VR Report (part 4)

Though I complained about initial prices for the previous two games being too high, I was recently given a gift card that I decided to use for an expensive ($40) game called “Focus on You.” The price might feel too high for some, especially considering that the game is on the short side, but the production quality and the innovative concept of the game drew my curiosity. Focus on You (no spoilers) is about your encounter as a teenage boy with a teenage Asian girl in a coming of age experience. You can adjust the spoken language to either Japanese or Korean, and English subtitles will be displayed (which did break my immersion a little, sadly.) This “snapshot” of life really captured the experience of a first crush in a way that brought back memories of my own high school and early college dating before I was twenty. The shy, awkward, cute exchanges, the subtle nuances in expression and body language, and the exciting build of hope that interest is shared—all of this brought back those innocent memories of a first girlfriend. The game focuses on shared experiences, such as that first meeting at a coffee shop, a moment in the school stairwell, and even a trip to the beach. As a player, you can actually speak the dialogue choices presented and your voice triggers the choice—something I'd like to see in more interactive games. You can also manipulate objects around you, like filling a cup with coffee, taking pictures with your camera, or interacting with your smartphone to deter an annoying friend from disrupting your date. The short romantic story involves some light-hearted emotions and to date, shows the most realistically acted/animated VR character I've seen yet. It might all seem a bit cheesy to some, but if a VR game can capture this level of nuance and create this level of immersion, I'm excited to see more games involving characters with realistic voice, facial animation, and motion acting like this! And to be honest, going through this game in VR has placed the entire VR-simulated date in my memory as if it actually happened to me in the past!