Part 2 had the free roam to find little extra scenes too in the beginning. You could explore the city to find out what the side characters was doing before going home. There was even a side story about our coworker's wife having a affair with a manager when Kirito started working if you don't remember. I think that was the woman from the park!
But then Fujino stopped all that and streamlined the game. I think it was because the issue of too many events in maps causing bugs. If that was true then Part 2 got too big and complicated to have side events.