A new free DLC adventure pack has gone up on the North American PSN, with added missions, items, and so forth.
Also, it seems that SCEA finally noticed how many votes the game has been getting on the US and Canadian storefronts (over 1800 so far), and have finally gotten around to adding a promotional thumbnail for the game!
Still, I'm looking forward to the September 23 update, not least if it still includes the improved Hollow Area map (http://sao-hf.bngames.net/images/dlc/img_update_13.jpg) shown for the Japanese update - note the lines connecting the various locations, a detail the original map sadly overlooked...
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Also, I've cleared the Hollow Area, and am up to level 89 in Aincrad.
I wanted to finish that side of things and get Philia over to Arc Sophia before I moved further onward. I'm not sure if the designers had a particular level in mind, but she seems to fit in with the rest of the cast reasonably well.
Funnily enough, after ploughing through the Hollow Area storyline, I'm finding going back to Aincrad quite easy to run through in comparison. Maybe that will change once I get up into the 90s floor-wise.