Tale of the Fragmented Star: Single Fragment Version coming west “soon”

Publisher Mediascape will release communication-oriented virtual reality puzzle game Tale of the Fragmented Star: Single Fragment Version, known as Hoshi no Kakera no Monogatari: Hitokakera-Ban in Japan, for PlayStation VR in the west “soon” for $25, the company announced.

Here is an overview of the game, via its official website:

Story

A lone girl stands abandoned on a broken star.

With the star deprived of its power, she can neither use it to escape nor inform others of her plight.

However, there exists a point on this star that intersects with another world.

The player, by standing on this convergence point and wearing the Otherworld-Viewing Device (VR unit), can enter the parallel world and communicate with the girl.

Together, they cooperate to solve the puzzle of restoring the star’s power so she may be able to leave.

Game Concept

Although sight is highly intuitive in VR, the same cannot be said for most other aspects, leading to irritation from clumsy controls.

We designed this game around directing a character through glances to circumvent this and change that annoyance into a game element.

Also, for what is impossible in VR we established as impossible in context of the story, making these limits seem more natural and eliminating anything that might ruin immersion from the start.

For example, preparing a space that allows walking through in a VR world can be difficult, so this game is designed so that player does not to move from the starting point, preventing any movement-based awkwardness from occurring.

This also addresses the problem of motion sickness.

Solving Puzzles in VR

In this game, the player must form an awareness of depth to progress. This is established by setting the character as close, the star fragment as far, and the various puzzles as in between.

This is how we have made a game that gives meaning and worth to experiencing it in VR.

Watch a trailer below.