![]() ![]() For reference, the main story took me around 20 hours with copious amounts of sidequesting and other activities, so that last 5 hours is entirely just me exploring the world and completing challenges. Athia is massive and 25 hours in, I’m still finding more and more things to do. Each section of the story sees you parkouring off to a Tanta’s castle to face her, but that still leaves most of the map untouched. Athia is technically split into four different regions, each ruled by a Tanta, with the city of Cipal (humanity’s last bastion) at its center. That world is Forspoken’s main draw, the beauty of it showing what a current gen console can do, both with the massive amount of things to do, and the joy of simply moving through it. (Also, mark my words, Cuff will be the next Tumblr sexy man.) You may be cringe, but you could also be free! Still, without spoiling anything, it’s a decent tale that at least serves to take you to a few places in this gorgeous world. Personally, I would have preferred they lean into what the game is harder. Maybe they saw people say the pre-release material was cringe or annoying and scrambled to change things. It makes me question if they knew they had no black writers and decided to play it safe instead of, you know, hiring some or consulting. There’s some cool ideas buried here along with what would be a neat twist with a bit more foreshadowing, but it’s almost as if the game is afraid of actually going to those places rather than just hinting at them. Similarly, the overall story feels like it’s playing it too safe. There is a nice leitmotif as well as a general theme of choirs, but aside from that it’s generic fantasy stuff. ![]() ![]() It would have been neat to hear a combination of traditional orchestra with more modern synths and beats, like the title screen song, but you sadly don’t hear much out of the ordinary here. There are a few great tracks but nothing that really stands out. In addition, I found the soundtrack to be a bit too minimal. She has some fun interactions with Cuff and other NPCs, and I did end up liking her, but I can see why some will find her insufferable. Her character arc seems to be about learning to trust people or using her anger for good, but neither of those things actually happen, just a few off hand quips referencing those ideas in the final battle. Frey is a reluctant hero, and aside from liking sneakers (she calls them kicks, which as a term for shoes has been around since the 60’s if not earlier, fun fact) and reading, you don’t get much out of her. The biggest issue throughout the game though is that it feels like they just don’t know what to do with her. Identify theft is a scary crime! Capcom warns of phishing emails for Resident Evil Village Parallels and all, but it just feels a little in poor taste considering games rarely have a black protagonist. I can see why they did this, as shortly after landing in Athia, she’s once again in another courtroom. The game starts off with Frey in a courtroom, the judge lamenting that she’s seen Frey in this position far too often. First off, the elephant in the room: Forspoken has a black protagonist and diverse cast, but has a very white team of writers, and you can tell. I’m happy to say that I got what I wanted here, but at the same time I can see that it should have been so much more.Īs such, we’re actually going to start with the bad here, because the good is just so freakin’ good. As a fan of XV (despite its many flaws) and another superhero-ish game called Gravity Rush, I was very excited to get my hands on Forspoken. With magic powers granted to her by Cuff, Frey is the only one who can stop the four Tantas, steal their powers, and find a way home.įorspoken is something of a superhero game, and is the sophomore effort from Luminous Studios – an in-house team at Square Enix who previously developed Final Fantasy XV. Athia used to be ruled by four Tantas, kind sorceresses who kept peace and helped the people, but that age has passed and the mad Tantas now spread chaos and a corruption called the Break that turns living things into golden beasts. Putting it on takes her to another world: Athia. Suddenly, she spots a golden cuff in an abandoned shop. Having been abandoned there as a child, it seems as good a place as any to think. Making sure her cat, Homer, is safe and sound, she heads back to where it all started: the Holland Tunnel. Immediately after getting a second chance to turn her life around, the gang burns down the apartment she’s been squatting in. The rock being a New York gang she owes favors to, and the hard place being the judge she finds herself in front of again as a result of those favors. Frey Holland is stuck between a rock and a hard place.
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