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I see that in SAO and LH, players can craft, buy houses, adhere to the holy
trinity of MMO, etc. My first thought was that they might have WoW in Japan,
but it doesn't seem to be as popular as it is in the U.S. There don't seem to
be a lot of Western MMOs that allow you to buy property either. My second
guess is that they might have been heavily influenced by Korean MMOs such as
Ragnarok, but I have not played them and I wasn't sure.

So what MMOs could have influenced SAO and LH?


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sword-art-online log-horizon
What MMOs influence Sword Art Online and Log Horizon?


Hard to tell really - a lot of MMOs have custom housing, in depth crafting -
cooking - random enjoyment, including a couple titles from NCSoft (well, in
Aion, players have the ability to own houses and some form of [very annoying]
crafting).

Though not a fantasy MMO - Eve online thrives on the idea that just about
everything ( ships, fuels, space stations , some random commodies ) can be
crafted. Just about every ship, gun, module, ammo , Nullsec POS, etc was made
by somebody - somewhere - probably in some territory were thousands of ships
were destroyed in a war between two alliances of player run corporations in
which the wreckage ended up recycled into other crap etc etc etc.

In terms of fantasy MMOs, I don't think there was really any title that did it
all with that much depth. I could be wrong though.


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His main inspirations would be

  * Ultima Online
  * Ragnarok Online

> Reki Kawahara was in the Manga Studies Club. He drew manga and illustrations
> during his time there. Kawahara would often head to the arcade with his
> fellow members to play fighting games . He also started playing online games
> in 1998, starting with Ultima Online. Kawahara also played Ragnarok Online,
> his most played game (although he stated World of Warcraft during Sakura-Con
> 2013)
>
> _He felt it would be more natural to write about net games._

For some more of his inspirations and why he decided to write you can read a
[brief biography](http://www.t-ono.net/biographies/REKI-
KAWAHARA-%E5%B7%9D%E5%8E%9F-%E7%A4%AB-Biography.html) about him


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I'm going to guess a bit on this one and say that Everquest should be thrown
in the mix of potential influences.

Some parallels that fit with this are:

  1. When Regan explains the World Fraction spell, and Shiroe reverse engineers the time line to coincide the beginning of its first use to the start of the open beta. I don't recall if EQ had an open beta, but it did release in '99. The screen show indicated '98, so this is plausible.

  2. The most powerful guild in Akihabara is D.D.D. Their legendary exploits coincide with the early and buggy release of Kyrafrim after the defeat of Ventani.

Are there other events, probably. I can't recall them off the top of my head.
Could those events coincide with other game changers from other MMO's? Likely.
But EQ was my first.


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SAO and LH are not based on any existing MMO. Depending on which MMORPG's you
have played you will likely find certain aspects of the world to be incredibly
consistent with it.

The grand-daddy of all MMORPG's as they play right now is [Ultima
Online](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_Online) (which I played during
beta) as the crafting and "loss of experience upon death" both originated
here, and it even predates
[EverQuest](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EverQuest), as you could craft in
previous Ultima games since at least Ultima 4 (magic spells), 6 and 7 (food).
Likewise, player-owned housing originates in Ultima Online.

As far as Asian MMORPG's influence, LH's world is a bit more consistent with
Final Fantasy XIV (and likely XI), while SAO is very consistent with Mabinogi.
In game, marriage is something that was introduced in a Nexon game that
predates Mabinogi (called NexusTK:Kingdom of the Winds, which is a game I also
played during beta).

Dungeon Raids, as they are in SAO and LH, are shown as a type of instancing
system which is fairly consistent with the advent of 3D modern MMORPG's,
though based on the explicit references to roles (eg Tank) and menu driven
combat with cooldown's, this might have its origins in EverQuest, but this is
fairly consistent with FFXI/FFXIV at present.

The respawn rules, how monsters respawn in the same area, which is something
that both Ultima Online and NexusTK did in 1998.

