Some combat systems are so obvious that you really don’t need a lot of time to come to this conclusion. Forspoken has one of those, or at least that’s what I had in mind before spending 90 minutes on the new action game in the soft gamer chair provided by Square Enix. Thankfully, my assumption turned out to be correct. Forspoken really shines in combat, with our protagonist Frey juggling impressive (mostly) offensive and defensive spells, while her name and skate-like moves mirror Solar Ash’s Rei. When everything clicks, it’s both mechanically satisfying and visually impressive, which bodes well for the finished game. However, the slightly general fantasy world and its standard selection of activities is less promising, but some context is in order before we get beyond ourselves.
Forspoken has been in development since the launch of Luminous Productions in 2018, producer Raio Mitsuno told me when I spoke with director Takefumi Terada and film artist Roosa Jokiaho a few days after my visit to the Swedish capital. While Luminous Productions is officially a new studio, almost half of its roughly 170 employees work on Final Fantasy XV. While both games feature open worlds, Forsdan is firmly rooted in the action genre. There are still plenty of RPG elements like crafting, skill trees and capes, necklaces and faux nails that you can equip and level up, but that’s standard for open-world games. Artificial nails are the notable exception.
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The part of the game I played didn’t have anything to do with the main story. Rather, it’s part of the open world and its activities. From previous trailers and the game’s project description, there’s no doubt that the story is an important part of the game, and it’s not the focus here.
Instead, I had plenty of time to explore Athia, the name of the world that takes place in Good Words, and smash its corrupt citizens and wildlife into a mess. The Athia part of my exploration is very open, which is a good thing considering how fast Frey moves around the world with her amazing parkour. Her abilities, including a magical grappling hook, can also be used to scale vertical surfaces like Asia’s ubiquitous cliffs, but I wish she was stronger for places I couldn’t climb. Maybe Frey can play late?
While walking around is fun and easy, the activities found in Asia are not as fun. There are fast travel points to unlock, sculptures to make you stronger, and treasure chests guarded by opponents to make you richer. Standard stuff. Safe houses are slightly more interesting, offering a place to sleep, an opportunity to upgrade equipment, and challenges to take on and pursue in an open world. Timed challenges with tougher enemies are also one of the most complex activities, but overall, I wasn’t impressed. Terada did assure me that the final game will have wider activity, so the jury is still out.
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From a visual standpoint, the open world didn’t wow me either. Forspoken isn’t an ugly game by any means, but what I’ve seen doesn’t stand out – whether we’re talking about terrain or medieval architecture. When it comes to the latter, their place in the world feels a little random. Finally, if you ask me, the color scheme is a bit brown. It’s encouraging, however, that Raio Mitsuno told me that the slice I played was only part of one of the game’s four main areas, but it’s still a bit of an odd area to show off in the first place.
While the world and its activities didn’t wow me, the combat did wow me. Takefumi Terada explained that Blessings and Asia are built around magic and magical parkour, which really shows. My Frey has access to two different schools of magic: her own school of magic and Silas’ school of magic. I don’t know who this Silas character is, but I quickly became a heavy consumer of his fire-based spells. All spells can be fast-fired or recharged, the latter being my go-to for the flaming spear, which pierces through my enemies and explodes in fiery hell after a one-second delay.
Frey’s own school of spells seems to be Earth-based, and my favorite is a gatling gun-like barrage of rocks that’s perfect for taking out flying enemies. Each school of magic has three different spells, but Frey can also use support spells with cooldowns to prevent you from sending your favorite spells. Favorite for me is a flaming ring of fire that would make Johnny Cash proud, in addition to burning those trying to get past it and boosting Frey’s stats while standing inside. The other is a geyser made of lava, and of course you can also summon undead warriors to illustrate Frey in battle.
It took me a while to get my bearings and use the scanning ability to spot enemy weaknesses, but once the fight clicked for me, it really clicked. Shooting spells feel great, and the many support spells allow Frey to create diversions and empower himself, which is especially necessary during demos with mini-bosses. This encounter is by far the most challenging of the demos, and using spells to lure the hulking beast away or trap it is a must so that Frey can recharge her most powerful spells. Terada mentioned that this enemy isn’t even a full-fledged boss, which bodes well for the final game.
Later in our interview, he told me that the part he was most proud of was how much spells the team was able to put into the game. The goal is 100, and while he doesn’t confirm that Forspoken has that many features, there are many, and they’re impressive in terms of variation and execution.
As mentioned, my time with Forspoken was lighthearted, but I was able to catch glimpses of some of it here and there, especially as Frey engaged in a slightly obnoxious playful banter with her magic bracelet cuff. Mitsuno Raio said Kraft was present throughout Frey’s journey and acted as her guide to Asia. Sometimes he supports her, sometimes he makes fun of her, but the ultimate goal is to make it a relationship that develops over time.
While Cuff gives the biggest indication of Forspoken’s approach to storytelling, the dossier shows how Luminous Productions handled the lore. Of course, it’s hard to get a clear sense of the appeal of The Legend of Asia from the 90 minutes of gameplay, but the description of the cape and various items does suggest it’s important to Luminous Productions, Roosa Jokiaho’s comments on its important role in the game emphasized this point.
After playing Forspoken and talking to the team, I’m not entirely convinced that Luminous Productions has a winner. The world and storytelling are the main reasons. But I’m curious to play more because the combat is so engaging. From what I’ve played, this is Forspoken’s biggest trump card, and if the world gets more interesting and the story is at least a little interesting, we might have a cool game when Forspoken hopes to release early next year.