Having personally loved Final Fantasy XV, Luminous Productions’ first game, I was naturally excited to see what was to come next. After many postponements, Forspoken is finally out.
Thanks to Square Enix for providing the review code.
The Story of Forspoken:
In Forspoken you slip into the role of 21-year-old Frey, who does not live an easy life in New York. She lives in an abandoned building with her cat Homer and collects money to finally be able to leave town. After failing a job for a gang, they track her down and set the building on fire. Luckily, Frey is able to save Homer, but the money is lost in the flames. Desperate, she hands Homer over to a judge she sees frequently and suddenly sees a strange light, which she follows to a mysterious circlet. Suddenly, she tears a portal into a strange world, where a dragon immediately lurks for her. Frey finds out that the circlet can talk to her and gives her magical powers. After a fierce battle with the dragon, she ends up in the city of Cipal. There they see some residents as monsters and imprison them first. She is freed by young Auden, who doesn’t like her behavior and wants to help her. Frey naturally wants to return to New York and, while trying to find answers, finds Auden’s father. This one is corrupted by what Frey simply calls the Fracture, but unlike other humans, he doesn’t turn into a Fracture Zombie. When they return, one of the so-called Tantas, one of the 4 rulers of the world Athia, is about to interrogate Auden and, after Frey interferes, kills several innocent people, including a girl she befriended. Now Frey is driven by revenge, while some of the residents of Cipal hope that she will save them. who doesn’t like the behavior and wants to help her. Frey naturally wants to return to New York and, while trying to find answers, finds Auden’s father. This one is corrupted by what Frey simply calls the Fracture, but unlike other humans, he doesn’t turn into a Fracture Zombie. When they return, one of the so-called Tantas, one of the 4 rulers of the world Athia, is about to interrogate Auden and, after Frey interferes, kills several innocent people, including a girl she befriended. Now Frey is driven by revenge, while some of the residents of Cipal hope that she will save them. who doesn’t like the behavior and wants to help her. Frey naturally wants to return to New York and, while trying to find answers, finds Auden’s father. This one is corrupted by what Frey simply calls the Fracture, but unlike other humans, he doesn’t turn into a Fracture Zombie. When they return, one of the so-called Tantas, one of the 4 rulers of the world Athia, is about to interrogate Auden and, after Frey interferes, kills several innocent people, including a girl she befriended. Now Frey is driven by revenge, while some of the residents of Cipal hope that she will save them. This one is corrupted by what Frey simply calls the Fracture, but unlike other humans, he doesn’t turn into a Fracture Zombie. When they return, one of the so-called Tantas, one of the 4 rulers of the world Athia, is about to interrogate Auden and, after Frey interferes, kills several innocent people, including a girl she befriended. Now Frey is driven by revenge, while some of the residents of Cipal hope that she will save them. This one is corrupted by what Frey simply calls the Fracture, but unlike other humans, he doesn’t turn into a Fracture Zombie. When they return, one of the so-called Tantas, one of the 4 rulers of the world Athia, is about to interrogate Auden and, after Frey interferes, kills several innocent people, including a girl she befriended. Now Frey is driven by revenge, while some of the residents of Cipal hope that she will save them.
