Déraciné, an upcoming VR story adventure from Dark Souls and Bloodborne developer FromSoftware and Sony Japan Studio, is coming exclusively to PSVR in November.
Revealed at the pre-Tokyo Game Show ‘PS Lineup Tour’, Déraciné is slated to arrive November 6th in North America and Europe, and in Japan on November 8th, 2018.
Déraciné is about a young girl in a secluded boarding school who summons in invisible faerie. The game task you, the magical spirit, to help her solve puzzles scattered across the sprawling school.
Image courtesy FromSoftware
It’s a bit of a time-bending adventure too, as you exercise your ability to freeze time and goad her on to cause all sorts of mischief, like concocting a mixture to knock out the school’s chef.
Touting a deep narrative, producer Masaaki Yamagiwa says the player “will come to discover that information you initially thought were simple will take on greater meaning. The core of this experience is found in the small epiphanies – the moments when the dots connect and players learn something new.”
Check out the E3 announce trailer below to see a little more of what Déraciné has in store:
Bandai Namco will release the Dark Souls Trilogy, a bundle containing all three games and their DLC, including Dark Souls Remastered, this October. The bundle will release for Xbox One and PS4.
Dark Souls Remastered was originally supposed to release on Switch alongside the PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions, but it was delayed. Fans will be able to pick the game up this October.
Despite my experience and love of From Software’s Dark Souls III and Bloodborne, I never played the original Dark Souls. The new remastered version gave me a chance to remedy that, and it was glorious.
During their Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018 conference, Sony showcased a new virtual reality (VR) title from developer From Software that is coming to PlayStation VR. The title, called Déraciné, is about a spirit summoned by a young girl in a boarding school, where players will need to prove its existence to the students and form a bond with them. Now, following the announcement, a number of new screenshots have been released.
The title was revealed with a short teaser trailer which showed off some strange, Victoriana-inspired visuals, with mention of said fairies and a hidden land. Throughout the trailer a voice over mentioning lines such as ‘Aren’t you excited?’ and ‘You’re going to be a fairy! And live in the world where time stands still’ fill the scenes with a more mysterious tone. The image of a dried flower is a key one found throughout the trailer and key art, which glows with power and seems to suddenly bloom.
The screenshots, which you are view below, showcase some more of the environment within the title along with what looks to be some of the gameplay players can expect to encounter. This includes interacting with objects found within the world, overlooking conversation between characters, and even witnessing what looks to be ghosts or perhaps other fairy characters.
The developer From Software are best known for their work on the famous RPG series of Souls titles, including Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls, Bloodborne as well as the Armored Core titles. They are currently working on another action RPG title dubbed Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice which looks to take the gameplay of the Souls series and put it in to the Sengoku period of feudal Japan in the late 16th century. Déraciné is, by all accounts, a different product then fans have come to expect from the company but that makes it all that much more interesting.
Sony have revealed a number of titles for PlayStation VR recently including the release of Beat Saber for the platform and the VR incarnation of Tetris from the developers behind Rez Infinite, Tetris Effect.
Déraciné is currently in development exclusively for PlayStation VR and is expected to release sometime later this year. VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on the title as developer From Software detail move about this interesting title. You can see the screenshots for yourself below and for more on E3 2018, keep reading VRFocus.
If you told me a week ago that From Software, the legendary developer behind the Dark Souls series and Bloodborne were making a PSVR game I’d absolutely expect it to be one of the highlighted announcement’s as Sony’s annual E3 press conference. Unfortunately, it wasn’t even mentioned, but it does exist. That From Software VR game is called Déraciné.
They showed the trailer during the stream, but the actual in-person conference itself didn’t get a single whiff of PSVR news. In fact, I talked to several people the following day that didn’t even know this game existed. I’m not sure what Sony was thinking with that strategy, but here we are.
Luckily, I’ve played Déraciné and I can confirm that not only does it exist, but it’s absolutely beautiful.
