I know, but if you include a lot of ranged weapons then melee characters all but forced to carry a shield or odds are they're going to be killed by somebody with a bow. Only the defensive units in SAO used shields and even then only about half of them.
Perhaps, but one would assume that carrying a shield would be preferable in a game with different stats for items anyways for defensive bonuses.
I'm not really bothered if we use lots of ranged weapons it just rules out using SAO as it's basis. A game that was based on small teams dueling with a far more powerful enemy in close combat can't be combined with large numbers of ranged units.
The only person I've seen specifically say they wanted to use them was myself, though others have voted to have them available. Limiting people to strictly one combat style - melee - is silly.
Ignoring the fact that it doesn't work from a genre standpoint
Please, explain how you got to that conclusion. We don't have to be all attacking at once - hullo, ranged weapons to damage them as they approach. And if it's a huge enemy, there will be plenty of safe ways to attack it while the melee fighters are doing so as well. Besides, melee fighters would presumably get in each other's way if it was a large group attacking one person.
The game will work fine just not based off a game that was built around skilled melee combat and nothing else.
Ooookay? Only two people wanted it, or specifically mentioned, SAO. And the first to do so mentioned adding more ranged weaponry.