Forspoken: great details that look half throttle

After analyzing Forspoken for PC, we have also tested the new Square Enix game for Playstation 5 with a sweet and sour taste: great details, but it looks half-hearted in some aspects.

This is an open-world role-playing game in which we’ll get into the shoes of Frey, a young New Yorker who, without knowing how, ends up trapped in Athia, a medieval-style world full of magic and, of course, great dangers. Thus, we will have to embark on a journey in which we will delve into a world to discover while also learning more about Frey herself. Undoubtedly, a title that has generated a lot of expectation after its announcement but that has left the general public a bit cold. Let’s see why.

As we told you, Frey, a young woman from New York, sees how her life takes a 180 degree turn when she finds herself transferred to Athia. Before that happened, we are shown how Frey tries to get ahead of all the problems that surround her, and they are not few, since she is an orphan who lives almost in destitution and who tries to get money in any way to start a new life. A great lover of cats, Frey is a great lover of the story of Alice in Wonderland, and without a doubt she would love something like this to happen to her. And said and done, after finding a strange abandoned bracelet, when she picks it up, she opens a portal to another dimension to which she is transferred without further explanation. Suddenly she Frey finds herself trapped in Athia with a bracelet tied to her wrist and, in addition, she is able to speak to her and grant her powers.

This is how Frey knows Cep, the name he decides to give him. Thanks to him, our protagonist will be able to perform different magical powers that will serve to defend themselves against the terrible creatures that inhabit Athia. And it is that this world is subjected to a curse that is causing the creatures that inhabit it to mutate and become violent. In addition, Cepo will tell us more about Athia and it will help us to learn more about Frey herself, as well as about Cepo himself, who seems to be a being trapped in the bracelet and who is not in Athia on his own initiative either.

This is how we will discover the territories and people of Athia, a medieval-style world ruled by the Thantas. Although her people distrust Frey at first, little by little she will become the only one capable of healing the world from him. Therefore, we will have to travel throughout the territory and discover clues to achieve our goal, and who knows if we can also return to New York.

Going around Athia may sound like we are going to have to go around from there to here. However, although it is really what we will have to do, it will be quite simple thanks to the so-called magical parkour that Frey will control better and better. So, we can move fast, as well as climbing huge walls very easily. Thus, going from one place to another becomes quite simple since we will also find additional tasks and rewards along the way.

Thanks to these rewards we can upgrade Frey like in any other RPG. We will find capes, pendants as well as nail paint designs. Although it sounds strange, nail painting is a way to enhance the abilities that the Thantas discovered by using blood as paint. These three pieces of equipment will allow us to improve different skills and characteristics of Frey. In addition, we will be able to improve his abilities and obtain more mana to be able to cast more spells throughout the adventure. And of course, we will also find materials with which to manufacture or improve the equipment.

Game and performance, much to review

As for the gameplay, we are facing a game in which basically what we will have to do is move from one place to another and fight. For combat we can also make use of the magical parkour. Thanks to him we will be able to move very quickly around the enemies to avoid them and cast spells where it hurts the most. Although it may seem complicated, it gets the hang of it pretty quickly, and soon we’ll be doing some really spectacular fighting.

And about the spells, We will have two options, those of attack and defense. The attack ones are shot, so we will never seek melee contact with the enemy unless it is to perform a critical attack on him. Meanwhile, the defensive ones will weigh down the enemy or give us certain advantages, although these have a recharge time. Finally we can use a special magical power combining both types of magic and that has an even longer reuse time.

For its part, the variety of enemies it’s not too high, but it is true that there are quite a few final bosses, or zone bosses, with their own combos. And although in general they are not excessively complex, there are some, especially optional ones, that put us to the test.

About the optional missions We can say that there is quite a variety and they are very numerous. Thanks to them we will obtain improvements that will come in handy throughout the adventure. However, these tasks are not too elaborate, seen one of each type, seen all, and they are not going to add significant extra content to the story either.

This level of work in the side missions It can be applied to the entire game, and also to the technical section. We are facing a rather mediocre game on a technical level. While the designs of the main characters and most prominent locations are very attractive, the graphic result is rather weak. Even more so if we look at everything that is not a main element of the game. Thus, the rest of the characters, environments and enemies that are not main have a little worked finish and closer to previous generations. It’s really a shame because it really detracts from the game.

And the same applies to performance. Although we have three performance options, none is completely well carried out. We have a balanced option to play at 4k and at about 30 images per second. On the other hand, the higher quality option with lightning bolts for lighting, an option with improvements that are not visible to the naked eye. Finally the performance option with lower resolution but at 60 images per second. However, in neither case is the performance completely stable and it is noticeable that there are times when the graphics engine falls short.

A separate case is the performance of the game on PC. Although we have played it on Playstation 5, our colleagues who tried it on PC complained about the excessive requirements or even elements of the game that did not work directly.

All this is aggravated when we see that the launch price of the game is in the highest range (80 euros), something that should guarantee a game in good condition, and it is not the case. As will be the thing that the retail channel already offers great discounts, 30% from Amazon that leaves its price at 56 euro.

What we did like was its soundtrack and musical setting. It is appreciated that in a good part of the game a very interesting soundtrack and that give a certain character to the game. We’ve also seen good use of the Dualsense controller via vibration, triggers, and microphone.

Therefore, we can conclude that Forspoken is a game that has been left halfway. The elements that have worked the most are decent, but many others have remained halfway and tarnish the game, both in its narrative and in its technical section. Thus, we have a title that can contribute to lovers of role-playing games of a medieval nature, but that may fall short for the rest of the public.