How Ramen VR built Zenith: The Last City, an epic VRMMO, out tomorrow

blog.playstation.com:

The wait is finally over, and we welcome you all to join us on an action-filled adventure in the expansive and beautifully stylized fantasy open world of Zenith: The Last City, the first full-scale MMO for VR, launching on January 27 for PlayStation VR.

All of the classes in Zenith can be played as the roles of DPS, tank, and support. However, we still wanted them to have unique play styles that leverage the extra physicality that VR affords. This was especially important since, unlike traditional MMOs, we also have more intelligent AI for players to contend with that can actively dodge or block attacks.

For our two launch classes, we chose Blade Master, a dual sword-wielding warrior designed for visceral close-quarters gameplay, and a mid-ranged magic-wielding Essence Mage that can cast spells and channel bolts of energy through their launchers.

Combat for Blade Master is primarily focused on physically swinging swords to attack with powerful strikes and performing combos of swings to trigger abilities. Getting into a rhythm, carefully timing attacks, parries, and dashing to dodge will be vital to mastering this class.

Essence Mage combat is range-focused, with players having a variety of spells at their disposal ranging from hand-thrown fireballs to AoE spells initiated through simple hand gestures. To complement casting, Essence Mages are also equipped with a pair of essence channeling projectile launchers and a teleport ability to help them maintain safe positioning.

Zenith has always been intended to be an open-world that’s a step beyond anything currently available in VR, so one of our earliest goals was to create a custom suite of traversal mechanics to bring that lofty dream to life.

Players can climb almost any