Many companies had booths at the Tokyo eSports Festa held a month ago on January 11 and 12.
Budget 50 million yen! eSportsPotentials "Tokyo esports festa"
Among them were VR-related contents that have been evolving remarkably in recent years, and as a reporter who loves VR, I couldn't miss them! I jumped into the booth without hesitation.
VR Badminton, a sports experience evolving with VR and 5G!
In the VR badminton exhibit by NTT Docomo, visitors could experience a realistic 3DCG reproduction of a seven-strike game in which they try to see if they can hit back the shuttle that is hit by a real badminton player.
Wearing a high-performance VR headset, your field of vision is completely the badminton court.
And the controller in your hand is a racket, no matter how you look at it in the virtual space.
The 3DCG body and racket move naturally in accordance with the movements of your hands and body, and the surprisingly careful finishing reflects the speed and angle of the racket, allowing you to play badminton without any sense of discomfort.
Although the large screen in the back shows a live view of the badminton player experiencing VR badminton, from the side it is still a dangerous picture of a player swinging a stick while covering the upper half of his face with a machine, but the people experiencing the game were completely immersed in it and were enthusiastically chasing the shuttlecock, which does not exist.
One of the participants even reached out with his other hand to touch the gut, mistakenly thinking that he was holding a controller.
Before the seven games of actual badminton play, you can enter the court to watch the two players playing a match in virtual space, as a new sports spectator experience made possible by 5G.
Shuttles flying past at high speed, players unexpectedly diving toward you.
The illusion of a racket slicing through space in an instant, grazing your body. It was an experience beyond reality.
This was a virtual badminton experience with a player who had already been photographed as an image and a shuttle that flew in a fixed motion.
However, 5G is an era of high speed, high capacity, ultra-multiple terminal connections, ultra-low latency, and ultra-high reliability.
The time may come in the not-too-distant future when we will be able to play badminton through VR with players who are really far away.
I was so excited to buy a VR headset, and as a VR enthusiast accustomed to the virtual space, I was unable to hit back even half of my shots in the seven-round match.
It seems that athleticism is sold separately.
Virtual duels are more serious than real ones, "Duel of Gargantua"
Yomuneko Corporation's exhibit was "DUELS of GARGANTUA", a new VR sword-fighting action game that finally makes human-on-human combat possible.
It is no exaggeration to say that VR enthusiasts came to Tokyo eSports Festa for this exhibit.
"Duel of Gargantua" is a new VR action game that allows players to wield swords, maces, and other weapons in a virtual space to enjoy one-on-one duels with other players.
The world view and graphic design of the previous "SWORDS of GARGANTUA" game have been retained for the versus game, but the internal processing has been completely redesigned.
As for the actual experience of playing the game, the "Sword of Gargantua" allowed for nimble footwork in order to fight huge and numerous enemies, but this was curbed in this game.
On the other hand, shields, which used to be considered fragile and expendable, have become an important piece of equipment, and the system has been adjusted to allow for realistic sparring.
In addition, the game has a new system that reduces weapon wear and tear by minimizing the gap between the weapon's position in the game and in reality when the shield is used to catch the weapon. The opponents in the game are flesh and blood.
The opponents in the versus game are flesh-and-blood human beings. Unlike the refined movements of the NPCs in the previous title, the movements are truly free, and the depth of the game is such that you cannot just memorize motions and respond to them.
The frenzy of the fights, in which the fighters struggle and swing their weapons at zero distance, is something that can only be experienced in a fight against a human opponent.
VR-loving men threaten each other and their neighboring opposing players by raising their large maces at each other. He was defeated.
"Duel of Gargantua" is still under development and has not yet been released, but will be exhibited at various events in the future. At the event, a winner-take-all game was always held, in which players could take revenge as many times as they wanted until they had won five games in a row. Please come to the upcoming events and play like crazy!
「デュエル・オブ・ガルガンチュア」をプレイするVR大好きマン#DUELSofGARGANTUA #VR #東京eスポーツフェスタ #よむネコ pic.twitter.com/MkiOOhi3Mj
— Saiga NAK (@saiganak) February 12, 2020
e-COMBAT Kojin, a new innovation in swordsmanship competitions
The "e-COMBAT Kojin" exhibit by Kyoyu Corporation is not VR, but a swordfighting game that uses modern technology from a different aspect to enhance the performance.
Just as fencing in the theater has become a hot topic, it seems that a new era of swordsmanship is being explored through rules and staging.
The "e-COMBAT Kojin" is a system in which a special sword is used to judge the effectiveness of a strike by reacting to a sensor in the armor, again similar to fencing.
It may also be similar to sports chanbara, which is a sporting version of swordsmanship.
However, since the objective of these competitions is to hit the target anyway, there is a discrepancy between strong movements in sword fighting and the original strong movements in swordsmanship, especially in sports chambara, which is sometimes ridiculed as not being a sword fight at all.
However, the "e-COMBAT Kojin" is an attempt to incorporate the strengths of swordsmanship into the competition.
In the event, we were allowed to actually attack the protective gear with a special sword. While sharp points such as the head are easily judged as valid strikes, non-striking points are only valid if the sword is not drawn. This allows us to judge the power of the cutting action, which has not been realized in competitions until now.
The use of sensors to guide the player into strong swordsmanship moves from the system side is what makes "e-COMBAT Kojin" a swordfighting competition and makes it a very interesting exhibit.
When the sensor responded, a loud sound effect like "bang" and the light emitted by the armor were used to indicate an effective strike.
There are also hands-on sessions being held at various locations, so be sure to check out and experience the new age of swordsmanship.
New technology creates new experiences, and new experiences create new enjoyment.
Pokemon GO, Pazudora, MonSt, and Taiko no Tatsujin were chosen as competition titles for the Tokyo eSports Festa.
When these games started, we never imagined that they would be competed as e-sports.
However, from the days of Pokémon, where players played locally against each other via communication cables, the evolution of networks has made competitions easier, and aggregated results have made it visible that the best players are the best at the game, not through rumors among their peers or rankings in game centers, but through the visibility of all the players. The network evolution has evolved to the point where the game is now played on a level playing field.
In this context, I feel that the value of good games, which should have been regarded only as a form of entertainment, is gradually being recognized.
As 5G and local 5G begins, I look forward to seeing what value will be created in the world of sports, including e-sports, in the future.
VR is another genre that has made remarkable progress in recent years.
It is no longer just a fresh experience, but is about to be sublimated to a new type of fun that is worth playing.
It seems that it is not impossible that there will be a VR e-sports tournament in the near future.
As a reporter who loves VR, I would like more people to experience VR for that purpose. I hope you enjoy the experience of playing and watching from the comfort of your own home or at an event in the future!
...I wish VR devices were a little more affordable.
Tokyo eSports Festa : https://esportsfesta.tokyo/
NTT Docomo Inc. : https://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/
Yomuneko Corporation official website : https://www.yomune.co/
Hibiki Likelihood Inc. official website : https://kyouyu.themedia.jp/