Board 8 > Forspoken Review Zone

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://opencritic.com/game/13945/forspoken/reviews

I think as everyone probably expected through the various trailers and multiple delays, turns out Forspoken isn't very good! We're at a 68 through 46 reviews on OC and a 65 through 34 reviews on MC. Seems like it has a bad story, an unlikeable main character, bland open world design and unpolished gameplay with combat systems that are never fully realized. There is that demo out there though if you want to try it for yourself before jumping in.

Easy Allies- 8/10
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 Enixs staple franchises.

Game Informer - 7.5/10
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. I sprinted, often literally, through the campaign in about 15 hours, and now I have a large world filled with nooks and crannies I'm eager to run through and explore. The narrative wont linger with me, and I avoided combat in the open world often, but I loved making Frey leap and fly through Athia to discover all its treasure chests and secrets.

Digital Trends - 7/10
I would recommend Forspoken to action and RPG fans, but I wish I could give them one of my save files with total open-world freedom and most of the traversal and combat spells unlocked from the jump. The adventure is at its weakest when it's forcing players to wade through lots of poor narrative content that takes too long to pay off. Its best beats arent paced or delivered well and serve as a weighty vambrace holding back this games true magic: a dazzling open-world game that truly does feel next-gen.

IGN - 6/10
Forspoken is the sort of game youve probably seen before from its stereotypical fish-out-of-water fantasy story to its giant open-world map full of repetitive optional tasks. Its combat is flashy and fun enough to entertain across its comparatively short RPG campaign, with fights that do a good job of pushing you to shake up your use of elemental powers even when the overall variety of enemies isnt particularly impressive. Its parkour system is also satisfying enough, despite the scenery you are running through being about as picturesque as a bowl of rocks with an Instagram filter slapped on. Theres a kind of person that might be enough for, happy to spend hours and hours uncovering every inch of Forspokens needlessly large map after the main story, but that doesnt mean I was able to find much reason to do so once the credits had rolled.

Gamespot - 5/10
Forspoken is a tricky game to recommend. The lore of its world is interesting but delivered in a stilted expository manner, and the freeing sensation of taking off across the landscape in a magically-propelled sprint is sullied by the knowledge that there's nowhere to go or anything fun to do. Combat is visually impressive but not all that engaging, and the excellent sound design and the catchy musical score are regularly undermined by unfunny quips from an unlikable protagonist. I enjoyed parts of it, but too often my fun was dragged to an unrewarding halt.

Dextero - 4/10
While Forspoken delivers a solid action-based combat system and an array of challenging bosses, it fails to create an engaging narrative thanks to the surface-level characters and at times, unbearable dialogue. Not only that, the outdated open world feels like more of a checklist rather than an opportunity for exploration, leaving you yearning for landscapes from other games that are more memorable, and less lifeless. Ultimately, Forspoken lives or dies with its combat, so if you fell in love with it in the demo, it may be worth your time. However, if youre looking for an engaging RPG that immerses you in its world with a strong main narrative and interesting side activities, this is certainly not it.

Hardcore Gamer - 4/10
Where Forspoken shouldve 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. A bevvy of technical inconsistencies, lackluster open world design and most disappointing of all, a handful of systems with genuine enjoyment at times that dont see their potential fully realized.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmLV-BRJjdY

this holds up my theory that all isekai's are bad

Im still hoping I enjoy it when I eventually pick it up because it looked like the most interesting thing Square has done in a long time.

Oh, a bad open world game

I am shocked

Also that review is just filled with cringey vulgar 13 year old dialogue

Was this made by the people who did the crappy strangers in paradise FF game

masterplum posted...

Also that review is just filled with cringey vulgar 13 year old dialogue

Was this made by the people who did the crappy strangers in paradise FF game

its made by the XV boy band peeps

This was made by the FF15 team

and Stranger of Paradise is awesome, 10x better than this game has ever looked

I'll probably buy it on sale at some point but that's disappointing as a big FFXV fan

Stranger of Paradise is so fucking good. What an absolute bop that game was.

Forspoken always looked lame so not a surprising result here.

Disappointing but not surprising

But Forspoken was the one with all good writers on board.

Seeing the story get trashed, I can't help but wonder if the game wouldn't have worked better had it been written by an Isekai writer since they know what kind of power fantasy their audience want.

Will likely still get and maybe the bad reviews will get the discounts to come in faster.

SHINE_GET_64 posted...

this holds up my theory that all isekai's are bad

https://youtu.be/F1Qr8eCCX2E

Square is an absolute mess of a company with a few talented dev teams and has been for several years. FFXIV is keeping them afloat singlehandedly, and after they sold off nearly all of their western assets including bleeding Tomb Raider for a pittance it just seems that theyre waiting to get bought. A proposition that seems worse every year.

having obviously not played the game, I don't know if the criticism of the main character being a reluctant hero or whiny about their predicament is really a negative? I like the angle of an isekai where the person is tossed into a situation they clearly want nothing to do with and merely want to return home. reminds me of how Twelve Kingdoms handled it, with Yoko having a full-on breakdown and it taking several episodes for her to accept her role within the new universe she's in and come to her own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mFQQVFZXxE

I like these kinds of breakdowns.
It's a nice approach.

LightningStrikes posted...

Square is an absolute mess of a company with a few talented dev teams and has been for several years. FFXIV is keeping them afloat singlehandedly, and after they sold off nearly all of their western assets including bleeding Tomb Raider for a pittance it just seems that theyre waiting to get bought. A proposition that seems worse every year.

Square has lots of good stuff going on and there's no indication they're interested in selling. Very much looking forward to new Theatrhythm and Octopath 2 next month. As for Western stuff, Powerwash Simulator has been quite successful for them recently, selling over 3 million copies in 2 months. Plus they have their hands in all sorts of other industries, like manga.

Surskit posted...

having obviously not played the game, I don't know if the criticism of the main character being a reluctant hero or whiny about their predicament is really a negative? I like the angle of an isekai where the person is tossed into a situation they clearly want nothing to do with and merely want to return home. reminds me of how Twelve Kingdoms handled it, with Yoko having a full-on breakdown and it taking several episodes for her to accept her role within the new universe she's in and come to her own.

I think it's less this and moreso the video review showed her whining about everything constantly

Reluctant Hero can be tougher to pull off in a video game format because their attitude is directly at odds with the player. I personally like that contrast, but a lot of people don't.

This is just sounding like shes a female Tidus

swordz9 posted...

This is just sounding like shes a female Tidus

If tidus was cutscene whiny while walomg around the overworld it would be a problem!

Man I was really rooting for this game to be great too. Kinda disappointed it's getting dragged. But I thought this clip was hilarious.

https://twitter.com/BlondeNerd/status/1617625898001526785?t=0gzCdlZQDTTEW53oRInjBg&s=19