Once Frey has access to different magics, combat becomes a riot - an enjoyably devastating mix of melee, ranged, and environmental attacks, interchangeable on the fly and punctuated by her trademark acrobatics. As the story progresses, however, Frey will unlock hugely different magical powers, allowing her to blend elemental attacks, sword-play, and good, old, fashioned Kung-Fucking-Fu. It has to be said that, initially, the combat is pretty boring, and the player will be hard-pushed to feel engaged in the early going. But the elements of Luminous’ title that do shine through are frustratingly juxtaposed with a model that feels anachronistic, especially given the powerful, ninth-generation technology at play and the rare “blank canvas” provided by a fresh, new IP. Anyone looking for an open-world checklist, packed out with boxes to tick and checklists to complete, is going to have a suitably great time with Forspoken. To be clear, this isn’t to say that Forspoken’s open-world template is inherently bad.

Perhaps the one true unique activity lies in the finding and befriending of a party of magical feline familiars, that will then visit Frey at refuges dotted throughout Athia.

While Forspoken‘s world is undoubtedly fun to traverse, (thanks wholly to Frey’s magical parkour abilities), the “Riddler Trophy” approach feels out-of-step with the possibilities provided by the title’s story, characters, themes, and combat. This design methodology in itself, hangs over Forspoken as something of an albatross, hampering its very potential by marrying it to an aging format. And now, on the eve of her 21st birthday, she finds herself facing the gavel of a judge once again, taking the fall for the latest in a series of ill-advised car thefts. Abandoned as a newborn beneath the Manhattan tunnel that bears her name, shuffled through a litany of foster homes, and with her teen years soundtracked by a cacophony of howling winds and blaring sirens, Frey rolled the dice at birth and it most assuredly came up snake eyes. We’re grateful to have the half-chance.įor Frey Holland, there has been no half-chance. And while we never really truly know whether we stepped the right way at the litany of crossroads we’ve reached, we hope that our sixth sense at best and blind luck at worse will see us through to our goals. And with each of these choices, we walk on new paths.

Each and every day the luckiest among us are afforded multiple opportunities to go left, right, straight ahead, or staying right where I am, thank you very much.

Forspoken meme