Bandai Namco announced at last month's Tokyo Game Show 2017 that they will be doing a collaboration project with NTT Docomo for a virtual reality (VR) game titled "Sword Art Online: Replication Project."
The game developers are inviting applicants to attend a game testing and hands-on event in Tokyo Solomachi and Tokyo Skytree Town which will run from Dec. 8 to 10. Game testers must be 13 years old and above. The game's website contains more of the game tester requirements. Only 300 people will be accepted in the event. The selected persons will be notified from Nov. 16 to 30. Applicants who will be accepted will be given the chance to play the VR game for 15 minutes, fighting alongside Kirito and Asuna in the game world of Aincrad.
Taking place during the events in the first season of the anime, the VR game "Sword Art Online: Replication Project" will take players to an action-packed adventure as they protect a mysterious character named Mist. Just like in the anime, if Mist dies inside the game world, she will also die in the real world. The main objective of the game is to protect Mist and keep her alive until Kirito, Asuna, and the rest of the gang defeat the final boss and get the final game clear. Players will be encouraged to get their avatars to higher levels in order to keep Mist from an untimely demise.
Fans who attended the TGS 2017 reveal of the VR game readily noticed the resemblance of Mist to Saachi, a character in the anime that died at the early stages of the game. Since the title of the game was highly suggestive of the plot, there is a hint that Mist is a data materialization of Saachi.
NTT Docomo had previous projects with Konami, Square Enix, Koei Tecmo, and Capcom.
Other games from the anime set to release for consoles and the PC are "Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet" and "Accel World vs. Sword Art Online."
