There are fairly a number of VR builders in Seattle, so every time the Penny Arcade Expo involves city, a number of aisles are dedicated to VR and AR. One in every of this 12 monthsβs PAX West exhibitors within the unofficial βVR Partβ was Isekai Leisure, who showcased the upcoming Quest 2 launch of Sword Reverie.
At the moment out there in Steam Early Entry, Sword Reverie is a single-player motion RPG the place you play a Hero whoβs been summoned by the Guardian Magnus, tasked with defending Magnusβ individuals towards a hostile military of elementals. You may watch gameplay footage beneath.
Sword Reverie hit Steam in 2022 after a profitable Kickstarter marketing campaign in 2020, and you’ll learn our interview with Isekaiβs co-founder Frank Zhang right here. Nonetheless, it has been quiet ever since. Zhang informed me at PAX that this was primarily resulting from low gross sales; Sword Reverie wasnβt doing nicely as a PC VR unique, so that theyβre hoping to discover a new viewers on Quest.
In response to Zhang, Isekai has spent the final couple of years βconstructing a staff that may ship on the promise of our Kickstarter.β That features enhancements to the sportβs ability system, a 3-4 hour single-player marketing campaign, and redesigned enemies. The PAX construct of Sword Reverie ran on a Quest 2 and happened at the beginning of the sport, throwing gamers immediately into the motion by siccing a number of waves of hostile elementals on you.
The βswordβ on Sword Reverie comes from the magic swords you’ve got in both hand, which you’ll attune to five totally different components. Your swordsβ present component additionally impacts their lively expertise, similar to a close-range area-of-effect spell or a long-distance nuke. These expertise burn by means of mana rapidly, however mana will be recharged by partaking enemies in melee fight.
There’s nonetheless some tweaking left to do with the PAX construct, which incorporates higher methods to revive well being, however the model I performed was simple to know with stable mechanics. A few of the expertise have been actually highly effective β for instance, the water swords allow you to unleash a high-pressure geyser that stuns something it hits β however since no two waves of enemies have the identical elemental vulnerability, youβre consistently compelled to vary your strategy.
Sword Reverie is coming to the Meta Quest 2 in late 2024 or early 2025, and the early entry launch is accessible now on Steam. In a YouTube remark, the studio confirmed there are “no plans for [PlayStation VR2] at this second.”
