If for many years final Fantasy is Square Enix's flagship license in the field of RPG, the Japanese publisher will try to diversify a little. In effect, forspoken is a brand new saga that will soon be launched on console and PC. And we're going to take stock of what we know about him.
First presented under the code name Project Athia, Forspoken is a completely new franchise imagined by Luminous Productions. If the game has shown itself several times since its announcement dating back to June 2020, it still retains a fairly pronounced shade in many of its aspects.
A young woman like no other
In Forspoken, the player will play as Frey Holland, an orphan New Yorker whose life is a living hell. Our poor heroine in the making is even threatened with ending up in prison for reasons that remain unknown. It is at this moment that she is propelled into another world named Athia. On the spot, she will obtain a relatively strange bracelet which in addition to giving her extraordinary powers will prove to be gifted with speech.
This world far from Earth seems to be governed by magic and necessarily contains more or less impressive threats. Frey will even go so far as to cross paths with fearsome dragons. But among the main antagonists of the game, we find the Tantas, a group of matriarchs who exercise their power over Athia. It will probably be necessary to free the world from this sect.
No time to waste !
Forspoken will stand out greatly from more traditional RPGs (like Final Fantasy for example) thanks to its much more nervous gameplay. Through the videos uploaded by Square Enix over the months, we have been able to admire the vast landscapes of the world of Athia. To evolve through such immensities, Frey will be able to use his abilities that will allow him to move quickly. The very horizontal movements will prove practical for covering long distances in no time. Anchor points will promote the climbing phases in this open-world.
If we will obviously have to wait to have the game in hand to judge their real quality, the graphics seem rather successful and colorful. Square Enix promised a great variety on the decorations and the visual effects draw their pin from the game. The powers of Frey sometimes give rise to rather breathtaking explosions on the screen. It is not for nothing that Forspoken is exclusive to the PS5 since the Luminous Engine will have to manage extremely complex particle effects.
An ultimately classic RPG?
Like any good self-respecting RPG, Forspoken will embed rather conventional elements with a skill tree that will take care of improving our spells or even the possibility of crafting objects through resources. Secondary activities will inevitably be scattered around the world. It remains to be seen whether they will be able to be convincing on the narrative level.
As for the fights, Forspoken opts for a real-time system that will invite us to juggle between three different powers. The goal is to choose the right abilities before the battle in order to make extremely effective combinations. Elements like fire, ice or water will have to be used wisely. As with the recent Final Fantasy, it will be essential to understand the commands to navigate in the middle of combat within the menus.
Double or quits ?
It's hard to know what to expect when we're dealing with a new license. However, it is a team of veterans (to whom we owe Final Fantasy XV) that leads this project. There is therefore reason to be reassured… In addition, big names like Amy Hennig (Uncharted) on the writing and Bear McCreary (God of War) on the soundtrack are also present to carry this nascent license.
The verdict will fall when Forspoken is released on PS5 and PC (Steam, Epic Games Store) on October 11, 2022. Note that the game will not be able to be released on other consoles for a period of two years.
