What do action figures, bullet hell shmups, roguelike gaming and VR have in common? It’s not a riddle. It’s Yuki for PSVR on the Playstation 4 from Arvore Immersive Experiences! Perhaps you’ve never heard of Arvore before? You’re not alone. While they have a few games out, they’re certainly not a household name. And if you’re familiar with the entirely random nature of VR games, you’re certainly aware that there is no way to know what to expect any VR game, but rest assured Yuki is a welcome surprise!
So, here’s the deal. The universe’s Creative Drive has been stolen by demons or something. As the game begins, you’re in your room, which is full of manga, anime posters, and Yuki memorabilia. The case for your figurines starts jumping about and there’s Yuki in all her anime-inspired 10” figuring glory! Simply pick her up and the game drops you to a dimension where it’s her job (and that means your job) to return the Creative Drive to the universe! Sounds simple, right?
Ok, so the plot is a little thin on Yuki. It’s not a bad plot, just not the focus of the game. And let’s get one thing straight, the focus of Yuki is absolutely the gameplay. If you’re familiar with roguelikes, you know that death is only the beginning (shameless quote insert). Progress in them requires you to accumulate points or power of some type, spend it on upgrades, and then replay levels, inching your way further and further as you get stronger. It’s a great recipe and Yuki takes full advantage. But that’s not where the real strength lies here. What’s truly unique about the game is the bullet hell mechanics.
Those of you that are familiar with bullet hell shmups have probably played stuff like Mushihimesama (review here) or ESPGaluda II (review here), top tier Cave bullet hell shmups that require careful strategy, lightning fast reflexes, and eyes like a hawk to play through. The brilliant devs over at Arvore thought to themselves “Why can’t we do that in VR? Wait, HOW would we do that in VR?” And in Yuki, you find out! The game uses two PS Move controllers to play (at least one is required, so if you don’t have em, get em!). One controls Yuki’s action figure avatar, and the other, her robot companion. The game presents as a third person shmup, much like Panzer Dragoon, but instead of using a control pad and a reticle to aim, you physically move Yuki through the levels…and the bullet patterns!
As you progress in the game, enemies become more powerful and fire more bullets. The levels become increasingly complex, adding a variety of background objects that come flying right at your face. While firing with the move controller, you’re physically twisting and dodging bullets and objects, aiming at enemies, and tossing up shields and freeze rays to blast enemies and block bullets! Yuki blasts away with autofire, leaving you free to twist and juke away from bullets and flying debris alike while your other hand controls her robot companion, allowing you to pick up items all over the screen with your off hand all while fighting hordes of enemies and dodging bullets.
Eventually you’ll get slaughtered and end up back at the home base where you can use the Creative Drive you’ve obtained to buy upgrades. More life, more powerful weapon upgrades, extra weaponry, the works. Then back In you go, but things have changed. The basic level structure remains intact, but enemies, objects, and even bullet patterns shift with each run through Yuki, leaving you always on your toes for the next unexpected attack! A hit takes away a full health bar, but gaining hearts only replenishes half of one, so you’ll be in trouble if you don’t learn to dodge and block!
Eventually you’ll make your way to the first boss, a spectacular monster that fires hundreds of bullets at a time in three dimensional waves that you’ll have to dodge through. The pattern isn’t as hard as it initially looks, and any regular shmuppers won’t find this too challenging, but it’s sure gorgeous! This is one amazing looking game!
On top of the bullet patterns, the roguelike level design randomization and the constant upgrades, there’s also a buzz mechanic thrown in. This is another shmup mechanic, giving you massive bonuses to experience if you skirt as close to bullets as you can as often as possible. The closer you get without taking a hit, the faster your experience rises on each run! As you level up, the patterns get harder but you earn more creative drive, so it’s a balancing to keep progressing without overreaching. Beat the first boss and you’ll unlock the first alternate costume for Yuki too!
That’s right, as you progress in the game, you’ll unlock different versions of the Yuki figure, each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses. After the first boss, the second figure has homing shots instead of a direct pattern of fire for example. It sounds great until you realize that the bullets are substantially weaker, more proof that the devs at Arvore are serious shmup fanatics. Inch your way further toward the second boss and you might end up dislocating your shoulder when the enemy attacks absolutely blanket the screen with fire and you have to dodge it all at once!
There just aren’t many VR games like this out there. The PSVR has a fairly poor screen resolution and most games look a bit rough on it. Yuki takes that and runs with it, using colorful design and large bullets and enemies with limited texture mapping to create anime-inspired visuals that look utterly spectacular on the PSVR and even better in motion than the screenshots let on! This is honestly a masterpiece in terms of artwork and design and if you’re looking for something that will have you dusting off your PSVR, this is definitely the game!
The sound is excellent too, and while the early stages do start to feel a bit repetitive after a while, the music is quite good and the soundtrack will have you tapping your toes as you whip your arms wildly about the room! The only downside is that Yuki’s voice is spectacularly loud, especially at the end of stages during the Stage Clear. It’s almost painful to hear her talk just due to volume balancing, so be ready for it.
It’s hard to explain how gratifying it is to play Yuki. The last VR game we reviewed, Sniper Elite VR, was nausea-inducing with its blurry motion and stilted controls (review here). Yuki couldn’t be further away from that if it tried. The game’s controls are smooth and intuitive, the visuals are fun and stimulating, and the rail-driven levels don’t generate even the smallest amount of nausea. This is probably one of the most polished, focused VR experiences on the PSVR and that’s really saying something.
Even though you’ll be putting hours into the same levels, you’re constantly going back for one more run. It’s hard to put Yuki down, even when your eyes feel like they’re going to bleed from VR after a few hours. The game is just that much fun! Add in the challenge of more and more bullets coming faster and faster from every angle in new and unique patterns and you’ve got yourself a smash hit of a VR game! It’s seriously hard not to love Yuki and at $20, it’s worth every single penny and then some. This is easily one of the best priced games for the content you’re getting that’s out there today on the Playstation VR market. Did we mention that Yuki is PS5 compatible too if you have the Playstation Camera adaptor? Yup, it is!
Yuki hits all of the bases. It’s fun. It’s frantic. It’s stunningly gorgeous. It’s more than reasonably priced. If there’s a better recent VR game out there for the PSVR, it would be honestly astonishing. The simple fact is that Yuki is a masterpiece of virtual reality gaming and it is absolutely worth your time to play it. This is a game that is worth your time and then some! Just go buy it. NOW.
This review was based on a digital copy of Yuki for the PSVR. It was played on a Playstation 4 Pro with a Playstation VR model 2 unit. Yuki is also available on Steam for the Valve Index, the HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift, and Windows Mixed Reality. Images are a mixture of screenshots and press shots due to the difficulty in taking screen captures while playing on PSVR.