In Q-Video games’ newest for PlayStation VR2, weapons are not weapons of warfare however instruments for creativeness and therapeutic.
If there’s one factor the Japan-based studio has specialised in over time, it’s in creating artistically significant video games from seemingly easy concepts, significantly of their PixelJunk sequence. In PixelJunk Eden, you leap from plant to plant whereas exploring natural worlds, making music and life in a hypnotic and calming method that mirrors nature and life. It is directed by musician and recreation director Baiyon, who can be main growth on Goals of One other, a visually formidable story of life and demise that solely turns into extra spectacular when thrust into the realm of VR.
As confirmed in our current Q&A, the idea behind Goals of One other is to discover “human contradictions, our sense of inadequacy, goals and regrets, and what freedom means” inside the contradictory nature of the gun and its tough digital and real-world connotations remodeled right into a instrument for creation and understanding. Thus, you observe the Man in Pajamas and the Wandering Soldier in a dreamlike world, attempting to grasp forgotten recollections that warp and mix below its spectacular spottily rendered imaginary universe. What do you keep in mind or overlook, and the way do these recollections form us? That’s the guts of this title.
With this in thoughts, the sport’s core revolves round stepping via an ever-evolving cloud-like world that might warp into bodily objects when shot with a gun. Nothing feels really actual when a mass of bubbles transforms into a house or a weary soldier or the carcass of a useless mole. The purpose is that every bullet takes you one step nearer to understanding your individual recollections and self by witnessing these tales on this dream world. Which makes it an ideal title for VR.
If Goals of One other is hanging from trailers and visuals alone, the sport solely elevates itself when positioned into an immersive medium similar to this. In a flatscreen perspective, the thought is you’ll watch this story and world unfold and evolve from a third-person perspective, whereas the first-person VR-only perspective places you instantly into this expertise. Moderately than aiming a gun with a controller like another shooter, you maintain the PS VR2 Sense controllers like a gun to fireside into the gap, transferring nearer to examine each element instantly from your individual eyes.
In our brief demo, taken from the sport’s early moments, I discover myself within the equal of a city sq. and left to my gadgets. Firing my gun forwards created a path into this voxel-like world to not less than perceive the place I am purported to be. A fountain comes into view, then a weary soldier. Properties and cafes spring to life, and I am going to communicate to the weary faces I see. Capturing a desk that got here into existence earlier than me creates a nostalgic city middle that simply dithers on the sting of realization.
After taking pictures objects and bringing them into existence from the balls of sunshine round you, they seem like actual bodily objects that you may traverse. You convey this world to life, however it’s nonetheless merely an imagined existence. After finally discovering and taking pictures a manhole, I hear a voice recalling seeing a creature spring from inside. You shoot footsteps and the manhole cowl itself because it rolls round and disperses the sunshine power from the encircling buildings to try to uncover the reality, solely to seek out the aforementioned mole. Its household is inside the opening and, presumably searching for meals, it comes out solely to be killed.
This, and the older man’s response we additionally see on this transient sequence, give us a window into the storytelling concepts we will anticipate within the last launch. By taking pictures and evolving this house, we witness these non-linear tales unfold throughout new environments mixing actual and imaginary house. It is tough to explain what makes Goals of One other so intriguing. It’s a mirrored image on life, and the powerful choices and experiences that outline it, made summary in a world of sunshine balls and bullets that’s surprisingly lovely, not violent.
There’s a lot extra to discover within the last recreation than our transient 15-minute demo may permit. However there’s a real sense that the sport is probing deep into my sense of self and projecting it right into a malleable world that appears nothing like I’ve seen in video games earlier than, but someway intensely acquainted. Have you ever ever closed your eyes and seen rays of sunshine flicking via the underside of your eyelids like a tunnel into an infinite universe? It appears like that, remodeled right into a extra embellished, interactive expertise.
Goals of One other has the prospect to be one thing particular, with VR arguably essentially the most immersive approach to expertise it. Not less than, to a degree. Although I discovered myself enamored by the sport, the concepts showcased in trailers clicking with me eventually after preliminary confusion over the sport’s total goals, there are limits stopping me from totally immersing myself in its world. This primarily is available in its narrative elements, inconsistent within the methods it needs to relay itself to the participant.
Even veterans within the house have relayed their challenges in how finest to inform a narrative or use cutscenes in a VR house the place you’ll be able to’t management what path a participant will witness these occasions unfold. Do you prioritize immersion and hope gamers see the story unfold the best way you plan it, or do you lock them in place, doubtlessly ruining their immersion by wrenching management from the participant? Goals of One other sadly takes the worst possibility by refusing to decide to both of those choices.
The acknowledged intent by Baiyon in our prior Q&A is to make use of the VR-only first-person viewpoint to make the story extra immersive. Upon assembly the soldier on the steps of the fountain, they communicate on to me from my very own perspective, prioritizing holding me within the universe as they share their weariness and despair. As I method the manhole, nevertheless, we’re wrenched away right into a black void for a flatscreen, pre-rendered cutscene. Because the mole speaks its dying phrases, some points of this second are advised from a first-person perspective, whereas others as soon as once more throw me into the black void to observe a scripted scene from a digital display.
I confirmed with Q-Video games that this isn’t merely the results of an in-development construct the place sure scenes have but to be tailored for VR. These selections are made on a scene-by-scene foundation as to how finest to relay their story, with the choice on the best way to view these story segments being constituted of there. Whereas I can respect this selection, I personally discover it jarring in ways in which really feel distracting, reasonably than enhancing the emotional arc of the boy. If something, the actual fact this world is so malleable and past actuality made this extra jarring than if the sport aimed for a extra typical or photorealistic type. In a world so unreal and in contrast to something I’ve seen earlier than, constructed by my very own arms, it feels limiting to be wrestled away like this.
It is my solely adverse expertise from a demo that felt nothing like something I’ve skilled earlier than. The sport received an award at BitSummit 2025, the place it was showcased for the primary time in VR, and that is completely deserved. Whereas we’ll need to see whether or not the expertise can maintain throughout a full multi-hour expertise, the constructing blocks of one thing distinctive are right here and improved by VR.
Not less than, after we stay in that immersive world the group has crafted for us.
Goals of One other reaches PlayStation VR2 on October 10.
Goals Of One other Desires To Discover Inventive Symbolism With Clouds
Goals of One other explores the symbolism of utilizing weapons to create as a substitute of destroy, and we interviewed Q-Video games to be taught extra.
