“IMMERSIVE JOURNEY Yokohama”: A sneak peek at the second installment of the Ancient Egypt VR experience! Uncovering the secret behind its immense popularity.

A new VR experience, “THE SECRET OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS,” has been released at the VR experience facility “IMMERSIVE JOURNEY Yokohama.”

This game is positioned as the second installment in the Ancient Egypt VR series, following the first title, “Horizon of Khufu,” but it focuses on the builders of the pyramids, offering a different perspective on the pyramids and ancient Egypt compared to “Horizon of Khufu.”

In the first installment, Fairouz Ai voiced the guide Mona, and Sawashiro Miyuki voiced Bastet. The original voice actors will be reprising their roles in this installment, and in addition, a new character, the Sphinx, will be introduced, voiced by Ebara Masashi.

This article reports on the new release, “THE SECRET OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS – The Secret of the Pyramid Builders -“.

We also conducted an interview with Ohashi Tetsuya, CEO of CinemaLeap, the company that operates IMMERSIVE JOURNEY. We delve into the secrets behind the popularity of IMMERSIVE JOURNEY, which is currently expanding its stores nationwide, and its future prospects.

“I want to know more about ancient Egypt, and explore it!” – This satisfies that curiosity.

©Excurio

The new film, “THE SECRET OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS,” focuses not on privileged figures like King Khufu, but rather on the laborers who actually worked to lay each stone in the pyramids, and their work. Through experiences such as meeting them and sharing a boat with them, the film gives viewers a real sense that “those gigantic pyramids were built by human hands in ancient Egypt.”

Mona and Bastet are the guides on this experience, and the Sphinx plays a key role in the film’s mysteries. The high-quality performances of the voice actors portraying these three characters enhanced the immersive experience of the film, making it even more exciting.

The level of comfort in the experience was just as high as in the previous game. Basically, Mona leads the way wherever you go, so it’s easy to intuitively understand which direction to go and at what speed. Also, the experience space itself is quite large at about 1,000 square meters, so even with a fair number of people around, it’s easy to walk around and get a good sense of immersion.

The only actions required of participants are “walking or moving in a wheelchair,” “seeing,” and “hearing,” so even people unfamiliar with VR can comfortably enjoy it, regardless of age.

I felt that this game would be enjoyable not only for those who enjoyed the first “Horizon of Khufu,” but also for those who have never played it before.

The explanations are quite in-depth, so even if you experience it two or three times, you’re likely to discover and learn something new each time.

The 3D space, the expertly supervised commentary, and the voice acting—everything about it was of high quality.

One thing that bothered me was that there were many sections in the experience where the screen went black during scene transitions, and each time, my attention was drawn to thinking about the connection to the previous scene. While shortcuts for movement and elapsed time may be necessary if the goal is to provide a “fulfilling story experience in a short time,” I felt that I would have liked to enjoy “a single space and a single flow of time” more, given the high quality of the VR space. Also, I would like to experience works that incorporate interactivity other than “walking” (for example, “touching” or “holding”). I understand that it is difficult to balance this with keeping visitors engaged, but I look forward to further innovations.

However, there’s no doubt that this film is of a high quality, and anyone who enjoyed the previous two installments will surely enjoy this one as well.

The “excitement” you feel before and after the experience has also evolved.

I’ve visited IMMERSIVE JOURNEY Yokohama every time a new show is released since it opened, and the first thing that surprised me this time was the large number of visitors, even though it was a weekday during the day. There were relatively more women, but it wasn’t just women; there were families, couples, and people of all ages.

As you’ll see when you visit, Journey Immersive Yokohama isn’t a street-level store, so its location makes it unlikely that walk-in customers would just happen to stumble upon it. In other words, it seems that most visitors come to this location specifically for this store. It’s surprising that it’s still so popular a year and a half after opening. Even inside Station Yokohama on my way there, I saw people carrying Journey Immersive shopping bags.

The shops within the facility were even more extensive than when I visited last year. In addition to goods related to the works, there were original goods from the immersive journey, and displays of collaborative menus with restaurants within Aso Building. This shows that the sense of excitement you can feel before and after the experience has evolved, and it also reflects the success of the facility’s operations.

(Immersive Journey original merchandise)

(Scenes from the sale of merchandise related to the work)

(Display of collaboration menu)

Interview with Ohashi, representative of IMMERSIVE JOURNEY

After the preview experience, we heard from Ohashi Tetsuya, CEO of CinemaLeap Inc., the company that operates IMMERSIVE JOURNEY.

