Sword Art Online recently returned for its third season, and fans have loved how its big premiere introduced a brand new virtual world along with a return to the fan-favorite Gun Gale Online.
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But the fan-service doesn’t end there, as the season premiere featured a cameo from one of the Sword Art Online games, Fatal Bullet.
With the return to Gun Gale Online for the main cast, fans spotted a blink and you’ll miss it cameo of two of the main characters from Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, Zeliska and Kureh. Although the events of Fatal Bullet aren’t considered canon in the main story, this was a fun bit of outside service for fans who have been following every iteration of the series.
This continues with a ranking list that features many recognizable and unrecognizable names like Yamikaze, Musketeer X, Itsuki, and Dyne also appear for a few seconds calling back to different elements of the series. If this wasn’t enough, there’s even a shot of the Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet logo in the background of one of the scenes. That’s more of an advertisement than Easter Egg, however.
While this was a neat shoutout for the game, fans are wondering if the Gun Gale Online spin-off series, Sword Art Online Alternative, will be referenced as well. Surely fans wouldn’t mind seeing Llenn or Pitohui again.
Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet is currently available for purchase for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Sword Art Online: Alicization can currently be found streaming on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu. The series is described as such:
“Where… am I…?” Before he knows it, Kirito has made a full-dive into an epic, fantasy-like virtual world. With only a murky recollection of what happened right before he logged in, he starts to wander around, searching for clues. He comes upon an enormous, pitch dark tree (the Gigas Cedar), where he encounters a boy. “My name is Eugeo. Nice to meet you, Kirito.” Although he is supposedly a resident of the virtual world – an NPC – the boy shows the same array of emotions as any human being.
As Kirito bonds with Eugeo, he continues to search for a way to log out of this world. Meanwhile, he remembers a certain memory deep down within him. He remembers racing through the mountains with Eugeo as a child… A memory that he should not have in the first place… And in this memory, he sees someone other than Eugeo, a young blond girl. Her name is Alice. And it is a name that must never be forgotten…”
Sword Art Online was originally created by Reki Kawahara with illustrations provided by abec. The series follows a boy named Kirito after he and thousands of gamers get trapped in a virtual reality video game known as Sword Art Online. The gamers must band together to defeat the game’s final level to escape, but Kirito and his guild learn there is more behind their prison than they were originally told.
