Interest

Former VR Kanojo Team Launches Crowdfunding for New Virtual Girlfriend Game

The idea of a virtual romantic partner has been around for some time. While not the first instance, Ken Akamatsu's 1994 series A.I. Love You explored the concept during the rise of home personal computers. Then, the Japanese adult game brand Illusion released VR Kanojo, a virtual reality girlfriend simulator, in 2018.

Illusion ended business operations last year, but the former staffers of VR Kanojo reunited to launch a new company named Illumination (no relation to the American CG animation studio) this past spring. Now, they are promising to "evolve" VR Kanojo (VRカノジョ) for the next generation of VR with a new game under a slightly re-tweaked name VR-Kanojo (VR-na Kanojo or VRな彼女).

The Illumination X (formerly Twitter) account announced the new VR-Kanojo game on June 27. In the game slated for winter 2024 on the SteamVR platform, players would again “date” a girl named Sakura Yūhi.

Since the June 27 announcement, the Illumination X/Twitter account had few updates regarding gameplay features or a set release date. However, on August 29, the company revealed on X/Twitter that it would start a crowdfunding campaign on the Campfire platform on September 2.

At the time of writing, the crowdfunding campaign has 434 backers and surpassed its initial goal of two million yen (about US$14,000), reaching just over 12 million yen (about US$84,000). The campaign has met all its previously planned stretch goals and has added a new goal for a maid costume and an omelet rice event, if the campaign reaches 750% of its first goal. The campaign still has many backing options available for future supporters of the game.

The crowdfunding campaign also included a short preview of the game. While it shows few gameplay elements, the video features the voice of Sakura Yūhi:

Sources: ILLUMINATION's X/Twitter account (link 2), Campfire via Siliconera