There was a single station for Déraciné at E3. It wasn’t at Sony’s public booth and was only tucked away in a corner of the press-only PlayStation area next to Blood & Truth and a host of other PSVR demos.
My demo started out in a boarding school. According to producers from Sony Interactive Entertainment, you play as an invisible fairy that must intervene in the lives’ of the children at the boarding school to prove your existence. There are lots of heavy themes that deal with life, death, and time, so it’s not exactly the type of game you sit down and play if you don’t want to think.
The producers told me that it’s split into about eight different chapters that each tell a different vignette-esque story about the children at the boarding school. Each chapter will last around an hour, making the entire game about 6-8 hours in length.
Visually everything has a beautiful sepia tone overlay that evokes the feeling you’re traveling back in time. As you explore environments you’ll see that all of the characters are frozen in time, unmoving, even when you get up close and lean in to examine them. By reaching out and interacting with things in the world, such as the flower in the above image, I could alert them to my presence from time to time which would trigger a replay of them doing something or a voice over.
Since Déraciné uses two PlayStation Move controllers, the movement system is a little tricky. You don’t have full, smooth locomotion at all, but instead you look at nodes on the ground and pull the triggers to teleport there. It’s similar to Wilson’s Heart on Oculus Rift, or the upcoming Blood & Truth. For a slow-paced adventure game like Déraciné it works just fine and I never felt like I was missing any part of the experience by not being able to move around at will. Each room had plenty of nodes so I was always able to get to where I wanted to go. It’s reminiscent of From Software’s early work on games like Echo Night.
The next chapter of my demo involved a young girl wanting me to help her play a prank on the rest of the students and adults at the boarding school by putting some herbs into a soup that would, theoretically, make them pass out. What resulted was mostly a scavenger hunt as I searched for herb vials (the chef was wearing one around his neck, for example, and another girl was putting it on her dog’s collar at one point.)
Mechanically, Déraciné isn’t doing anything that remarkable, but the visual style and attention to detail in the world is just a treat to explore. I’m excited to learn more about this world and really dig into the thoughtful, esoteric narrative.
Déraciné is about as far away from Dark Souls VR as you can get, but it sold me on its premise and I can’t wait to see more. It doesn’t have a release date yet, but Sony has said it’s coming this year.
Let us know what you think about what you’ve seen down in the comments below!
E3 2018 has not officially even started yet, and still plenty of new information, trailers, teasers and announcements have already emerged. During Sony’s PlayStation presentation, developer From Software displayed a new PlayStation VR title called Desacine.
The teaser trailer showed some strange, Victoriana-inspired visuals, with talk of fairies and a hidden land.
The opening shot showed an image of a painting which displayed images of woodland creatures such as a fox, a squirrel and even a snake gathered around a mysterious, faintly glowing bundle. ‘Aren’t you excited?’ asks an English accented, motherly sort of voice, ‘You’re going to be a fairy! And live in the world where time stands still.’.
The rest of the trailer shows a 19th Century-styled house in sepia tones, with a young girl with blond hair and a black cat before a dried flower glows with power and suddenly blooms, transforming into colour as it does so.
Very little was revealed about the gameplay or any details about the characters and story, leaving only a mysterious and artistic impression.
From Software are best known for the unforgiving action RPGs in the Souls series, Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls and Bloodborne as well as Armored Core, going further back. The commentators during the PlayStation presentation that such an artistic and strange title as Desacine is a radical departure for the studio. Desacine is also the first time that From Software will be working in virtual reality (VR).
Also due to head to PlayStation VR in future months is Wolfenstein: Cyberpilotfrom Bethesda, which sees the famous Nazi-bashing series head to VR for the first time. Fast-paced action rhythm title Beat Saber is also heading to PlayStation VR, and evergreen puzzle title Tetris is getting a VR incarnation with Tetris Effect from the developers behind Rez Infinite.
For further news on new and upcoming VR content, keep checking back with VRFocus.
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