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 once I started. Harking back to Nintendo’s social sim, Sushi Ben begins with a easy dialog as you allow your outdated life behind for brand new adventures in Kotobuki City. Solely, it wasn’t Rover hanging 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.
The following seven hours felt like I might been transported instantly inside a manga and what follows is the basic underdog story of a area people combating 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 consumers, who’re making an attempt to power Ben into promoting up. Our mission quickly turns into clear and although the premise is a bit 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 selection, requiring you to regulate the rod and manually reel your catch in.
Strolling a shibe round this colourful city was equally satisfying for various causes, although others like bug catching, desk tennis, and ghost looking haven’t got great depth. This is not a significant drawback although; Sushi Ben permits you to activate a ‘Story Mode’ that skips these minigames, so you may proceed with none difficulty. I am advised these minigames can be up to date with “extra depth” however presently, most of them aren’t significantly exceptional.
The place Sushi Ben really 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 significantly, and Pot-chan, the publish 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 satisfying Japanese voice performing.
Sushi Ben makes use of synthetic stick-based locomotion – based mostly on both your hand or your head course, and teleportation motion. Strolling pace could be adjusted. Easy and snap digital camera turning are each supported with adjustable rotation pace or adjustable levels, respectively. A seated mode is on the market with a seated peak slider.
Dialogue could be auto-played with out button inputs, and you may choose English or Japanese voice performing. Dialogue packing containers could be moved and resized at will throughout cutscenes for higher visible accessibility. Controller vibrations could be turned off and your watch could 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 will go “for now” and that is left me wanting extra. How this story will proceed is presently unknown and as soon as you have reached the top, you may preserve exploring the city.
This does little to decrease the broader expertise, although, and Sushi Ben holds up nicely throughout every platform I’ve examined, although a number of 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 – Closing Verdict
Sushi Ben is a powerful effort from Large Brane Studios, one which delivers a heartwarming story crammed with nice humor and an enthralling solid. The essential minigames, sudden ending, and quiet open world let this down, although the expressive manga-inspired presentation delivers probably the most visually distinctive VR adventures in latest reminiscence. When you’re looking for a brand new VR narrative journey, Sushi Ben comes beneficial.
UploadVR makes use of a 5-Star score system for our sport evaluations – you may learn a breakdown of every star score in our review guidelines.
UploadVR makes use of a 5-Star score system for our sport evaluations – you may learn a breakdown of every star score in our review guidelines.
Editor’s word: Large Brane Studios is planning future Sushi Ben updates that embody “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 quite a lot of languages.” Whereas we really feel assured in awarding a star score presently, we’ll revisit this evaluate as soon as these modifications are reside.
