Whenever you die or finish a level, you’re presented with a leaderboard, which is especially cutting if you didn’t complete it. Reading from a list of usernames whenever you die or succeed is terrible design.

All of the game’s story is told by a narrator, who’s both crucial to the world and completely absent. There aren’t any NPCs to meet, or any eyes to look into.

Gameplay

You can grab loose objects in your apartment, or out in the world, but there aren’t any physics interactions; outside of the spell-casting, there isn’t much about the game that’s inspiring. The spells each has a different aiming mechanic, and the fireball, the first spell you learn, is aimed with hand speed, direction, and head rotation. Late in the game, you can similarly throw spears; if you give your wrist a flick, it’ll sail forward like a spear. I would’ve also played more of the game with the bow-and-arrow, but casting it takes a lot of time, and it takes two hands to aim, which is quite the task when you’re also using your thumbsticks to strafe and teleport.

The spells are all relatively well-conceived, but horribly imbalanced. Force lightning is a simple motion, and it has the highest DPS, so I used that whenever possible. The only times I needed to change it up were when enemies had elemental shields, or when they were too far away to zap. Aiming fireballs and shooting arrows is exhausting, compared to lightning’s continuous damage, which you can eventually point in two directions at once.

Longevity

The Wizards has elastic difficulty, only tied to a score multiplier, so you can dial down the difficulty of any level and one-shot every enemy. I can imagine fewer people would complete the game if they didn’t offer the option to breeze past the more frustrating fights. There aren’t many hooks in The Wizards, and because you don’t need to commit to branches on skill trees, you can test out all of the upgrades early on. The first hour or two would be a really satisfying intro to VR action-games, but everything that this game does right is spent by the end of the first world.

The story is tell-don’t show; meaning the events are all unseen, (save the boss battles.) There’s nowhere to place emotional investment, and therefore no stakes, besides time wasted. The game is filled with initially exciting interactions that quickly lose their appeal because of repetition. None of your choices matter and the game is labyrinthian. The only human voice belongs to a patriarchal wizard who is unquestionably in-charge; is the player even the hero in this story? The developers didn’t think the story through too deeply. It’s a high-fantasy good vs. evil narrative that only exists to justify a monotonous wave-shooter.

Last Words

Unfortunately, The Wizards is an uninspired slog. If you’re looking for a wave-based action game, Sairento by Mixed Realms is almost half the price and twice as deep.

The Basics

The main mechanic of this game is touching and watering plants. To make progress, you need to spend currency to buy items and finish the critical path. Currency is a by-product of plant growth; it’s a rainbow orb that can open doors or be exchanged for seeds and furniture. All plants make currency, but at different rates, and at different ages. Every item takes up a slot, including currency, so you have to make tough decisions; especially before you learn the differences between seeds. You’ll need to prioritize the money you save vs. the cosmetic items you want to bring home vs. the seeds, which sometimes produce currency immediately after planting. There’s a lot of strategic depth in optimizing the limited inventory space, but it ultimately doesn’t matter much.

Gameplay

The game is leisurely, and its teleport locomotion assuages common complaints of VR sickness. The game clearly wants you to make this game into a habit, considering how each level replenishes their collectibles daily. I believe that the intended play-style is to explore the world in short bursts, over a few days, and empty their inventories/water their plants with every pass through the hub world. After the player finishes the campaign (by unlocking the final area and solving a few moderately tricky action-puzzles,) the game essentially congratulates you for winning and sends you back to the hub, with your pockets now full of valuable seeds.

At this point, it’s unclear what you’re supposed to do. In Animal Crossing, you try to pay off an ever-increasing debt; in Breath of the Wild, you boost your health and stamina— In Fujii, your character doesn’t grow, and besides making a perpetual loop of making cash crops to buy more cash crops, any sort of post-game goal is unclear. This fits Fujii’s aesthetic, so it certainly reads as a strong artistic choice. It begs the question of what’s truly valuable in a video game; in Fujii, you restore barren ecosystems, and nurture them to become increasingly interactive; this is a far cry from the conventional game design paradigm of eliminating targets and navigating hectic stages.

Longevity

Fujii has plenty of exploration and target-shooting in the campaign, but Fujii’s main hooks are about beautification, the joy of the harvest, and fulfilling a commitment. Almost every plant you find can be grown in your hub garden, so if you like the theremin-like flower, you can fill a room with them, if you so choose. It’s hard to say if this gameplay alone justifies playing Fujii regularly, but it’s by far the most soothing game I’ve played in VR.

Even games that are advertised as relaxing, like the fishing sim, Bait!, tend to have twitch-based mechanics, and other elements that get your heartbeat racing; apps that are advertised to manage your mood or enhance meditation are typically less relaxing than just closing your eyes and listening to a soothing soundscape. Lightly-interactive VR games aren’t well-understood as a medium, but Funktronic Labs, the developers of Fujii, seem to have figured it out: the key is coupling a sense of slow progression with non-linear objectives and the presence of friendly entities. You genuinely feel like you impart kindness in this world, and I think it has real potential to spill out into the lives of its audience. Maybe it’ll motivate me to start an herb garden, or take more walks in the park. What I know for certain is that I want a sequel.

Last Words

Fuji is a fulfilling game that plays to the Quest’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s accessible, it’s relaxing, it’s fun, and it leaves you with a smile on your face. Every design decision makes sense. Everyone should play this game.

The locomotion, point ’n click to jump, is relatively abstract. It’s possible to play without a guideline, but it’s harder to get precision; I didn’t find the increased visual immersion worth the loss of precise control. You choose your trajectory in slow motion, and if you crouch, you slip-slide across the floor; often into a bottomless pit.

Sairento VR Gameplay

There are eight unique enemies in this game and a handful of maps; while there’s a significant emphasis on speed, the levels seem like they confine The player. This game is designed around stealth, but it’s hard to be patient when you can double-jump across the map. Every aspect of the game is fun, but it often feels shallow, shaking your hand around to get max DPS with a sword, or mowing down waves of duplicate enemies. There’s only one boss, and fighting him is a chore.

Sairento VR: Untethered is a blockier version of its PC incarnation, but it was never a stunningly beautiful game, so that doesn’t particularly influence the experience. Playing it wirelessly feels superior, especially when playing in a wide-open space. It’s easy to do work-out levels of aerobics in VR when it’s motivating, and Sairento gives you the room to be athletic between thoughtful slow-motion segues. The core of this game is fantastic, and the tricky aspects of locomotion, like sliding and wall-bouncing, feel great.

Sairento’s Main Flaw Is The UI

While the main menu in this game includes dozens of useful options, the UI is incredibly frustrating, especially at the start. The system is convenient for players when quickly changing load-outs, but the tutorial is optional, so I found myself learning the controls through trial and error in the home-base. The menu is intimidating, and the mission layout is unnecessarily complicated. It’s based on a F2P model, with multiple currencies and a lot of visual noise that slows down the gameplay. It’s Sairento’s main flaw. Despite the bonuses you get from gear and leveling up, the moments between its core gameplay feel meaningless, and there are never any surprises.

Somehow, the sense of flow I can achieve seemingly makes up for all of its minor issues.

Last Words

Despite its cheap hooks and repetitive nature, it’s an entrancing, physically active game without any clear alternative on the Quest. It’s an ambitious game for an indie team, and getting it to work on limited hardware is in itself a technical achievement. There are dozens of design choices that I would change, but they’re easy to overlook. Once you get past the noise, Sairento VR: Untethered is one of the most pleasurable flow states you’ll find in VR.