The last we heard of Forspoken (save for an ad that became an unfortunate meme) was a delay into next year, with the PS5 console exclusive now arriving on 24th January 2023. The game has always looked a little on the rough side whenever we've seen it, but things are shaping up a little better in this latest video, courtesy of IGN.
The 10-minute video gives us a wider view of the action RPG, in which you play as Frey, a regular girl who accidentally winds up in the mysterious realm of Athia. With a talking bracelet fixed to her forearm, she suddenly has access to powerful magic, and will need to use it in order to fight the bad guys, traverse the open world, and get home. Plenty of these attacks and abilities are shown off, and it looks very flashy with large effects popping off everywhere and fast-paced movement through the environment.
Elsewhere, we learn about the peaceful hub named Cipal, where you can trade goods, pick up quests, and pet cats. One sidequest sees Frey journeying to Praenost in search of tools for a smith, who promises to make you some cool equipment. Dotted throughout the world are treasure chests, pools of mana, permanent upgrades, buildings in which you can improve your gear, and more.
Save for all the graphical effects, it's nothing we haven't exactly seen before, but the vision seems to be coming together now. Here's hoping the game is as fun to play as it looks when it arrives in a few months. Are you looking forward to Forspoken? Tell us in the comments section below.
[source ign.com]
Comments 36
"Hey, you're probably wondering what an upstart New Yorker girl like me is doing in a place like this... well, it all started when I was just at home watching the pilot episode of House of the Dragon when SUDDENLY...."
Also, that interaction with an NPC at the two minute mark looks HORRENDOUS.
The traversal looks great and combat looks like it could be good, but everything else still screams tech demo. The NPC interaction @JB_Whiting mentioned is bloody terrible.
This game might live and die by how interesting the world and its quests are, because the map seems really empty outside of the combat encounters.
So I've actually been clamoring for Ubisoft to take their recent AC ARPG formula and graft it onto an original fantasy world. And this looks like it's as close as it gets outside of AC DLC. But GOTDAMM does it look rough at times.
It's like they didn't bother animating certain things or even trying to do any acting in certain scenes/interactions. Woof.
Did Bethesda make the npc interactions? 😂
Still looking forward to this, hopefully the extra time will help polish the game
Oh my god the NPC interactions. Up there with FF7 Remake 1.0
Yeah... Its a no from me dawg
Definitely looks janky, the combat looks fun and at least they explained why the world is so empty. But just one populated town and an empty world could spell mediocrity. It also really doesn't look at all next gen.
I am rooting for this, but I feel Square Enix will muck it up as they pretty much have been for years now.
Those spells just make me want to play Dragon's Dogma again.
The map seems quite empty, kinda reminds me of FF15
I'm so torn on this game. There are things that look really cool but then there are just as many concerning things.
The traversal looks fun but also really junky at the same time. The combat and special effects look great but the enemy A.I. looks dumber than rocks. The world seems like it could be interesting but the dialog and NPC interaction just look and sound awful.
I'm really interested to see how reviews go for this one.
I still think it looks awesome. It takes some pretty bad dialog and characters to really kill a game for me. And this ain't Sunset Overdrive so I think I'm good.
The dialogue in this makes me grateful for how well Square Enix did it in FF7R. The characters in that came across more relatable and not speaking lines that were obviously written.
Gameplay looks like a lot of fun. The the NPC interactions look/sound like they're Tommy Wiseau level fantastic, which will also be a lot of fun. I'm personally really looking forward to this.
It does look much better.but we will see playas.word up son
I’m sure people will find plenty to criticize or nitpick, but I’ll wait for legit reviews. Imperfect NPC animations and iffy dialogue aren’t enough to turn me off from an entire game.
I want to know how it feels to play. If the traversal and combat are solid and the story is passable, I’m still on board.
Originally I was worried that the open world looked a little bit sparse, but I'm also someone who complains that some open world maps are littered with unfun busy work, so maybe this is what I've been looking for.
Breath of the Wild's open world felt perfectly sparse at times, and it very much worked due to the excellent environmental storytelling.
