Bandai Namco shared the latest details as well as some talk from key staff on the new SAO game, Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet, in this week’s issue of Famitsu magazine. [Thanks Ryojutya2089.]

Here are some highlights from the magazine:

The story takes place after the events of Sword Art Online: Hollow Realiziaton.

There will be Death Gun incidents in this game.

The core of the story will be different from the light novel and anime.

The player acquires a certain something that someone is after, and you’ll be solving that mystery.

There will be costumes made exclusively for Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet.

We’ll meet new original characters.

Players will get to use a sword.

The gameplay style involves shooting while running instead of standing still.

Producer Yosuke Futami: “The wire action was my idea, so I’ll take responsibility for it [laughs].”

The next part features some info and quotes from an interview featuring author Reki Kawahara, series editor Kazuma Miki, Fatal Bullet general producer Yosuke Futami, and producer “Death Gun” Fujita:

Plans for Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet started four years ago when Bandai Namco was looking for a company that could make a proper third-person shooter in Japan. That was when they met Dimps, who agreed to join two years ago.

On why the producer changed from Yosuke Futami:

Futami: “To put it simply, I got fired [laughs]. Sword Art Online itself got bigger, so I’m focusing more on finding ways to keep the popularity going. I’m not retiring [laughs].”

Kawahara: “To put it simply, you just became more important.”

Miki: “He was almost removed from becoming too important, so I kind of had to force it by saying we won’t do it unless it’s with Futami-san [laughs].”

The game has vast fields so the developers re working on a way to implement a car that players can ride to get around. The development line is similar to a certain popular third-person shooter game.

“Choice” is the keyword. Sword Art Online games often revolve around a story that progresses as Kirito makes his choices. This time around, the developers want players to decide on whether they want to be Kirito , and what they’ll need in order to do so.

Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet releases worldwide in early 2018 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can check out more on the game by Freedom Wars developers in its first gameplay session detailed in our previous report.