Making little secret of its manga inspirations, Sushi Ben delivers a story-rich VR journey filled with character. Learn on for our full evaluate.
I did not count on to be reminded of Animal Crossing after I started. Harking back to Nintendo’s social sim, Sushi Ben begins with a easy dialog as you permit your outdated life behind for brand new adventures in Kotobuki City. Solely, it wasn’t Rover putting up an informal chat on public transport this time — oh no. Greeted by a surprisingly buff aged hermit, I instantly knew what I used to be getting in for.
What’s it?: A single-player slice-of-life 3D narrative journey recreation impressed by anime.
Platforms: Quest, Viveport, PSVR 2 (reviewed on Quest & PSVR 2)
Launch Date: Out now
Developer: Massive Brane Studio
Value: $25
The following seven hours felt like I might been transported immediately inside a manga and what follows is the basic underdog story of a area people preventing to save lots of its existence. Upon visiting the native sushi bar, you uncover that the entire city is being threatened by some unscrupulous land patrons, who’re attempting to pressure Ben into promoting up. Our mission quickly turns into clear and although the premise is somewhat cliched, that actually does not matter when it is such a pleasantly lighthearted story.
Saving the sushi bar includes re-establishing the provision chain and convincing locals to go to the restaurant. That is often achieved by exploring the city and finishing a pleasant vary of minigames. Fishing provides a extra private contact to every quest, often tasking you with discovering somebody’s seafood of alternative, requiring you to manage the rod and manually reel your catch in.
Strolling a shibe round this colourful city was equally fulfilling for various causes, although others like bug catching, desk tennis, and ghost searching do not have super depth. This is not a serious downside although; Sushi Ben enables you to activate a ‘Story Mode’ that skips these minigames, so you may proceed with none difficulty. I am advised these minigames will likely be up to date with “extra depth” however presently, most of them aren’t notably outstanding.
The place Sushi Ben actually shines with its sturdy solid, humor, and story. Between the highly effective however surprisingly candy farmer who can talk with animals, the native American who takes desk tennis far too severely, and Pot-chan, the put up workplace’s pigeon that goes round making deliveries, Kotobuki City is host to a hilarious group of residents with endearing personalities.
The expressive presentation largely assists on this. I do want there was extra to do throughout this open world however exploring Kotobuki City feels peaceable and Sushi Ben’s closely stylized visuals are a delight to witness, with the 3D manga-esque panels including additional character to an already wealthy narrative. As somebody who’s spent appreciable time studying manga and watching anime, I appreciated this significantly and that is helped by fulfilling Japanese voice performing.
Sushi Ben makes use of synthetic stick-based locomotion – based mostly on both your hand or your head route, and teleportation motion. Strolling pace might be adjusted. Clean and snap digital camera turning are each supported with adjustable rotation pace or adjustable levels, respectively. A seated mode is out there with a seated top slider.
Dialogue might be auto-played with out button inputs, and you’ll choose English or Japanese voice performing. Dialogue packing containers might be moved and resized at will throughout cutscenes for higher visible accessibility. Controller vibrations might be turned off and your watch might be set to your left or proper hand.
My greatest criticism is the ending. With none spoilers, Sushi Ben ends in a dramatic trend that feels extra like a midway level than a pure conclusion. The sport itself acknowledges that is so far as we are able to go “for now” and that is left me wanting extra. How this story will proceed is at the moment unknown and as soon as you have reached the tip, you may maintain exploring the city.
This does little to decrease the broader expertise, although, and Sushi Ben holds up properly throughout every platform I’ve examined, although just a few variations are price noting. Quest 3 advantages from 90fps efficiency in comparison with 72fps on Quest 2, and Quest Professional makes use of eye-tracking for dynamic foveated rendering. PSVR 2’s sharper visuals and native 120fps efficiency make Sony’s headset a robust choose, however irrespective of your {hardware}, it appears nice throughout.
Sushi Ben – Last Verdict
Sushi Ben is a powerful effort from Massive Brane Studios, one which delivers a heartwarming story crammed with nice humor and a captivating solid. The essential minigames, sudden ending, and quiet open world let this down, although the expressive manga-inspired presentation delivers one of the crucial visually distinctive VR adventures in latest reminiscence. In case you’re trying to find a brand new VR narrative journey, Sushi Ben comes really helpful.
UploadVR makes use of a 5-Star score system for our recreation evaluations – you may learn a breakdown of every star score in our evaluate tips.
UploadVR makes use of a 5-Star score system for our recreation evaluations – you may learn a breakdown of every star score in our evaluate tips.
Editor’s word: Massive Brane Studios is planning future Sushi Ben updates that embrace “adaptive set off and headset vibration assist for PS VR 2, extra depth to the mini-games, bug fixes, and full localization of the story into a wide range of languages.” Whereas we really feel assured in awarding a star score at the moment, we’ll revisit this evaluate as soon as these modifications are stay.
