Forspoken Critic Reviews

Forspoken is absolutely fantastic. With all the spells you can unlock, the gear you can upgrade, the fights, the bosses, and a storyline that rivals the best video game stories, this isn't a return to form for SquareEnix, it's a testament that they still got it, and will have it for a very, very long time.

Forspoken is an incredible title. Although the story suffers from being a bit too generic, the gameplay is inventive, magical, and an absolute blast. This is a game I’ll come back to again and again just to move around and exist in the fascinating fantasy world. Forspoken is an exciting leap forward for action games, and I can’t get enough of it.

Forspoken manages to stand out for its fantastic combat system and spectacular exploration in its open world. However, it clearly could have been better in other areas.

Forspoken feels like a breath of fresh air for open-world adventures with its stylish engine, but is held back by pacing and other foibles.

There's a lot to love about Forspoken despite its technical issues. It makes up for that with great traversal, a fantastic DualSense implementation, and solid storytelling. It might not be for everyone, but I enjoyed my time in Athia and will be checking out the story DLC when it launches in the future.

It’s always going to be on my desktop or my PlayStation, and I’m gonna keep going back to it every once in a while because it’s really relaxing to hold down the parkour button and go through this huge world to unlock stuff and find new quests.

Forspoken is an urban-come-high-fantasy open-world, action-adventure game played in the third person. Combining magic and parkour, you take on the role of Frey as she learns to understand her new abilities in a strange world that needs saving from disaster.

Forspoken presents a genuinely human story blended well with combat and a variety of exploration options, setting it up to be PlayStation’s next big franchise.

Forspoken doesn’t do anything new for the open-world genre of games, but it does offer just enough to distinguish itself, mostly thanks to Frey and her magic spells, and a story that’s able to stick the landing. Or to translate this to Whedonspeak, “Yep, she really did just do that!"

Forspoken is a unique game, with a very distinct gameplay, setting and story that compose a very fun and interesting experience. It suffers with its short duration, problemactic camera, lack of variety in side missions and it needs a few adjustments to its gameplay, but its one of the most beautiful games on the PS5 so far and a title that deserves everyone's attention.

You can spend hours completing spell challenges, exploring dungeons, fighting enemies, and activating altars to upgrade your powers. But that fun is often held back by the story. Forspoken's pacing could be better. The game takes you away from what you want to do. We often wanted to explore to our heart's content, but the game forced us to spend minutes that felt like forever in uninteresting storytelling.

Want to explore a beautiful and desolate fantasy world without being stomped into the ground by every enemy you meet? The power fantasy of 'Forspoken' might just be the game for you.

After all is said and done, Forspoken emerges as a solid new IP. It has its fair share of issues, but the longer you spend time in Athia, the more its world draws you in with its intriguing combat and the simple pleasure of freely crossing massive environments with spellbinding abilities. Luminous Productions is definitely onto something with this concept, it just needs a bit more focus and refinement. At the very least, Forspoken proves its worth on its own terms, and demonstrates the potential to someday hang alongside Square Enix’s staple franchises.

Forspoken is a game of ups and downs. The title is much more focused on the story than on the open world component and this is not a bad thing at all. The narrative is enjoyable, but not without flaws, while the open world is very classic in style without particular flashes of originality.

There was a moment in which we really feared for the success of Fospoken, which, due to a not exactly crystal clear communication from the publisher, often ended up making us feel mixed sensations. Confirming the impressions gained on the occasion of previous direct contacts with the product, however, the new creature of Luminous Productions convinces in every respect, without excelling in any field. While the staid pace of the isekai matrix plot is counterbalanced by surprising twists and turns that leave a love flavor, the albeit chaotic combat system and the exorbitant number of optional activities offered by an open world that is anything but empty compensate for a surrender visual not quite state of the art.

Forspoken represented a huge risk taken by newcomer Luminous Productions. While the story may feel a bit contrived at times, the Flow method of traversal and combat more than makes up for it. Frey may annoy some people as the protagonist, but stringing together a chain of magical commands within just a few seconds while deftly avoiding incoming fireballs is rewarding, and ultimately, I came away from Forspoken having enjoyed my time helping the people of Athia.

Forspoken it's not the next gen game that we're waiting for, but it's not as bad as some found in the demo. It has its share of elements to improve, starting with the script, but it makes combat and traverse very fresh and enjoyable, in a world full of things to do, that invites to keep playing even after watching the ending credits.

Forspoken is therefore an experience that takes time to reveal its potential, but which, once the controls have been mastered, offers to discover a pleasant open world thanks to the magical powers of Frey.

Forspoken is a far better and more compelling game than I had feared, but it also doesn’t reach the heights I dreamt of. There is a lot of fun to be had exploring Athia and the main quest keeps things interesting even when you get bored with the open-world checklist. But at the same time I can’t help but be disappointed with how safe Forspoken plays the open world, and I am unlikely to go back to clear out all of those rote points of interest. And I also can’t deny there are some eyebrow-raising moments as to how the writers chose to portray a black woman like Frey, despite personally liking her quite a bit when viewed through the lens of having finished the game. There is a lot of diversity in the cast too, in a way we don’t usually get from big-budget RPGs. I am not sure how many steps forward versus how many steps back Forspoken takes, but there are steps taken forward. In the end, I recommend Forspoken to anyone who loves Final Fantasy XV or Ubisoft-style open worlds and especially anyone who has a thing for character mobility. Yet, the game has a certain charm that I believe makes it worth giving a try to anyone.

Forspoken is an ambitious title that builds both its fluid movement and its battle system around the concept of magic. From comfortable exploration to speedy combat, this unique open world action RPG has plenty of appeal, and its story that depicts the spiritual growth of its young New Yorker protagonist is immersive. That being said, the game does have issues, such as a lack of variety in side quests and a hub area that takes too much time to navigate through.