Forspoken

Forspoken feels intimidated by its players.

A strange sentiment, certainly, but one that became apparent the longer I played. Games should be fun out the gate, right? Forspoken instead takes its time to becoming truly engaging. Layers of foundation are built with truly admirable bricks but you’re also spending that time watching the materials cure in the sun.

Years ago, Final Fantasy 13 was haunted by a similar sentiment. “Just play dozens of hours and then the game will truly open up.” Well I never made it to that point because the game’s beauty did not mask constant corridor brawls and a story I couldn’t vibe with.

Thankfully, Forspoken doesn’t take an agonizing amount of time to truly find an identity. But those lost hours in the opening chapters could have been spent throwing coal in the fire rather than nurturing a sizzle. It will take players a decent amount of time bounding through Athia, casting spells, and hearing cheesy dialog before the open world truly feels free.

I understand the motivation behind Luminous Productions’ choice to put the reigns on players so they can become accustomed to all Forspoken has to offer. After all, the game’s demo did no favors by throwing players into a scenario with no context for anything. The way it is structured, the game needs the hand-holding and slower pacing to prepare for the deluge of spells and things to do.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

Forspoken is about Frey Holland, a girl from New York who finds herself transported to the fantasy world of Athia after her life falls apart. The opening hour of the game does a lot to establish Frey as a girl with a tough exterior but a caring soul. She was abandoned by her parents as a baby, thrown into the system, and has a string of minor crimes to her name. But she has goals to escape her life and take her cat with her. Of course, those plans go to hell and players truly feel Frey’s desperation and defeat before she happens upon Athia.

Accompanying Frey is Cuff–or Vambrace as he insists on being called–a literal cuff of gold rings that Frey finds in New York, puts on, and seemingly teleports her to Athia. Frey is the only one who can hear Cuff and because of the situation, neither of them trust each other at first. Cuff is the gruff, smarmy guide who has knowledge of Athia and Frey is the sarcastic fish out of water.

I expect many to enable the option to limit the amount of banter between Frey and Cuff shortly after they repeat a quip for the fifth or sixth time. For some reason, I never did. Partially because I wanted to see how the evolving story would affect their idle conversations and if the two would stop being mean to each other. There is humor to be had in listening to Frey and Cuff exchange barbs with each other, plus the player hopes that the two will become more than just accidental acquaintances. So it becomes jarring to hear Frey be rude to Cuff in one sound bite only for her to say something sweet to him minutes later.

Of course, this is also a symptom of playing an open world game where the story is broken up by chapters but the players is given a moderate amount of freedom to explore before they progress a story beat.

Forspoken is extremely narrative-heavy at the onset. After a brief tutorial area, players find themselves in Cipal where Frey is temporarily imprisoned and then freed by a kind native of Athia. Early on, the game makes players aware there are side quests–called Detours–that are available but may disappear after certain junctures in the story. “Well I don’t want to miss those,” said my brain. I then proceeded to check the town for question marks indicating a potential quest or person in need of conversation, pinging Cuff’s scanner to help identify other items and points of interest.

Turns out, a lot of these initial Detours in Cipal are literally moving from one point of the city to the next, without the use of Frey’s magical parkour abilities. Strangely, the player will speak with one of these characters and the screen will fade to black for a few seconds, coming right back to the scene to reward some experience or watch the character break out of their programmed path that was triggered by the interaction. It feels… dated.

Why was I talking to this character instead of rushing right to the next mission point that may lead to combat and exploration? I got 50 experience points which could have been rewarded for killing beasts instead of feeding sheep. But I don’t want to miss these things, right?

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Luminous Productions’ devotion to the world of Athia and its lore. A lot of Detours and points of interest in Cipal and around the main world of Athia reward players with chunky bits of lore. It gives this strange place a history to dive into for those interested in being swallowed up by the game. Honestly, it’s meant to be savored at a leisurely pace. Why, then, does the game insist on taking these moments away once players progress in the story?

