Forspoken Preview: Square-Enix goes beyond Final Fantasy
Forspoken Preview
Presented to the general public during E3 2020 on the shores of the Sony conference, Square-Enix's mysterious “Project Athia” has been able to intrigue millions of fans since the first glimpse of its boundless world emerged. Parkour, magic, freedom of exploration and fantasy drifts typical of the JRPG culture mixed on the backdrop of an apparently amazing technical-graphic fabric, drawing the contours of a work that seemed destined to peep out only in the midst of the next-gen.The return of the heavy Luminous Engine, the proprietary engine of the house already used in Final Fantasy XV, suggested in fact the desire to put the new consoles on the test bench by creating an experience close to the graphic limit and designed to run exclusively on PlayStation 5 and PC hardware. Then, surprisingly, the true identity of the project was revealed: Project Athia became Forspoken, a new single-player action-RPG from the newborn studio Luminous Productions and ready to debut in the spring of 2022.
Watch on YouTube. News that could not help but leave us satisfied: Square-Enix, a historic forge of talents, in recent years has remained too anchored to the safety of its timeless creative formulas, focusing on the solidity of the Final Fantasy brand and producing tie-ins from "Sure" success, such as Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, while keeping a safe distance from the risk that accompanies the release of a new intellectual property.
Forspoken
Developer: Luminous Productions Publisher: Square-Enix Availability: May 24, 2022 on PS5 and PC Forspoken is an entirely original AAA video game, focused on the narrative component and deeply rooted in the experience fluid and dynamic action that governs the mechanics of its vast open-world. However, Square-Enix has already produced titles like this, and then below with other innovations: the central element of the package will be the exploitation of magic, with only arcane powers aimed at marking both the very fast parkour and the intricate combat system. .While it is clear that such a gameplay formula aims to emphasize the fun generated by using insane skills to annihilate hordes of monsters and traverse beautiful landscapes at supersonic speed, the narrative intends to maintain a fundamental role. Passed from hand to hand between industry giants such as Amy Hennig and Gary Whitta, the writing was eventually welcomed by Todd Stashwick (pen behind the famous canceled Star Wars video game) and Allison Rymer (author of the TV series Shadowhunters). >
The magical parkour behind Forspoken aims to flex the muscles of the next-gen variant of the Luminous Engine. And it is precisely the plot that has struck us, if only because it chooses a completely different direction from what we would have expected. Forspoken is in fact a classic Isekai, literally "alternative world", a famous sub-genre in the panorama of manga and light novels in which the protagonist is suddenly transported to a parallel dimension and must deal with all the dictates that govern it.
In the case of Forspoken, the protagonist is Frey Holland, a 21-year-old girl from New York who struggles to find her place in the world, looking at the future with great uncertainty. And precisely at a critical moment in her growth process, in the midst of a period in which she even risks ending up behind bars, the young woman finds herself catapulted into the world of Athia, the most different that can exist from the skyscrapers of Manhattan, a dimension alternative wrapped in the classic tints of fantasy inspiration.
From then on begins what promises to be a great journey of discovery and training in which Frey will finally have to confront herself until she reaches the definition of her place in the world. A journey made even more interesting by the fact that the extraordinary magical powers that characterize it are absolutely not the norm in Athia's world, therefore the girl will be treated with fear and distrust by most of the inhabitants of the place.
Nel During the long presentation in which Forspoken was shown to us, a strong emphasis was placed on the narrative component, curious secondary characters were presented such as the "talking bracelet" Cuff - which should play a role similar to that of Mimir in the last God of War - and overall a strong will has emerged to bring the plot and characterization of the characters back to the center of the stage, but of course it's still very early to make any kind of judgment.
Frey Holland is the protagonist of Forspoken, a girl from New York who finds herself catapulted into Athia's world. Instead, it's easier to throw yourself headlong into the rest of Forspoken's offering, which sees three essential elements paint the whole picture of the experience: the huge game world, the magical parkour-based crossing system, and finally the combat system entirely embroidered around the devastating spells mastered by Frey.
Athia looks like a fantasy continent close to the typically Middle Eastern geography and inspiration, made of deserts and wind-whipped mountain ranges, dotted with settlements, real cities, ruins that stand out on the edge of the precipices. The biological variety is still to be verified, but if there is one element that has convinced fans since the first showcase, that certainly resides in the technical rendering of the game world, which is not afraid to open boundless panoramas and challenge a verticality rare to encounter in the undergrowth of video games.
