More than a few times, I found myself accidentally jetting past an item I wanted to pick up, or unintentionally racing up the wall of a building. Still, the lack of precision makes platforming or levels within enclosed spaces frustratingly difficult. This does create an enjoyable fluidity to movement and it's exhilarating to feel the world speed past you. Frey zips through the environment with stylish flips and jumps, moving so quickly that she skids to a halt. With not much keeping you within the last bastion of human life in Athia, you're encouraged to go out and explore the wider world, sprinting over fields with Frey's parkour abilities and blasting enemies away with explosive magic. My playthrough was filled with me constantly asking, "Yes, but why should Frey care?" and Forspoken never delivered a satisfying answer to the question. These people aren't fleshed out in Forspoken's story, and so the way they emotionally manipulate Frey isn’t all that believable or fulfilling to watch. We see Frey contemplate murderous vengeance over the death of a survivor she'd only just met, and feel guilty over belittling someone she has the slimmest of connections to.
But the issue is exacerbated by how these people are characterized and used to inspire Frey. The facial expressions of the people in Athia are stilted and uncomfortable, which already creates a bit of a disconnect with the emotional core of Forspoken's story. They have no real convictions or anything interesting to say.
The characters themselves are also incredibly plain with two-dimensional personalities. The characters don't take the threat of Athia's imminent destruction very seriously and any tension that comes from their perilous existence is repeatedly undermined by meaningless busywork they want you to do. The emotional connection Forspoken tries to establish to incentivize the player to take action-to help the people that need Frey's help-is deeply uninteresting and oftentimes head-scratching and odd. However, it's not a world that the game is able to adequately convince the player of wanting to stay in and protect. Like any isekai protagonist worth their salt, Frey is initially resistant to her new surroundings before discovering that she's actually ideally suited to the world she's found herself trapped in. It's difficult to like the standoffish and stubborn Frey, the incessantly sarcastic Cuff (who regularly quips in Frey's ear like a discount JARVIS), or any of the survivors who are all too eager to completely rely on Frey's protection from the Break while also asking her to complete boring optional tasks like going on a tour of a lifeless hub or petting a bunch of sheep.īy clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot'sįorspoken's story is one about belonging-finding a place you want to stay and a people you wish to protect. The whole situation is an intriguing narrative setup but boring or unlikable characters let it down. Frey is the only exception, making her an ideal candidate for exploring the Break, finding its source, and destroying it. This blight, which Frey calls the Break, covers the land and transforms living creatures into mutated monsters.
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There, she bonds with a sentient brace she nicknames Cuff and then encounters a group of survivors living in the last city that's free from the effects of a dangerous miasma. In Forspoken, protagonist Frey finds herself trapped in the magic-filled world of Athia after stumbling through a portal. Luminous Productions' action-RPG feels great when it allows you to really stretch your legs and magically parkour across its fantasy landscape, but combat is clunky and regular exposition too often stalls the action. Instead, it tells a largely forgettable story that sets up major stakes but fails to offer a compelling reason for why the player should care. Though it takes inspiration from isekai-stories in which people from Earth are transported to and become trapped in a fantastical world (think Alice in Wonderland but Japanese)- Forspoken ultimately doesn't understand what makes that genre so popular.
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