Sword Art Online: Variant Showdown mobile game announced

Sword Art Online: Variant Showdown is a new mobile game announced for the popular light novel and anime series, one meant to celebrate its tenth anniversary. Its first trailer can be seen below:

Considering it has an English trailer and official website, we should be able to assume Sword Art Online: Variant Showdown is pretty much confirmed for a simultaneous global release. Pre-registrations are likewise open, with rewards up to 500,000 users. The rewards listed are:

• 100,000: 5 x Stamina Battery (S), 30 x EXP Chip (L)
• 200,000: [ Will to Fight ] Asuna x 1
• 300,000: 3 x Coloring Brush
• 400,000: 20 x [ Will to Fight ] Evolution Crystal
• 500,000: 5 x Premium Ticket

There aren’t much details besides it being an action game, and presumably coming out in 2022 going by the vague “Link Start 2022” caption. The official website is mostly barebones, but the story overview is given as follows:

“Have you heard of Cross Edge?”

It’s a title Kirito has heard before.
A game which has attracted a lot of attention from players, not least because it was supposedly designed by a middle school genius.

One day at the Dicey Café, Kirito hears two rumors about Cross Edge.
The first: There’s a mysterious player who attacks out of nowhere.
Losing to them means losing a portion of your own memories.
The second: This player goes around wearing a hood pulled low to hide their eyes…

Kirito can’t help but recall Laughing Coffin, the player-killer guild he faced in SAO.
In part to investigate these rumors, Kirito and his friends begin playing Cross Edge… and are soon targeted in a surprise attack.

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