Splat SAO AU
Very delayed but let’s go.
Not taking SAO’s timeline and story, just the simple concept.
VR technology is advanced enough to take people’s dreams into a whole new realm and splatoon has been developed to be compatible with the technology.
The new game goes fantastic at first, people come and go, the BETA gets fantastic reception, everyone is having fun being squids n kids until the Full Version is finally open to the public and just like in SAO we get to see the masterplan of keeping everyone inside.
A ‘social experiment’ they call it. Imagine a Tartar-like villain just trapping everyone inside.
But I suppose the game as we know it would be different. What would be the end goal? Who really knows. People would be lost, try make up their own goals.
Except nothing works.
Now not to make the whole thing entirely depressing, dying in matches is always going to happen. Let’s give them all three lives. Confused at first, since this is a new feature in the game and never seen in the previous ones, they ignore it at first. They’d just be out of the game right? Well, not entirely.
After the first day of squids not coming back to life from the respawners panic sets in, and a new announcement is published to explain how the system works.
“You have three lives a game. If you die the fourth time, you die for real.”
There would be an immediate stop to every splat match other than for people who disregard the warning. Only more perish from their stupidity.
And the week is dreary, everyone is lost, groups are being formed and brave souls set out to explore the areas until they come across the bounds of what we know as ‘Hero Mode’.
Immediately the new event triggers, and areas of Inkopolis lose power from stolen zapfish. Suddenly there are sign ups for agents, with the promise that the most successful agents will be granted the Promised Land (aka, back to the real world)
But here the world only grants one (1) life, and the hero course goes from being easy, to extremely difficult. The levels meshed with the underground test facilities, where players continuously retrieve zapfish, perform tests with specials, try to survive the treacherous levels designed for them to fail. Whether through teamwork, or alone.
There could be a ton of layers to this as well.
For example how the hero mode really requires control over the new squidkid body, prowess and stamina. And to have those well you need to be good at your weapon, and dodging. And to do that you need to use turfs wars to improve.So in tun players attempt to develop a strike system for turf/ranked so that no one dies. Though there are always hardcore players.
There could be factions/teams created specifically to cause havoc with the ideal that if they get to the top they’ll be granted freedom.
In the Kamabo facility what if the perished inklings were used for experiments? To create true horrors with brain data downloaded through the VR headset and uploaded straight into the game? Imagine the horrors.
And what if, when the players start to lose hope, where the number of dead agents to living ones is 7:3, weeks into the game, a championship is announced with the promise of the Promised Land for the winners? Imagine the uproar, the infighting.
The rest of the players who don’t want to die try to live a ‘normal’ life in inkopolis, trying to scrounge up money to live and support literal children who joined the game too. Would anarchy start? Would people fight to be in positions on power over the public? Would they form their own police force? Some way to stop murderous players from participating?
It’s up to interpretation~