When Arathi: Castle of Sin was first released two years ago, it didn't really get a fair chance to open things up.
Now in 2021, the PSVR-exclusive game faces a rather outdated headset and rumors of a PSVR 2 coming soon. Everyone can feel that PSVR has reached the end of its cycle, and this cycle has exceeded people's expectations. It now appears that a game like Arathi, released in its final days, may not have reached as many players as it might have been expected to.
Despite the odd release timing, we still really like Arathi. Our review praised the great freedom afforded by the open-ended level design, as well as the excellent rendition of feudal Japan. But at the same time, we also pointed out that the game's flaws, AI and combat deficiencies, let the game's good moments be buried. Still, there are folks looking for new PSVR content in 2021, so this game might still be worth checking out. Endeavor One has managed to make a fun stealth experience, albeit a bit clunky at times, with old technology.
Two years later, Skydance Interactive partnered with Endeavor One to create a new Guilty Castle: Final Cut version of Arathi, bringing even more players to the game.
Guilty Castle: Final Cut is coming to PSVR 2, Quest 2, Quest 3 and PC VR this fall and is billed as the final version of Arathi, including "improved visuals, updated enemy and boss behavior, and improved controls." and a host of additional quality-of-life features.”
After playing it for myself at Gamescom, it's clear that this Final Cut version offers some nice improvements over the original. However, there are also some elements that are still stuck on the previous generation, but there is little reason to support it.
obvious upgrade
Gamescom's demo took place on PSVR 2, showing off a pretty amazing version of the game with the power the PS5 has to offer. Even as someone who has never played the original version, comparing the graphics to the PSVR original version, the visual upgrades are immediately noticeable. Environments, especially texture quality and lighting have been noticeably improved – everything looks less blurry.
The most obvious visual upgrade comes to your lovable companion, Haru the wolf. While still just as cute, she now looks more realistic than the PSVR version – her fur alone is a huge improvement and there's more of it.
While it's far from a complete visual overhaul – it still looks like a last-gen game with select upgrades – it's impressive enough in a headset. Of course, feudal Japan is still beautifully presented.
Aside from the visual aspects, the demo also included some exploration, covert sequences, and combat that were enjoyable. I had a great time and am looking forward to fully playing the game later this year. For people like me, this will be a great opportunity to catch up on a game that might otherwise be missed – and now you can play it with any headset you like.
Everything we liked in our original review is still there, and some of the critical points in our review have been improved as well. The game's first boss fight is a great example of this - combat in the Final Cut is more dynamic and sustained than at the original launch, making it truly immersive.
The switch from the Move controller to the more reliable and focused Sense controller will undoubtedly make combat more responsive and smoother, but Skydance also noted that they made some changes to give overall combat more depth. The enemy's AI is more aggressive, with multiple attack modes that require quick and continuous blocking. Combat now also has multiple stages - after being knocked down once, the boss returns multiple times, with an ever-increasing number of disorienting "shadow" clones complicating the overall fight. It's a move in the right direction – though whether it improves the overall reproducible issues we mentioned in the review is unknown.
in the shadow of the previous generation
Frustratingly, the Final Cut demo we played also contained some unaltered elements from the original, which represents a lost opportunity to really take advantage of the new headset's capabilities.
Gaze tracking is a standout feature of PSVR 2, with many games taking advantage of it for fast and seamless menu selections, and games like Synapse integrating it into their gameplay, creating a telepathy-like effect. Unfortunately, there is no similar support in Arathi's Final Cut.
In the original PSVR version, players use a crosshair locked to the center of the helmet's field of view to make menu selections or guide Haru through the environment. This means that in order to make any selections, the player must aim the center-locked crosshairs by moving their head. While the relatively limited PSVR Move controller didn't offer much at the time, it was a practical solution. However, this design remains entirely intact in Arathi's Final Cut version, requiring players to make selections by moving their head, rather than utilizing eye-tracking technology or even ray-casting, motion controller-based solutions.
It's a confusing, seemingly lazy choice that pulls you from the present back into the past. It doesn't have a real excuse. If it's billed as the ultimate next-gen experience, it's reasonable to expect the PSVR 2 version to take advantage of all next-gen features where possible. This is a completely lost opportunity and ultimately makes the entire experience less immersive.
When asked, Skydance confirmed to me that Final Cut operates exactly the same as PSVR 2 on Quest 2, Quest 3, and PC VR. While there's no eye-tracking tech on these headsets, there's no reason for games to keep a center-locked crosshair selection system on these systems, either. A simple system of pointing and selecting via motion controllers - as is standard in almost every other game - should be the most basic "upgrade".
These issues may seem minor, but it ultimately calls into question the entire concept of this being the "definitive" version of the game, upgraded for modern headsets. Additionally, Final Cut's broader control scheme and button mapping aren't fully optimized for transitioning from Move controllers to motion controllers. Sheathing the weapon is oddly mapped to the grip button and requires placing the hand in a counter-intuitive and specific position. Triggers, meanwhile, are used to grip ropes and other climbable surfaces rather than the more intuitive (again, standard) grip button mapping.
It seems like the focus is on boosting the visuals and improving combat, while other aspects of the game have remained relatively untouched. Not without a control change - Final Cut implements stick-based movement, something that wasn't possible on the Move controllers without sticks. But that took a toll on the experience, making it feel more like a half-hearted upgrade.
Still, there's an interesting game to be found here - perhaps one that a lot of people didn't get to experience when it was first released. Arathi's original PSVR version wasn't perfect, and this so-called "final" version may end up just as well. It's proof that despite the disappointing legacy of the previous generation, I'm still looking forward to the final release. Hopefully Skydance and Endeavor will make further tweaks before the game releases later this year.
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