Terada tells me that despite the changes the game has endured, this focus on making it fast, fun, and easy to pick up has always been at the core of what Forspoken is. With his departure, Forspoken morphed, too – but that change seems to be a good thing.

Of course, the game was something slightly different when it was conceived: the team making it was originally founded by Final Fantasy 15 director, Hajime Tabata, before he left the team to pursue his own game development. So I do hope that is something that will resonate with the players.” Frey will come up against many weird and wonderful foes. It opened up a lot of capabilities for us. And this is something that we were only really able to achieve because of the PS5 and this kind of next-gen hardware. “It's very high-speed, fast-paced action, and it allows you to traverse the map at great speeds, as well. “I think the number one important point for us about the performance of this game can be seen in the magically-enhanced parkour,” continues Terada. This may be a game lambasted for its seemingly ‘budget’ genesis, but you don’t see any of that when you’re actually sat in front of it.

In my one hour-plus time with the game, I didn’t see any pop-in, graphical bugs, or any dodgy animation. This game is a great advert for the PS5: as well as all the effects you generate with your different spells – whether they’re making the earth shatter beneath you, creating domes of fire to hem your enemies in, or sending tendrils of lightning ricocheting between everything – you can quickly dash from location to location. The artist’s vision, exactly: we can make things look exactly as we envision them on console.” “And one area where we really feel the difference is how we can now recreate – with 100% fidelity and power – the artist's vision. “But we have worked on making all kinds of improvements and all kinds of tweaks to it since then, both in terms of graphics, and in terms of optimisation, things like that. “The Luminous Engine is, of course, an engine that we created for Final Fantasy 15 – and we're using that same engine now, for Forspoken,” says Forspoken co-director Takefumi Terada via Square Enix interpreter. Calm down with the lens flare – this isn't a J. There’s particle effects galore, Frey’s cloak billowing in the heat as she sets enemies alight, reflections of the sky glancing off the water as your camera spins around to watch you finish off one of the ambling enemies, all dressed up in black and gold.Īll this – this dedication to making it look good – is all because Luminous Productions has been working with this tech for well over a generation, at this point. The studio’s focus on making the magic parkour feel right – and empowering you with over 100 usable spells – combines to give you a treat for the eyes and the, erm, fingers. Forspoken is unencumbered by last-gen constraints, and the result is a title that looks really, really great and plays like nectar in your hands. No worse than what you’ve endured in Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3, or Tales from the Borderlands, Battleborn, Tiny Tina’s… you get the picture.Īnd then there’s how it looks – this is a PS5 and PC-only game, and it shows. In context, it’s actually – whisper it – quite charming. It also chats shit, constantly, but the incessant banter really isn’t as bad as you’ve been led to believe from all the memes and dodgy trailers. A sentient cuff has bound itself to you, and acts as your mentor-cum-friend in these strange new worlds. It’s Wizard of Oz via all the JRPG tropes you’d expect from the studio that made Final Fantasy 15. We should all give Forspoken a(nother) chance.īut what if I told you that, actually, it’s not that bad? That – when you get your hands on it – it actually feels OK to play? Playing as Frey, the young black woman spirited away from New York and dumped in the land of Athia, you are tasked with helping the people of a dying land in order to get back home.

Soul shatter