Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut Review (Orkron)
Not for the expectation and price vs. what you get...
I very much like the cutscenes(/exposition scenes) art style; very beautiful. But they are too long and too much of an info dump - I got lost very quickly.
I applaud the studio/devs for doing a game in a native language to its environment rather than placating to the Western "need" for English. I liked the subtitles; easy to read and clear and not in your face.
I LOVE: YOU CAN PET THE GOOD BOY!! (But, if we're being honest, its a complete failure to add a doggo in a game and NOT give you the chance to pet it so...)
The reason I cannot recommend:
The marketing (i.e. the videos and screenshots) are wildly misleading. If this game looked like it does in the marketing I might keep it... But for 30 bucks on Steam? No. But if I were on the Meta store buying a 20 dollar game for my Quest 2? yeah maybe. But on Steam with my Beyond? Nope. Nope! As others have said there's no graphics settings options and its absolutely clear this game was designed for the Quest 2 (not even the 3).
The movement is janky and not at all what you expect for this price in 2023. I did find that strafing made it easier but the mechanics are still wrong.
You can wield two blades! Wow awesome! but they don't have object collision with each other? WTF? Even BEATSABER lets you taunt your "enemies" and show off by dragging your blades together... this is 100% a requirement in my mind.
The climbing needs a lot of work. Titles like The Climb /2 did it far far better, and years ago.
I was recommended this game by some YT'er or other and I think I'll have to be more careful with their recs from now on.
This game had promise, and if their marketing was honest and the price was lower for the obvious port that it is... it might be worth it. But 25 minutes in and I'm not impressed enough to keep going.
It has potential - for Quest 2 though.