Summary
Gamers are still only seeing the start ofZelda: Breath of the Wild’s influence on the gaming world, despite it being six years old, and despite a sequel just releasing.Breath of the Wild’s unique approach to open-world game design, its unique cel-shaded art style, and its emphasis on player-made adventure are all elements that are slowly being incorporated into other big video game projects. But one of the first games to try and imitateBreath of the Wild, and come close to succeeding, was Ubisoft’sImmortals Fenyx Rising.
Released back in December 2020,Immortals Fenyx Risingwas one of the first AAA games to really embraceZelda: Breath of the Wild, and it wasn’t subtle about it either. A huge open-world completely free to explore from the get-go, several distinct regions, the ability to climb anything, and some challenges that look suspiciously like Shrines,Immortals Fenyx Risingwas aBreath of the Wildclonethrough and through. Still, it had plenty of tricks of its own up its sleeve, and though it’s looking extremely unlikely now,Immortals Fenyx Risingwas more than deserving of a proper sequel.
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Immortals Fenyx Rising May Be Gone Too Soon
Even with all of itsBreath of the Wildcomparisons,Immortals Fenyx Risingwas a pretty fun open-world action-adventure game. Solid combat mechanics, a ton of weapons and gear to unlock, and a gigantic world to explore madeImmortals Fenyx Risingstand on its own, but by far the game’s greatest asset was its premise. Set on the Golden Isles,Immortals Fenyx Risingfully embraced Greek mythology.
Putting players in the winged boots of the titular mortal Fenyx,Immortals Fenyx Risingsaw players come into contact with a plethora of elements ripped straight out of Greek mythology. Players could unlock abilities based on various members of Mt. Olympus, could face off against foes like minotaurs and cyclopses, and could access a handful of weapons and tools that come straight from Homer’s Iliad, such as Daedulus' wings. Though so much ofImmortals Fenyx Risingfelt re-hashed from other, potentially better games, its Greek mythology background kept it fairly fun and engaging.
Naturally,Immortals Fenyx Rising’s premise lends itself to getting the full franchise treatment, with potential sequels and spinoffs being easy to map out. Presumably, all Ubisoft would need to do for a sequel is exactly what it does forFar Cry, and translate the same mechanics and gameplay over to a new setting, which in this case would be a new mythology.Immortals Fenyx Rising’s own DLClaid the groundwork for this, giving players a new playable protagonist, and dropping them into an open-world based on Chinese mythology. But, unfortunately, it doesn’t look likeImmortals Fenyx Risingis getting any form of follow-up, let alone the full franchise treatment.
Despite rumors circulating about a year ago that Ubisoft Quebec was working on anImmortals Fenyx Risingsequel based around Polynesian mythology, it seems like Ubisoft has just pulled the plug on the whole project. About a week ago, VGC published an article stating that it had been told thatUbisoft had canceled the rumoredImmortals Fenyx Risingsequelin favor of shifting its resources onto Ubisoft’s bigger franchises. Ubisoft later confirmed this, stating that it had reallocated Ubisoft Quebec’s team to unannounced in-development projects, all centering around its “biggest brands.” While this is probably a pretty smart business decision on Ubisoft’s part, withImmortals Fenyx Risingapparently only really seeing an audience after the game’s price was discounted, it’s a shame that a series so ripe for future installments is being cut down, maybe indefinitely.
Immortals Fenyx Risingis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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