Announced at E3 2018, FromSoftware’s Déraciné had the PlayStation VR community absolutely intrigued. A VR title from the now infamous developer of Dark Souls and Bloodborne is a must-see on pedigree alone. What comes as a surprise then, is how Déraciné opts to go in a different direction from what the developer is known for. It’s change of pace for FromSoftware and figurehead Midetaka Miyazaki, and while it feels fresh and substantial at first, Déraciné quickly runs out of steam and ultimately fails to tell the captivating story it wants to.
Taking It Easy
Here we have an experience that moves at a more relaxed pace, and is about giving the player a space to explore and a mystery to unravel. There are no horrors here, and no need to worry about seeing the words, “YOU DIED” taking up your entire field of vision. Instead, with a pair of PlayStation Move controllers approximating your physical hands, you’ll be jumping from space to space, picking things up, and solving puzzles. In Déraciné you play as a fairy, who is granted a pair of rings at the beginning that have the power to manipulate time. These powers are quite limited. Sometimes, they manifest in specific plot-oriented moments, and at other times they help explain why this world is frozen in time. As this mysterious fairy, you explore a mysterious boarding school only populated by the headmaster and a small handful of students, all of whom are frozen in time except for ke...