Immortals Fenyx Rising – Myths of the Eastern Realm Review

Initial release date: March 25, 2021

Developer: Ubisoft Chengdu

Publisher: Ubisoft

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, Xbox Series X and Series S, PlayStation 5, Xbox One

Genres: Platform game, Adventure game, Fighting game

"Review Code Provided By Ubisoft"

One of the greatest games of 2020 was Immortals Fenyx Rising and in 2021 we have the second DLC expansion that continues the story and takes us to an exciting new land with an all new protagonist in Myths of the Eastern Realm!

Myths of the Eastern Realm is heavily inspired by Chinese mythology with a dash of Japanese mythology in a setting where the balance between Earth and Heaven has be broken with humanity being turned into clay. We’re introduced to the new protagonist named Ku who, like Fenyx, is the only survivor who seeks out the Goddess known as Nuwa, whom is the creator of all living things, in order to undo the devastation brought about with the clay catastrophe.

Gameplay wise, Ku is separated from Fenyx by proxy of starting the game with the bulk of his skills being upgraded already. which from a logical stand point makes sense given the fact that if you’ve spent any length of time in the core title, then you would be used to having the majority of your move set available and be ready and wanting to have Ku have at least half of his moves available. Nearly everything Fenyx was able to do from sprint attacking, parry counters, mid-air bow shooting, dodge strings, enemy launching, and more is all readily available to Ku. The one glaring omission is the fact that Ku doesn’t have any original moves of his own and can be seen as a palate swap of Fenyx.

There’s the newly named Constellation puzzles called Bagua puzzles, however, they are exactly the same and offer the same types of rewards that you would find in the main game. The designs of the puzzles don’t really differ from the main game so don’t really expect much here.

To be honest, a lot of this DLC is comprised of reused assets and character reuse as many of the newer characters are basically reskins of the ones from the main game which isn’t an entirely bad thing when you had such a phenomenal game to begin with but all in all this DLC doesn’t really go above and beyond and in many ways feels like a parsed down version of the main game. The characters don’t really carry the story as strongly as the one’s in the core game which is sad considering how strong the writing was which made the characters amazing. You just aren’t getting that here even though they try to be just as engaging.

The one area of the game where it doesn’t disappoint is the visuals as the game is absolutely stunning in this new environment with all of its aesthetics. The topography of the new area is truly breathtaking. You’ll see towering pagodas and temples, gushing waterfalls, bamboo forests, and hands down the most beautifully vibrant moon I’ve ever seen in a video game in my 30+ years of gaming.

Immortals Fenyx Rising – Myths of the Eastern Realm, while beautiful to look at, is ultimately an expansion that doesn’t move the needle forward and doesn’t make much if any effort to stand on it’s own. Given the beautiful Chinese aesthetics, this is still just a smaller reskin of the main game that many sunk their teeth into. You’ll honestly get a strong sense of “been there, layed that” when it comes to this DLC in it’s roughly 8 hour length. If you’re looking for something compelling then look elsewhere, but if you’re in the mood for some more of this new franchise then you cannot go wrong in diving into this DLC.