Ubisoft‘s cancelled Immortals Fenyx Rising sequel was influenced by The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker and Elden Ring – putting players in a world without any map markers or directional objectives.
According to a report from Axios, Immortals Fenyx Rising 2 intended to do away with the usual level of guidance from Ubisoft’s open world titles. Codenamed Oxygen, it would have been set on a “fictionalised version of the Polynesian archipelago” with Polynesian consultants brought on board for the game.
Though Oxygen was taking a little longer than the original, there was a playable demo at Ubisoft Québec in the spring of this year. The game would have focused on the Polynesian gods, wherein the player would have had a specific effect on the environment depending on the decisions they made.
This mechanic was inspired by mana, a spiritual concept in Polynesian religions. Additionally, players would have had to follow objectives by by “tracking animals, following the wind or navigating via the position of the stars in the in-game sky”.
That sounds significantly similar to The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker‘s sailing, and Elden Ring was also mentioned as a major inspiration with its world that let players discover important locations and threats at their own pace.
In spite of the progress that the team had made, it was alleged that Ubisoft ultimately chose to cancel Immortals Fenyx Rising 2, citing “perceived challenges around establishing the IP”.
“As part of our global strategy, we are redirecting and reallocating some creative teams and resources within the Québec studio to other unannounced projects,” said Ubisoft’s spokesperson in July.
“The expertise and technologies these teams developed will serve as an accelerator for the development of these key projects focused on our biggest brands. We have nothing further to share at this time.”
Elsewhere, Microsoft attempted to assuage the Competition and Markets Authority’s concerns over the Activision acquisition through selling rights to the latter’s titles to Ubisoft+.
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