Weekend SAO games stream with Futami has begun. https://twitter.com/sao_gameinfo/status/1279006836717314048

Although Futami had planned to release the stream on Youtube, technical difficulties made him go back to Periscope. Due to the workings of Periscope, we'll go through the stream after it has ended. https://twitter.com/yousuke_futami/status/1279002976984510470

The official gameverse account states that a recording of the stream will be released on Youtube at a later time. https://twitter.com/sao_gameinfo/status/1279003677454241792

Youtube recording of the livestream:

We will be covering the stream in this thread.

The stream began with Futami flaunting his "Youtuber debut" sash... only problem is that Futami failed to make his stream actually work on Youtube at first, so he had to run back to Periscope instead... so, Futami took it off till next week.

Futami began his presentation by discussing skills. Skills are unlocked via a skill tree, but some have additional requirements

Starting from 5:39, Futami demonstrates the skill palette for Sinon and Asuna, explaining how the window works.

Sword Skills (pictured at the top of the screen) can be equipped to certain buttons (example uses PS4).

Also, each Sword Skill also has several levels to it. Upgrade the skill to make it more powerful. Sword Skills may also have special traits (e.g., guard break)

Futami then turned to Battle Skills (bottom left side of the screen). You can equip 4 Battle Skills. These provide buffs, such as speeding up charging for Sacred Arts (in the example: name: High Speed Incantation; Buff time 60 sec, recast 240 sec; effect: -30% to charge time).

Another example:
Shadow Chains of Chaos
Buff time 60 sec
Recast 180 sec
Effect: Reduces enemy skill speed (-10%)

Third example:
Heavenly-Clothed Warrior
Buff time: 60 sec
Recast: 180 sec
Effect: Creates duplicates of your character to absorb damage (Physical Duplicate +3, Skill Power +5%)

Futami then shows off a menu for the various Battle Skills that are available in the game. Battle Skills are categorised by skill tree (EX Skill). Items can also be inserted into Battle Skill slots (Futami notes this might be useful at the beginning of the game).

Futami then moves on to the third type of skills: Passive Skills (shown in the bottom right corner of the screen). Passive Skills offer various passive bonuses for your character (meanwhile, Battle Skills can are active skills and can affect your party members as well).

Futami then shows Extra Skills (top left corner). Extra Skills are based on the character's role in the party (e.g., Attacker, Buffer, Healer, Berserker etc.)

The top right icon is the Combo Finish: the Sword Skill that will be used as a finisher for normal attack combos.

Next up is the "skill map" (skill trees). Skill trees begin with Extra Skills (icons with yellow circle borders) Attacker, Buffer, and Defender. Further Extra Skills are unlocked by following the respective skill tree. E.g., Buffer can lead to Debuffer or Effector)

Legend:
Purple diamond - Sword Skill
Blue circle - Battle Skill
Red pentagon - Passive Skill
Circle with golden border - Extra Skill

Sword Skills are located on the border of the skill trees and are divided by weapon. The example in the picture shows Rapier skills (cursor is on "Linear"). Certain Sword Skills also lead to Passive Skills.

Futami himself managed to unlock about 60% of the skills through his own playthrough (~60 hours).

Futami then discusses Sword Skills and Skill Connect. With good timing, you can chain Sword Skills to avoid post-skill rigidity that leaves your character vulnerable to counterattacks).

An example shows a Skill Connect chain of Horizontal --> Horizontal Arc --> Horizontal Square. This chain can be unlocked by leveling up the Horizontal skill to unlock the derivative Arc and Square skills.

However, Skill Connect can be used to chain different skills as well.

Skill Connect can be triggered when a blue flash appears on your character (picture 1). If the Skill Connect succeeds, the flash turns yellow (picture 2). Skill Connect can be used to chain up to 3 skills. Your limit is displayed in the middle of the screen (picture 3).

16:11 Futami shows a gameplay demo for Skill Connect with Asuna.

Futami shows a Linear (Square) --> Quadruple Pain (Triangle) --> Valkyrie Night (Circle) chain

Futami then changes to Alice to show a Horizontal Square (Square) chained with Vertical (Triangle), but messed up his demonstration.

Futami then returns to Asuna to demonstrate that you can switch the order of the skills as well.

Example: Valkyrie Night --> Shooting Star --> Linear
Shooting Star is a skill that can also be temporarily put on hold midway without breaking the chain.

Demonstration ends at 19:12

Futami states that the difficulty level for clearing the game is set to low... though some monsters that are not integral to clearing the game can be quite tough. Some tough monsters are hidden.