August is off to a romantic start as VR-Kanojo takes the number one spot in Steam’s Top Sellers category for Japan (as spotted by GameBiz). Following its launch on July 31, the romantic simulator overtook other popular titles like Battlefield Studios’ Battlefield 6, which started accepting pre-orders on the same day.
A successor to Illusion’s VR Kanojo (note the lack of a hyphen), VR-Kanojo is a crowd-funded project created by a new studio, Illumination. The studio includes developers who worked on the original game, such as producer Yunayuna and lead character artist and art director Genz (who serves as VR-Kanojo’s lead supervisor). Seasoned adult video game developers like Go Hasegawa (a.k.a. Matsusaka Ushio) and Rei Takanami, who worked on 3D Custom Girl and Angel Quest, respectively, also make up Illumination.
In VR-Kanojo, you spend quality alone time with Sakura Yuuhi, the game’s titular “kanojo” (girlfriend). As the only two people in the world, you must use the unique “look & touch” controls to deepen your relationship with her. You can also customize Sakura with various outfits – a feature that dating simulator fans will appreciate.
At the time of writing, VR-Kanojo has a “Mixed” rating on Steam, with players praising the visuals but criticizing the game’s price and length. Time will tell if VR-Kanojo manages to keep its number one spot on the Steam Top Sellers, but as of now, the game has made quite an impression on Japanese audiences.
VR-Kanojo is available on PC (Steam). Note that the game is marked as “adult only.”
