A fun, simplified action RPG that works well enough in virtual reality
Petricore’s Mythic Realms is a satisfying experience for VR & AR enthusiasts. It’s an RPG kind of adjacent fantasy game where we just do the typical fantasy game tropes, but with the added gimmick of it being in our house. I don’t think there’s necessarily a lot of meat on the game’s bones, but it has a lot we can do.
There’s combat, there’s crafting, there’s foraging, there’s resource grinding — the basics of an adventure. Essentially we grab our axe, sword or magic staff and take on some quests, like chopping down a tree, grinding for some ore or fighting bosses. But because it’s done in AR we get a hybrid view of a fantasy setting mixed with out living room. On top of that it asks us to be active; I haven’t played a VR game that requires me to move around my own space as much as this one. And we REALLY have to walk around in our room, which is a brutal experience for me because I’m not exactly the cleanest person in the world when it comes to leaving shit on the floor. We’re just kind of tripping everywhere and can find ourselves bumping into a chair that you just moved off to the side, or stepping on a pen that we left on the ground, or kicking a can that fell off the shelf or something. It’s just kind of a mess for me, but overall the Quest 3 does a really good job at being able to detect our room scale and the hazards that are there and warning us about certain hazards in our way.
The combat is probably my favorite part of Mythic Realms. There’s a lot of fun to be had with just these one-on-one battles with whatever our weapon of choice is. That’s always the thing, and I say it every time I review a VR game. I’m looking for something that’s not just the same old thing that we constantly see, because everything is a shooter or rhythm or walking game, and they typically use the same control scheme. So many of them just feel the same that when we get something fresh, we take notice of it.
The developers, Petricore, do a good job at freshening what the feel of a VR action game is by having it be room scale, by having the AR stuff, and by blending it really well with their in-game fantasy setting aesthetic. It’s like, yeah, now there’s a tree over by my Donkey Konga bongos.
It’s a really fresh experience when it comes to the locomotion and what we’re doing and how we’re interacting with things. It’s trying to feel like a D&D rule book, which is a neat angle to take. It’s not a system seller, but it works and it all comes together.
This hot take early access review is based on a Meta Quest code sent to the Editor by the Publisher. It first appeared on The SideQuest for April 7, 2025. Images and video courtesy publisher.
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