Ladies and gentlemen, we got invited to watch and review the live Cinderella Switch VR Concert Volume 4! along with the previous volumes. In volume 4 we got to dance, sing, and cheer shoulder-to-shoulder with Himemori Luna and Natsuiro Matsuri of Hololive Production, two of the world’s biggest VTubers.
Music is life, food to the soul and it helps make life more bearable, especially during these difficult times and one of the people who seem to understand that best are the people at VARK, providing entertainment in a VR space filled with music, fun and togetherness.
What is VARK?
VARK is a virtual concert platform allowing viewers to experience a live concert of a virtual artist as if they were in an actual venue. Audiences can warm up a concert and cheer for a virtual artist singing right in front of you. VARK helps bring events to life that are difficult to realize in the physical world. Beyond creating and developing VARK, the corporation VARK Inc. also partners with other businesses to produce virtual concerts.
https://vark.co.jp/
Available Platforms
- Oculus Quest
- Oculus Quest 2
- PlayStation VR
- Nico Nico Douga
- Android
- iOS
Cinderella Switch VR Concert
Cinderella switch -Futari de miru Hololive-, or Cinderella Switch for short, is a virtual Seven-Concert series that began on September 27th, 2020, and has rapidly grown in popularity since. It is the result of the collaboration of VARK, a VR company and Hololive, a popular V-Tuber idol company.
Cinderella Switch series is a series of innovative and immersive virtual shows where two performers take turns swapping between the stage and audience. Each performance is about an hour-long with 5 songs each and an After Talk special after the end of the concert which is about half an hour.
What did I think?
VTubing is something I’ve always had an interest in since I first found out about it. And it’s something I would love to get into in the future maybe, but all my experience VTubing had been gaming streams, so watching Cinderella Switch VR Concert was definitely a first for me.
So far the series performances have been amazing, especially the live Cinderella Switch VR Concert Volume 4 it felt even more immersive, with plenty to do like applauding, cheering through a megaphone, sending gifts (flowers, flower stands, stars etc) and posting preset comments. And the VTubers can see every last gift, comment and name of all the people showing them support.
I found myself singing along most times or occasionally popping my head to the music and the whole thing felt like a personalized experience, with having Himemori Luna or Natsuiro Matsuri beside me cheering whichever one of them was on stage at the time or the short breaks in between songs were the one performing would have this really funny and cute banter with the other who was beside me. Even sometimes they would bring my avatar into the conversation which just made everything feel very inclusive and adorable.
VARK VR technology has the potential to be a game-changer, in how we get to experience concerts, I especially like the freedom I have in my seat position and deciding how close I want to be to the stage. For the curious, the Hololive Cinderella Switch VR Concert is a welcome take on experiencing a live concert.
Music
You get J-pop how it’s meant from this genre of idol girls. The VTubers really give their all and even if you don’t understand all the words you will find yourself dancing, singing, and cheering shoulder-to-shoulder with the rest of the users.
There were some tracks that caught my attention more than others, but the energy and vocals were always out of this world. The performances were never disappointing in the slightest. And the banter and commentary during transitions was quite enjoyable and showed how close the amazing vocalists were.
Animation
The Cinderella Switch VR Concert visuals were very clean, vibrant and well detailed. The design quality of the girls, stage and staging effects really made fan service animation like head pats, hugs and so on look fluid and natural in VR.
Sound
Sound and sound effects were great and aside from two or three occasions where audio would cut out for a split second, it was a memorable event. And in fairness, the audio cuts could have been from network issues and not a problem at VARK’s end, and even if it were it’s a bug not many would notice.
Favourite moment?
That would have to be the After Talk special, the concert was great but having about half an hour of watching our two popular VTubers banter back and forth, head patted, head-butted and other silly antics was very fun and cute.
Least favourite moment?
My least favourite moment would be… All the series so far do not have a subtitle option for users not fluent in Japanese, there were some parts of the conversation I didn’t understand. If subtitling was an available option all users will be able to get the same experience out of the concerts.
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What did I learn?
What I learnt from the Cinderella Switch VR Concert series:
- It’s definitely nice to enjoy great music from the comfort of your home, you can experience a one-of-a-kind musical experience, on a large scale without all the inconveniences of a dense crowd.
- VTubers work really hard to improve their performance, so we should always show some love when we can.
- I really want to become a VTuber more now. Not a musical one but a game streaming one.
Would I watch more?
Yeah. It’s definitely nice to enjoy great music from the comfort of our home. And dance, sing, and cheer shoulder-to-shoulder with the MCs of the concert.
The Cinderella Switch VR Concert series might not be for everyone but it’s an experience everyone should try at least once. The collaboration between VARK and Hololive is fun to watch and I can’t wait to see more of it in the Cinderella Switch VR Concert Volume 5!
When is Cinderella Switch VR Concert Volume 5 Release Date?
Cinderella Switch VR Concert Volume 5 comes to VARK in VR on Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2, and for non-VR viewing on Android and iOS smartphones, as well as Niconico, on Saturday, April 24.
So what do you think? And if you have attended one of the Cinderella Switch VR Concert series what was your experience? What do you think of VTubing? Tell us in the comment section or join the Cinderella Switch social media conversation using the Twitter hashtag #cinderellaswitch.
And with that, I am done! Thank you the readers, VARK and Hololive for the opportunity to be able to write and review for you.
Till next time… Stay Amazing!
