Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris Producer Talks Differences vs. Anime, Lack of Switch Port, More

Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris will bring the newest series of the popular light novel and anime franchise to PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Producer Yosuke Futami provided additional information about the game during a preview event at Bandai Namco Entertainment’s HQ in Shinagawa, Tokyo, which Twinfinite attended.

While the first part of the game follows the first arc of the anime, the second part is completely original, and doesn’t reproduce the second arc of the TV series that will air soon. 

One interesting element is that Kirito and Eugeo’s valets Tiese Shtolienen and Ronye Arabel will likely become party members. 

Speaking of additional waifus, Futami-san simply answered “No comment” on whether there will be romance gameplay in the game. 

Incidentally, the scene in which Tiese and Ronye are abused by two noble students of the academy which appeared in the anime won’t be included in the game. 

That being said, the Alicization arc is about the fact that AI characters can have hearts and souls, so the game includes “a lot of emotional factor” from start to end and in both part. There are many dark scenes in Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris.

Another interesting element is that Futami-san declined to comment about the presence of character creation elements. While many assumed they would not be present at all, he clarified that its absence has not actually been confirmed, but he did not comment further. That being said, he also mentioned that the game is about Kirito’s story.

Another difference between the anime and the game is that the new character Medina appears early in Alicization Lycoris. This means that even the first part slightly differs from the first arc of the TV series.

Lastly, Futami-san talked about the lack of a Nintendo Switch version among the platforms announced for the game. He mentioned that the team would like to support Nintendo’s console as well, however, they’re currently encountering issues with memory shortages. 

That being said, the team cares about Switch users who would like to play the game, but nothing has been decided yet.

The reasons behind the memory shortages lay in the fact that the maps are much bigger than in previous SAO games and characters have a high polygon count which would require reduction to fit the Switch, and that’s an operation that would take time.

If you want to learn more, you can check out the original announcement trailer, the previous promotional video, more gameplay from a few weeks ago, the latest screenshots, and the latest trailer and gameplay from earlier today.

Sword Art Online Alicization Lycoris is coming for PS4, Xbox One, and PC in 2020.