After slogging through tiresome scripted missions, it was a breath of fresh air to peel through the environment, see some nice vistas and build Frey’s skills via optional exploration. Like its drop-in drop-out, open-world combat, I loved Forspoken’s blase approach to resource collection and its pop-up stat-building battles and dungeons. Forspoken can feel a bit like Dynasty Warriorswhen you run into a crowd of Break-suffering dorks and start throwing them around like an empty tracksuit with your elemental Musou magic. Luckily, the variety of magicks, like quirky Gundam lock-on spells and feinted swashbuckling, will keep your fingers interested. Outside of arena-based boss battles, you’re pretty much always fighting in open areas against a litany of spongy predictable creatures. It has shades of Remedy’s Control as you drift through the air and deliver satisfying trick shots and projectile ripostes, but it lacks the quality encounter design. Frey blasts, slices and guns down her enemies with a variety of arm-mounted attacks, building towards cool special moves and timely finishers. It helps that the combat is just as fluid and very moreish, with a hack-and-slash letter-grading system that teases you into some cool combos. If only it didn’t have fall damage, which feels like a purposeful bullet to the foot. Especially when you unlock the mid-game ‘Zip’ spell -and eventually, surfing - Forspoken ekes out some Spider-Man-esque traversal bliss. The much-marketed magical parkour mechanics feel as high quality as they look, and if you aren’t holding Circle at all times to add flourish to Frey’s movements, you’re doing something wrong. What’s tragic about all the cutscenes you wish you could play is that the ambient open-world gameplay is actually heaps of fun when Forspoken lets you off the leash. Forspoken runs the gamut of dated mission types, from forced stealth to escort and plenty of interact-a-thon exploring jaunts. Your first stop is the chatty hub town of Cipal, which provides Forspoken’s archetypal supplementary cast.Įven then, a slow-burn introduction of systems and abilities makes it feel like one long tutorial until about Chapter 5. Four big bosses are spread across its landscape, which is corrupted by a suspicious environmental plague called The Break. It’s not technically long in truth, but it sure feels like a while before you land in Athia, the sizable mythical realm where the meat of Forspoken takes place. The only vibrant book on Frey’s dining room table is Alice In Wonderland, and she’s got a cardboard escape plan on her bedroom wall. READ MORE: ‘Forspoken’ preview: breakneck speed and magical combat.You’ve seen it all before, but Forspoken’s New York opening, with its foreshadowing pockets of heavy-handed gameplay, doesn’t miss an opportunity to bat you over the head with a familiar premise and some seriously hammy dialogue, leaving a difficult first impression. Plucky orphan Frey Holland is whisked into a magical world and lumbered with divine purpose, superpowers and a smarmy British sidekick. The next game from Final Fantasy XV’s Luminous Productions is a mechanically solid open-world adventure game with a fantasy narrative that has been focus-tested much too far.
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