Forspoken is a messy, interesting action-RPG from ex-Final Fantasy devs

Square Enix had released a while ago a new adFor The ForspokenThe open-world action video game ‘Open World Action Game’ will be released on January 24, 2019. It was one of the most annoying ads it’d ever seen. Games Twitter saw it and thought it was hilarious. The dialogue in the short trailer, delivered by the heroine Frey (Ella Balinska) — a young New Yorker transposed to a magical realm — was streetwise and quippy in a grating, corporatized way. With its uptalk, and its clumsy, sanitized slang (“freaking,” “jacked-up”), it made a meal of crashing the game’s exuberant fantasy setting into some marketing department’s idea of youthful insouciance and irony, a formula lazily copied from old episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It didn’t work well.

Although social media’s hatred of video game wisecracking has since moved on to It’s High On LifeThis marketing tactic has been so successful that it is now the whole story. The Forspoken. So a chance to sit down and play a demo of the game for 90 minutes — an opportunity I had recently at Square Enix’s offices in London — is a chance to compare what the game actually is with what it is trying, so painfully hard, to be.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix

It is possible to do so up to some extent. However, this demo was created to showcase the product. The Forspoken’s gameplay and systems, and it was completely shorn of story. While there were objectives to be accomplished, there was no narrative, cutscenes, or context. This was more like playing an open-world video game. There were quests to be completed, enemies to be defeated, explorations of the map and points of interest. The opposite is how developers show off their games, i.e. with the most complicated, scripted, and contained missions. This is fascinating, regardless of whether it was intended to correct a botched marketing strategy. But it must be remembered that it’s not the whole picture.

With all that said: In the normal run of gameplay, is it possible to tune out Frey’s banter with her sentient magic bracelet Cuff (Jonathan Cake, doing his Paul-Bettany-as-Jarvis)? If you’ve ever played this game before, it is possible. The lines delivered as barks and asides during combat and exploration aren’t very funny, but they’re not much different from those you learn to ignore in dozens of similar games, like The Forspoken’s most obvious inspirations, Guerrilla’s Horizon Zero Dawn Forbidden West.

The Forspoken is a Japanese-developed game — it’s made by Luminous Productions, an evolution of the team that made Final Fantasy 15 —It is trying to feel and look like an AAA Western release. The reason it seems inauthentic is because of something being lost in translation. It could also be that the character design feels like it was drawn from a marketing brief. Or because developers try too hard to make a connection with an audience they are distant from. Without any story context, it’s hard to judge Frey as a character, but touches like the way she derives stat boosts from her choice of nail design can’t help but feel forced. There lies beneath this is a fun, yet punchy and engaging action role-playing video game.

Image by Luminous Productions/Square Enix

Frey, however stout she may sound, looks amazing in motion. Her signature “magic parkour” skills allow for fast and fluid traversal across the rocky landscapes of Athia, the hostile realm where she finds herself. Her cool, asymmetrical cape flows behind her as she sprints, jumps, flips, springs and turns. Athia owes more to playing fields of Final Fantasy games than to the lavish vistas of Horizon or The Witcher; it’s alien and a little barren, dotted with ruins and spanned by vast bridges.

This land is home to corrupted creatures and bizarre, scruffy, witch-like humanoid foes. Frey is able to choose between two magical schools in combat. Frey’s Magic is coded purple and concentrates on ranged skills; Sila’s Magic is red, and melee-focused. A spidery skill tree gives you the ability to quickly equip skills with a radial menu. This allows for both offensive and defensive slots. Many times, they take the shape of combo attacks or magical weapons. The combat in ranged mode is quick, fluid, and directly in front of you; counters and staggers count. In style, it’s more Devil May CryMore than Dark SoulsAlthough it is not able to be compared with either, in reality it does have the depth and precision of both.

It has a remarkable flexibility, which reminded me of a lot. Diablo 3. You should find offensive/defensive pairings in every magic school and then switch among them as you wish. Some skills allow you to switch between one or both of the magic schools, such as the purple ranged attack which pulls enemies nearer and switches to red magic. You can change your skill loadout at any moment, and parkour moves or attacks give you more combinations. It’s very free-form, very organic, and it feels like there will be a fair bit of room to individualize your play style.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix

This is where crafting and equipment come in. It is quite easy to find options. There are two major equipment slots, a cloak or necklace and one for nail varnish. (Full marks to whoever gave the cloaks their elegant names like “Puissant” and “Valorous.”) These increase your main stats as well as adding quite specific and arcane buffs to the likes of cuff blocks and precision counters. It’s hard to make much sense of these benefits during a brief demo, but there may well be some satisfying theorycrafting to be done here as you build your character around your favored play style.

It felt as though I was only just getting comfortable after spending 90 minutes on a character creation from halfway through the game. The Forspoken’s loose, but far from unsophisticated, gameplay. After running Frey all over the map, fighting enemies, and fiddling with combat, I felt a distinct game emerge from its market-worn mask. I hope this is the last. The Forspoken’s full length, that game will have time to fully come into the light.