I can’t speak to lost quests at the opening of the game because I did everything I could, not wanting to miss out. But doing so exhausted me in an odd way. I yearned for the freedom of Athia but as a fan of world-building didn’t want to miss out. Why was the game front-loaded like this?

Forspoken‘s curious story makes a glaring wink to Alice in Wonderland early on as it’s a book Frey owns that can be picked up and examined. Much like Wonderland, Athia is in disarray after its protectors have seemingly gone mad. Four women, known as the Tantas, were the major powers over Athia’s regions, protecting and serving the people with great magic. But a corruption has taken hold of the land, spreading what’s called the Break. The Break mutates people and creatures that walk into its mists–all except for Frey.

The origins of the Break and the downfall and history of the Tantas is relatively engaging throughout Forspoken. The exhaustive amount of discoverable documents flesh out almost anything a player could be interested in. At the center of the drama is Frey, who has been thrust into this world as an unwilling champion. After fighting against a Tanta and pushing her out of Cipal, Frey is called a hero, a mantle she is not comfortable with. A Detour explores this further, as she lashes out at a person trying to show her all the lives she saved, eventually allowing Frey to recognize her worth.

Being from New York, nothing in Athia makes sense to Frey outside of human nature. She’s been privy to abuses of power and feeling helpless and players are meant to warm up to her as she grows her powers and deepens her compassion for others.

But damn does some of this writing make me cringe.

In one of Forspoken‘s earliest reveals, Frey exclaims that she’s seeing “freaking dragons” as one of the many shocking things about suddenly being in Athia. Personally, I’ve always loathed this substitute for the word “fuck” simply because most people know what you’re trying to say, except you want to censor it. Early in Forspoken, a line of dialog uses “freaking” and “fuck” in the same sentence and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes.

There’s a strange sense of tone in Forspoken‘s writing where Frey and Cuff are meant to come across as personable, making quips and playfully (or not so much) jabbing at each other. But the writing never actually grows past a certain level to strengthen the bond between these two characters aside from the events of the story. Players who have engaged with any type of fantasy narrative similar to this aren’t going to be blown out of the water. It isn’t that I wanted Frey to shut up, I merely wanted her to speak like a normal person.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is voice acted quite well. The performers do the best they can with what’s given. But it’s hard to take Frey seriously when she so loathes the role of protector one minute, gleefully uses new powers the next, and begrudgingly does tasks a few beats later. But the writing could have been so much sturdier and unique, fleshing out Frey, Cuff, the Tantas, and the rest of Athia. Instead, your main characters fluctuate between tolerable, loathsome, and admirable.

Pacing is also affected by the fact that players are shepherded through Athia’s massive world at the behest of specific chapters. Forspoken‘s open world is massive, one of the bigger ones I’ve seen. Its multiple regions are meant to be distinct but often, large chunks of mountains prevent free travel from one to the next. Players can rely on numerous fast travel points to go anywhere in the world they’ve already been during the game’s chapters but early on, the game restricts players’ ability to go absolutely anywhere.

Forspoken‘s vast world does hold some interesting vistas but any player well-versed in Assassin’s Creeds or Far Crys or Horizons know there is a limit to how much side activities can take place–especially interesting ones–regardless of square footage. Forspoken‘s activities are mainly combat arenas and small instances of going to a place and having a thing happen. Frey can visit monuments to upgrade primary attributes, fight in a deserted town for a reward, hunt down fantastical cats, or participate in tiered challenges. Expect frequent entries in the game’s index but also capes, necklaces, nail designs, and crafting materials.

The simple crafting system in Forspoken is mostly an excuse to level up gear to raise a few numbers but players would serve well to seek out these items. Finding capes and necklaces with specific stat bonuses unlocks those bonuses for the whole wardrobe. Nail designs (which personally I feel are a clever and interesting mechanic) grant great bonuses but are applied by consuming ingredients found across the world.

