Shoutout to No Pause Tournaments and the Lehigh Valley VR Cafe for hosting the Reality Royale Tournament. This marks my true first steps into the Professional Super Smash Bros Community. I'll be seeing you guys at the next tournament!
So today I went to AniOn Station’s Tales of VR cafe event (currently running in Osaka and Nagoya until July 8th 2018) and I just feel like....
I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE OF ANIME CAFES!!!!!!!!!!
Like really though. I would be surprised if this doesn’t become a thing. (I honestly think going to an average anime cafe will never feel quite the same again.) This post may be interesting even if you don’t know Tales.
So this cafe had everything an anime cafe usually has with the added experience to try VR. They had headsets at each table. It was my first time trying VR at all actually, which probably contributed to my experience.
Each timeslot had a different “guest character”. (The one I chose to come for was Mikleo.) So you put on the VR headset for the first session, enter the door, and there you are just sitting in a cafe with Tales characters. Like, I could see Milla to my left. In front of me at the bar I could see Leon’s stupid cape facing me, etc. The cafe was hosted by Mileena (a character from Tales of the Rays I don’t know as I haven’t played the game) and soon after she seats you the guest character will enter... and what do you know it, he walks right up and decides to sit with you!!!
So just imagine for a sec, your favorite character.
NOTICING YOU
WALKING UP TO YOU
SITTING DOWN WITH YOU
LOOKING AT YOU
...........................OHHHHHHHHHHHHH
So you have a “conversation” regarding combat which ends in a suggestion of what you should order. (Mikleo got me wrong unfortunately T-T) Then you take off the headset to order your real food, and you can also order (yeah they are not free) additional skits.
I got the full package so I got one additional skit included. I didn’t know quite what was going on at the time but you had to choose another character. So I chose Luke. Because LUKE.
So I went back into the cafe and Mikleo was still sitting with me. Then Mileena went and got Luke for me (she’s SO kind) and the three of us sat down together. Mikleo and Luke proceeded to have a conversation about Luke’s outfit and whether he’s cold or not (as they do).
So now that I knew how it worked and how I could meet any of the featured characters (coming to the cafe I wasn’t sure if I was gonna see more than Mikleo) I decided to buy another skit. At first I wanted Milla because she would be my next favorite but then I was like WAIT
NO
LEON
Now that I knew Mikleo will talk with whoever I choose I decided I needed to see what these two saucy cats would say to each other.
Mikleo struck up a conversation with Leon about fighting tactics to use when you’re short.... HA.... HAHAHAH...... WORTH IT. I even ended up buying the stands of both Mikleo and Leon to make the moment last forever.
At the end Leon said something like “You’re really interested in this aren’t you” and Mikleo admitted (without saying the name) that he feels conscious about it because of Sorey.
I ran out of time (and money) to do Milla but at least she did wave at me from across the room haha. (And I ordered her drink, which was way sweeter than I expected...) But this is SO CRAZY because you can trigger so many different conversations with so many different characters and there would be so much reason to come again.
Another thing which was unique about this cafe was that for drinks, food, and fortunes by Mileena (see the well-rounded Luke one I got above) were all bought by “gald.” (The currency in the Tales universe.) Basically you had to exchange your money into tokens at a machine, and then use all your tokens before leaving the cafe. I think this had two purposes: 1.) Atmosphere and 2.) You spend WAY more money this way I think HAHAH really I have NO CONCEPT of how much I spent and that is really bad.
This cafe was SO. EXPENSIVE.
But you know what.
IT WAS SO COOOOLLLLLLLLLLLL.
They handed out a survey about the experience, and at the end you could write what you want for a future VR cafe. So (knowing that King of Prism will never happen because AniOn Station is owned by Bandai-Namco) I wrote “Aikatsu”!
When it comes to demoing the latest in virtual reality, access and affordability can be a barrier for many looking to experience the range of content already available. And that’s where location-based VR becomes more important than ever.
By eliminating the need for consumers to shell out hundreds of dollars to buy their own hardware and gaming PCs, it’s clear why location-based VR retail is gaining in popularity and helping build China into a massive VR market that’s projected to be worth $8.5 billion in just four years.
