Forspoken is one of the most intriguing games of 2022 – it’s not often that Square Enix releases a new AAA RPG franchise – but we still haven’t seen much of it in action. Although slickly edited trailers (such as the one shown at The Game Awards) appear to be promising, do they accurately depict the game? Square Enix has released around 5 minutes of uncut Forspoken gameplay as part of a new round of reviews, and it’s sure to get fans talking.
Frey, the main character, walks through a town before gliding into a dry, bleak terrain. She eventually gets into a fight with a big bunch of what look to be bandits who use a variety of mind-blowing magical attacks.
Forspoken’s combat is intriguing, and its “magical parkour” mobility appears to be enjoyable and fluid, but the game still appears to be a touch raw around the edges. If you’re expecting Forspoken to have the same level of extravagant polish as, say, a Final Fantasy, you might be disappointed.
Check out the footage for yourself, below.
Of course, 4 to 12 minutes of gameplay isn’t quite enough to show off everything Forspoken has to offer. For example, the “Break storm,” which sends more frightening monsters to battle regularly, is absent from this version of the game. We also don’t see Forspoken’s magic system’s full potential, which director Takefumi Terada claims is at the heart of everything you do in the game…
The whole game is based around this core pillar of having magic at the center of everything, and certainly in the battle system that is very much the case. When we sat down to develop the magic system and work out what kinds of spells you have, we thought about making sure that you’ve got all these different functions covered. The idea is that there are, for example, long-range magical attacks, close-range magical attacks, and spells which you can close the distance with and [use] outside of battle as well. […] What we paid a lot of attention to in the initial design phase when we’re planning out the magic system, and how that works in battle, was to allow different people to use the playstyle that they want to use.
Forspoken launches on PC and PS5 on May 24, 2022.
