Interview With nDreams and Shuhei Yoshida About Reach, VR, And What Indies Can Do To Set Themselves Apart

One of my big personal blind spots in gaming is VR. With new titles always on the horizon like nDreams' Action-Adventure title Reach always coming out I see continued evidence or rapid development, features to allow for more comfortable gameplay, and experiences that you just wouldn't be able to replicate on a 2D screen.

At this years' Summer Game Fest I not only got to play through a demo of the first level of Reach, but then got to talk with the development team and Shuhei Yoshida, their games' ambassador, about creating Reach as an experience for all to enjoy, how Yoshida became involved, how VR titles all lift each other up, and how the indie VR scene is a good place to be.

Experiencing Reach Firsthand

As my appointment began, I got strapped into the Quest 3 headset that was connected to a nearby computer. Having been asked if I'd worn a VR headset before, luckily, I was able to reference my early VR experience with a DK2 and original Vive, as well as my experience playing Deadpool VR just the day earlier.

From the getgo of the demo, I was impressed, after receiving options to play standing or sitting down I appeared at a terminal with a wide variety of visual and locomotion options. Did you want a quick pivot when turning, or a smooth glide? Would you like added effects over your view to help with motion sickness? Etc

Incredible care had gone into making sure no matter how new or old you were to VR there was a way to make the experience most comfortable to you, something we discussed further after the demo.

Once I was through the settings screen and into the game, I hit the ground with a running start. Starting in a warehouse, Reach began by teaching me the basics of movement, navigating between boxes, and climbing, at first with ladders before progressing to boxes and rivets, before I graduated to bricks jutting out of walls.

Something that was incredible during my experience was just how intuitive everything was. At first I was noticing the obvious 'climb up this' style objects, but it wasn't long that I was clambering all over the place for fun, then on a whim I tried to fling myself up with both hands… and it worked.

VR That Makes You Want To Push Yourself

Every time I thought to myself 'this is probably possible', I would attempt it and it would work. Whether it was the movement, interacting with random world objects, or creeping around corners to get the drop on guards everything was as I might expect from a gamified version of the real world. Honestly, the only thing holding me back from going full Star Wars kid in there was the fear of punching the TV I was positioned next to, or a nearby developer.

After locomotion was locked down I got to experience combat. The first item you obtain is a magical bow that crackles with energy as you draw back the string. Doing some experimentation, I found out arrows embed themselves in certain rock walls (that I assume you encounter more of in the full game), trying to pull the arrows out I instead learned that I could climb on them.

Firearms are also present in Reach, but nDreams developers liken it more to the firearms of Mirror's Edge, they're a bit of a power up but very limited in their use so don't get too used to them.

The demo ended with a long chase sequence that had me dodging falling buildings amid explosions, flinging myself around obstacles, and leaping across massive gaps before sliding into a large blue crash pad.

Reach Preview | Final Thoughts

Coming out of Reach, I had a blast playing, could immediately see the potential in the movement and combat, and watching the trailer for the full game and what it incorporated, I just wanted to hop right back in.

An Action-Adventure in PC/PS5 powered VR was fun, smooth, and functioned just as I'd expect a video game world to perform.

This is definitely going to be a reason for me to borrow, if not purchase a VR headset to be able to get the full experience.

Yoshida Has Watched Reach From The Start

Having completed my demo, standing around and talking with the developers at nDream and Shuhei Yoshida, I was interested to learn how he'd come on as an ambassador for the project.

Yoshida began by explaining that Synapse, nDream's 2023 VR title, was one of his favorite VR games. When the team began working on Reach three years ago, he had already seen samples of it while working as the Head of PlayStation Indies.

"If [Yoshida] is excited then we know we're onto something"

When he retired, nDreams reached out to him to see if they'd be interested in continuing to work together and he agreed.

From there I was interested to know what it was that Yoshida saw in Reach that made him so confident in it. He explained to me that he knew when trying out the movement that it was going to be something that people enjoyed. "It was clear they're trying to do what no one has done before, I really want them to be successful."

With a history of working with a variety of indie developers, and with the indie scene becoming more and more competitive as the number of games that release on digital platforms like Steam continue to ballon year after year I asked what indie developers could do to increase discoverability in a competitive scene.

Keeping the conversation close to Reach Yoshida highlighted that "for VR, unides are a huge part of the scene. nDreams started working on The Assembly on Oculus Rift and that for people who really want to make VR games, it's a passion."

Referencing popular VR titles and developers like Super Hot and Owlchemy Labs, Yoshida highlighted that "each of these games generated so much noise and experience." He also pointed out that as VR headsets increase in power and fidelity that "in the indie space, if you're passionate about VR there's less competition."

At that time nDreams developers lent their voice to the discussion explaining how "when a great game comes out it helps everyone out." explaining how things like locomotion controls improving over the years from the simple teleport to full action is a direct response to VR developers trying out other game's movements and taking what works to uplift them all.

"In VR it's fun to watch good players play" - Shuhei Yoshida

Another developing aspect of VR is just how much work is going into the hardware side of assisting players who have various comfortability in VR.

How Long Will Reach Be, And Where Can We Get Our Hands On It?

Returning to watching the Reach trailer at the booth, I asked how long a player might expect the experience to take. I was told that it would be a "double-digit campaign," referencing how there's a linear story, but for those who want to challenge themselves with advanced platforming or combat, there will be all kinds of alternate paths.

"Will be a double digit hour campaign [...] completionists could be several more hours"

From the story segment I played I got a light tease of the story, learning that after establishing yourself as a well known stunt actress there would be an event that would cause multiple realities to merge. From there you get the strange mix of ancient and modern day architecture that you can see in the trailer.

Not much else was spoiled about the story, but they would be focusing on revealing more about it this Summer ahead of it's launch later this year.

Reach was previewed at Summer Game Fest 2025.