The main issue for this game now is that making fun of the dialogue is trending online, so from here on that's the prism it's going to be viewed through.
But this is a game that will live and die on open world traversal and combat, not dialogue.
I watch lots of videos with no sound on because of my surroundings so watching the video above with no sound the world looked pretty good.
I like what I see ¯\(ツ)/¯
I was more interested in this game before seeing this trailer. I might just pass now.
Spend tens of millions of dollars (maybe hundreds of millions) and years in development. Can't spend 80k on a good marketing manager/director to make sure the game doesn't flop. Wow.
Combat and parkour look dope and maybe fun! But the npcs are so stiff and the cities look so boring and empty...
I am both excited and scared for this game!
In a time where the weird and wonderousness of Elden Ring breaks records and becomes a cultural moment.. this seems.. just naff. Such a safe and bland character to stink up a potentially beautiful world. No chance I'll support this Hollywood drivel. From a Japanese studio too, what a shame.
The traversal and combat look really good to me. Love the particle effects. Frey’s voice acting doesn’t sounds as bland in this one either. The dialogue has gone from atrocious to passable.
As for the negatives — I think the display is too busy. Hopefully it can be customized. There’s these beautiful and dynamic fire, ice, and electricity effects on happening and yet they are all covered up by ugly UI components.
And the animations are stiff and yes —the NPC is so far at the bottom of the uncanny valley I can hear her voice echo. Her face literally doesn’t move except for her mouth. It looks like PS2 level facial animation. I’ve seen puppets that emote better.
NPC interaction is the only issue I have with this
I'm avoiding this video to go into the game fresh, hope it's a good one!
I really hope that the world is more populated than what they've shown in the promo material thus far, otherwise I feel like it'll be a flop unless the story is just insanely good.
Honestly, I love everything about this except the empty worlds - but the empty worlds could be a killer for me.
Without friendly NPCs and dynamic interactions, everything begins to feel like a videogame level instead of a world.
I was excited for this when it was first revealed now not so much. The traversal looks fun but they need to work on her transition animations. I'm guessing her cocky dialogue is to make her "cool" but she ain't no DMC3 Dante. From the comments I agree that they should have hired a better marketing team. Why show the traversal through an empty world for 9 mins and show potential bosses in 1 sec clips. Show me a boss battle damn it that'll really get me excited about this again if it's decent.
I've been incredibly sceptical of this game from the get-go, and honestly this gives me some hope that the gameplay might make up for some of the general jankiness that's so obviously on display (Nothing really seems to fit together - there's a lot that's individually ok or maybe even impressive, but it doesn't mesh well with the stuff it interacts with, which makes the whole much less than the sum of its parts), but I still think nothing short of it turning out to be a gameplay revolution (which it doesn't look like) will make up for voice acting that makes me want to claw my own ears off.
And speaking of voice acting - did they use text to speech for the presenter, or did they really find someone that unable to emote and make the game seem interesting?
I think it looks great. I'll definitely give it a go. Though the first thing I'm going to do is to set the dialogue volume to zero and turn subtitles on.
still a day one buy for me, if you remember the context of the game, its a dying world, no half empty maps seems to fit plus character interaction isn't that important look at ff15 etc
I guess I shouldn't be shocked, but it looks and feels SO MUCH like FF15. Its too lightweight, and too much zipping around for me. I need a slower pace, and a character with more weight to them, preferably.
I had been excited for this one, but now I'm taking a pause and needing to see more.
This looks amazing! We've seen the quality they've put into the facial and body animations in the cutscenes so its a little jarring when you see interactions like the one shown. But, as was the case with HZD and almost every other open world game, it's gonna happen. This has confirmed my pre-order to be honest.
Not a fan of a hub that makes you run forever. Just put everything in a neat little Market for me. Why make me run through an empty city. That being said the spells look great and enemy variety is there. Ill buy on a sale or psplus it at some point.
Games like this I just ignore until reviews come out. Not going to get worked up about a game that looks destined for 6's and 7's
I was looking forward to this but this video makes the game look incredibly generic. Fighting deer and crocodiles? That's the best they could do? My expectations just got considerably lowered.
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