In my review of Lake Motosu, the first of the two Laid-Back Camp games on the Nintendo Switch, I mentioned how I was pleasantly surprised by how they’d altered the Spice and Wolf VR formula so that it told a short tale based on the anime but with some added interactivity that helped with immersion.

Can this second title continue that joy, or will this one be a disappointing follow up to Nadeshiko and Rin’s previous VR outing? 

This one has a dog, so it can’t be that bad – right?

Many thanks to Gemdrops for the review code.

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This second game continues the two girls’ camping adventures, this time at the Fumoto campsite. Offering a rather beautiful mountain-scape rather than the serene lake does make it visually distinct from its predecessor, although both share that same view of Mt Fuji.

As before, there’s little in the way of story as the primary focus is about two girls who are hanging out at a camping site together; however, instead of playing as the vibrant and bubbly Nadeshiko, you play the role of Rin – the moodier one of the two. She seems a little bit more fun-loving this time around, but only by a smidge. There is a third character in the form of a massive cuddly dog, although this is unfortunately where the game starts to falter.

The problem isn’t with the adorable pup itself, but rather the game’s decision to frame a plot around it. As the focal point, it takes away a lot of the interaction opportunities from before and leaves this campsite feeling slightly more lifeless since there’s very little to do here. Sure, you can still take photos and interact with some objects to start a conversation, but there’s nowhere near as many as in Lake Motosu.

The other issue with the dog is that Nadeshiko ends up spending a lot of her time playing with it. This leaves you feeling that all the fun is happening around you whilst you’re strapped to your seat – something that plagued the Spice and Wolf VR games, yet was deftly avoided in Lake Motosu.

But that’s not to say that the game is bad. It’s visually more beautiful than the first game, and the writing is equally is strong too. Another great addition to the Gemdrops library, even if it doesn’t quite capture the same magic that Lake Motosu did.

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Whilst the lack of interactivity spoils the second game slightly, it’s a still a charming VR experience that will leave you wishing there was just a little bit more. Still, you can pet the cute dog so that’s definitely a major plus in my books.