It is a formula designed to work in symbiosis with the traversing system, because the magical parkour that animates the movements of the protagonist Frey is very important in the gameplay economy: thanks to the girl's skills it is possible to reach any surface, climb any obstacle and descend over three thousand meters in a few moments; in short, the entire world-building seems to be made to satisfy the classic maxim "if you can see it you can reach it" that guided the development of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Link's latest adventure , however, it drew its essence from the density of activities scattered throughout Hyrule, and as far as we could see this could prove to be one of Forspoken's weaknesses. When you choose to opt for the creation of a map that is splendid to look at and extremely vast, it becomes increasingly difficult to give meaning to exploration and characterize it properly. A feature that cannot be verified until the moment we put our hands on the gamepad.
Magic is the heart of Forspoken, and the particle effects created by Luminous Production are nothing short of extraordinary. For the moment we know that Forspoken puts on the plate an immediate progression system which, relying on skill points and crafting materials, allows Frey to greatly enhance his magical arsenal through a classic skill-tree and an additional level of customization that rotates. around cloaks and jewels, each with their own unique appearance and characteristics. This means that, most likely, exploration will be closely linked with obtaining useful resources for character enhancement.
It is evident, on the other hand, that much of the efforts of Luminous Productions have focused on the combat system, which draws heavily from the tradition of the third-person action genre and then contaminates it with the magic that rules the world of Athia. Rather than slashing swords or firearms, Frey can rely on a plethora of arcane and elemental spells to crush hordes of enemies in long, fluid dances.
We've got it. seen throwing rocks at opponents, enclosing them within floating water balls, charring them in whirlwinds of fiery blades and literally blowing them up along with large segments of the map by means of arcane explosions. It is a technical system, closely linked with positioning, with timing, with the control of the groups of attackers and, of course, with the quick reflexes essential to execute perfect dodges and quick counterattacks.
There is no shortage of skills marked by pure utility and far from the only effectiveness in combat, such as invisibility, which allows you to completely bypass entire groups of enemies, and a series of ethereal impulses essential to maintain the momentum during the phases of parkour that they allow Frey to get very close to the idea of "flight". In short, the choice to cloak the Athia universe in magic has allowed Luminous Produtions to innovate the technical action fabric, keeping intact timeless standards of the genre such as lock-on systems and dodges, to then give free rein to creativity and to movement options.
The exploration of a vast, vertical and diverse open-world setting represents one of the greatest strengths of the work. The gameplay loop that emerged from the analyzed sequences, therefore, can be divided between the internal segments of cities and villages, places that will probably give way to main and secondary quests, which then open seamlessly on the exploration of the open world, juncture housing the armies of Lovecraftian creatures that Frey will have to relentlessly shoot down to defend the inhabitants of Athia from mysterious corruption.
The last thing we could lay our eyes on was the sudden formation of a storm in the heart of the desert that led to the emergence of a gigantic opponent, a colossal boss fight worthy of the forbidden lands of Shadow of the Colossus, capable of embarrassing even a powerful entity like Frey, bent under a rain of electrified blows and incessantly poked by the horde of enemies generated by the creature.
Through Forspoken Square-Enix wants to return to appear in the panorama of the great of original AAA productions, and wants to do so by reaching out to Luminous Productions, a team born in 2018 with the arduous task of transforming the Luminous Engine into a rival at the level of the Unreal Engine, since the latter had already supplanted the proprietary engine in the orbit of two major internal productions such as Kingdom Hearts III and Final Fantasy VII Remake.
It is still very early to formulate judgments of any kind, as much as regards the technical sector, because it is evident that the build used for the occasion represented a state of the work still on the high seas, as for the characteristics of the gameplay and the narrative, which in the context of an open-world RPG are able to communicate their nature in a transparent way only when tested in first person.
The combat system entirely based on magic is an absolute novelty for titles of this genre. Most read now
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One thing, However, we would like to say it: in the midst of the tide of high-budget products now statically stranded between sequels and the great returns of historical brands, we are extremely happy to see a great studio like Square-Enix choose the increasingly rare path of the original production, because never before is there such a strong need for novelty and fresh air in a market that is now stagnant following a flood.
Forspoken is just that: a new adventure set in the heart of a new unknown universe, ready to give in atal to a new protagonist of the world of video games and willing to give magic a new role of absolute pre-eminence.
Elements that, from our point of view, are already enough for Frey's story to deserve our full attention. . But if you dream of the existence of an alternative fantasy reality, if you prefer the pure wizard to the classic warrior, if you were fascinated by observing the girl while she hovered in balance over breathtaking views, well, then you should keep an eye very closely Forspoken.
