In Forspoken, the land abounds with fields and cliffs, but it lacks heart.ĭanny Lore is a Black sci-fi/fantasy writer of prose and comics. Horizon Forbidden West and Elden Ring - even the much-maligned Cyberpunk 2077 - put far more effort into rewarding player exploration. Forspoken follows the journey of Frey, a young New Yorker transported to the beautiful and cruel land of Athia.
Put simply, Square Enix faces too many open-world competitors to get away with a poor showing like this. The much-advertised magic parkour can be fun, but it's also clunky and difficult to control. The grating and constant conversations between Frey and 'Cuff,' the speaking vambrace that gives her power, swing from petty jabs to smug celebration as you endure the game's mediocre battles.Īdmittedly, the combat does get more interesting as you defeat bosses and gain their abilities, but it feels dated even in comparison to its inspiration - 2016's Final Fantasy XV.
Square Enix Outdated and mediocre gameplayĬheap and bland describe the writing too, which also has the audacity to think itself clever. That fantasy world certainly looks appealing, but I realized that's often because the RTX tech disguises art assets that are really cheap and bland.įorspoken tries to present big-budget, beautiful environments, but doesn't quite compete with rival open-world titles. In fact, the game doesn't seem to feature any ray-tracing until Frey arrives in Athia. The opening chapter shows NYC with snow in December, but the ground remains dry, presumably to avoid ray-tracing. Doors inexplicably grow or shrink depending on how you look at them (reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland in all the wrong ways). If the sloppy opening - presenting Frey's entire backstory through documents on a table, with a judge handing down a community service sentence - doesn't turn you off immediately, the lack of consideration only gets worse from there. With publisher Square Enix already catching heat for producer Naoki Yoshida's defense of upcoming Final Fantasy XVI's scant diversity, Forspoken makes the nightmarish choice to start with its Black protagonist in court for her third felony. Forspoken pulls from genre staples and even begins with Alice in Wonderland references, but it also falls into troubling tropes.
The game offers a portal fantasy: New Yorker Alfre "Frey" Holland gets whisked away to Athia, a magical world where she gains new powers and fights countless evils. Forspoken looks like a game where you return to a hub city and regularly venture out into a world that appears to be shockingly devoid of anything meaningful to do but flip through the air and. Square Enixįorspoken is a disappointing outing from a developer that touts 'key members' of the Final Fantasy XV team, one which feels at best uninterested in its Black protagonist, and at worst resentful of her. Forspoken's protagonist, Frey, a New Yorker transported to the magical world Athia.
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