5 Stories From Japan's PC Scene

Seven days in Japan. One indie festival. Five stories about Japanese PC gaming in 2019, where it’s going next, and why our salvation lies with a dancing poop.

- Wes Fenlon

The Mizuguchi Effect

First stop: ENHANCE GAMES, to talk TETRIS EFFECT and sit in a chair made of speakers.

It’s the hottest day of the year in Tokyo, and Tetsuya Mizuguchi is wearing shorts. The creator of Rez and Lumines has an office for Enhance Games in trendy Shibuya, the full-body Rez VR synesthesia suit standing just inside the door like the world’s most intense mannequin. The office suits him—the room is a hodgepodge of half a dozen desks as casual as he is now, but an unassuming wall panel opens up like an I-shit-you-not secret door to a couple more rooms. One of them is dedicated to The Chair.

I’ve just pounded two bottles of cold green tea, one to stave off jetlag, and the second to restore some of the fluid I’ve sweated out in the summer heat when Enhance Games’ Mark MacDonald tells me I’ve got to try The Chair. I’m here to see Tetris Effect on PC, but who can pass up the opportunity to experience something that sounds like a medieval torture device?

The Chair, it turns out, is Mizuguchi’s latest experiment with synesthesia, a delicately arranged collection of 44 subwoofers that you lie on, while two speakers pointed at your head produce music and sound. The subwoofers vibrate along in a pattern meant to evoke something as you lie there in the dark.

Tension, relaxation, caffeine-fueled excitement, different feelings as it runs through a complex sequence of sounds and vibrations. Towards the end as the sound crescendos, my brain starts conjuring up imaginary action scenes that make me ask Mizuguchi whether he plans to add a visual component. It could be an incredible VR experience, but my mind was already doing a good job of filling in the gaps.