Kentaro Matsui, producer of "Super Real Mahjong: Venus Returns," discussed the adaptation approach for this new arcade series entry and confirmed that the team will optimize VR performance. Once optimization is complete, the team plans to unlock quality settings higher than the current "Medium" cap. Developed by ILLUMINATION and infiniteloop, the game launched on Steam on August 27 with Chinese language support; VR mode requires a separate DLC purchase.
Kentaro Matsui also serves as the head of infiniteloop. He stated that the team retained the basic structure of playing mahjong and triggering character scenes without adding extra mechanics to completely overhaul the original. The new title features 3D graphics and modernized character designs. Players can observe the characters across the table from different distances and angles, and can use desktop mode even without VR equipment.
The VR perspective makes it difficult for the development team to hide animation flaws using fixed camera angles. To address this, the team adjusted costume animations frame by frame to ensure movements look natural from multiple angles. The game retains the series' traditionally high difficulty while adding an auto mode to help players unfamiliar with mahjong progress through the content.
The project previously secured crowdfunding support from 1,129 backers, raising 33.8 million yen, which is 1,690% of the initial 2 million yen goal. Regarding issues raised by some overseas players about the difficulty of recognizing kanji on mahjong tiles, the team plans to address this in future updates.
Adding character DLC is also a direction the team wants to pursue, but Matsui stated that the high costs of character modeling, costumes, voice acting, and animation mean that production will depend on sales and other conditions.