Forspoken Reviews
Forspoken occasionally has small sparks of greatness, but then quickly douses itself in fear of ever being anything other than an upsettingly safe open-world RPG.
Forspoken promises an intriguing world with a deep magic combat system, but it struggles in presentation and execution.
Forspoken’s flashy combat and parkour can be fun, but they aren’t enough to make its cliche story and barebones open world very interesting to explore.
Forspoken takes it time to get over a wobbly start, but there's something worthwhile here amongst the noise.
Forspoken is a clunky game with awkward dialogue and characterisation, but the gameplay shines bright.
"Barring a few rare setpieces, Forspoken seems to prefer to tell rather than show"
Forspoken's story and combat fail to reach the heights of its movement and exploration, but thankfully those two latter elements make up most of the experience.
Forspoken’s opening hours are by far its worst. It took me 16 hours to complete the game, taking in a fair bit of the side offerings in this open-world action RPG, being careful not to sprint too quickly toward the game’s conclusion, though the temptation was there.
Forspoken is visually stimulating and a musical delight, but boring combat, poor characterization, and loose movement mechanics make for a mediocre experience.
Forspoken deserves better than what shipped on January 24. The strength of its story and protagonist do outpace its many problems, but much like Frey’s early struggles in seeing her own greatness, it’s clouded by unfortunate circumstances.
Its stuttering start belies a combat system that’s worth investing the effort to learn, but takes so long to get up to full speed that it’s already on borrowed time.
Where Forspoken should've been a striking and appealing fresh start for Luminous Productions, the end result sadly is a game not only bland and unpolished, but deprived of a reason to care for its unfolding mystery.
Squeenix's epic-ish isekai game has cool magical combat, but it's far too big for its own good, and that scale leaves it feeling empty and disappointing.
Yes, the gameplay is solid and the visuals can be intriguing. The core narrative also has an interesting premise. But the game’s virtues are overshadowed by horrendous dialogue and an irritating protagonist. It’s a shame since, with better writing and acting, Forspoken could have been an awesome new IP. But as it stands, it’s a huge missed opportunity.
I’ll come back here and rate the game once I’ve finished the last chapter. However, I’m not convinced that it’s going to become any more magical and entertaining than it is now. It’s a shame, because the game starts from a good place: A new fantasy IP with a take-no-prisoners female protagonist. And I can tell that a lot of the people who worked on the game were sincerely trying. But I can also tell that several others very much were not.
There's something here to get stuck into for fans of open world adventures, and Forspoken isn't without its charms, but like Frey herself, it's often its own worst enemy.
Forspoken is packed with flaws — be they outright missteps or simply middling executions — but there are definitely qualities to this game that can deliver an entertaining and sometimes thrilling experience. I did ultimately enjoy my time with it, all told and considered. There’s interesting lore here, and at times the story approaches compelling, but it was held back so much by odd design choices, an often bland world, and uneven pacing in both the story and moment-to-moment dialogue. On paper, it could and should be great, but nothing quite fits together to make a stronger whole. It’s crammed with so much, and beyond the combat and traversal, the whole experience just winds up feeling like something of a relatively enjoyable mess.
An adventure in which the need to conquer the lady and the altruistic obsession to save the world give way to more human interests, more visceral and easier to connect with.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Solid and definitely have an audience. There could be some hard-to-ignore faults, but the experience is fun.