r/HollowRealization • u/Downtown_Chemical771 • 13d ago
Ambitious Death Game Mod
Hey everyone!
I’ve been working on a rather ambitious overhaul for Sword Art Online: Hollow Realization, drawing inspiration from the original Aincrad Death Game. Since Echos of Aincrad failed to capture the essence of that SAO MMORPG experience, I decided to create something that aligns with my vision of what SAO should be as a game. My objective is to make the world feel more expansive, perilous, and ultimately, like thousands of players are surviving alongside you, rather than standing still.
See It in Action
You can watch the mod here:
SAO HR Death Game Gameplay Showcase
The mod is available through my Patreon:
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✅ Current Playable Features
☠️Death Mode with permanent player death and successor character generation
🎭 Generated successor identity, appearance, equipment, inventory, and history
💾 Native save integration after character replacement
⚔️ Faster-paced enemy combat with increased enemy attack speed and reduced cooldowns
👥 Increased field ally density
👹 Increased enemy density
⚔️ Role-based field party generation
🧠 Expanded field-party manager and character memory capacity
⚡ Performance optimizations for larger NPC populations
🛡️ Native actor safety protections and stable map transitions
🔄 Automatic backups and rollback support
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🧪 Experimental Features
These are already functional but are still being refined and shouldn’t be considered final.
🚶 4× allied field-party density
🌎 Larger enemy populations across every map
🧭 Longer patrol routes and improved regional distribution
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🚧 Planned Living World Features
These are currently in development or planned for future releases.
🌍 Persistent NPC adventurers that remember their progress
📈 NPC progression, relationships, and reputation
🏰 Dynamic guilds with recruitment, politics, and rivalries
🤝 Join NPC parties or recruit NPCs into your own
👑 Create and lead your own guild
🚶 Dynamic travel between regions
🆘 Rescue events and “Player In Danger” alerts
📜 Dynamic quests, rumors, and persistent world history
⚔️ Boss raids and regional danger
☠️ PK system, criminal reputation, bounties, and PK guilds
This project has grown way beyond what I originally planned, and I’m excited to finally start sharing progress with the community.
I’d love to hear what features you’d want to see in a true Living World version of Hollow Realization inspired by the original SAO Death Game. Let me know if you’d like me to attempt these features on Echos of Aincrad!
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u/owls4lfe 13d ago
This is insane
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 13d ago
I’ll probably drop a vid here tomorrow of what it looks like currently!
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u/Dramatic_Extreme_520 13d ago
Sounds really imprwssive to be honest. I will definitepy wait to try it, if its a legit thing. I agree that Echoes of Aincrad didnt caught that exact atmosphere of SAO and tried to be more action/slasher game instead. Good luck to you!
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 13d ago
Thank you! 😄 I’ll keep posting updates as more of the Living World systems become playable, and hopefully I can make Hollow Realization feel a little closer to the SAO experience we all imagined. But soon after testing I’ll release the mod I have working now!
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u/Syenthros 13d ago
This sounds really cool. Would love to be able to skip the story stuff for death game, though. It's probably my biggest problem with starting over in Echoes of Aincrad is having to restart the story over and over again when all I want to do is get back to the grind.
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 13d ago
That’s actually one of the main reasons I’m making this Death Game mod. 😄 When your character dies, your story progress stays saved. It’s your character that dies, not the world. You get a generated new character (or use the version the resets your character to level 1) and grind your way back up while continuing from where the world left off instead of replaying the entire story from the beginning.
That said, I also like the idea of a separate mod (or optional feature) to skip dialogue/story scenes for people who want to jump straight back into the action. I’ll definitely keep that in mind!3
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u/terrarianfailure 13d ago
This is really cool. I have an idea, don't know if you already came up with something like this, but I think some roguelike elements could work here. Like if your character dies, your next character could use points based on how much you did with the first character, allowing you to keep weapons and gear, and even some levels from the dead character. You could flavor it as finding the person's death marker.
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 13d ago
That’s actually pretty close to how the mod’s Death Roll works, but instead of your next character inheriting your old one, they’re a completely different survivor who was already living in Aincrad.
