Is it the Beginning of the end for PlayStation VR’s Dark Eclipse?

Japanese developer SUNSOFT returned to the western market last year with the launch of free-to-play MOBA Dark Eclipse for PlayStation VR. To make money the developer sold in-game content, with players having to purchase Dark Coins to buy characters, outfits and other items. Recently, however, the studio has announced it’ll cease purchasable content from PlayStation Store.

Dark Eclipse

Dark Coins will only be available for purchase until 26th July 2019, 23.59 BST. After that, they’ll no longer be available, although any that players have purchased will still be useable after that date. The studio made the announcement on Twitter, linking to an update page with a few more details. In addition to the Dark Coins, patch 3.0 will be the last update released for Dark Eclipse although SUNSOFT will continue to support the game with any critical functionality patches if necessary.

And what’s the reason for this shift, SUNSOFT’s reasoning isn’t exactly clear: “In order to continue giving fans the best possible play experience, we are continually reviewing our projects and made the decision to cease any purchases for DARK ECLIPSE content from the PlayStation Store.”

So for the meantime, it looks like Dark Eclipse players can still enjoy playing the online experience, but after July there’s going to be little in the way of encouragement for new players to join in. And who knows, if the player count does rapidly fall after that then SUNSOFT is likely to pull the plug on the servers as well.

Dark Eclipse

VRFocus reviewed Dark Eclipse at launch, only giving it 3-stars, saying: “Dark Eclipse works well enough, but the mixture of MOBA and RTS elements means it feels watered-down and lacking a firm identity. For a free to play title, it is solid, and worth considering for RTS fans.”

As many a developer has found, the VR industry can be a tough one – even more than the standard videogame industry – especially for pure online multiplayers like Dark Eclipse. Some titles like Firewall Zero Hour do manage to buck the trend, and it certainly helps to be on PlayStation VR with its large user base. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Dark Eclipse, should SUNSOFT have any further updates.

PSVR MOBA Dark Eclipse Gets Three New Heroes And Winter Skins

dark eclipse vr moba psvr sunsoft

Dark Eclipse, the free-to-play VR MOBA exclusive to PSVR, just got a slew of updates to ring in the holiday season. The massive 2.02 patch not only introduces three brand new heroes to choose from, but it brings along four festive winter-themed skins, additional tutorials, as well as new login bonuses.

The three new heroes in Dark Eclipse are Owen, Sosei, and Jysook. You can see them in their featured images down below, just click each image to expand it:

Owen is a powerful hero that channel his strength. He needs to charge up before engaging the enemy, but once charged, his power is “unprecedented” according to the patch notes. Then there’s Sosei, a support Dominator hero that can sustain lengthy combat encounters and revive fallen Leaders or heal soldiers to swing the flow of battle. Finally, Jysook is an assassin Dominator hero that can lay bombs as traps on the ground or self-destruct to ensure crucial kills.

Veronika, Wuntasto, and Jysook are all getting winter skins in this update as well, which you can see preview versions of up in the featured image at the top of this post.

To get a better idea of what Dark Eclipse looks like in action as a VR MOBA, check out our gameplay below:

In our review of Dark Eclipse, we scored it a 6/10 concluding: “For those who want to try another genre, or mashup to be more specific, and think they might like a slower game where players take their time to implement a strategy, then Dark Eclipse is worth a look.”

Let us know what you think of the game and this update down in the comments below!

Featured image and character images provided by Sunsoft.

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New Dark Eclipse Update Adds More Characters and Player Bonuses to PlayStation VR Title

PlayStation VR MOBA Dark Eclipse updated last month with new characters and a Ranked Mode. Today, developer Sunsoft has announced its next winter update, increasing that character roster even further as well as including some festive winter skins.

Dark Eclipse

In its latest update, Dark Eclipse will give players access to three new playable characters. These are:

  • Owen – A Leader that can channel his Energy Boost ability to muster strength and passively increase his movement speed before unleashing a deadly attack;
  • Sosei – A support Dominator that can sustain lengthy combat and swing the tide of battle by reviving fallen Leaders and healing soldiers, knocking back nearby enemy units in the process;
  • Jysook – An assassin Dominator with explosive abilities who can lay bomb traps around the battlefield and self-destruct to secure crucial kills.

