![]() ![]() There are just so many enemies in this game that even the fun and fluid battle system begins to get old. Especially in the game's optional objectives scattered around the world, Forspoken likes to throw wave after wave and wave of enemies at you. Boss fights are also quite solid, for the most part, although I feel they too often rely on the "summoning underlings to fight for me" trope.Įven though I felt mostly positive about Forspoken's combat design, I still have a few qualms about the way it's actually implemented into the game. If you take a hit, it really feels like you made a mistake rather than the controls not cooperating. Everything is fast and fluid, and the game is lenient towards dodge capability too, so you always feel like you're in control of your actions and movements. There are numerous approaches to battling foes depending on tastes, and stringing together combos to dish out loads of damage quickly is always satisfying. There is a plentiful variety of abilities ranging from projectile attacks to melee weaponry to buffs and debuffs, and your arsenal gradually expands as you progress through the game. Sure, the movement abilities are fun to control, but there's practically nothing to actually discover in Athia besides more checklist tasks to mark off your completion list.Ĭombat is the game's strongest suit. You either choose to progress the main narrative or complete your task checklist. Forspoken barely even has sidequest-style content either, or any other good reason to really go exploring. There are various tasks dotted around the map, Ubisoft-style, that allow Frey to complete combat challenges for some equipment and stat gains, but it's hard to say it's actually compelling. The world of Athia itself most functionally works as a sort of playground for Frey's abilities, as well as a means to get from narrative point A to point B. I get that it's partially the point that Athia is a wasteland, but it doesn't make exploration any less dull. Considering other recent games that have lively and eventful worlds loaded with things to discover or people & places to distract you, Athia feels empty. The world itself is only a means to get to those progression points, and I begin to wonder if the game needed to be open-world at all. Places in the world barely matter outside of the lone town of Cipal. ![]() Almost every story event and dramatic encounter instead take place in isolated locales like cathedrals, practically divorced from the game-world of Athia. Besides an early game introduction into Athia, practically none of the game's narrative events actually take place anywhere in the world itself. If I had to state it as succinctly as possible, Forspoken's open world feels disparate from its narrative, to the point it almost feels pointless. More crucially, I felt that the game's open-world implementation and narrative flow both stumbled in execution. Actually, I feel like outside of the game's opening hours, Forspoken's dialogue is more-or-less typical of the genre, although I did set the game's banter setting as low as possible. Prior to release, criticism of Forspoken largely boiled down to scrutinizing line reads or some cheesy dialogue, and sure, that's valid, but I think those are far from the game's biggest problems. Not only is Frey seemingly immune to the Break, but she also mysteriously gains magical abilities that allow her to defend herself from Break-corrupted creatures. After a guided and probably-too-lengthy sequence of events that open up the game, Frey sets off to learn more about this Break, as well as the tyrannical Tantas who threaten the livelihoods of citizens still hanging on in this dreadful world. Forspoken doesn't nail it either.įorspoken takes place in the world of Athia, which as of the time of Frey's arrival, is largely a desolate wasteland ravaged by a magical scourge known as "The Break". Final Fantasy XV's take wasn't anything special, so I wasn't confident Luminous Productions could pull it off this time. I don't have any outright inherent distaste for the structure conceptually, but I feel it's tricky to implement an open-world well and easy to fumble. I went into Forspoken mostly optimistic, although I had some hesitation about the open-world design. ![]()
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