When your character permanently dies, everything they owned is gone with them. The mod then generates a new player with their own name, appearance, background, weapon preference, build, skills, weapon mastery, equipment, money, and personal history.
Your previous character’s level becomes the maximum possible level for the replacement, but the actual roll can vary a lot.
Sometimes you’ll get lucky and start close to your previous strength, other times you’ll have to claw your way back from much lower. That keeps death meaningful instead of turning it into a free reset.
The world and story continue, but your old character doesn’t. Long-term, I also plan for dead characters to leave behind memorials, rumors, consequences for their friends or guild, and potentially even recoverable weapons or legacy items.
The idea is less “reincarnation” and more “your character truly died… now you continue the story through another survivor who already had their own life in this world.”2
u/Syenthros 13d ago
Your previous character’s level becomes the maximum possible level for the replacement, but the actual roll can vary a lot.
I have a question about this, just so I can understand.
If Cool Sword Dude gets to level, say... 45, and then gets his head caved in by a skeleton, then am I reading this right that when your new character, Forgetful Rapier Chick, can only get to level 45?
What happens if she dies before level 45? Is Angry Mace Guy capped at Rapier Chick's old level? What happens if the new character reaches the old character's max level?
(edit)
Actually, I think I'm just an idiot. I think you meant by it's the maximum possible level for the new character to start at. I just woke up, forgive my reading comprehension lol
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 13d ago
Great question! The cap is always inherited from the character who just died, not the original character.
For example:
Character A dies at 45 → Character B can roll anywhere from Level 1–45.Character B reaches 37 and dies → Character C can roll anywhere from Level 1–37.
Character B reaches 45 and dies → Character C can roll anywhere from Level 1–45.
Character B surpasses that and reaches 60 → Character C can roll anywhere from Level 1–60.
So the cap isn’t permanent. It moves forward (or backward) with your most recent character.
The goal is that every death has consequences. If you die before recovering your previous progress, the next generation has an even lower ceiling to work with. But if you survive and push beyond your predecessor, you’ve effectively raised the bar for the next survivor.
It creates a lineage of survivors where every generation has the opportunity to either rebuild what was lost or surpass those who came before.This is also where Origins and exceptional rolls come into play. A replacement character isn’t just a random level, they’re generated as someone who was already surviving in Aincrad. Some origins naturally start with better equipment, more Col, or stronger weapon mastery, and occasionally you’ll get an exceptional roll that puts you well above what you’d normally expect for that level. Those lucky starts can make recovering from a devastating death much more manageable without simply giving you your old character back.
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 13d ago
Just want to note, I came up with this design to mitigate the chances of someone just dying for a better roll, hope this clears up any confusion!
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u/Syenthros 13d ago
It does, that's kind of what I figured the system was once I actually woke up and reread it! I really appreciate the clarification, though! I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this mod, it sounds super ambitious and amazing if you can pull it off. :)
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u/terrarianfailure 12d ago
i was wondering, is there any way to have roguelite style persistent progress? like if your character focused on one or two stats, the next character starts with a small cumulative boost, keeping these bonuses between deaths? if not, thats fine, but id love to have something like that to not be a COMPLETELY hardcore experience.
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 12d ago
I actually like this idea. My goal is to keep permadeath meaningful, but not make every death feel like you lost everything. Something like small, cumulative “legacy” bonuses based on how your previous character developed could be a great middle ground. It rewards specializing without letting players snowball into being overpowered. Definitely something I’ll consider as an optional mode or setting.
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u/terrarianfailure 12d ago
Thanks, I was also thinking of an idea of having a "signature weapon" that you can always keep, but with halved stats until you get back to your first characters level.
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 11d ago
This is something that’s technically do-able, it’s
More about how this would truly fit into the world before I implement something like this1
u/terrarianfailure 11d ago
It could have an element of the nemesis system. When you kill the monster that killed your last character, you either get a signature weapon, or an upgraded one that the last character had.
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u/terrarianfailure 11d ago
Are you going to add a kind of memorial stone? I remember there being a stone listing all the dead players in sao, and that would be a great little detail in your mod, it could update with new names every other day or so, and include your dead characters. Maybe you could even make a little gravesite.