And because it’s the festive season Sunsoft has got into the Christmas spirit with four new skins, a Yeti hand skin for your current character plus winter skins for characters Veronika, Wuntasto and Jysook.

That’s not all. In the spirit of giving the studio has one final treat in store. From now on, all players who log in to Dark Eclipse will receive daily in-game gifts, including Eclipse Points, player icons, a Leader and hand skins.

Dark Eclipse

The title got a mixed response when it first launched a couple of months ago, with VRFocus giving it an average 3-stars, saying: “Dark Eclipse works well enough, but the mixture of MOBA and RTS elements means it feels watered-down and lacking a firm identity. In addition, the lack of a large community of online players presents a problem for an online-focused title. For a free to play title, it is solid, and worth considering for RTS fans.” As it is free to play and seen free updates arrive, MOBA fans may now want to take a look.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Dark Eclipse, reporting back with any new announcements.

PlayStation VR MOBA Dark Eclipse Adds New Characters and Ranked Mode in 2.0 Update

Japanese developer SUNSOFT launched its PlayStation VR exclusive MOBA, Dark Eclipse to a mixed response in September. Now the studio has released its first major update to the title, improving the gameplay whilst adding new content.

Dark Eclipse - Destrophe-Tank-Dominator

The Dark Eclipse 2.0 update introduces three new characters for players to choose from:

  • Destrophe – A powerful tank Dominator that passively increases its attack power and can use its ability to damage and stun enemies from afar;
  • Dosmelda – An assassin Dominator that can confuse and hinder enemies with its high mobility, warping instantly to an enemy to attack, and just as quickly withdrawing;
  • Zahina – A carry Hero with the skill to heal her allies and damage enemies with an area of effect, making her close to invincible while active.

Sunsoft has also added a Ranked Mode which identifies and pits two combatants of similar skill against one another. In addition to head-to-head matchups, players can now battle for the crowning spot on a global leaderboard showcasing the top 100 players.

Dark Eclipse - Dosmelda-Assassin-Dominator

The studio has also included a special bonus in the update. Any player owning at least two Heroes and four Dominators can challenge others in the new Ranked Mode and battle their ways towards unlocking a premium hand-skin exclusive to those achieving the Gold ranking or above.

“Our passionate community already knows there’s still nothing else quite like Dark Eclipse in VR right now, and we want to continue providing tools like Ranked Mode to keep our VR MOBA as fresh as possible,” said Shohei Sakakibara, Producer and Project Leader at Sunsoft in a statement. “As MOBAs are an inherently competitive genre, the focus of this major update is to further foster and enhance competition in Dark Eclipse by allowing players to see how they stack up against other dedicated fans with our global leaderboard.”

Dark Eclipse is free to play on PlayStation VR. Check out VRFocus’ review to see what we thought, and for any further updates keep coming back to VRFocus.

Dark Eclipse Review: Real-Time Battles At Your Fingertips

Dark Eclipse Review: Real-Time Battles At Your Fingertips

There is a style of game for virtual reality that is “X–but in VR!” A flight sim–but in VR. Or a first-person shooter–but in VR. Many of these games offer little except for a direct migration of genre standards and maybe inventive controls schemes.

Dark Eclipse for PlayStation VR attempts to avoid this by mixing two genres: the MOBA and the RTS. You have heroes, like a MOBA, but you control 3 of them. You direct them around the map, to collect resources to build structures, like an RTS. But they fight random monsters to gain XP and power up, like a MOBA. This combination comes together well, with no obvious jagged edges or glaring issues.

And how does Sunsoft — venerable Japanese developer behind 80s classics like Blaster Master or the NES Batman games — justify this game for VR? Well, basically through the point of view and the controls. The player looks over the board with that same angle I think of as “simulated tabletop,” as if the whole thing is a magically moving miniature war game out on a huge dining-room table, albeit with a Japanese folklore-meets-gritty comic book art style. Your heroes and soldiers seem small, the battlefield stretching into the distance.

