Never once have I thought of myself as a Ninja; after all, I'm the kind of person who bumps into table corners and door frames once every hour. However, after playing Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut at Gamescom, I'm beginning to think that I have something of a knack for this line of work.
The upcoming VR game, Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut, allows players to become one with the shadows as they master the arts of stealth action as they infiltrate castles all over feudal Japan. At your side, you have your faithful wolf companion as well as your katana, grappling hook, and bow and arrow. A refined version of the original 2021 Arashi: Castles of Sin for PSVR, Final Cut promises improved visuals, refined controls, and extra quality-of-life features.
There's everything you could want in a ninja VR game. You can scale ominous mountains, infiltrate beautifully ornate feudal Japanese buildings, go face to face with deadly and precise shinobi, and even pet a dog whenever you like.
If you're a fan of fantasy combat VR games, then this is well worth checking out. Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut will be released later this year, and you can play it on PS4, or PS5 with the help of a PSVR 2. It will also be available on Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3, and Steam VR on PC.
Jumping to conclusions
Despite only getting to experience Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final cut for 30 minutes, I was able to play through an entire mission from start to finish, becoming a vengeful shinobi, traversing feudal Japan, and surviving all its deadly inhabitants.
The landscape that sits before you is stunning, so much so that you'll want to take a few minutes to look around and let it all sink in. You must navigate a grey and dreary mountain basin, full of arduous rockscapes, and fast-flowing rivers. The atmosphere is dense and ominous, with the glow of the moon or an occasional fire being all that lights your way.
The controls for scaling the rugged terrain were intuitive and easy to grasp. While it won't give you the same workout that Horizon: Call of the Mountain will put you through, there's still enough climbing and jumping to make you feel as if you are traversing the landscape before you first-hand.
I killed off enough guards to make myself something of a known threat in Feudal Japan
Arahi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut also has some slick and immensely fun weapons to help you in your blood-soaked path. While I did have some initial difficulty sheathing my katana, I soon got the hang of it as I swiftly leaped from the shadows to take out an enemy shinobi.
Unfortunately, I have no swordsmanship training, so the actual finishing kills themselves looked less like an expert ninja taking out their enemies and more like a confused pedestrian poking someone with a stick. That being said, the bow and arrow was much easier to use and actually made me feel as if I was skilled enough to take out a heavily armored guard.
As someone who had only picked up a few VR games and isn't likely to change occupation to ninja any time soon, I found Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut to be captivatingly fun, easy to grasp, and fantastic to look at. While I didn't defeat one of the six Oni at the end of the hands-on, I will admit that I'd killed off enough guards to make myself something of a known threat in Feudal Japan.
If you're a fan of getting properly stuck into the games you play, then check out these brilliant PSVR 2 games available to play right now.
