Playing this left me somewhat saddened that FromSoft's success in the past decade with the 'Souls' series has guaranteed that those works will be what defines their output and development process for the foreseeable future. I'm frankly surprised that Déraciné was even made but what it reveals is that the developers at that studio have the chops to tell all sorts of stories outside the realm of action RPGs.
Though it's a fairly brief experience I was quickly enamoured with this sombre fairy tale set within a catholic boarding school. The atmosphere is clearly reminiscent of their work on Bloodborne but there's a degree of childlike whimsy here that masks the darker implications of what exists beyond the school walls. That sense of there being more going on than what you're presented with is carried throughout most of the writing, and I liked the added flavour that imbued in the vignettes you are meant to explore. Hidetaka Miyazaki clearly has a thing for directing scenes of quiet melancholy, and the voice actors (some of whom I am sure have appeared in Souls games) did an excellent job of selling them.
If I have any gripes with Déraciné it is simply that I never really bought into the idea that it had to be a VR-exclusive (one that even requires you have the motion controllers). It stinks of upper management reaching for any studio they can to produce VR titles that justify the techs existence, and I'm bummed that as a result I suspect only a small amount of people will have gotten to play this game. It offers a vision into what else FromSoftware can develop when given the creative freedom, and I hope this isn't the last we see of it.
Though it's a fairly brief experience I was quickly enamoured with this sombre fairy tale set within a catholic boarding school. The atmosphere is clearly reminiscent of their work on Bloodborne but there's a degree of childlike whimsy here that masks the darker implications of what exists beyond the school walls. That sense of there being more going on than what you're presented with is carried throughout most of the writing, and I liked the added flavour that imbued in the vignettes you are meant to explore. Hidetaka Miyazaki clearly has a thing for directing scenes of quiet melancholy, and the voice actors (some of whom I am sure have appeared in Souls games) did an excellent job of selling them.
If I have any gripes with Déraciné it is simply that I never really bought into the idea that it had to be a VR-exclusive (one that even requires you have the motion controllers). It stinks of upper management reaching for any studio they can to produce VR titles that justify the techs existence, and I'm bummed that as a result I suspect only a small amount of people will have gotten to play this game. It offers a vision into what else FromSoftware can develop when given the creative freedom, and I hope this isn't the last we see of it.