*This review is light on spoilers, some gameplay spoilers and hints at character arcs are described, but I avoid any major reveals or developments
**For some reason I can't select the PS5 version, but that's what I played
Summary/TL;DR
I sometimes feel like I have the strongest feelings on games I feel a little ambivalently toward and this game is no exception. This review is super long (this might be my longest review of anything, ever) and I expect few to actually read the whole thing, which is okay, I mostly write these for my own reflection. Nevertheless, I’m including this tl;dr segment here for the basic idea for those interested in the gist or looking for my general impressions to know if they want to read the rest.
My rating is high because on the plus side, I found the game incredibly engaging and I tore through it in a few days, despite it being during my fulltime work week. I wrapped up the Platinum trophy a few days later. This means I had a lot of back-to-back days of very long and dedicated playtime that came very naturally as I had a hard time putting the game down. My ambivalence comes from the fact that I have to note a number of things about the game I’d consider pretty plainly “flaws.” For the most part, these aspects didn’t ruin my playthrough, but I would consider Forspoken far from a “perfect” game. I still give the game 5 stars as my ratings are based on my enjoyment of the game and for this one, given how effortlessly I binged it, it’s an easy win in that regard.
All that said, my strongest feeling about the game is that it has been treated incredibly unfairly online and in reviews. It’s certainly not a game that’s for everyone, but at the bare minimum, it’s an “okay” game. Everyone is of course entitled to their own opinion but anything below a 5 or 6 out of 10 makes no sense to me and I think it warrants higher than that. For me, the areas that shine made Forspoken a real ride. As some context, I played God of War: Ragnarok immediately before Forspoken, beating it the day before Forspoken’s release. While I haven’t played the post-game of that one yet, I did generally like Ragnarok a lot. But comparison is unavoidable given that proximity and my hot take of the day is that I enjoyed Forspoken way more. Considering Ragnarok’s massive acclaim, I thus feel compelled to sing this game’s praises to the best of my ability, even if it’s going to fill your feed with my ranty nonsense.
The Good
My favorite thing about Forspoken by far is the general gameplay in two primary aspects: combat and traversal.
The traversal is the aspect where reviews that claim Forspoken is exceedingly generic and brings nothing new to the table baffle me most. Sure, there’s a lot about the open world aspects that have appeared in all 20 Assassin’s Creeds (or however many there are), but I’ve never played a game with traversal like Forspoken. There is fast travel (with incredibly NO load time on PS5), but otherwise there are no vehicles to get you across the map. You travel using Frey’s own two feet, enhanced by a magic parkour ability you gain early on that is expanded by further abilities later in the game and collected throughout the map. This mechanic is very easy to use, looks cool, and feels awesome. The pulsing of the PS5’s crazy-detailed vibration adds to this. You really feel that you are just zipping across the landscape. There can be some large distances separating points of interest, but unless it’s in a totally different zone, I never felt bothered because it’s simply so much fun to parkour from place to place and the added abilities you get only improve the experience. I certainly won’t claim to have played every game that might show some competition in this area, but as far as traversing the map, Forspoken blows every other game like it I’ve played out of the water.
Combat in this game is also quite fun and hits a lot on what really appealed to me specifically about the game. I really like thematic elemental magic systems when done well and Forspoken really nails this. For one, you have tons of options. For each element, there are 3 primary attack spells with 3 levels of strength, a handful of utility and upgrade abilities, 3 levels of a sort of “ultimate” attack (called “surge” magic) that charges over the course of combat, and 8 (I think) “support” spells that also must be charged but do so much faster than the surge spells. The support spells come in a huge variety from alternate methods of attack, to grabbing items for you, binding enemies in place, turning you invisible, putting up a shield, healing you, etc. I believe even if you don’t count the leveled-up versions of spells, there’s close to 100 different spells in the game. And not only that, but you can switch between them very rapidly and easily. Mixing spells from two elements is a bit more difficult but if you get fast at it, there’s nothing stopping you from doing that. I also recommend turning off the slow-down for navigating the spell selection wheel, it is tricky at first but really keeps things fast-paced and flashy once you get used to it. All enemies have vulnerabilities and weaknesses to different elements that you’ll tend to want to account for, but in general you have an absurd variety to choose from in any given encounter. And like the traversal, the magic generally feels good and looks super cool. The combat really hooked me early on.
