Déraciné

Déraciné is an adventure game in virtual reality , developed by the Japanese studio FromSoftware and released by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation VR system. The game was announced at E3 2018 ; its development was led by Hidetaka Miyazaki , better known as the creator of the Souls game series ^[3] . According to Miyazaki, he wanted to create a traditional adventure game using virtual reality technology; however, Déraciné has changed very little since the original idea ^[4] . The game was developed on the Unreal Engine ^[5] . Miyazaki explained the French name Déraciné as “[something] uprooted”, “something transferred from its usual environment to an alien” ^[5] .

Déraciné
Developer	From software
Publisher	Sony Interactive Entertainment
Announcement Date	June 11, 2018 [1]
Date of issue	November 6, 2018 [2]
Genre	adventure game
Age ratings	ACB : M -Mature CERO : B - Ages 12 and up ESRB : T - Teens PEGI : 12 RARS : 12+ USK : 12
Creators
Supervisor	Hidetaka Miyazaki
Producers	Yuzo kojima Masaaki Yamagiva Teruyuki Toriyama
Programmer	Jun Ito
Artists	Kozo Maeda Taisei nakagaki Yuki Nakamura
Composers	Tsukasa Saito Shoy Miyazawa Yuka Kitamura
Technical details
Platform	Playstation 4
Game engine	Unreal engine 4
Game mode	single user
Carriers	digital distribution on the PlayStation Store
Control	Dualshock 4 Playstation VR

Déraciné takes place in a closed Victorian boarding school where several children live. The player controls the "fairy" - a magical creature invisible to the characters, with the ability to control time itself. One of the boarding school students Julia called the fairy, believing that fairies should protect those who need it. At the beginning of the game, children are engaged in everyday activities, and a player in the role of a fairy is engaged in simple pranks, proving to children that the fairy really exists; however, later the game touches on the more serious and darker themes of life, death and obsession with the past ^[6] . For the player, the boarding school and its inhabitants appear motionless, frozen in time. The fairy’s special ability allows the player to “transfuse” the life time from one living creature - whether it be a plant or a person - to another creature of the same size ^[7] ; for example, passing a dried flower time from a pair of ripe grapes, the player can make the plant come to life and bloom. The magic clock allows the fairy to move in time between different moments during the two days of the boarding school ^[6] . Advancement in the plot of the game is connected with collecting items and solving simple puzzles - for example, a fairy must give a flower to a character or insert a key into a keyhole ^[8] . Like the Souls series, Déraciné uses item descriptions as sources of background information: each object that a player can pick up has a poetic and somewhat incomplete description that tells more about the game world ^[8]

The game received mixed ratings of criticism: observers noted the mesmerizing atmosphere of Déraciné , but called the gameplay boring and even annoying. According to IGN columnist Jonathon Dornbusch, Déraciné in terms of gameplay is no different from other similar adventure games for virtual reality and practically does not use its most interesting time transfusion mechanics; at the same time, it is distinguished by a fascinating story - “a beautiful, metaphorical study of the simple human desire to make happy those who are dear to us” ^[7] . Eurogamer editor Christian Donlan compared the game with the books of Henry James and Lord Dunsany , noting that after the game is over he cannot get rid of thoughts about her and her characters ^[8] .