Deracine is a VR games from FromSoftware. However, it is not like their usual games such as the Souls series, instead it’s an adventure game with no combat. The game requires the use of two Move controllers, you cannot use a DualShock 4 at all, which limits the pool of potential players. This is a good game for players with not much VR experience or ones prone to motion sickness, as the game features teleport movement mechanics has slow-paced gameplay.
Using the two Move controllers, each controller represents a hand. The control scheme is actually somewhat complicated at first since it is one of those rare games that utilizes nearly all of the button inputs. The right Move button is used to move, so you look at the spot you want to go to and then press it. The left Move button on the other hand allows you to crouch. Then the right X and O buttons are used to shift the camera perspective left and right, while the left X and O buttons opens up the item menu. Finally, the right triangle and square buttons are used to activate the time ability mechanical while the left triangle and square buttons are used to activate the watch mechanic. This definitely takes a short while to get used to.
Otherwise, the whole game has you exploring an orphanage, one of those older styled orphanages in which there are several students. You play as a faerie, who is able to wander about with time stopped. As you explore the orphanage, you can interact with objects and the students, as well as hearing snippets of their thoughts. The puzzles in each “epoch” revolve around this core idea of interacting, getting clues, exploring, and then solving the issue which can either being performing a specific feat or finding items.
The game has a great atmosphere. As time is stopped and coupled with what you are seeing and hear from the students, it has a slow melancholy feeling to it. Taking the time to explore and reading item descriptions to get further insight to the lore is intriguing, despite sounding boring on paper. There is no combat or any sort of action at all, it’s all exploration, taking place at the orphanage. Each level will unlock a new area of the orphanage as well as blocking other rooms, so while you will see the same familiar places, there are new areas for you to peak into as well.
The story itself explains that you are a faerie. The beginning of the game introduces you to the controls as well as your faerie abilities. You’re able to move about when time is stopped, and have other time related abilities. The recurring theme here is that one of the students in particular believes in faeries, and asks you to help convince the others that faeries exist. So, you go and do just that, fulfilling the requested feats, which slowly convinces the others that faeries may actually exist.
Over the course of the game, and it takes around a third to halfway into the game before the events start slotting into place. Once it commences to do that, it keeps you hooked in to see what further revelations it holds. It’s a passive way to tell the events but it is very engrossing at the same time. There are also various clues and tidbits from the items and objects scattered around so that you can slowly form a theory in your mind. Therefore, the game is best when you spend the time to explore the rooms and examine the objects, even if they don’t actually advance the story itself.
The game expects you to try and examine everything because there will be more than one instance where the item required to progress was tucked away in an interaction that wasn’t that obvious. This can be annoying when you’re stuck, especially since the hint system is vague in itself. There will be times where you have a fair idea of what to do, but either just can’t find the item or the exact place you need to do it at.
The story, and game as a whole, just due to its nature, is a slow burn. However, towards the end, maybe in the final quarter, the pacing suddenly increases. There is what you thought was the revelation (which you would have suspected by that point anyway), but then the even bigger one comes, and you can’t help but be sucked into it. This is where the game transitions from being a relaxing game to take a darker path. You are eagerly anticipation what will happen next as many things start slotting into place. You’ll come to realise that the first three quarters of the game was just setup, and this is now the payoff.
Especially if you have been taking the time to fully explore and listen to all the thoughts and interactions of the characters, you would have built a strong understanding of them. Due to the personal nature of VR, you might even consider that you are actually a character within the game and you care for the characters. The game preys on this and when you start suspecting something bad is going to happen, you dread it and want to prevent it. The game then takes advantage of this feeling and it all feels personal at this point. This highlights what a masterful job the developers did in pulling the player in and naturally building up their desire to earn that happy ending and correct the wrongs of the past. It gets to the point where you’re actually sad to see the game end and you have to say goodbye to the characters.
While the story is unique (with its own twist on time travel given the faerie’s powers that you had been exercising the whole game), the ending felt dragged on for just a smidge. It was one of the more confusing aspects of the game in terms of not knowing exactly all the things you need to do. It gives you enough hints for you to easily figure out some of the steps, but when you miss one or two, that is when it gets confusing as the game doesn’t progress that way you would expect it to.
Overall, Deracine is a surprisingly good VR experience. As a game, the gameplay is minimal given all you do it walk around and examine objects. However, it does a tremendous job at the worldbuilding and especially making the characters feel like someone that the player fully understands and had known for a while. It is this personal attachment that the game then manages to exploit and build up to a strong finale. The atmosphere that the game creates with its slow peaceful and yet strangely hollow music, taking place at a large orphanage with only those few characters, it can increase the sense of unease especially in VR without crossing over to scariness. Deracine is a must play for any PSVR owners, even if it is a relatively short game at only around five to six hours long.
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