2024] Trip to a virtual other world! 3 recommended PSVR games!

The Obon vacation is over and summer vacation is coming to an end. You may be thinking, "I still want to take a break..." or "I couldn't do anything even though it was summer vacation. Or perhaps you are thinking, "I couldn't do anything during the summer vacation! Why don't you dive into a different world and forget about reality for a moment while staying at home?

The technology that makes this possible is "VR (Virtual Reality)." Simply put, VR technology enables stereoscopic images that we normally see with our eyes by outputting separate images for the right eye and the left eye. However, the experience of being able to move freely within a space in accordance with one's own movements is unique to "VR games" that utilize VR technology.

For example, you cannot look behind a wall in a normal VR video, but in a VR game, you can move your head to the back of the wall and look in. In this way, the player can move around the VR space as he or she pleases, enabling an immersive experience as if entering a virtual world.

However, when the topic of VR is mentioned, many people tend to respond, "Oh, that was popular at one time, wasn't it? Some may even avoid VR games because of bitter experiences of getting severely intoxicated. However, VR technology is evolving day by day. It is not so much that the performance of the equipment has improved, but rather that the technology to immerse the player comfortably into the game and to prevent VR sickness is evolving day by day, and games that even the author, who was knocked out by VR game sickness in the past, can enjoy are being released one after another these days.

I would like to take this opportunity to encourage those who once stayed away from VR to come back!

So this time, I'll pick up three of the best new VR games that have recently been released and introduce them to you.

Recommended PSVR games that let you trip into a virtual otherworld

Little Witch Academia VR: When You Wish Upon a Houki-boshi

Genre: Dokidoky wacky VR broomstick racing game
Developer/Distributor: UNIVRS
Language: Japanese / English (including voices)
Release date: July 16, 2021 (Friday)
Price
PlayStation® VR version: 3,990 yen (including tax)
Steam version: 2,990 yen (including tax)
Oculus Rift version: 2,990 yen (including tax)
Oculus Quest/Quest version 2: 2,990 yen (including tax)

This title, Little Witch Academia VR, is a game about racing in VR, set in the world of the "Little Witch Academia" anime. The game uses a patent-pending proprietary "anti-sickness technology" to minimize VR sickness, allowing players to enjoy the experience of flying freely with the characters on a broomstick and using magic to race.

Little Witch Academia" is an anime work produced by TRIGGER, a Japanese anime production company known for "Kill la Kill" and "SSSS. It is a coming-of-age and fantasy anime in which the main character "Akko" enrolls in a magic school and faces various ordeals while repeatedly making mistakes, and grows up together with his friends.
In the game, players will experience the school as a trial student and get involved with the friends from the school who appeared in the anime. Atsuko Kagari, aka "Akko," played by Megumi Ban, appears from the beginning of the game. In order to follow her, they use a broomstick to glide through the sky to the magic school dormitory. The tempo is very fast.

Incidentally, "Broomstick Race," in which players use a broomstick to move through the air, and "Ghost Hunt," which appears later in the game, are the main modes in this title. Both are racing games using a broomstick, and the unique sense of floating when straddling the broomstick and the well-drawn scenery, even in the distance, give a sense of three-dimensionality that is very wonderful.

The images may look like the screens of ordinary 3D flight games, but when you actually use VR equipment, you can experience as if you are really flying over a magic school, even though many VR games process the depiction of distant landscapes in the game by pasting 2D images, In this game, however, even relatively distant buildings and trees are represented in three dimensions, giving the viewer a sense of spatial expansion. The feeling of "I can go anywhere" has a significant effect on the immersiveness of VR games.

VR sickness is common in VR games with this sense of levitation and racing VR games. Those who do not normally get sick from games, as well as those who do not get motion sickness, often get drunk when they experience VR games, and this is one of the reasons why players are turning away from VR games. The author has also experienced severe drunkenness in horror VR games and VR games that involve riding in a fighter plane.

This is where the aforementioned "anti-drunkenness technology" comes into play in this game! By using a gesture recognition system to detect body movements based on the sensor values of the VRHMD (VR head-mounted display) and controller, and by linking the body movements to the movements in the VR, the sickness that was previously solved by not moving the player is now made less likely to occur even if the player moves.

Of course, there is the same sense of levitation and intense movement as in conventional VR games, but compared to the VR action games I have played so far, it was no exaggeration to say that this was the VR game that made me feel the least sick.

In addition to these "anti-sickness technologies," the basic racing system of going through rings causes a narrowing of the field of vision in a good sense, the controls and the accompanying viewpoint shifts are highly predictable, and the game does not require the user to look around intensely while in motion. The basic system of racing, in addition to the ring, is a good way to get a constricted field of view, and the high predictability of the controls and the accompanying viewpoint shifts, as well as the fact that you do not need to look around intensely while moving. It is surprising that a game genre such as this does not cause this much sickness.

