The Immortals Fenyx Rising Sequel Should Move Away From…

Ubisoft's open-world game Immortals Fenyx Rising is an epic action-adventure that weaves a narrative through a world inspired by Greek mythology. Playing as a customizable Fenyx, gamers explore the lush landscapes and monster-strewn environments by foot, on horseback, or by taking to the skies as they navigate the seven distinct realms modeled after Greek gods. It's undoubtedly a beautiful game and received praise for its engrossing narrative, balanced humor, and fun combat. However, for better or worse, Immortals Fenyx Rising also received multiple comparisons to Nintendo's genre-defining The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Similarities To Breath Of The Wild

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On the surface, Immortals Fenyx Rising is very similar to Breath of the Wild. Both games utilize that sun-drenched aesthetic of verdant environments with a slightly cartoonish artsyle. They both feature physics-based puzzles that are dotted around their large, open-world maps that require players to do a bit of thinking in between the action and combat. In terms of traversal, both Immortals Fenyx Rising and Breath of the Wild involve elements of airborne travel as well as a very nifty climbing mechanic to help scale areas.

It's no surprise that Breath of the Wild has been used as a point of comparison for so many other games. It was hugely successful at launch and continues to be talked about to this day and held up as an example of what video games are capable of. The freedom of the open world and the game's elevation of classic Zelda elements made it a hit, and other developers were unsurprisingly paying close attention so that subsequent games could try to follow suit. Immortals Fenyx Rising does present its own fresh take on this formula and includes many features of its own to present a different gaming experience, but it hasn't been able to escape the comparisons.

Why The Sequel Needs To be Different

Breath of the Wild isn't the only title that's been held as a benchmark and used as an inspiration, and it certainly won't be the last. Thanks to the success of FromSoftware's Soulsborne games, Souslikes have flooded the video game market, usually with diminishing returns apart from a few outliers. Most fans don't mind even the most blatant copycats, as long as the game in question is still well-made and fun to play, but others aren't too keen on the trend. Some fans want something original when they pick up a new title and are more interested in how developers can keep pushing boundaries instead of how successfully they can retread old ground.

With Ubisoft apparently working on the Immortals Fenyx Rising sequel, many players are already looking ahead to what the next game in the series could be like. There's speculation about the setting and what other mythological inspirations it could take from, but conversations inevitably fall back to Breath of the Wild once again. The comparisons may be made too liberally in some quarters, and Immortals Fenyx Rising may never be able to escape fully the other game's shadow, but the sequel is Ubisoft's chance to branch out and take more risks now that it's established a successful foundation for the franchise. The Immortals Fenyx Rising sequel needs to offer players something new, not just something they've seen elsewhere before.

Immortals Fenyx Rising is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

MORE: Why So Many Games are Compared to Breath of the Wild