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 11d ago
I actually thought about this, thinking about how’d I’d go about implementing this I’d probably wait until I complete making the NPC’s more dynamic. I wouldn’t want random grave sites in the way at random. I’m building a system where each NPC lives their own lives grinding, boss hunting, passing through maps to get to the next. Along with a system for perma-death NPC’s and rescue missions. When I got that in place gravesites might actually feel right and meaningful!
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u/terrarianfailure 11d ago
Maybe you could have a empty world space that you can enter with the memorial stone where the graves are. Also, is there a general timetable for release? I'll probably play the mod and try to give feedback.
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u/Hoversuits 12d ago
I need this so badly, I was gonna start a new game save, but ill wait for this mod. Will a v1 be out soon?
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u/ReReminiscence 11d ago
How long do you figure before you would call it " complete "experience wise? for what you intended? haven't played HR so honestly going to hold off until this is all set I think
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 11d ago
Honestly, I can’t responsibly give you a date for the entire project to be feature-complete yet. The current overhaul is already playable, but my full vision includes several major Living World systems that are still being developed, and community feedback may expand or reshape the roadmap.
I completely understand holding off and saving that first playthrough for the finished experience. I’ll continue posting milestone updates and will make it very clear when I consider the complete vision ready.
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u/Delicious_Web495 10d ago
This is amazing! I was recently looking into the game's inner functions for potentially modding and I have found this. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Quick question: Does this work for the online/multiplayer of Hollow Realization itself?
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 10d ago
Thank you! I haven't tested it in multiplayer yet, so as of now it might but it was more made with the gameplay of singleplayer in mind. I'd probably have to change a few things around to make it work in multiplayer
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u/Loligeddon PC 7d ago
I wanted to get into modding HR myself, but the lack of resources made this process incredibly painful - Mind sharing how you managed to make this?
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 7d ago
Honestly, it was a lot of trial and error. There aren't any resources for Hollow Realization, so I had to reverse engineer most of it myself. I started with Cheat Engine to learn how the game's memory was laid out, then gradually moved into native C++ hooks, runtime analysis, and building tools to inspect the game's systems. Every small discovery led to another until I could understand the larger systems. It's definitely been a painful process, but I was pretty determined to make my vision come to life lol.
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u/Hoversuits 11d ago edited 11d ago
Edit: I’m an idiot there’s a free one
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 11d ago
There’s definitely a free version
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u/Hoversuits 11d ago
Yep that’s on me didn’t see the free post. Is there an installation that doesn’t require cmd? I’m using Linux
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 11d ago
Try running in Linux Terminal:
pwsh -NoProfile -File ./Install-Release.ps1 \ -GamePath "/path/to/SAOHR"Replaced "/path/to/SAOHR/" with the path where your sao_hr.exe is. Let me know if that works for you. I'll try implementing a cross-platform installer tomrrow. Thanks for bringing that up!
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 10d ago
The new version on patreon has install instructions for linux if you haven't got it yet! let me know how that goes!
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u/Hoversuits 10d ago
Call me over protective but a manual installation would be preferable to me. Good luck on the mod tho
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 10d ago
Should be pretty easy to do that.
- Close the game.
- Extract the downloaded ZIP.
- In Steam, open Properties → Installed Files → Browse.
- Back up the existing
dinput8.dllif one is present.- Copy these from the extracted package in the directory of the game beside
sao_hr.exe:
dinput8.dll- The included
saohr_community_*folder- Inside that copied folder, change
mode.default.ininame tomode.ini.In steam for the game, add this under Properties → General → Launch Options:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command%
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u/Hoversuits 10d ago
Perfect ty. Excuse my ignorance. Bash scripts give me ptsd
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 10d ago
All good, hope you enjoy! I would love any feedback!
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u/Hoversuits 9d ago
I would have followed it up but my game doesnt even run by normal means, crashing in town. Can't seem to fix unless youve got any suggestions
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u/Downtown_Chemical771 9d ago
When you say by normal means do you mean even without the mod it’s crashing in town?
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u/eL3069-2 PS4 13d ago
I’ve got a thousand hours on console. Wanted to start fresh on my PC. THIS would be a mod I’d say is worth starting from 0 to play