Is it true that SAO:VS's Limited Valentine's Event (from February 2023) got so much backlash from fans that it caused Bandai to signifcantly tone down the "harem bait" aspect from the games going forward?
Context: I was scrolling through twitter when I stumbled across some cute artwork (images 2 and 3) from user @missa_cherryjam that was basically slandering SAO: VS's portrayal of Alice. Now, I never played SAO: VS, so I didn't get what the image was referring to, but then after some research, I learned that SAO: VS had the audacity to cook a limited Valenine's Day event in which the plot was basically Alice antagonizing Asuna over Kirito's atention (image 1)... a Valentine's Day event, where Bandai was constantly threatening to cuck Asuna. Wild.
But anyway, this revelation led me through a mini rabbit hole where I discovered that a lot of people on twitter hated that event so much, that it *supposedly* pushed Bandai to tone down the harem bait aspect that the Gameverse always had, to the point where Last Recollection, which released 7 or 8 months after that incident, and later even Fractured Daydream (2024) and Echoes of Aincrad (2026) had a significant less amount of those bs harem shenanigans, or so I've heard.
The SAO games do not interest me at all, but does anyone here who has actually played these games know if any of this is accurate? Because I find this whole situation endearing if it's true lol. Hopefully Bandai learned their lesson though, regardless of what made them change their approach to the romance aspect on the SAO games.