The light novel adaptation of the anime series Sword Art Online (SAO) quickly became a fan favorite. The series has progressed from the NerveGear death game “Sword Art Online” to the Augma augmented reality game “Ordinal Scale.” From the first season onwards, and especially in the film adaptation, viewers see the characters put through their paces in a number of different gaming worlds. Characters with varying strengths and abilities have emerged from its many gaming settings.
Virtual reality massively multiplayer online games mix fiction and reality. This allows for the portrayal of a wide range of personalities, each with their own set of talents and expertise. Each character in the Sword Art Online series has its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses, and these disparities are reflected in their respective degrees of ability.
Updated September 3, 2024 by Oluwatokiloba Folami: The Sword Art Online anime series is well known for its portrayal of epic battles and powerful characters. From the protagonists, Kirito, the black swordsman, who manages to overcome any obstacle and adversary with sheer skill and tenacity, to Asura, who’s well known for her lightning-quick sword attacks, these characters have shown immense skill and frightening attacks.
However, the protagonists in the Sword Art Online anime series aren’t the only characters who are well-versed in fighting in VRMMORPGs. Whether it be supporting characters like Yui to more morally gray characters like Bercouli, these characters have shown that when it’s time to go all out, they are a force to be reckoned with.
15 Yui
Being AI Makes Her Immune To Most In-Game Effects
- First Appearance: Episode 11
Yui was initially created to help with the mental health of Sword Art Online players due to it being the first VRMMORPG. However, with Sword Art Online turning into a death game, Yui was blocked from performing her duties as players were left to either succumb to various mental stresses in-game or overcome them. Due to various malfunctions, Yui took the form of a little girl and forgot her primary purpose. Eventually, Kirito and Asuna adopted her.
As an entity tied to the core programming of the game, Yui possesses Game Master rights and is no different from Administrator, only that she doesn’t seek to control everyone and everything. What makes Yui particularly powerful is that she’s not bound by in-game rules and operates outside it.
14 Bercouli
A Knight That Pierces Even Through Time
- First Appearance: Alicization Episode 01
The leader of the Integrity Knights, Bercouli Synthesis One is known as the oldest Integrity Knight and remains one of the very strongest. As a knight, Bercouli has lived for a very long time but had his memories sealed, making him forget most of his past. However, in Rulid village, the legend about Bercouli facing a white dragon persists.
In terms of abilities, Bercouli uses the Time Piercing Sword, and with it, can slash both the future and the past. His attentiveness, mastery, composure, and pure physical ability make him a true master. With his ability to slash even outside of time, affecting cause and effect, Bercouli has proven his strength.
13 Leafa
- First Appearance: Episode 1
The famous Kirigaya Kazuto, known more popularly as the Black Swordsman, has a cousin who was raised as his sister. After Kirito’s encounter with Sword Art Online, Kirigaya Suguha decided to join in on VRMMORPG games. Whether dexterity and skill run in their family’s genes or Leafa is simply just as much of a prodigy as Kirito, the female warrior has proven herself.
As a Sylph warrior, Leafa is well-versed in the wind attribute and uses it beautifully. While her sword skills are top-notch, her tenacity and regeneration abilities, as shown while using the Terraria account during the War of Underworld astounded many.
12 Oberon
The Major Antagonist Of Alfheim Online
- First Appearance: Episode 15
Unlike many other Sword Art Online characters, Sugou Nobuyuki didn’t possess incredible skill or tenacity but still had incredible power, all thanks to him running the account of Fairy King Oberon as the creator of Alfheim Online. With the Fairy King and administrator abilities, Oberon could do whatever he wanted.
Unfortunately for the Fairy King, Kirito could also access administrator privileges thanks to Kayaba Akihiko’s legacy and Yui, leveling the playing field. Despite giving Oberon the strongest weapon in-game, he could barely do anything against Kirito and could only swing recklessly. While Kirito was able to best Oberon, ordinary players could not stand up to him with the system on his side, as he even had Asuna imprisoned.
