So much wasted potential for something that could've been great; Forspoken almost gets it right. The combat is there, it's fun, and it's flashy. It feels like Luminous (RIP) took the complaints against Final Fantasy XV's combat and really fleshed it out. Swapping between elemental styles of magic each having different abilities and effects is fun to play with, and provides something deeper than what was found in XV's combat design.
Forspoken's world is interesting. It has a really unique approach to how the world uses color. The color of the skies and the landscapes almost never match, resulting in an almost alien world. Trees will be scorched with blue crystals. Cliffsides stained with glowing crimson rock and mineral. Enemies adorned with gold fangs or spikes. It all clashes, but in a way that creates a unique world space for Forspoken. I don't know any game released recently that utilizes such rich and saturated colors for their environments, but the way Forspoken uses it is very endearing.
Unfortunately, where Forspoken truly fails is in its main narrative and character writing. I do not like Frey, at all. It's very clear that the story was written by a white person. Those same bemoaned writing tropes and quips found in your big blockbusters are ever-present in Forspoken dialogue and don't really ever go away. Frey as a character is not interesting, plain and simple. She has a small character arc, and that's most of her character development. What we are left with is a snarky and obnoxious lead character that I just cannot get invested in. A big help is playing with Japanese VA, the lips aren't synced but at least the voice acting isn't horrible to accompany the already horrible writing. To make matters somewhat worse, when stripped of its characters - Forspoken is your base standard isekai. There isn't anything particularly unique about it, which is a shame because the world itself holds interesting and deep lore.
In what could have been a great game; Forspoken's combat, world, and art style can only take the game so far until forced to interact with the story.
Forspoken's world is interesting. It has a really unique approach to how the world uses color. The color of the skies and the landscapes almost never match, resulting in an almost alien world. Trees will be scorched with blue crystals. Cliffsides stained with glowing crimson rock and mineral. Enemies adorned with gold fangs or spikes. It all clashes, but in a way that creates a unique world space for Forspoken. I don't know any game released recently that utilizes such rich and saturated colors for their environments, but the way Forspoken uses it is very endearing.
Unfortunately, where Forspoken truly fails is in its main narrative and character writing. I do not like Frey, at all. It's very clear that the story was written by a white person. Those same bemoaned writing tropes and quips found in your big blockbusters are ever-present in Forspoken dialogue and don't really ever go away. Frey as a character is not interesting, plain and simple. She has a small character arc, and that's most of her character development. What we are left with is a snarky and obnoxious lead character that I just cannot get invested in. A big help is playing with Japanese VA, the lips aren't synced but at least the voice acting isn't horrible to accompany the already horrible writing. To make matters somewhat worse, when stripped of its characters - Forspoken is your base standard isekai. There isn't anything particularly unique about it, which is a shame because the world itself holds interesting and deep lore.
In what could have been a great game; Forspoken's combat, world, and art style can only take the game so far until forced to interact with the story.