Incidentally, in addition to activities using a broomstick, there are also customization elements such as acquiring a new broomstick using points and tickets earned from missions and enhancing the broomstick, as well as an original story part that progresses in full voice.

This title is appealing not only for its comfortable flight experience that prevents intoxication, but also for its ability to immerse you in the world of the anime. We hope you will give it a try.

ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos

Genre: VR interactive story action
Maker: MyDearest, Inc.
Price:
PlayStation® VR version: 5,478 yen (tax included)
Steam version: 5,480 yen (including tax)
Oculus Quest version: 3,999 yen (including tax)
OculusRift version: 3,999 yen (including tax)
Release date: April 15, 2021 (PlayStation® VR version)

The game is a novel game in VR. This is a game that has given gamers an answer to such fantasies. However, when asked "In a word, what kind of game is this? I am at a loss to explain. This is a completely new genre of VR game.

There are various game genres: "Machine Action Part" in which the game develops depending on the actions taken in battle using the giant humanoid weapon "Machia"; "VR Live Part" in which you can experience a live performance in VR; "Exploration Part" in which you take objects in the VR space and solve mysteries; and "Adventure Part" in which you choose an option suggested by the AI and proceed. The game is packed with a variety of game genres, including an "adventure part" in which players select choices suggested by the AI and proceed.

However, there is no precedent for putting all of these together and applying them to an existing genre, so I feel it is best to describe it as a "novel game for a new age. In that sense, the official description "VR interactive story action" is right on target.

In the game, you will ride and fight on the humanoid weapon "Machia". The player can choose not to fire the cannon. These choices that determine the player's actions are also present in the "exploration" and "adventure" parts of the game, which are more like novels. This is a game where choices have meaning. That is what this game is about. In addition, there are basically no scenes in which the player, the main character, has to make violent movements, so it is difficult to become intoxicated.

The game takes place in Tokyo (Augmented Tokyo) in the year 2280, an underground city and the last stronghold of humanity that has been devastated by the unknown invader "Meteora," but has recovered with the help of AR and other technologies. The game is set in the future world of 2280, and the game features AR technology that displays information in your field of vision. The affinity between this expression and VR technology is outstanding. This is a very exciting presentation.

The main character has been fighting together with his friends to defeat Meteora, a super giant that has destroyed the human race, all in order to avenge his best friend "Koko". The story is one of the most intense in VR games, and we hope you enjoy the experience.

Incidentally, this title won the Famitsu and Dengeki Game Award 2020 [Best Adventure], was inducted into the Weekly Famitsu Cross Review Platinum Hall of Fame, and received the No. 1 user rating in the world in the Oculus Quest Store! (January 2021, Road to VR survey).

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Winds & Leaves

Genre: Adventure, Simulation
Publisher: Trebuchet Studio Inc.
Price: PlayStation® VR version 3,190 yen (tax included)
Release date: July 27, 2021

Winds & Leaves" is a "flora builder game" that brings back the green of a desolate land. Cast out into the wilderness, players are the only ones who can master the ancient art of growing plants, planting trees and cultivating fruits suitable for different soils.

Players plant trees to achieve tall ancient structures, but with the restriction that they can only work near trees, so they first plant trees to create a base and acquire the fruit they produce. Then they plant more trees. ...... By repeating this process, a forest is created. And if the forest successfully reaches the ancient buildings, you will gain new abilities with the ancient knowledge.

When you expand into land with new soil, you can even multiply fruit types and create new varieties. You may also encounter sudden rain or snow. For example, if a tree that is suited to dry vegetation is exposed to a storm, the tree will be defeated by the storm. In this work, highly adapted trees can help less adapted trees, so if we plant a forest with diversity, it will be able to withstand the changes in the environment.

Therefore, the trees in the forest should not be uniform, but rather the variety should be varied little by little to ensure diversity, which will help in the strategy. Players need to enter the VR world and strategically nurture the forest.

Plant trees, get fruit, plant more trees....... This cycle, performed in a VR space, gives a pleasant working feeling, similar to that of a traditional sandbox game. The visuals of the forest expanding and changing from a flat wilderness to a forest with a three-dimensional feel are even more lifelike and give you a sense of accomplishment when viewed in VR.

The previous two games were games that did not make me sick in VR, but in fact, this game makes me quite drunk. This is unavoidable since it is an open world game system that allows you to move freely anywhere, but even so, you are free in the open world, so we dared to introduce this game to you this time.

However, it will be quite difficult for those who are not accustomed to VR, so it is advisable to prepare anti-sickness medicine or to enjoy the game in an environment where you can reset your body condition by going to sleep immediately if you feel sick.

These are the latest VR games we have introduced. All of the games we introduced will be released within 2021. Although the temporary VR boom has settled down, attractive VR games are still being released. Please check them out!

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Recommended PSVR games that let you trip into a virtual otherworld

Little Witch Academia VR: When You Wish Upon a Houki-boshi

ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos

Winds & Leaves

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