Despite every system feeding into each other, mileage is going to vary for players who want to squeeze every inch of satisfaction out of Forspoken. The game in terms of sheer scope is massive but many won’t find that its size matters. Ultimately, the same tasks populate every region of Athia. Some may become excited at receiving a new traversal spell, knowing that it will help them reach a previously unattainable peak. Others will just plow through the main quest and have the game over in 15-20 hours.

As a fan of massive games like Forspoken, I couldn’t help but feel enchanted by all it had to offer. The mystical, corrupted beasts Frey fought against were wondrous to take in and the constant clearing of a map tickled my brain. Still, I recognized that I had done all this before in many other games.

Certain elements would give Forspoken an advantage if they didn’t come with a disclaimer. The brisk pace of its parkour has players prancing across sweeping fields at extreme speeds or bounding up the dizzying sides of a cliff face. Parts of the game are brilliantly alive but then players will happen upon poor textures and dated character models. I expected to be dazzled by this PlayStation 5-facing title only to wonder why I kept hitting so many fades to black and loading screens. Why does Cipal look so bland? Outside of a narrative reason, why do sections of Athia need to be covered in fog, obscuring what’s underneath? As Frey, I once raced down a trail past blurry textures, past this corrupted fog and stumbled into a horde of what felt like 50 or more shambling zombies. I fought tooth and nail, flinging spells and watching particles fly without a framerate hitch in sight. But when the dust settled the world was still void of NPCs, exciting towns, and personality.

The saving grace of Forspoken is often the combat. Whether she is launching a flurry of rocks at mutated bears or cutting down goblins with flaming swords, Frey’s magical moveset rarely feels slow. Four branches of magic are made available over the course of the game, each with their own set of attack spells. A generous helping of support spells give players the opportunity to inflict status ailments, provide buffs to Frey, or cause different kinds of damage. All the while, players can use Frey’s magical parkour to gracefully dodge attacks with little thought.

Flowing combat moves together was often my highlight of Forspoken. Attempting to juggle stamina points, counters, health, crowd control, and damage in this environment was mostly thrilling. Of course, the more spells Frey learns, the more complicated the game can get as players need to cycle through multiple wheels, unlock spells that boost damage when switching between magic schools, and worrying about cooldowns. In the beginning of the game, it feels underwhelming to have Frey’s purple magic be the only available set as not all enemies are vulnerable to it. Only when players unlock red magic will they be able to perform melee combat and fare better against other types of creatures. But then as the game progresses, the bevy of spells may be hard to manage for those wanting to try out everything.

Additionally, Frey can only unlock spells when she has the appropriate mana, which is earned through leveling up or running over shafts of blue light littered across the world. Each spell can also be enhanced by completing a required amount of actions for that particular spell. However, players are only allowed to work on three spells at a time and can only select which ones from resting places.

It’s a shame that Forspoken‘s combat, like its story and open world take so long to really get going. On one hand, the game has plenty of complexity and narrative intrigue that may hook players early on. But to front-load all that could potentially overwhelm. Rather than feel like Athia was my oyster, the game hamstrung me at multiple junctures wanting to go at a predetermined pace.

Certainly I could challenge fearsome mutated bosses in the open world early on but surely it would take forever and the rewards may not be worth it. I could scurry through a series of combat rooms to learn more about the history of the Tantas after a boss fight but not often feel challenged enough. I wanted to dive into exploration and combat but afraid I would miss out on a lore-heavy conversation. Ultimately, Forspoken isn’t certain what it wants from you because multiple decisions are at odds with each other. The player should be given more freedom in such an open world or the game’s scope should be modified to dictate a sharper focus on storytelling and diverse combat scenarios.

Forspoken is on the precipice of something great. Behind the funneled narrative beats and the obese, sprawling world is a game that simply wants players to engage with its every part. Past the eye-rolling dialog and self-serious narrative is a potentially interesting protagonist and universe that occasionally mesh well. Each puzzle piece of Forspoken is so close to fitting and so often I could see the picture clearly, especially when bounding across the seemingly boundless landscape, making the screen quiver and explode with Frey’s awe-inspiring magic. Perhaps in another place, in another time, Forspoken will speak to everyone.