—This is your third new film, released after about a year’s hiatus. Why did you decide to create a new film about pyramids at this particular time?

Ohashi: Originally, all three of the films we are currently showing are licensed and screened by a French company called Excurio. Excurio announced in France around the end of last year that “THE SECRET OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS” had been completed, and our company members went to see it there. Given that the first film, “Horizon of Khufu,” was a particularly outstanding hit, we thought that if we released another film with the same Egyptian theme, it would increase the chances of customers coming to see it again, so we decided to “give it a try now.”

—When you say “Horizon of Khufu was a hit,” do you mean both globally and within the context of immersive journeys in Japan?

Ohashi: That’s right. Already 2.6 million people worldwide have experienced “Horizon of Khufu,” and it’s also popular in Japan. And since “Horizon of Khufu” and this new “THE SECRET OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS” depict different aspects of ancient Egypt, even though they are both ancient Egypt, I think people will enjoy both of them.

—Even though it’s a weekday today, there are many customers at the venue. It seems to have maintained the same level of popularity, or even more, since it first opened. How do you feel about that?

Ohashi: At first, I wondered, “How long will this popularity last?” but I think the fact that we were able to regularly add content was a big factor.

—What are the most common reasons people come to visit these days?

Ohashi: The initial trigger is usually word of mouth or something like, “I saw it on social media.” Then, they come once and say, “I liked it,” and bring others with them to come again.

—Yokohama The store is located at the back of the 3rd floor of Building Aso, which seems like a difficult location to attract walk-in customers who “just happened to be passing by,” but you’re still able to attract a lot of people in that way, right?

Ohashi: It’s close to the station, and Building Aso isn’t a huge shopping mall, but rather a four-story commercial building, so it’s easy to get to. I feel that choosing this location with the aim of making it easily accessible for customers who want to come and experience an immersive journey has paid off.

—What are your thoughts on the Nagoya store, which opened this year?

Ohashi: First of all, our Nagoya location is very accessible, right near Station Sakae, and I’m sure there are people who come there as well while they’re in the area, but my impression is that most people come specifically for the immersive journey.

—Conversely, does this mean that because many customers come specifically for the immersive journey experience from the start, even if the location is a little difficult to access on a whim, as long as it’s easily accessible from the station, customers will still come?

Ohashi: That’s the impression I have so far.

–What are your thoughts on the third store, the Hiroshima store, which is scheduled to open next year?

Ohashi: We are planning to open a store in a facility called Paseo, and NTT Development Urban, which is in charge of the renovation of that facility, contacted us because they wanted to “gather experiential content and entertainment here!” That’s how we were able to open a store in Hiroshima. Immersive journeys inevitably require a large space due to the nature of the content, but it’s not easy to find such a large space by simply searching for it. So we are looking for opportunities to open stores all over the country.

—So, it’s not like you’ve decided to stick with these three stores for the time being, but rather you’re still constantly searching for other locations in Japan where you could open a new store?

Ohashi: Yes. However, since it requires a large space, such opportunities are rare.

—So, rather than having a specific area in mind where you want to do it, you’re looking for a property with a suitable size and location across the country, is that right?

Ohashi: That’s right. We want to make it available for people all over the country to experience. We want to make it accessible to people no matter where they live in the country, so that they can “just make a short trip” to get there. So, first of all, we want to open stores in urban areas all over the country.

—Do you have a specific goal in mind, like how many stores you’d like to have?

Ohashi: I’d like to aim for around 10 stores in the next three years or so.

—So you feel that you’ve made that much progress?

Ohashi: At first, we received a lot of concern from various people, such as “Will this format itself be accepted in Japan?”, “What about the price?”, and “Will this kind of experience become popular in Japan?”, and I myself wondered “Will this work?”, but we tried it anyway, and to be honest, it did! That was the case in Yokohama, and our Nagoya store, which opened in January of this year, recently surpassed 50,000 cumulative visitors, so things are going smoothly. So, I’d like to continue exploring how far we can expand this nationwide.

—One consistent impression I get is that immersive journeys are particularly well-received among people who are not already VR users or hardcore gamers, but rather people who have never tried VR before.

Ohashi: That’s right. Of course, there are people who come because they originally like VR, but I get the impression that more people come because they are interested in the content itself, such as when friends say, “There’s something interesting about ancient Egypt going on.”

—What are your plans for the future?

