Brazilian developer ARVORE has some excellent virtual reality (VR) titles in its library with the Pixel Ripped series and award-winning animation The Line. Today, the studio has announced its next experience, a bullet hell shooter called YUKI due for release next year.
Offering roguelite mechanics in an anime-inspired universe, YUKI draws some of its gameplay style from classics like Star Fox, where you’re character flys through levels blasting all incoming enemies. It’s set in the imagination of a child, who has an action figure of her favorite anime character, Yuki. Players then have direct control of Yuki, manoeuvering her through multidimensional worlds whilst avoiding an infinite barrage of bullets and obstacles.
Similar to how VR videogames like Shooty Skies Over Drive and Spartaga work, YUKI is about body movement and spatial awareness, physically moving her with their hands rather than a directional stick. It’ll feature procedural levels and a semi-persistent progression system, with power-ups and special abilities equipped before each run.
“A while back we were brainstorming new ideas and started to wonder what some classic game genres would look like translated completely to VR, so we started prototyping some of them. This translation of the “bullet hell” genre showed a lot of promise right from the initial prototypes, so we decided to dive in, and YUKI was born,” said Ricardo Justus, CEO at ARVORE in a statement.
YUKI first appeared last year when ARVORE released a location-based entertainment (LBE) version via SpringboardVR, with players controlling a spaceship rather than an action figure.
Currently, ARVORE says that YUKI will launch in the first half of 2021 for Oculus Quest and SteamVR headsets with the PlayStation VR release following later in the year. Check out the first teaser trailer which does feature a little gameplay and for further updates keep reading VRFocus.