11 Heathcliff
With The System At His Beck And Call, Heathcliff Was Untouchable
- First Appearance: Episode 1
The creator of the Sword Art Online VRMMORPG, Kayaba Akihiko, was so enamored with virtual reality that he designed a game to trap people in it, himself included. Once in the game, Kayaba took on the persona of Heathcliff and achieved many notable feats. He founded the Knights of the Blood Oaths, and as the guild leader, he was known as the strongest player in-game. With his holy sword and liberator shield, Heathcliff’s life bar was known to have never entered the yellow range, meaning his life had never been put in danger.
While many adored him, Heathcliff was finally revealed to be the game master of Sword Art Online, which granted him many privileges, explaining many of his inhumane feats. While powerful, Heathcliff was weaker than Kirito without the system at his beck and call, and fortunately for the players trapped in Sword Art Online, the Black Swordsman put him down.
10 Death Gun
The Mystery Surrounding Death Gun Made Him Widely Feared
- First Appearance: Season 2, Episode 9
Rather than a person, Death Gun is a group that came together to orchestrate killing avatars in Gun Gale Online while also killing their real-life personas, all to make it seem like dying by Death Gun’s hand in-game would kill a player in real life.
While known as a single person, Death Gun comprises the brothers Shinkawa Shouichi and Shinkawa Kyouji, who came together to instill fear in others. Kyouji was the one who orchestrated the deaths of players in real life and did so by using succinylcholine, a muscle relaxant, to stop the hearts of his victims by injecting their real-life bodies while they were in the game online. Meanwhile, Shouichi, a former member of Laughing Coffin, went around killing players in the game. With his skills from Sword Art Online, very few players could give Shouchi a run for his money.
9 Sinon
Few Could Face This Sniper And Come Out On Top, Whether She Used A Rifle Or A Bow
- First Appearance: Season 2, Episode 1
At a young age, Sinon, known in real life as Asada Shino, was involved in a robbery incident and became traumatized by guns. Taking the advice of a friend, Sinon started playing Gun Gale Online to get over her phobia of guns, and from then on, she became a living legend.
With her avatar name Sinon and her signature Hecate II sniper rifle, Sinon became a renowned sniper feared by many. After resolving the Death Gun incident with Kirito, Sinon went on to become the co-winner of the third Bullet of Bullets championship (the largest PvP tournament in Gun Gale Online) and came in second in the fourth tournament. After the Death Gun incident, Sinon became particularly close with Kirito and has assisted him in various other virtual reality games since. Whether it be as a sniper or an archer, Sinon has always showcased her talent for long-range accuracy.
8 Eugeo
Kirito Thought Of The Deuteragonist In Alicization
- First Appearance: Alicization Episode 01
In Alicization, Eugeo played the role of deuteragonist in the second story arc by becoming Kirito’s best friend. Eugeo was raised in the underworld by Kirito, who taught him to use a sword, and who has a good heart. Eugeo is a formidable swordsman.
Blue Rose Sword was a divine-level weapon that Eugeo used. Bercouli Synthesis One, leader of the Integrity Knights and possessor of a time-piercing sword, fell to it and was thus defeated.
7 Asuna
With Her Epithet, Lightning Flash Asuna, Most Don’t See Her Attacks Coming
- First Appearance: Episode 01
One of the series’ main protagonists, Asuna plays a pivotal role in the Sword Art Online series. When SAO became a deadly game, she, along with many other characters, became trapped within its virtual world. Constantly risking her life in battle served to hone her swordsmanship. Lightning Flash Asuna is a name she was given since her swordsmanship is based more on speed than strength.
During the first season of Sword Art Online, Asuna served as vice commander of the top guild, the Knights of the Blood Oaths. As a result, she became more well-known among gamers, and her abilities were recognized by all.
6 Eiji
In The Ordinal Scale VRMMORPG, Only Kirito Could Match Eiji
- First Appearance: Ordinal Scale
Eiji (formerly known as Nautilus), a former member of the Knights of the Blood Oath guild led by Heathcliff (Kayaba Akihiko), wasn’t as powerful as one may think. But in the augmented reality game Ordinal Scale, he quickly rose to the position of number two player.
