🇸‌🇦‌🇾‌🇳‌🍡さんのイラストまとめ

standalone.

Definitely worth the investment to get into and I had a lot of fun.

enhance your opinion of the books once you have that vivid imagery in your head, but knowing the arc of that book/floor may taint your perception of the movies (it's almost better to treat them as their own things)
But the added Asuna/Mito arc is something that can be appreciated

Movie 1 I would say does Floor 1 a lot of justice while Movie 2 I'd say is lacking in giving it enough impact.

A good read/watch order if you're planning on diving all-in would probably be:

Aria movie
Books 1-3
Scherzo movie
Books 4-8

Reason being I think the movies are likely

If I had to rank the books/movies
(Movie = M ; Volume = V)

V6
V5
V2
V3 = V4 = V8 = M1
V1 (floor 2) = V7
M2
V1 (floor 1)

In terms of "floors" it's probably just easier to say that Floor 6 is my favorite while the others are all pretty solid and unique in their own way.

The relationship between the protagonists and the plot itself are the hugest draws for me though. Game mechanics and the world building just enhance those aspects to make it all come together nicely and super interesting.

Overall:

I'd say this soothes a lot of the claims that many had about the original series/anime.

Kirito isn't edgy cool boy w/ harem.
Asuna isn't a Damsel in distress.
Their relationship is gradual

Game mechanics are well-implementated

World building is Vivid

Plotting is gas

Side characters:

Kizmel and Argo are the best tbh.
Having them active in the plot just makes everything more unique and full of life. They're all very strong as characters even when their arcs are looked at alone as Kizmel's humanity grows & as we peer into Argo's secrets.

Bosses:

While some were skimmed over, the ones that were highly focused on got very prominent and interesting gimmicks that made them all feel like a different challenge from one another. This made them all pretty memorable from one another.