YUKI (Virtual Reality)
Official GBAtemp Review
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): July 22, 2021
- Release Date (EU): July 22, 2021
- Publisher: ARVORE Immersive
- Developer: ARVORE Immersive
- Genres: Bullet hell, roguelike
Game Features:
When I was a kid, I used to play a lot with action figures, especially with the fully articulated ones. With these, my imagination would kick into hyperdrive and I would craft fictional adventure scenarios that those action figures would embark on. YUKI, the latest VR game from Pixel Ripped series’ creators ARVORE, took me back to that time. In fact, they made my virtual adventures with action figures feel more real.
You see, in YUKI, you are put in the shoes of a child holding her favorite action figure, the titular bullet-spewing toy. Through the imagination of the child, Yuki the Space Ranger embarks on an adventure through multidimensional worlds. As you fly Yuki through those worlds, you will see the environment crumbling down and create obstacles that you will have to physically move around and dodge. These signs of destruction are the results of the evil Yokaliens who have stolen the universe’s Creative Drive and want to control it. So it’s up to Yuki and her trusty sidekick Pod to defeat these evil forces and restore the balance.
Story-wise, that’s about it for YUKI and this indicates a departure for developer ARVORE whose VR catalogue has so far revolved around story focused experiences with great titles on the Quest like The Line and Pixel Ripped 1995. Being a fan of narrative-driven titles myself, I grew fond of ARVORE’s past titles and was expecting a more fleshed-out plot with Yuki. However, with the genre(s) they went for, the plot has traditionally been more of a placeholder than what actually drives the game, so this departure is understandable.
The genre in question is actually a blend of bullet-hell and roguelike and here the gameplay drives the game forward with some occasional quips by Yuki and Pod. ARVORE crafted the gameplay mechanic to work pretty well in VR to deliver quite a unique experience. I played the game on the Oculus Quest and the right controller turns into Yuki’s action figure and the left turns into that of Pod (reversed for lefties). With the right trigger, you can get Yuki to shoot bullets and with the left one you can freeze enemies once the gauge is filled. There’s also another gauge for a temporary shield that you can activate by tapping on the A button.
As a VR game, YUKI adds another layer of control: your body. This game requires some degree of spatial awareness as you will come across a number of obstacles during your adventure runs that you will have to navigate Yuki past. Effectively avoiding those will require you to not only move Yuki (or your right hand) around but also your body by crouching or tilting as you see fit. It’s quite a fun feature for a game and while it doesn’t offer a workout experience, it does require you to be on your feet and some decent reflexes. As such, I would highly recommend playing in room scale mode on the Oculus Quest as you can more easily move around and dodge obstacles physically.
Obstacles aren’t the only things to look out for as you won’t be able to shoot those down but you’ll instead be shooting at those pesky Yokaliens. They are mask-like, hovering enemies that bring in the bullet hell aspect as they’ll keep shooting at Yuki in waves and in different patterns. You’ll have to maneuver around those bullets while aiming for those Yokaliens with bullets of your own.
Taking this into consideration while avoiding the occasional obstacles, things get hectic pretty fast in YUKI. And, especially during your first runs, it will prove challenging to move past the first two levels, even if the game is relatively short with a total of 6 levels. But completing or even reaching all 6 levels offers a real challenge as YUKI includes permadeath where you’ll have to restart the game from the first level once Yuki runs out of her limited HP. As you move across levels, enemies become tougher to defeat and pose more of a challenge as their firing rate and sheer number seem to increase.
Nevertheless, the challenge is well-balanced since for every new run, you will get incrementally stronger thanks to the roguelike feature. With powerups and new abilities that you can unlock at the beginning and during each run, Yuki becomes more powerful and enemies/levels become more manageable. Some let you boost Yuki’s skills permanently like enabling Yuki to charge her shots while other “charms” provide assistance more frequently during a run in support pods that can, for example, up Yuki’s firing rate or provide an assistant missile drone to shoot alongside you during a run (these are lost if you die in the run though). To unlock those boosts, you’ll need to spend “Creative Drives”, or orbs that enemies leave behind once defeated. This is where your sidekick Pod comes into play. During a gameplay session, your left controller turns into Pod which is immune to enemy shots (so it’s one less thing to worry about) and you can use it to collect those Creative Drives while Yuki handles the shooting and dodging (Yuki can also collect those orbs on her way).