Guilds is a strange aspect. The original 2D MMORPG's never had guilds (it may
have originated in Lineage) and it was just something people started doing, so
later games actually introduced it as a game mechanic (and indeed the entire
point of Guild Wars). Likewise, the PK elements were also something that
existed originally in UO, but EverQuest was probably the first to see abuse of
it, as in SAO.

Take for example the pets and mounts. In LH the pet griffon mount is also a
flying mount that is available in Mabonogi. Likewise in SAO, Silica has a
combat pet. Combat pets have been in MMORPG's for quite a while. However,
virtual pets actually originated with Tamagotchi's, which actually die if you
don't take care of them. So again depending on your point of view.

As for the races and classes, SAO was primarily humans, while SAO:Alfhiem is
actually based on Lore from "A Midsummer Night's Dream" which is Shakespeare.
The races in LH are the standard human-like characters from Tolkien (LOTR)
with the were-animal races (which the current game out there that has these is
TERA).

And to round this out, the "Fighter, Wizard, Thief, Cleric" type of roles
originate in tabletop D&D games, but the way they are used (Tank, DPS, Healer)
originates in Wizardry, which was more popular in Japan than it was in the
West. Permadeath (SAO) also originates in Wizardry.

In respect to LH, since there is a specific reference to 1998.10.22 and the
character in episode 14 specifically mentions 8 levels of magic which is also
something that Ultima has. Like if you want to use the date as a piece of
proof, that means the game in question would have been in open beta on or
after 1998.10.22, which chronologically can only be EverQuest. I've personally
played the EverQuest Beta in 1998.

In one of the most recent episodes of LH (you need to pay close attention)
you'll also realize that they are partied with an NPC. Most MMORPG's don't let
you adhoc have any NPC join, they either are temporary for a quest (escort
missions), or summonable partners/pets.

So as you see, it depends on which games you've played. When I talked to
friends about SAO, they can find individual aspects of it that they related to
their MMORPG of choice. Over time (at least since WoW) most games have
borrowed ideas from each other enough that they're all becoming exactly the
same game. They're only differing by environment (Fantasy like SAO),
race/monster names (many are derived from Tolkien/D&D) and cost to play.

So there is no one right answer, as no single game introduced everything seen
in SAO and LH at launch. You can read comics/manga like 1/2 Prince or Yureka
that also deal with virtual worlds and you'll see much of the same elements
there as well.

The interesting moral question that comes up again in all of these stories
based on MMORPG's is "are we losing our humanity" by when we treat AI's as
tools.


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Jeez people are silly. SAO's writer says it himself, Wizardry inspired it.

Just check out [Wizardry Online](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry_Online)
sometime. It's straight up an SAO MMO, with the possibility of perma-death.

The main character in the story is the only one who can dual wield, but never
does *cough* Kirito *cough*. Minor crimes make you yellow for a short amount
of time, while heavier crimes like PK-ing, or looting a player makes you red
for like 24+ hours.

The game has a totally open PvP combat system that requires skill instead of
good gear, cash, or level.


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No doubt that it is mainly influenced by Ragnarok Online. Music, mood,
atmosphere, character and art are very similar. Even the naming and boss
monsters.


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In a [Q&A session between the author Kawahara Reki and Heathcliff (Kayaba
Akihiko)](http://www.taptaptaptaptap.net/sao-qna-heathcliff-kunori/) in 2005
(during the web novel period, to give some background of the characters),
Kayaba Akihiko said that he "acquired a lot of inspiration from [Wizardry]".

> **Q. If I were to ask for you to mention one of the games you like best,
> which would it be?**
>
> A. If you mean aside from SAO, it would be
> [Wizardry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizardry), a game from long ago. I
> acquired a lot of inspiration from it.

We can take this as the author indirectly borrowing Kayaba Akihiko's position
as the man behind the design and development of Sword Art Online VRMMORPG to
confirm the source of his inspiration.


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