Eiji may have been a formidable SAO warrior, but he was paralyzed by his fear of death and never reached his full potential as a combatant. In Ordinal Scale, where he formerly faced certain death, Eiji is now a formidable foe. In addition, Eiji (Nautilus) managed to temporarily halt PoH’s advance.
5 Alice
The Goddess Of Creation Created Alice’s Sword As The First Immortal Object
- First Appearance: Alicization Episode 01
Alice was friends with Eugeo and Kirito when they were kids, but after she became an Integrity Knight, she forgot them. Alice Synthesis Thirty was her name when she was an honorable knight. She was a powerful Integrity Knight, right alongside Bercouli, who claimed he didn’t know who was stronger.
Alice was unstoppable on the battlefield thanks to her divine class object, the Fragrant Olive Sword. Because it was the first thing the Goddess of Creation had ever made that would live forever, the Fragrant Olive Sword possessed unfathomable strength. With it, Alice single-handedly destroyed thousands of Emperor Vecta’s dark army, forcing his generals to sacrifice civilians to generate magical powers.
4 Quinella
With Knowledge And Power, The Administrator Sought Immortality
- First Appearance: Alicization Episode 02
For good reason, Quinella, better known by her alias Administrator, is one of the most formidable characters in Sword Art Online. Quinella, the senior priest of the Axiom Church, had witnessed the development of humanity over the course of many centuries. But she wanted more; she wanted to live forever. To ensure that her laws were followed everywhere, Quinella established a system of Integrity Knights. Kirito finally put an end to her reign of deceit and scheming as she sought immortality.
Her fight with Kirito demonstrated her great strength since Kirito needed Eugeo’s assistance to ultimately prevail. In the process of fighting her to the death, he lost one arm in a savage exchange of blows.
3 PoH
An Ex-Member Of Laughing Coffin, Sadistic To An Extreme Degree
- First Appearance: Episode 06
Back when SAO was a death game, PoH formed the notorious guild Laughing Coffin, which became notorious for its mass murder of various characters. He is a sadist who will exploit anyone to further his ends. He ratted out his guild, Laughing Coffin, to the clearers (capture groups made up of Elite players), intending to turn the Clearers, and Kirito in particular, into killers.
PoH won a frontal assault against Asuna, Eiji, and other famous players despite assassination being his specialty. On the battlefield, he was nearly unstoppable with his Mate Chopper, a dagger like a kitchen knife that became larger and more powerful when an aura of death pervaded the region, as in the second part of the Alicization arc.
2 Gabriel Miller
Gabriel Proved Stubbornly Powerful Until The Very End
- First Appearance: Alicization Episode 01
Gabriel Miller went by several monikers before he was revealed to be the Alicization arc’s final adversary. Previously, he had roles as the antagonist Subtilizer in Gun Gale Online (GGO), and then the antagonist Emperor Vecta in Alicization. With Emperor Vecta’s downfall, Gabriel logged into his subtilizer account and engaged in a fierce battle with Kirito, nearly putting him out of commission.
Kirito used the lethal talent Starburst Stream with two sacred rank swords in the decisive battle against Subtilizer. Despite this, Subtilizer remained resistant to defeat until the ghost of Eugeo helped Kirito launch a final attack that finally killed him.
1 Kirito
The Black Swordsman Is Widely Renowned Across Various VRMMORPGs
- First Appearance: Episode 01
Kirito’s strength has always been his ability to adapt to new virtual reality games. Instantly, he is regarded as the game’s best player by his peers. Kirito takes on a wide variety of foes for entertainment and lifesaving purposes using his signature dual-wielding skill. Many people in SAO seek to prove themselves against Kirito because of his reputation as the “Black Swordsman.”
After constantly fighting for his life in SAO, Kirito has learned to take no prisoners and give his opponents everything he’s got. The constant threat to his loved ones just fuels his desire to succeed at all costs.
