Sushi Ben

Sushi Ben is first and foremost a Virtual Novel in VR form with a variety of mini games attached to it. The primary thing you will notice is how amazingly stylish the visuals are. They are perfect for the VR platform given how low fidelity they are while still pulling off some great decisions in terms of shape and color language. One thing that particularly stood out to me was the flare from staring at the sun in the game, simply being a sprite that became bigger the more focus you had on it. It's efficient, impressive, and looks great. The same can be said for the characters, where texture work is simple but solid, the models are low poly but convey the characters directly, and the lack of any real lighting allows them to color code them with the environment very nicely. It can all be said the same for the writing, voice acting, music, and overall story... Simple, clean, and all in all efficient. Perhaps too efficient? There are some problems that are worth pointing out, however. The game is pretty short, took me about 5 hours while fooling around a little bit between the mandatory story sequences. For the asking price I don't think it's entirely TOO short, but with the story not really meeting a definitive conclusion and setting up for some sort of sequel, the short length does leave a bittersweet taste in my mouth. There is stuff to do after it's over, and you could probably spend 1-2 more hours on doing everything, but with how it was handled I kind of expected to at least tie a neat little bow on things before I had to wonder if the studio was even set to be able to finish the story with a sequel at all? The other core issue is that the game, while visually refined, is pretty buggy. Sadly, I had my fair share of bugs that would put me in weird positions during cutscenes, not have NPCs spawn during certain ones while still having dialogue, and most damning the occasional soft lock. Given how long it took to port the game from Quest to PC, it makes me wonder if it's a remnant of that process in some way? Either way, the further I got into the story, the more frustrating it could turn out, especially when I had to restart from checkpoints and redo minigames. In terms of minigames they are of varied quality. I was not a huge fan of the combat minigames involving evil spirits, while fishing and table tennis were pretty fun barring occasional control issues. Smaller story sequences were without huge issues, but could still come with some confusions. Still, they did manage to provide thematically appropriate activities for each sequence and area. This is a game that sadly I feel is not going to convince people who's already a bit on the fence. I carried myself through it for the love of the art involved here, but I did find that the simplistic pace also made it pretty hard to get through it patiently. Luckily it's still an inexpensive game, and there is a demo to try out, so I find you'll likely have a good grasp of what you're getting into when you try that out. It's a mixed recommend from me.

good game and good artstile my eyes dont burn from playing it like other vr games

After finishing the game as well as completing several of the side activities I can say: [b]WOULD[/b] (except for Raika, what is wrong with you) Overall fun story, if sadly a bit short. Great characters. I wish I could be one of Minami's nameless minions. Plays surprisingly well without VR Fun art style that gives the game a unique feel.

W game super charming, a little buggy but its usually funny when it happens. Amazing voice acting. Just a fun time overall.

its boring

The game is fun, don't get me wrong, but unfortunately I'm unable to further enjoy it. It has happened before that I got stuck, usually after picking up a daruma or getting trapped in that one specific river in the bug forest, however I was always able to fix it by resetting the game (still very annoying, but I have patience). Unfortunately I can't say the same about the boars. I have reached the point in the game where you must attempt to catch one of the boars with your net, otherwise it won't progress the story and give you the next task. I can not do this task. Everytime I try to catch the boars they clip through it (no, not breaking the net like in the actual story, they just keep running) until they clip through the mountains, never to be seen again. I have restarted the game many times, but the same thing just keeps on happening. I don't know how to fix it, I don't know if you can fix it, but unfortunately it does make the game unplayable as you need to finish this task to get further in the story.

Мне игра понравилась, да, но её техническое состояние полное говно, буквально каждый раз когда кладешь что-то в пасть лягушке можешь готовиться к тому что придется начинать заново с последнего чекпоинта, ибо как только лягушка что-то ест ты становишься полным инвалидом и умение ходить исчезает также быстро, как и твое желание продолжать данную игру. Но это ладно, можно стерпеть первое время, но игра у меня полностью сломалась на моменте с бабкой и свинообразами, эти свинообразы, то игнорируют тебя и стоят на месте, то летают, вместо того чтобы бегать, то убегают в скалу стоящую рядом и все, это все что они делают, сачок которым надо их поймать по сюжету, данных свиней полностью игнорирует и дальнейшего продвижения нет и все гг, около пяти раз перезапускал все то же самое. В общем мне игра очень понравилась по началу, но к сожалению все эти баги убили желание дальше играть в неё.

It's a simple game about helping out around in a small sushi restaurant and the rest of the town while completing mini games. I played on desktop so I can't really speak of the VR functions. The game isn't that difficult but the main appeal I feel is the characters, the game feels like a slice of life anime and just like an anime it just kind of ends abruptly, I felt the game could have gone on longer but it's fine as it is. Ironically the fishing mini game was my least favorite, the archery and ping pong games were the most fun, all the others didn't even feel like mini games just interactable segments, this isn't Mario party. later in the game I'd get bugs like NPCs not spawning or being unable to move but by reloading the checkpoint I could fix it. I recommend this game to Japanese afficionados or fans of chill anime.

A charming little game, 7 hour run time for doing just a few side quests and all of the main story, did not complete everything since it's not necessary for achievement or rewards other than decorations (as far as I am aware) Very cute little slice of life style story, fun to play after a long day and meet all the characters - though the end does imply there will be more in the future, which I hope for otherwise the story just feels unfinished. Played entirely on desktop w/ controller, did test on steam deck and works perfectly. No game breaking bugs, just that characters would sometimes have bad pathing and be stuck and would not appear during their scenes and dialogue. Only other bug I had was that the voice over wouldn't always match the text boxes and would sometimes repeat or miss entire lines of dialogue. Again, nothing game breaking and only a little annoying. Still a very sweet game, and I would absolutely come back for more.

Ok so, the good, the story is fun, the music is good, the art direction is great and the characters have great design. And the collectibles around town are simple and not that tedious. Now the bad: There's just so many bugs -The character paths are not working properly so sometimes they don't appear on the cinematics inside daruma-zushi until the scene changes and they are teleported inside. -There are some points where you get softlock, one of which occured where i delivered a photo and was too close to the character to pick the daruma up, and since you can't move when someone is giving you a daruma then you are stuck -One of the targets in the forest doesn't dissapear when you shoot at it and spawns daruma as long as you keep shooting -The possessed object quest is bugged for many players -The tutorial achievement not marked as complete until the game is reloaded -After the "finale" when you meet ben on the beach he would just walk back and forth while for some reason i can't open the inventory anymore. Now most of that didn't bother me as much as when i completed the game and was recieved with "this story will continue", which was a surprise because in the store page of the game it doesn't stablish that is early access, or still in beta or anything. Then there's some feedback i have like, add something so the npc don't become hollow husks after their introductory mission, let us invite npc now and then to eat sushi, or participate in activities again like freely challenging Aika to a table tennis game. But the most important one is if the npcs have nothing to say on the way to Daruma-zushi then is better if we are just teleported since walking or running adds nothing, or if you really want us to walk wit npcs, add something that encourages the players to do it. I do really like the game but at this point it ain't something i would recommend,