VR game "Subspace Hunter" reproduces the "Sword Art Online" user interface on Quest Pro and Quest 2.
Do you want to fully immerse yourself in Sword Art Online (SAO)? While there are many VR games that offer massively multiplayer immersive experiences similar to those of the comic and animated series, one game developed exclusively for Quest Pro and Quest 2 recreates the best/worst parts of the series: cute but terrible user interface (UI).
The game called "Subspace Hunter" is currently only available on SideQuest, and is only in very early beta. Developer XuKing Studio explained on the game's SideQuest page that the demo allows players to spawn a certain number of swords, magic, guns, and thirteen types of monsters.
The free demo game is entirely inspired by Sword Art Online, and even includes a one-handed sword that closely resembles protagonist Kirito's black countersword. YouTuber "GingasVR" showed the game in action:
While the low-poly enemies aren't outstanding, the faithful adherence to Sword Art Online's cutesy, obscure UI pulls it together so well that it feels more immersive than it would have been without it - albeit without a normal XR development The author would design such a system for real-time combat.
If you didn't see the video above, to choose a weapon you don't just have to pull out a virtual backpack or reach behind your shoulders like you do in many other VR games. Instead, you need to open the menu with a two-finger swipe gesture, select through three different 2D submenus, and then confirm your selection in reality. While this isn't as complicated as ordering food from a fast food buffet, it's not the best system for an immersive real-time action game. Luckily, you can control when monsters spawn, otherwise you might not have enough time to fiddle around.
That's probably why we don't see these kinds of complex 2D menus in modern VR games. But that being said, the UI hasn't been designed for a single game since the anime premiered in 2012, not even before the Oculus Rift DK1 hit Kickstarter backers' doors. Today though, the industry has basically decided that 2D menus feel awful to use in VR, making Sword Art Online's fictional UI somehow feel like a holdover from the days of gaming (turn-based RPGs).
In fact, works of fiction often do a terrible job of actually evolving the UI. Movies and TV often focus more on big, complex action and confusing UI elements that don't quite work in real life. Tom Cruise's glove in Minority Report (2002) is a stark example.
You don't see platform holders or individual games copy Future Report, not because it doesn't look cool enough, but because it introduces unnecessary friction. In the long run, this is tiring for developers and unintuitive for new users - both of which they have to be very mindful of if they want players to return to their game or app. The same is true for Sword Art Online, albeit on a smaller scale.
To be clear, this isn't a bashing of Subspace Hunter. The melee-focused MR demo game offers Sword Art Online fans a really good slice of immersion, and it's packed in a decently small size. The point is, Subspace Hunter doesn't over-promise a VRMMOPRG with the scale and depth of SAO, so such a system might seem out of place here. Regardless, there's a goofy yet charming charm to these swiping gestures and clutter of 2D menus.
It seems that the studio does have some very real ambitions to further develop Subspace Hunter, and you don't risk my brain exploding playing it. I'm just playing.
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