As a last point on the combat/magic, the spell upgrade system was deceptively simple but to me really makes the magic system shine. Every spell (and each level of the ones that level up) has a relevant “challenge” you can complete to upgrade it. Note, this is different from the spells that have multiple levels, this is simply a powerup to that spell, making it do more damage or last longer, etc depending on the spell in question. The challenges generally have to do with either simply using the spell or using it in a way it’s designed to be effective, for instance hitting multiple enemies at once with an aoe attack a number of times. While this idea is a somewhat obvious mechanical idea, every spell you upgrade also gives you a permanent +1 to your stat for the element the spell belongs to. This means that not only does the game have incredible variety in spells, but there’s strong incentive to not only purchase and test out every spell, but also to really learn to use them. Doing so will make you more powerful overall, pushing you to get a strong handle on every spell in the game and really feel like you got the most you could out of it while concurrently building a mastery of that element.
The world and story I’m somewhat ambivalent on, but while I’m on the positives I would like to note that the game definitely surprised me in a good way in this regard. Despite some very predictable and cliché aspects, there are some interesting twists, both narratively within the game and within the genre. Far and away my favorite is that while Forspoken is definitely an isekai (story where a character from the real world is transported to a fantasy world and often stuck there), it avoids some of the worst sins I’ve seen in the genre. The biggest one is I can’t stand it when the hero of an isekai gets to the world and almost immediately is like “well, I guess this is just my life now” and accepts it and moves on to whatever plot is going on there. I feel like it defeats the whole purpose of the concept when the character dives in like that with very little of their former life mattering to the story. Forspoken doesn’t do this at all. Frey’s status as an outsider is constantly apparent and relevant. While the townspeople probably accept it a little too easily, I appreciate that she doesn’t suddenly transition to talking like some high fantasy character and even her appearance never loses the sneakers and t-shirt look of the modern world. As well, Frey is constantly caught between being pulled into Athia’s affairs and wanting to go home, rather than simply accepting her role in this world easily. I recall people asking while the game was still in development why the game really needed to be an isekai and why they didn’t just make it about an in-world character. I wondered the same admittedly, but after having played it, it is very essential to the story in a way that’s really refreshing for what in my opinion has become a rather stale genre.
I found the visuals in this game really awesome. The graphics aren’t top of the line for its generation, but I feel definitely look PS5 era and really show the gorgeous landscapes and spell effects in their best light. I really don’t have too much to say about this other than it simply looks quite good. I’ll have some caveats later in counterpoint to this but reviews saying the game is ugly or looks like a PS3 game is something else I just don’t get.
My last major point is likely to be more controversial and that’s that I actually really like Frey as a character. She’s become a real punching bag in all the negative reviews I’ve read, so it may be shocking to read this, but I thought she was a really refreshing character for a number of reasons. For one, she’s not just a plain morally “good” hero who is willing to instantly altruistically throw down her life for mere strangers at the drop of a hat. I’ve seen reviews complain about how “selfish” she is and it’s true, as the game openly lampshades, she sometimes gets caught up in her own misery to neglect that of those around her. But this is a feature, not a bug. For the most part, I found this portrayal rather down to Earth and much more like a ”real” character than we often get. We tend to like heroes who are willing to risk everything to save the day but with an isekai especially, it makes much more sense to have a more flawed protagonist. After all, the concept is essentially “how would any of us react to being thrown into some fantasy world?” I’m sorry, but the average American 21 year-old would not just immediately accept that they are going to dive into life-or-death situations to help a bunch of people in some bizarre new world and just forget about their entire life prior, even if that life was very hard. If they got to that point, the transition would have to take a lot of time and the narrative actually respects that.
In a lot of ways, you could describe Frey as “unlikeable,” though I think that’s a weird term in the context since I really like that she’s “unlikeable.” She can be abrasive and cold to people she’s just met, self-centered, and often pushes back against the role The Plot seems to want to force her down. She’s not ridiculously kind and understanding with strangers and sometimes can be a jerk to friends. She makes mistakes and takes time to grow. Because she is a person. And I really love how the game makes her unapologetically so. That said, she definitely has redeemable qualities too. Often her cold words are clearly playful wisecracks rather than serious vitriol. She also has a fondness (and sixth sense) for cats that’s amusing and endearing. And she clearly comes to care for the people around her, even Cuff (as much as she tries to hide it behind her quips). I also want to give props to the actress for Frey, Ella Balinska. She killed it.
