This Is What IBM’s Sword Art Online VR Game Feels Like

Were you excited about IBM’s Sword Art Online VR experience but disappointed you could not play it yourself? Fans have shared new footage to give you a better idea of what it feels like.

To wrap your head around the concept, Sword Art Online is not a simple fantasy anime, but a show about people playing a fantasy-themed VR MMO, who then find that they cannot log out. In the show, they use a headset called Nervegear, that drops them into a floating castle called Aincrad. The show’s characters then have to ascened the 100 floors of Aincrad and defeat its monsters and bosses to survive.

What IBM did with this concept was make a real-life VR experience for 208 handpicked participants. IBM revealed in their blog that these participants got to use HTC Vive and Oculus Rift headsets in lieu of Nervegear. To demonstrate the power of their Softlayer cloud technology, IBM scanned their participants bodies to represent them in the game, and then had them play out actions using only their hands and feet.

So, knowing the limitations IBM set for themselves, we now know this did not feel like a full game, with clearly defined win and loss conditions. Instead, interactions with the VR world of Sword Art Online The Beginning were designed to increase the feeling of immersion. It was also more of a guided tour, as you can see in these videos that a small fairy akin to Navi in The Legend of Zelda talked to the player throughout the experience.

Here is a clip of a player in the town.

And here is a clip of a player in one of Aincrad’s dungeons.

https://youtu.be/-FF1rUWTCQs

Finally, here’s a clip showing what the players looked like while they were immersed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nccssnWBRuA

You can learn more about Sword Art Online: The Beginning Project here. IBM also made a special promotional video you can watch below.

https://youtu.be/BGw7H-YlGd8