You have a floating hand, via the DualShock 4 being tracked, or a pair of hands, via the PS Move controllers. You move them around to grab a unit’s pointer above their head and then move the pointer to a spot you want them to walk to, for an enemy to attack or a place to build a tower. If you hold down one of the face buttons when moving the hand, it moves not just around the screen, but around the battlefield, allowing you to designate a destination in the distance or to move yourself back, to get a better view of the battlefield.

To activate a Hero’s special ability, you grab the unit’s pointer and press a different button. So, you mostly use 2 buttons besides the motion control. It is a streamlined and effective control scheme for VR. You can even see opponent’s hands in the beginning of a match, to wave hello.

The more awkward choices the designers made are in some of the gameplay mechanics. Heroes walk slowly. You often have to have them stop to let their soldier’s slowly chop down trees, to get resources to build the different kind of RTS towers across the battlefields. Couple that with the slowly chipping away at the battlefield’s random monsters, makes for a slow-paced game.

And when the more lively battle between my heroes and the enemy heroes do finally happen, it seems to simply come down to who gained more levels from killing more random monsters and building towers quicker. The build-up doesn’t quite justify the relatively stale combat. But perhaps RTS fans will prefer the more deliberate gameplay. My matches took about 20 minutes in total.

There is a fog-of-war effect, where you can only see enemies near your bases or your heroes, so there is no grand view of the battlefield filled with monsters and units. This lets your units get surprised by enemies, forcing you to run away or rethink your current actions. And if the enemies then kill your heroes, those enemy units disappear and you just stare at a dim battlefield while you wait for your Heroes to respawn back at your base. It feels short-sighted to me, pun intended.

Dark Eclipse is a free-to-play online-only game. And that means limited modes and multiple currencies. There is a Casual mode, a Ranked mode, which is currently locked because the game is still in “Season 0,” and a mode to play against friends. And there are Tutorials versus AI to teach you the game. There is a blue in-game currency called EP you earn from play that lets you purchase some Heroes, which otherwise are on a rotation of only 3 of the 15 being available to play at any time. There is also a yellow currency called DC that costs actual money that unlocks all the Heroes. You can also buy Heroes skins and hand skins with this currency. Sunsoft promises there will be no “pay-to-win” items for sale.

Final Score: 6/10 – Decent

I also had some of the usual online play issues during my time with Dark Eclipse: Matchmaking sometimes took more than 3 minutes, and the occasional dropped session that ends a match prematurely. Such issues will hopefully be ironed out for Season 1. But for those who want to try another genre, or mashup to be more specific, and think they might like a slower game where players take their time to implement a strategy, than Dark Eclipse is worth a look.

Dark Eclipse is a free-to-play game on the PSN Store for PSVR with optional paid DLC. Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score. 

Kevin Ohannessian is a freelance journalist that covers tech and games. Follow him on Twitter for more: @khohannessian.

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Review: Dark Eclipse

With the sales of the PlayStation VR now surpassing three million units sold, Japanese developer SUNSOFT seems to think there is now a big enough user base to support a multiplayer online battle arena, or MOBA. In this case, choosing to meld MOBA elements with real-time strategy in order to create Dark Eclipse.

Dark Eclipse, unlike most MOBA titles, doesn’t give you one hero character to control, instead you have to juggle three of them. This sounds like a tall order, but in reality the RTS style means that for the most part you are delivering instructions and watching your little minions toddle off to fulfil your instructions.

Dark Eclipse

Though Virtual reality (VR) gives you a universal perspective when needed, most of the time you will be playing in a third-person, vaguely isometric perspective, which gives it an old-school RTS feel. The RTS elements really do dominate compared to the MOBA, as you collect resources, select a strategy and choose what towers to build and where and when to attack. A key component here is learning the strengths of your hero characters, and picking a group that mesh well together.

There is a tutorial to guide players regarding the controls, but it is somewhat bare bones, and neglects many of the mechanics and tactics that are vital. For example, the various towers that you can build which offer various bonuses are not explained at all, which feels like an oversight considering how necessary they are.

While the controls within a match work well if you are using PlayStation Move, with the ‘hand pointer’ being decently intuitive, you do have to keep a Dual Shock 4 controller close at hand, since it is impossible navigate menus using the PlayStation Move, a minor but irritating restriction.

