Ramen VR builds Zenith: The Last City at the intersection of MMOs and VR
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Developing and maintaining an MMO of any size is no easy task for any studio. The feat gets more challenging when it's multiplatform. Doing all of that when it's also a virtual reality game -- as is the case with Ramen VR's Zenith: The Last City -- is a constant juggling act, technically and logistically.
The studio's chief technical officer and co-founder, Lauren Frazier, sits down with GamesIndustry.biz to explain how the Final Fantasy XIV-inspired RPG found a home on different headsets and became a PlayStation VR 2 launch title.
Frazier explains that her shared interest in anime with studio co-founder and CEO Andy Tsen sparked the idea for Zenith.
"It started because [Andy] and I wanted to make a game based on our upbringing. Shows like .Hack and then more recent programs like Sword Art Online."
She continues, "He and I had worked on a [VR] project before. So, we had some experience in the VR gaming space, and we knew that the next thing would be the same. But we were thinking, why is no one making an MMO VR title?"
To Frazier's point, Zenith remains on a short list of VR games that provide users with an MMORPG experience. From different classes to locations and quests, the title has the content one would expect from the genre.
Playing a VR game with the scale of a traditional MMORPG may sound overwhelming for consumers; however, the CTO says the studio has not received that kind of complaint. In fact, the social aspect of traditional MMORPGs is not terribly dissimilar from the metaverse chasers' notion of VR as a place for people to hang out with friends.
"It's very social; we have global voice chat on by default. So, you just kind of
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