Speaking of Frey being unapologetically herself, it’s also really cool how casual and comfortable the character’s identity is. She is a young Black woman from the streets of New York. Yet her being a woman and her being Black is never at the forefront of the story, I don’t think it’s ever even really stated as a relevant point, because it kind of isn’t, it’s just part of her identity (to be fair, I just mean her race and gender, being a New Yorker is very much part of the story and is often discussed). To be clear, I’d have no problem whatsoever with those things being more of a focus, but it’s also nice to have stories like this where that kind of character is able to just exist and have her own adventures, which has sadly not been a thing in games at large basically ever. I also really like the touches of femininity to the character. Unlike many female protagonists, she isn’t just a woman written exactly like a re-skinned generic male lead and the game builds on her aesthetic with the three primary gear pieces, a cloak, a necklace, and different painted nail patterns. Cloak and necklace, sure Geralt could pull those off, but how many games do you get magically imbued nail painting patterns? As a side note, I thought that was a super cool element. I’ve seen magic tattoos but magic nails is a new one for me and a really nice touch that really fits.
I feel it’s worth noting that inevitably, at least some of Frey’s critics are likely coming from some bad faith places. Don’t get me wrong, there’s totally legitimate reasons not to like her as a character and the things I liked about her definitely won’t work for everyone. But it’s unfortunately unsurprising that it seems like the game first started getting backlash when it was revealed the main character would be a Black woman. And the things I’ve seen people poke fun at, I just don’t think would get anywhere near the amount of flak if Frey had instead been generic white man protagonist #31,478. I’ll admit, I had a laugh at some of the cringey early clips that were released, but within the context of the game and knowing the character and story, they fit so much better to the point they’re generally fine. I have some issues with the dialogue and writing that I go into below, but the general feel of it I think is quite good. While this feels weird to say, it actually clicks a lot better in-game where Frey is able to curse, unlike in the edited trailers. It’s not even really used in an edgy way. But there’s a unique joy in having a character with an condescendingly eloquent high fantasy voice told to “shut the fuck up” etc. Not to mention Frey’s humorous (and relatable) “fuck, shit, fuck” expletives when things go south in combat and the like are great. But I digress. In short, it really feels like Forspoken gets shit for things no one complains about in other games. I genuinely don’t think it’s all simply people being racist or misogynist, probably not even most of it is. But those elements are certainly part of it and internet opinions have a tendency toward pile-on and once the hate train momentum built up for this game, it was stuck on those rails to arrive at where it’s gotten sadly.
The Bad
I have a long list of things I thought were problems with this game. The upside is that I consider the vast majority of them pretty minor. The worst of them are mostly things that just would’ve made the game better. Further, most of this stuff has been expounded upon ad nauseum elsewhere so I don’t feel the need to dwell on it too much. In short though, a lot of these issues I think were a delivery date problem. The game faced significant delays and I have to think it likely wasn’t where the developers hoped it would be at its eventual release. I’m thankful the things they did get done turned out so well—it’s clear they put a lot of work into the magic for instance—but there are aspects that feel unfinished and I think that is the source of most of these problems.
The open world in this game is hit or miss to me. It looks great for sure. There’s a variety of really pretty and intriguing environments throughout Athia. That said, most of the points of interest on the map don’t have much variety. A lot of them are just little things to go click on, or small abandoned villages that might as well be copy/paste with a few monsters to fight to get an reward. There are some great power-ups on the open world, most importantly there are 8 (I think) spells you obtain from magic fountains that are some of the better and more fun spells in the game. Additionally, you get lots of permanent stat boosts from many points of interest. But I left the bulk of them for after the story and near the end it felt very tedious going through the same things over and over with no characters or story to interact with in the open world. It’s always weird wishing a game had less content but I kind of wish the world had simply been a bit smaller if that’s what it took to make things more unique and interesting. Ultimately this didn’t bother me a ton for two reasons: (A) this is a problem to some extent in literally every open world game I’ve ever played, including those with numerous 10/10 critic scores, Elden Ring being the best at avoiding it, though only so much; and (B) I think I would’ve minded this less if I’d done more exploring during the story rather than saving it all for the end, so that was on me. On a related note, there’s only one city inhabited by people. There are story reasons for this, but it’s one reason the open world can feel a little empty and samey with no other cities. Further, that city is probably the blandest area in the game, mostly just white and gray buildings and tents with fairly basic castle structure. After the story I basically never went there if I could avoid it, especially as there isn’t much to do there.