Since Dark Eclipse is free to play, this means that microtransactions are indeed present. Levelling up your hero characters earns currency that can be used to strengthen your troops, or unlock skins of the leaders. As you might expect, you can buy more of this in-game currency by spending real money in the PlayStation store. Though the boost you get is relatively minor, it still stands a good chance of affecting gameplay balance.

Dark Eclipse

With any multiplayer title, one of the major hurdles to overcome is gathering a large and active community. Sadly, it seems Dark Eclipse has not managed this feat just yet. You often find you are waiting for quite some time to get a match-up. As a free to play title there’s nothing to stop this being a sleeper hit if it manages to successfully gather a community, but only time will tell on that front.

There are single-player modes versus the AI, but they are, at best, practise modes to test out potential strategies. There doesn’t really appear to be a specific story campaign as such. The focus is clearly online play. SUNSOFT have promised that there will be regular updates and balance tweaks to chance the meta-game, but that will only have a significant impact if enough players latch on to Dark Eclipse.

Dark Eclipse works well enough, but the mixture of MOBA and RTS elements means it feels watered-down and lacking a firm identity. In addition, the lack of a large community of online players presents a problem for an online-focussed title. For a free to play title, it is solid, and worth considering for RTS fans.

60%
Awesome
  • Verdict

Coming to PlayStation VR This Week: Creed, Dark Eclipse & The Grand Museum VR

Last week saw quite the selection of virtual reality (VR) videogames come to PlayStation VR, with the likes of Ubisoft’s  Transferencedark puzzle experience Blind and Downward Spiral: Horus Station all making their mark. This week isn’t quite as bountiful but there are still some worthwhile titles to be had.

Creed: Rise to Glory

The big launch this week is actually a multiplatform experience, Creed: Rise to Glory by Sprint Vector developer Survios. This is one VRFocus has been looking forward to, as it may just offer the best boxing mechanics yet in a VR title. You’ll play as young startup Adonis Creed, looking to make his way up the ranks and become a champion in his own right. To this end you’ll be able to train and build up your skills in a story-driven Career mode, training in iconic gyms and fighting some tough combatants.

Alongside the single-player career players will also be able to go head-to-head in a cross-platform PvP mode, showcasing their VR boxing talents to the world. And there’s an appearance by the great Rocky Balboa.

For those after a VR fighting experience that’s a lot less energetic then there’s always Dark Eclipse. This is classic  multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) fighting, where players command a team of three leaders – chosen from a roster of 15 available characters – each with their own unique characteristics and abilities. Gameplay will involve a drag-and-drop control system which combines real-time strategy (RTS) mechanics with the action of a MOBA.

Dark Eclipse screenshot

Lastly, for a far more casual and educational experience there’s The Grand Museum VR. Having previously launched on Steam over the summer this virtual museum environment contains 82 models of real-world ancient works of art, originating from many ancient cultures of Europe, Asia and Northern Africa. The app allows users to investigate the archives and discover the history of the art pieces.

Should any other VR videogames make an appearance this week, VRFocus will let you know.

VR MOBA Dark Eclipse Unveils Release Date

Though a familiar name to videogame fans who remember the 80s and early 90s, Japanese developer SUNSOFT have not been seen much outside Asia in the past few years. As part of the company’s celebrations of its 40th Year of operation, the company is returning to Europe and North America with the upcoming release of its virtual reality (VR) title Dark Eclipse.

Dark Eclipse is due to be released on PlayStation VR globally on 25th September, 2018 where it will be available as a free-to-play title compatible with both DualShock 4 and PlayStation Move controllers.

The developers have aimed to bring the core elements of a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) while offering a new twist on some of the typical conventions of the genre. Dark Eclipse is described as a fast-paced, one-on-one battle where players need to overcome an opponent’s team of three’ leaders’ which are chosen from a roster of 15 available characters.

As expected of a MOBA, each character has its own mix of skills and abilities and will also have access to supporting ‘soldiers’ that can be ordered to attack by the player. Gameplay will involve what SUNSOFT believes is an intuitive drag-and-drop control system which combines real-time strategy (RTS) mechanics with the action of a MOBA.

