The original series was missing a lot of this because it had skipped a lot of events. The best thing in Progressive is the character development. The covers also show the characters that are going to be the main focus of each volume. It helps to bring the environment and atmosphere into focus as well as the character. The pull page art in each volume are well drawn with details in the background instead of just a character focused piece of art. The characters are depicted in a way that makes them appear similar to the anime. It is possible to start reading from book two and be able to understand most of the situation along with some character relationships. Each volume functions as a stand alone story as well.

They show how Kirito obtains his Anneal Blade and how Kirito learns hand to hand combat skills. What differs from the original is that they cover most of the story events from each floor (currently up to floor 3). Kirito is one of 10,000 players trapped in a game called 'Sword Art Online' and in order for the players to escape, they must go to the 100th floor and beat The story in SAO: Progressive is exactly the same as the original. Luckily, the book is also written in a way that allows you to jump in at any point.

It attempts to cover all the events that happened in SAO in the order that it happened from the 1st floor all the way up to when they finally clear the game. Sword Art Online: Progressive is an alternative version of the main SAO story.

Sword art online progressive volume 9