But Frey is not a heroine and doesn’t want anything to do with it, just back. She first has to learn to trust others and also learn that sometimes you have to help yourself. Besides that, her hoop helps her through the world more or less sarcastically, while he also tries to support her in the fight against the tantas. In the story there is a big focus on the partnership of convenience between Frey and Reif, who have a really successful dynamic. It is understandable that Frey has no desire to be a hero at all at first. Towards the end, the story weakens a bit for a short time, since a lot is told but nothing is actually shown. It does offer a few interesting twists, some of which are obvious, but others come as a surprise. You will also find some side stories,
Fight and magically travel through Athia:
At Forspoken is an open world game where you can explore Athia freely. For some areas, however, you need spells that you only learn as the game progresses. For example, you get a fire whip to pull you to certain places or hover briefly with the help of water. To use these parkour skills, you use up stamina. You also need this in combat to block. If it is used up, you cannot use these skills for a short time and you are therefore more vulnerable. There are many places to explore in the open world. There are camps where you can rest and craft things, the typical lookout towers that mark nearby locations, all sorts of treasure chests, ruins or caves where you either have to defeat enemies or find certain items. There are also so-called monuments that have different effects. There are some that improve various stats of yours or cat monuments where you carefully approach supernatural cats, which are then waiting for you in your camps, and others where you have to complete various goals in a timely manner. For the latter there is mana, which you need to learn new spells. You can also collect mana in the world or get it by leveling up. Of course, an obligatory Resident Evil Easter egg can also be discovered among all the zombies. where you have to complete various objectives in a timely manner. For the latter there is mana, which you need to learn new spells. You can also collect mana in the world or get it by leveling up. Of course, an obligatory Resident Evil Easter egg can also be discovered among all the zombies. where you have to complete various objectives in a timely manner. For the latter there is mana, which you need to learn new spells. You can also collect mana in the world or get it by leveling up. Of course, an obligatory Resident Evil Easter egg can also be discovered among all the zombies.
You get experience points for completing missions, areas or battles. The latter are triggered as soon as you get close to one or more enemies that move freely in the world or lurk around. As already mentioned, various spells are available to you in battle. You always have a normal combat spell on the right shoulder button, which by holding the button turns into one of several selectable stronger techniques. On the left, on the other hand, there is a support spell, for example to tie up opponents or to create flowers that also shoot at opponents. Over time, the gauge for a powerful spell fills up. In combat, you always have a display that evaluates your combat behavior. By using various skills or by shooting at the enemy from behind, this meter will increase, increasing the amount of XP and the chance of reward drops. If you get hit, the gauge goes down again. The fights are very varied due to the different techniques and types of opponents and play extremely smoothly.
The world and sound of Forspoken:
The world of Forspoken is created by the in-house Luminousengine. This can often look very beautiful and creates many details. Some things like rivers don’t look quite as pretty, but characters, enemies, and spells can impress. The world alternates in the 4 realms of tantas, as each represents a different quality. Some areas look nice and varied, others a little more monotonous and unspectacular.
The music of the game is very beautiful and skillfully reflects the mood of the different realms. In boss fights she looks very imposing, while in Cipal or the camps she seems very calm and sometimes happy. I played the game in the German language version, which I found to be quite successful.
The technical details:
The prophesiedran during my test period without any stutters or crashes. There are no loading times. If you start the game or fast travel, you will find yourself immediately at the respective location without any loading time. Once I had a brief bug when I teleported into one of the mazes and then couldn’t move at all. Fortunately, when I loaded the last quicksave without having to wait, the problem was solved immediately. Another issue that annoyed me a bit more was that my magic kept switching to the fire magic on its own after unlocking it. While you can switch at any time, since this is the only melee magic, it was a little unfortunate if you thought you were attacking from afar and suddenly darted towards the enemy. The controls quickly become familiar. In the demo, I still felt a bit overwhelmed by the whole control, but since you learn everything bit by bit in the full version, it was a bit more relaxed. I also have to report on the very successful use of the DualSense controller. You feel every step, every use of magic, every smack, even the stroking of Homer at the beginning and everything feels individual.
Conclusion:
After I was quite skeptical about the game after the demo, the full version of Forspoken was able to convince me. The gameplay is very dynamic, fast and intuitive. I also liked the story, despite minor flaws towards the end of the story. What is most convincing is the dynamic between Frey and Reif. Due to the non-existent loading times, you are always directly in the game and can continue. Graphically, some things are better than others, but overall I think it’s a nice game.
Small bonus:
As already indicated, there are many cats in the game. That’s why there are now cat pictures as a little cat bonus:
Forspoken - Rating
Forspoken convinces with its successful dynamic between Frey and her speaking circlet, who discover a new world and are dependent on each other. The story is told in an interesting way, even if it falters briefly. The gameplay is really fun and easy to handle, even if the game always wanted to impose a certain type of magic, at least on me. The graphics look a bit weaker in some parts, while in others they look all the nicer. Cat lovers will enjoy the game even more 😉
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