Become a Ninja Assassin in ‘Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut,’ Out Now

It’s been just shy of six months since Skydance Interactive announced that it was bringing the award-winning stealth-action VR game Arashi: Castles of Sin to Meta Quest 2 and 3, PlayStation VR2, and PC VR. And now, you can take on the role of the deadly assassin Kenshiro (again, or for the first time) with the launch of Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut.

Arashi is a VR stealth action/adventure game set during the Sengoku Era. Live out your ninja fantasy as you travel through feudal Japan with your faithful wolf, Haru. Take revenge for The Village of Blue Tide and hunt the evil Oni of Iga. And yes, you can pet the wolf.

“We always wanted to tell an original story and do a tribute to the Chambara genre of films,” recalls Endeavor One, Inc. Co-Founder Tom Doyle, who served as Project Lead on the original Arashi: Castles of Sin. “It was great working with Forward XP and Skydance on our first licensed title with a major publisher.”

Final Cut was in development for just over a year as the teams worked on adding a new inventory system, bosses, and tutorial. Players on Quest 3 will benefit from post-processing effects, like bloom, which the headset’s improved render capabilities allowed the devs to enable and enhance the game’s visuals.

“For Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut, we went in and gave each boss a distinct mechanic to vary them up and make them more interesting,” explains Forward XP Lead Engineer Hunter Mabrey. “For inventory, we wanted to make it more diegetic. Instead of clicking a button to cycle through your weapons, you now assign them to different slots on your character. The weapons will show up on your body allowing you to physically grab them, even in the heat of battle.”

At its heart, Arashi is a game that was meant to be played in VR.

“The ability to go back in time and experience this era, with this type of movement and weapon sandbox, is unreal,” says Doyle. “Plus who doesn’t want a pet wolf?”

“Stealth mechanics are enhanced by VR,” adds Mabrey. “It’s exciting to look through the tall grass as an enemy passes you by and you wait for the perfect moment to strike. And when you do strike, having to physically swipe your arm to initiate a backstab or parry an enemy attack leads to a greater sense of satisfaction—it’s part of the reason I think that games like Beat Saber are so popular. Even traversal offers a more immersive experience in VR: Standing on the edge of a rooftop or cliff getting to jump a gap, you look down and there’s that burst of excitement because your brain is convinced you really are several meters off the ground. I’ve never gotten that feeling from non-VR games, even if they were first-person.”

Step inside the world of Arashi: Castles of Sin - Final Cut on Meta Quest 2, 3, or Pro today.