“With 40-years in the business, we’ve seen many gaming trends come and go, but few have been as exhilarating as VR’s expansion and mainstream acceptance,” said Shohei Sakakibara, Producer and Project Leader at SUNSOFT. “Everyone at SUNSOFT is enamored with this type of quick, strategic, multiplayer gameplay, so we brought our passion for the genre and combined the best characteristics of VR, MOBAs and RTS games into Dark Eclipse, a game that’s both familiar and eye-catchingly innovative.”

SUNSOFT are planning on introducing regular, free updates to the title, which will add new Leader characters and regularly re-tuning the gameplay balance. For future coverage of Dark Eclipse and other upcoming VR titles, keep checking back with VRFocus.

Sunsoft Sheds Some Light On PlayStation VR MOBA

‘The world has been engulfed in darkness, the people called this the Dark Eclipse.’ Thus begins the journey for would-be heroes and adventurers in DARK ECLIPSE, the first real-time strategy multiplayer online battle videogame (RTS-MOBA) for the PlayStation VR and one that will let you get hands-on with controlling your characters.

Dark Eclipse screenshotDARK ECLIPSE pits players against others who match their skill level in a battle to see who is the best. Developer Sunsoft has included a Rank Mode specifically for this purpose with an initial 1-vs-1 mode at launch, but after that switching focus to adding 2-vs-2, and adding more of a teamwork dynamic to the title. The development team have even indicated that 3-vs-3 matches are a possibility for the future.

VRFocus sat down with two members of the production team at Sunsoft to discuss the latest as to what’s going on with the title – Producer Shohei Sakakibara and Senior Programmer Bill Hung, and they revealed that initially things didn’t start all that well with development.

“So, at the beginning we wanted to create a very ‘core’ game.” Explains Hung, translating for Sakakibara. “And then when we tried it out we’d come up with something that was quite boring, and we kind of changed our thinking and fixed it. Made it more fun.”

Dark Eclipse character art“VR is almost like [swiping a phone in a game and the action being the ‘fun’ part] right now. There’s a lot of VR games out there that [are] interesting – but it’s not the VR part that is interesting. We need to make a game that the game is interesting.”

The team were keen to stress how much better controls in VR are for this time of videogame. “In terms of eSports, in VR – when you’re using VR, the move contols in this game vs on PC using mouse and keyboard the control is much easier and more intuitive compared to the PC.”

You can check out the interview in full, as well as see the title in action, in the video below. VRFocus will, of course, bring you more news on DARK ECLIPSE and Sunsoft’s future development plans as soon as we hear more.

PlayStation VR’s Upcoming MOBA Title Dark Eclipse Gets English Trailer

At the recent PlayStation Experience this month Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) had a few choice PlayStation VR titles on show for the first time. One of which was SunSoft’s Dark Eclipsea multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) experience that was first unveiled during the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2017. The title has been confirmed for an American release in Spring 2018, and for those keen to see more a new English trailer has been made.

Dark Eclipse screenshot

As the trailer details, players will be able to choose three characters (Leaders) from a roster of over 20 to control in battle, from demonic looking creatures like Zoif, Laaila, Dosmelda and Ejin, to more classic style heroes like Aska and Sakura. Unlike normal MOBA titles where players have to flip between their location in an arena and a mini-map for a wider view of the combat, in Dark Eclipse it’s all handled in one view, so there’s no mini-map.

Battles are won by either defeating an opponents leaders or destroying their base. Along the way they’ll have fortifications to destroy and you’ll be able to build your own as well.

SunSoft revealed more gameplay details to VRFocus last month, so Dark Eclipse will feature two online gameplay modes: Rank Mode and eSport. At launch there will be a focus on 1-vs-1 mode, with Sunsoft adding 2-vs-2, and eventually incorporating 3-vs-3 matches.

There will be tutorials and a practice mode in Dark Eclipse so that players new to the genre can fight against A.I. bots, building up their skill level and knowledge before heading online. There will be rewards as players gain more experience, carrying forward regardless of solo, casual mode or rank mode. Additionally, players will have the option to use one or two PlayStation Move controllers, or a DualShock 4, or a combination of both.

For the latest updates on Dark Eclipse, keep reading VRFocus.