Ohashi: In addition to increasing the number of stores nationwide to make it easily accessible from anywhere, we also want to enrich the content we offer. Of course, we will continue to introduce attractive content from overseas, but we also want to add our own original free-roam content. In fact, we are currently creating original content based on ukiyo-e prints from the Edo period, and it is scheduled to be completed this year.

In the future, I think we could potentially create original content based on historical and cultural themes, or even IPs like Japanese anime and manga. I want to create content that can be enjoyed in Japan while also exporting it overseas.

—This large, permanent, free-roam VR-only facility has been so well-received and popular with so many people. What do you think are the reasons for this success?

Ohashi: I think one reason is that we’re working on content with a broad appeal. For example, shooting games and various other game experiences certainly have a broad appeal, but then there’s something like the Egyptian pyramids, which has the ultimate broad appeal. Also, even people who aren’t very familiar with VR can experience it just by walking around in this space, without having to do any operations or actions, so I think it has a broad appeal in that sense as well.

Conversely, I think the design deliberately minimizes interactive elements, but I believe that’s a good thing. While there’s a path that focuses on providing a very “narrow, deep, and new experience,” Immersive Journey is different; it’s designed to be an accessible entry point for a wide range of people to experience this kind of content. The fact that no operation is required, and “all you have to do is walk,” is probably one of the contributing factors.

—Recently, there has been an increase in location-based VR experiences from other companies that utilize hand tracking capabilities to provide interactive features. Do you have any plans to add such interactive features to Immersive Journey’s offerings in the future?

Ohashi: Of course, that’s a concern. However, we need to be careful to ensure that things don’t get to the point where “if you can’t do that operation, you’ll be left behind” or “if you’re not used to VR, you won’t be able to operate it or understand it.”

—That’s true, finding the right balance is difficult. The more elements you add, the more it becomes geared towards advanced users.

Ohashi: That’s right. I think timing is also important. As we continue to release many works with Journey Immersive, the content will gradually evolve, and as customers experience it, they will get used to it and think, “Oh, this is what it is.” However, if there is a really difficult interaction right away for someone who is experiencing VR for the first time, they will be left behind, so we want to proceed while looking at the balance.

—Looking at the current trends in the VR industry, it seems quite possible that free-roam VR will become the cutting edge of the trend. If many competitors emerge in the future, where does Immersive Journey plan to focus its efforts to compete with other companies?

Ohashi: We want to be particular about the quality of our content. Every year, everyone in the company watches a lot of works from all over the world, so we have a team of people with discerning tastes. So, even though there are a lot of free-roam VR works coming out now, I think we’ve been able to carefully select the best ones and introduce them through Journey Immersive.

We want to create things ourselves without compromise, focusing on high-quality products, and that’s what we want to do most to differentiate ourselves.

Furthermore, we envision having permanent experience facilities throughout the country, creating a space where people can experience interesting VR works from all over the world. Like a movie theater, the content shown will change regularly, making it a place where people can always see a variety of things.

—From what I’ve heard, it seems that everything you’ve done as CinemaLeap up until now has served as a foundation, and that’s proving useful as you move forward with your immersive journey business.

Ohashi: That’s right. The fact that we’ve been able to build a network through our business so far is a big factor. So, when we decide to create works in Japan and send them out overseas, I think that will be very useful. If our company can properly handle both bringing works from overseas to Japan and taking works from Japan to overseas in the future, I think our company’s foundation will be utilized even more effectively.

–Finally, is there anything Ohashi would like to say to MoguLive readers about this new release?

Ohashi: This time, “THE SECRET OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS” is themed around ancient Egypt and pyramids, just like the previous work “Horizon of Khufu,” so it might get a little confused. However, while “Horizon of Khufu” was a story that focused on the Pyramid Great of Khufu and had a concept of “traveling through ancient Egypt,” this new work expands on that even further, depicting things like, “When the pyramids were built in the ancient Egyptian civilization, it wasn’t something that was confined to just the pyramids themselves, but something that was built in cooperation with various surrounding regions, with various players involved in the construction…”

Moreover, the mystery hasn’t been fully solved yet, and there have been suggestions like, “But here’s a possible hypothesis,” so it depicts a completely different side from the previous work. I definitely want you to watch both.

–thank you very much.

Tickets can be purchased on the IMMERSIVE JOURNEY official website.

©Excurio

Summary of “THE SECRET OF THE PYRAMID BUILDERS – The Secret of the Pyramid Builders -“