With its 65,027 tons displacement, 263 meters length, and nine absolutely massive 46 cm Type 94 guns, it shouldn't surprise that the mighty battleship Yamato still easily sparks the imagination of many, even after 71 years from its sinking during Operation Ten-Go. With VR technology becoming more widespread, it was only a matter of time until someone recreated it in virtual reality.

Kanda Technologies, led by project founder Motoaki Nishino, recently released the first phase of VR Battleship Yamato on the Oculus Store for 3,990 yen.

The title lets you explore several areas of the battleship, faithfully recreated from historical documents, including the first bridge, the interior of the main guns, the kitchen, the headquarters office, the captain's room, the barracks, the float plane hangar, the boat hangar, the shooting command center, the command tower and more, taking part in activities like artillery fire drills.

Further areas and scenes (including an anti-aircraft drill) will be implemented in the second phase of the project, titled "To Battle Stations," scheduled to be released in 2017.

Unfortunately, it appears unavailable to me on the Oculus store, which probably means that it's region locked for Japan, but we can still give it a look thanks to a few screenshots and a rather epic trailer at the bottom of the post. A demo is also available here.

The project was previously named Battleship Yamato VR Restoration Project and gathered 5,449,893 yen (about $46,000) in crowdfunding on the Campfire platform, multiplying its initial goal by five. 

Roughly a month before its release on December 16th, the development team celebrated the upcoming launch with a two week-long demo event aboard the battleship Mikasa in Yokosuka.

Below you can check out the trailer and screenshots, and also a video showcasing Captain Takuro Tsutsumi, a veteran of the real Yamato, as he tries out the experience, and reminisces about the battleship that he saw with his own eyes back in 1945.