■ Games With Walking Elements
・Dragon Quest Walk (DQウォーク)
・Pikmin Bloom
・Zombies, Run!
This is a slightly fuzzy category for apps where the game element is far stronger than the walking element (please forgive the loose grouping).
Dragon Quest Walk (DQウォーク)
A spin-off of Dragon Quest, an enormously famous RPG in Japan. Using GPS-based location data, you walk around the real world while progressing through battles and reaching destinations.
The screen is unmistakably Dragon Quest, which is exciting on its own. RPG elements are solidly built in too, and we found it an entertaining AR-driven attraction.
That said, viewed as a walking app, you end up looking at the screen quite a lot, and in some situations you need to stop and operate it, so it's not well suited to focusing on walking itself. We'd say it's really for people who want to enjoy the game first and foremost.
Pikmin Bloom
Also a spin-off of an enormously famous game, Pikmin. The graphics and overall world feel highly polished.
The basic loop is walking around to collect and raise Pikmin sprouts. The Pikmin are cute, so it's soothing, and walking around real streets to collect rare sprouts is genuinely fun as an activity.
Viewed as a walking app, it's not quite as screen-heavy as Dragon Quest Walk, but you still look at the screen a fair amount, so it's not ideal for focusing purely on walking. Again, we'd say it's for people who want to enjoy the game first. That said, it might be a good nudge to get someone who doesn't walk at all moving.
Zombies, Run!
A game where an audio drama progresses based on the distance you've walked, as you flee from zombies. We used it while walking this time, but it seems to be designed more with running in mind.
We don't think this type of app really exists in Japan (we did a quick check), but we found the concept genuinely interesting. Unlike Dragon Quest Walk and similar apps, not needing to look at your phone is a plus in more ways than one.
Since we only tried it briefly this time, honestly we didn't get a strong feel for how good the experience is. Maybe zombies just aren't quite suited to Japanese culture? There's apparently a Japanese version, but we couldn't download it and ended up playing the English version instead, which may have affected our impression. (We're not sure why the Japanese version didn't work for us — it might just be an issue on our end.)
Category Comparison Table
| App | Price | Language | Highlight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dragon Quest Walk | Basically free (check in-app for details) | Japanese only | Full RPG battles powered by AR, for Dragon Quest fans |
| Pikmin Bloom | Basically free (check in-app for details) | Multilingual | Highly polished graphics; collect and raise sprouts |
| Zombies, Run! | Basically free (check in-app for details) | Japanese version exists (availability varies by download environment) | An audio-drama format you can enjoy without looking at the screen |