Summary
Immortals Fenyx Rising’s shelved sequel is said to have taken influence fromElden Ring, according to leaked gameplay details. A major shift in style and tone was reportedly planned for Ubisoft Quebec’s Polynesia-setImmortalsfollow-up. Not only would the game’s graphics grow more realistic, but its tone would grow more serious. Gameplay would lean more towardElden Ring, though clear inspiration remained fromThe Legend of Zelda. Yet still theImmortals Fenyx Risingsequel was canceled.
The firstImmortalsgame was unique even among the increasingly saturated open-world action game subgenre. While Ubisoft Quebec confirmed thatThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wildwas an inspirationforImmortals Fenyx Rising, it deviated in significant ways. Many of Ubisoft’s staple open-world guidance systems were included to make exploration faster and simpler. Heavy-handed narration gave the game a less-than-serious tone.Immortalsalso featured a much more complex combat system with combo-based gameplay.
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According to Axios, leaked details regarding thecanceledImmortals Fenyx Risingsequelmake clear that the new game would be deviating from the first in substantial ways. While still an open-world action game at heart, Ubisoft Quebec planned to leave some Ubisoft trappings behind in favor of anElden Ring-esque immersive and challenging exploration experience. Players would have to track animals, navigate via constellation, and use the wind for traversal, leaving behind huge quest markers and compass-based guidance.
It’s easy to draw comparisons between the canceled sequel andThe Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, too. Fitting the Polynesian setting and story, the setting of theImmortalssequel would be spread across multiple islands inspired by Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island. Players would travel using wind, as well as other elemental powers and shape-shifting.
Overall, Ubisoft Quebec appears to have wanted the sequel toImmortals Fenyx Risingto be much different thanUbisoft’s other open-world games. Rich exploration, branching narrative, and player freedom would differentiate the new game, to a point that Ubisoft Quebec was even considering making it an original release rather than a sequel toImmortals. However, Ubisoft’s ambition also made the new game expensive to fully develop, which may have contributed to its cancelation.
With theImmortalssequel shelved, Ubisoft Quebec’s development resources are now focused on theJapan-basedAssassin’s Creed Redand other unannounced projects. Ubisoft is rallying its studios around franchises with more reliable selling power, andImmortals Fenyx Risingappears to have been too risky. Ubisoft Quebec will hopefully be able to take some of those ambitious plans for itsImmortalssequel and inject them intoAssassin’s Creed.