To further assist you in your adventure, you will unlock new “Bladewings” after defeating bosses. With these, Yuki’s appearance changes and she also bears new weapons with attributes of their own. These can include shuriken-shaped bullets that track enemies but aren’t as powerful or powerful rockets that deal significant damage but aren’t very accurate and have a slow fire rate. So there’s a strategic aspect to it depending on your skill. You can also be more strategic with the temporary boosts that you unlock during a run. For instance, you will occasionally come across power-up pods which let you choose an unlocked “charm”. Depending on your situation and what’s available in the pod, you can choose a drone to assist you to shoot down Yokaliens, increase Yuki’s max HP or quicken the pace at which the freeze shot gauge fills up.
This aspect of Yuki's gameplay mechanic does require some getting used to and bearing with the fact that you will need to replay the same levels over and over again can feel like a chore initially. But clearing levels and progressing do feel satisfying as you get stronger and more acquainted with the game. While replaying levels, the roguelike also elements kick in as obstacles and enemies are procedurally generated. This means you can’t rely on muscle memory and every run will feel a bit different.
However, the environment will still be the same as will be the bosses (which appear at the end of every second level) and their attack patterns. Given how you will be replaying the game from the first level for every run, seeing the same environment (despite the alternating enemies and obstacles patterns) does feel repetitive and even stale over time. A checkpoint feature after every boss might have addressed this issue but the developers stuck to the traditional roguelike approach which even gives the gameplay an arcade-y feel at times. Also, the re-runs will feel only slightly different since the enemy types in every level is limited and you will come across the same ones in every run.
Luckily, the well-crafted animation will keep you company across your runs to make them more enjoyable. Animation has been ARVORE's forte with the developer’s previous titles and it shows with YUKI yet again. Our protagonist action figure features intricate details, the bosses’ animations are sights to behold, environments are varied and even the menus are well-crafted with futuristic, sci-fi-esque depictions.
With this attention to details paid with the design of Yuki, the bosses and environment, I was surprised to see how dull the other enemies often looked and felt. The hovering Yokaliens are mostly just spinning around and shooting bullets at you, not unlike in Galaga. Their depiction also feels rather simplistic, especially compared to the more detailed bosses, since the Yokaliens are essentially just hovering masks, sometimes of different colors, but they get very repetitive by virtue of the gameplay.
Other gripes I’ve had with the design are how the freeze shot and shield gauges are rather lower in the field of vision, requiring you to tilt your head to check how far they’ve filled up. I have a similar issue with Yuki's life bar which is shown at the back of her body. And while aesthetically it looks seamless, practically it isn't optimal. With the fast-paced nature of the game, you're more often locking your eyes on enemies and obstacles ahead. As such, even a stray glance can cause severe damage to Yuki’s limited HP, so having Yuki's life bar and the freeze/shield gauges somewhere closer to your field of vision would have been better in my opinion. But over time, you can get used to these aspects of the game.
And while the game is said to be anime-inspired. The gameplay and aesthetic doesn’t totally feel like that. Sure, there is a cool, anime-styled opening cinematic but the in-game aesthetic feels more like Toy Story than One Piece. But maybe it’s just me being biased by the game’s premise.
All things considered, YUKI delivers an original and fun VR experience, especially with the inclusion of spatial awareness to navigate through levels. It brought me back to a time when I used to imagine adventures with action figures myself and the VR medium helped materialize those imaginative worlds better. However, as a game you have to bear with the fact that the gameplay and its challenging aspect make it a slow burn type. And still, some of the overly repetitive and dull aspects could have been improved upon for a more optimal experience.
YUKI Trailer
Verdict
- Fun mechanic to physically dodge obstacles
- Re-runs feel satisfying as you get incrementally stronger
- Well-crafted VR animations
- Dull and limited enemy types
- Repetitive aspects
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