Sword Art Online – Progressive - Volume 6 - Chapter Aft

AFTERWORD 

Thank you for reading Sword Art Online Progressive 6, “Canon of the Golden Rule (End).” 

It feels like this one turned out half as long as the first part again, but that’s probably just my imagination. Anyway, it scares me to think that, in the planning stage, I thought I could tell a story of this length in one book…I honestly have no idea how it got this long! But that would be the boring version of my thoughts on this story, so instead, I’ll jot down some loose reflections. 

As symbolized by masterpieces like Dragon Quest and EverQuest, the concepts of RPG and quest are inseparable. You might say the quest itself is the heart and soul of the RPG. And the format of single-player RPGs always contains your main quest and your subquests. 

But when it comes to MMORPGs, I’ve always felt that the nature of the quest becomes unstable and uncomfortable. As Kirito himself has opined a number of times in the story, you have the same events happening for every player that plays them, the same stories playing out, and this involves some degree of warping the experience—and forcing the narrative to fit the shared world. I’ve always understood that this was unavoidable but felt it wasn’t the ideal way to do things. If there’s one quest out there, shouldn’t only one player be able to complete it? 

I understand that’s practically impossible, of course. But what if, instead of a human scenario writer and programmer, an AI acted like the GM of a tabletop RPG, generating infinite quests and adjusting the story to fit the characters’ actions? Couldn’t the ideal of a story “just for you” become a reality that way? This was a thought I entertained as I wrote this book. I think I managed to stick to my idea of having Kirito and Asuna’s quest go further and further from the baseline scenario due to the interference of PKers and NPCs, but next I want to write a player-centric story! In a single volume this time! 

If I have any regrets, it’s that I wasn’t able to use the puzzle theme of the sixth floor more effectively. Originally, I wanted to provide a number of puzzles throughout the story for you readers to tackle, but I didn’t like the idea of it turning into the kind of book where the reader can choose one of multiple branching paths. If Bandai Namco ever makes SAO into a real VRMMORPG, I’m going to force them to put lots of puzzles in the sixth floor (laughs). 

Finally, my acknowledgments…To my editors, Miki and Adachi, and my illustrator, abec, for really pushing the schedule with my ballooning page count, I offer my sincerest apologies and gratitude! See you on floor seven in Volume 7! 

Reki Kawahara—March 2018