One of the most surprising VR reveals from E3 last week was Déraciné, a new PlayStation VR (PSVR) exclusive from Dark Souls and Bloodborne developer, From Software. Directed by Hidetaka Miyazaki, the game is very different from the two action series he’s best known for, but that doesn’t mean Déraciné is unlike anything the team has done before.
Speaking to the PlayStation Blog, Miyazaki revealed that the game was partly born from a desire to get back to the studio’s roots making adventure games. “As we were starting to wrap up Bloodborne and Dark Souls III we were obviously looking at what might come next, but at the same time we were looking at what we’d done in the past,” the developer said.
Miyazaki then referenced one of From’s older games, Echo Night, speaking to the heritage the developer holds in the genre. “So that gave us the opportunity to start having an internal conversation about what we could do within that genre, while at the same time looking at VR – and the two ideas meshed well,” he explained.
Not only that but the developer believes it’s time to try something different and perhaps even stranger than his recent games. “”I think occasional surprises are enticing to our fans,” Miyazaki noted. “This is exactly that. It’s unexpected and doesn’t follow on from any of our recent titles – hopefully it appeals to our audience by being something new and fresh. It felt like the right time to do that.”
We couldn’t agree more. Déraciné looks like a game that really understands VR, rather than simply trying to translate the thrills of a Souls game into headsets. We went hands-on with the game at E3 and came away intrigued by its strange beauty.
Look for Déraciné to arrive on PSVR later this year.
