New entries in both the Sword Art Online anime and games have been released continuously for over a decade. On October 4, both the latest season of the anime Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II and the latest game Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream were released.
SAO: FD is already very different from previous entries in the video game series, but we had to ask ourselves: what’s next for Sword Art Online video games? Here’s what SAO: FD producer Shoehei Mogami and SAO game series producer Yosuke Futami had to say about the possibility of creating a more mature SAO game and the MMORPG-style SAO game they know fans want.
“Sword Art Online, the anime and the game look to the future,” Futami said. “We want to take SAO to the next level, maybe even to a higher-performance console.”
Futami also explained that while Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream is more character-driven, they may also want to try and do something around the SAO concept that if you die in the game, you die in real life. They want to explore this in the future, but Futami explained that they probably won’t implement the permadeath mechanic because “current fans of SAO games might get angry and might just break their keyboard or something.”
“We want to provide more to SAO fans who are adults and experience SAO that is more mature,” Futami explained.
The future of SAO probably wouldn’t be something like Souls, and due to development difficulties, neither would it be an MMORPG.
While not an MMORPG, Sword Art Online: Fractured Daydream tries to emulate the raids seen in MMORPGs with 20-man dungeons and raid bosses, complete with boss-specific, scarce loot that not everyone can collect at the end of the fight. It’s also a standalone title, so anyone who only knows some of the anime will be able to read and understand SAO:FD without having to have any prior knowledge of the SAO game.
The team also wanted to challenge themselves by implementing cross-play in SAO:FD so that friends wouldn’t be banned from playing with each other, Mogami explained.
There’s one more thing we know about the future of SAO games: while the chance isn’t completely zero, don’t expect a SAO game without Kirito and Asuna. Having a SAO game without Kirito and Asuna, Futami stated, “is like having Dragon Ball without Son Goku.”
Casey DeFreitas is IGN’s deputy guide editor.
