There are quite a few VR developers in Seattle, so whenever the Penny Arcade Expo comes to town, a few aisles are devoted to VR and AR. One of this year’s PAX West exhibitors in the unofficial “VR Section” was Isekai Entertainment, who showcased the upcoming Quest release of Sword Reverie.
Currently available in Steam Early Access, Sword Reverie is a single-player action RPG where you play a Hero who’s been summoned by the Guardian Magnus, tasked with defending Magnus’ people against a hostile army of elementals. You can watch gameplay footage below.
Sword Reverie hit Steam in 2022 after a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2020, and you can read our interview with Isekai’s co-founder Frank Zhang here. However, it's been quiet ever since. Zhang told me at PAX that this was primarily due to low sales; Sword Reverie wasn’t doing well as a PC VR exclusive, so they’re hoping to find a new audience on Quest.
According to Zhang, Isekai has spent the last couple of years “building a team that can deliver on the promise of our Kickstarter.” That includes improvements to the game’s skill system, a 3-4 hour single-player campaign, and redesigned enemies. The PAX build of Sword Reverie ran on a Quest 2 and took place at the start of the game, throwing players directly into the action by siccing several waves of hostile elementals on you.
The “sword” on Sword Reverie comes from the magic swords you have in either hand, which you can attune to 5 different elements. Your swords’ current element also affects their active skills, such as a close-range area-of-effect spell or a long-distance nuke. Those skills burn through mana quickly, but mana can be recharged by engaging enemies in melee combat.
There's still some tweaking left to do with the PAX build, which includes better ways to restore health, but the version I played was easy to grasp with solid mechanics. Some of the skills were really powerful – for example, the water swords let you unleash a high-pressure geyser that stuns anything it hits – but since no two waves of enemies have the same elemental vulnerability, you’re constantly forced to change your approach.
Sword Reverie is coming to Quest in late 2024 or early 2025, and the early access release is available now on Steam. In a YouTube comment, the studio confirmed there are "no plans for [PlayStation VR2] at this moment."
