The latter is called defensive system assist, and it shows the trajectory to the player, so depending on the evasion ability, it is possible to avoid any gunfire. This predicted trajectory line is displayed as a red line, and if you can move your body away from it, the bullet will not hit you. This system is advantageous for players with high agility, as players with the evasive abilities of Kirito and Len can expect a high evasion rate.
Gun Gale Online: A surprisingly simple system that gets you excited
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
I've introduced the system of Gun Gale Online, but when you look at it like this, it's a surprisingly simple game system. Regarding the "bullet circle," M says in the story that even poor shooting can lead to hitting the target depending on the circle, so it has the downside of dulling your real gun skills. However, this is irrelevant to the average Japanese person who never uses a gun.
Source: Gun Gale Online © Keiichi Sigsawa/KADOKAWA ASCII Media Works/GGO Project
As for "Bullet Line," the trajectory can be predicted to some extent, so it is less realistic than a real gunfight, but the game-like presentation of avoiding bullets by using agility is appealing. In fact, the highly agile characters Kirito and Len dodging bullets is hard to imagine in real life, but as a creative work it was fun and impressive.