Some of the animation and the mechanics of the story-telling feel half-done or a little janky. For a game that stresses freedom of movement so much, it feels really annoying when certain conversations wouldn’t shift to a cutscene and you still appeared on the same map, but Frey couldn’t move at all. This was especially annoying when these events just happened as you were passing by on your way somewhere. Similarly, at first Frey doesn’t use magic parkour in the city (Cipal) to avoid getting noticed, but this restriction continues the rest of the game even after it becomes well-known early on who she is and that she has magic. Further, more generally, some of the scenes just feel lazily choreographed. Most conversations are just the characters standing and talking to each other with very little action or movement, making scenes fall flat at times. Even when there’s a dedicated cutscene, it’s not much different from conversations where you’re just standing there chatting.
I haven’t said a ton about the story, but while I generally think it’s mostly okay and even pretty good at some points, it does feel cut short, especially near the end. The last two tantas feel like much less of a significant segment of the game than the first two. Tellingly, after getting my third element, I didn’t even have a chance to try it out or level it up before I was thrown into the path of the third tanta so the game could rush toward its conclusion. The major story revelations are also delivered in a scene where you run up to a bunch of silhouettes and listen to them exposit for like 30 minutes. This part especially felt like something they just ran out of time to do in a more interesting manner.
Volumes have already been written trashing the dialogue in this game. While I don’t think conceptually it’s anywhere near as bad as people say, it does often leave much to be desired at times. That is, I think the tone and characterization of the banter and conversations is generally pretty good for Frey and Cuff, but there are a lot of lines in the game that feel like placeholder dialogue with quips that don’t just fall flat, but don’t even make much sense like the following lines that sometimes play after you take damage that Cuff partially blocks for you (I’m paraphrasing a bit by memory, this may not be verbatim):
Cuff: I can be hurt too, you know.
Frey: Let me guess, mentally at least.
Cuff: You know me so well.
Not only is this not particularly funny (though it’s clearly spoken as a joke), it doesn’t even make much sense. I am open to the possibility I’m just stupid and it went over my head, but this isn’t the only such line. Further, lines like this are repeated a lot. I think the game simply needs more lines for variety as even the better lines get old pretty fast but some of them just needed replacing. Most of the story dialogue is functional and a good number of these repeated lines work well, but others definitely caused some eye rolls and I think they could’ve done with more time for re-writing.
Conclusion
Overall, I doubt this game will make popular Game of the Year top 5 lists unless public opinion turns on its head (hey, it’s happened before). But even though I’ll likely play a lot of games this year, I expect this is going to be a highlight for my gaming in 2023. I admit the game won’t be for everyone and I’m not encouraging everyone to go out and buy it, but I definitely feel like there’s a lot that is really fantastic about it and it at least deserves much more of a chance than it’s often being given. I can’t really blame people for not wanting to spend the full price for it, but I do feel like some often kind of silly criticism misses the fact that this game has some crazy good elements that I wish more games would emulate. It’s just a shame those things are being missed or at most mentioned as an aside amidst a rant about an out-of-context couple lines of dialogue.
As a last caveat that should go without saying, even though I’ve implied it a few times throughout: if you really don’t like this game, I get it. I do think a lot of the criticism is really unfair and a subset of it is probably coming from a racist/misogynist place, but as I’ve tried to make clear, despite really enjoying the game, I can see a number of flaws with it and plenty of the things I liked come down to taste. You don’t have to fit into those bad faith camps to dislike the game and I’m in no way claiming everyone who dislikes this game hates women and minorities. I primarily felt the need to reference and respond to the negativity because I hope for a world where we don’t have to pile on so much based on limited experience and parroted complaints. Further, I legitimately found it shocking that people were so passionately down on a game that was such a blast to play for me.
