Forspoken Is Disappointing (Review)

Additional Review Write-Up
-I was given plenty of time to finish the game and prepare a review. It is a shame, however, that the embargo for reviews is so close to launch. People deserve more time to research a game and watch the reviews they want to, don't you think?
-Accessing new spells happens two ways: going to spell shrines in the open world, but mostly by spending mana crystals in the spell menu. Thus, mana crystals are the primary currency for your progression. You'll see me picking lots of blue shiny orbs up in the video – these are mana crystals. They are littered everywhere in the game and the intention was to use them to guide you around the map and to get you off the beaten path as well. I mentioned that Forspoken is kind of like Sonic – in that you can view mana crystals sort of like rings – you want to grab as many as you can. Mana crystals are also given to you when you level up. -Spell acquisition is generous thanks to the plentiful amount of mana crystals in the world, as you get new spells to play with at a good rate
-Crafting itself isn't a huge gameplay feature. It's there, but not something I engaged with very much. Perhaps I missed something, but the crafting list was very small. You don't craft cloaks or nails or anything like that, mostly potions and small upgrade perks.
-Freya levels up with traditional experience points, and gains power as you level up. So, there is a traditional "level system." You can optionally visit shrines around the world that give you permanent boosts to your stats. You'll also find micro dungeons and small challenges that award you in the same way.
-The game features a nail system in which you can paint your nails to increase the power of select magic schools. I did not touch on this in the review, as the nail unlocks are gated by the same micro dungeons and horde enemy challenges you'll find as icons on your map. You select the ones that give you what you want, you equip them, and that's it. It's pretty standard fare.
-The same for upgrades, in which you can find materials in the world and upgrade your cloaks and what not. There's a lot of collecting in the open world, and you'll never need to farm any items so long as you pick everything you see up.
-As a result, I strongly recommend turning on auto-loot in the accessibility menu
-I also didn't mention spell challenges in the video. At any point, you can go into your magic menu and select spells to level up through mini challenges. If you want to upgrade your flame sword spell, you can do a challenge that requires you to kill 50 enemies with the flame sword spell. I engaged with this system quite a bit, cycling in the spells I wanted to boost. It doesn't really add anything to your play experience, in fact it's quite susceptible to cheesing instead. For example, the requirement to level up your fire punch combo in the fire school of magic is to cancel your combo into a dodge 10 times. You can do it naturally, or spam roll 10 times as you hold down the R2 button. You catch my drift. Another neat idea, but again… doesn't add much to the game honestly.
-Enemy variety is very, very low. Typically, your fighting animals or faceless, indistinguishable monsters. I honestly couldn't tell you how many enemies there were, but it feels very low.
-The game has 4 or 5 big zones, and each have a distinct color palette. This isn't a small game, but it's certainly not gigantic. I enjoyed the game size. As I said in my review, the map sucks and the environmental design isn't the best, so overall the world of Athia is somewhat of a let down.
-The game is designed around a potion system. You can craft them in safe houses, and they do not replenish when you rest… only your health does. I found this system unnecessary as you constantly have to craft potions when you run out, even when you fast travel and sleep in your bed. I'd prefer if they would just replenish when you rested to avoid the hassle.
-I can't overstate how bad the first 1-2 hours of this game are. I talk about it immediately in the video, but it must be said again. Square, get with the times man. Things don't need to be so hand-holdy and scripted.
-There's a difference of saying a game is worth $30, and saying a game is worth $30 and I can recommend playing/buying itit. Many people would agree Elden Ring was worth $60. But that doesn't mean they should buy it, because it might not interest them. Even though I say I think Forspoken is worth $25-30 bucks, *I would also recommend buying it at this price point if it seems interesting to you. It's not a bad game by any means, just a bit disappointing considering its potential.

Thanks, let me know if you have any questions.
-TL

Maybe I’m weird but I am about halfway through the game right now but have been exploring and doing a lot of side content But I’m absolutely loving this game. I think it’s great and extremely underrated. Sure it has its problems but the good in my opinion outweighs the bad. I would love to see a sequel where they listen to the players and improve upon the aspects of the game that are lacking but I doubt that with all the bad reviews they will consider making a sequel. But again, I’m absolutely loving this game. I put off getting it for so long because of all the bad reviews and I absolutely regret it.

Sherry Potter but worse.

do t forget the awful graphics up close

If the opening establishes that her life in New York sucks, why does she want to get back there so badly?
Maybe she just misses the internet and indoor plumbing, but that’s shoddy writing either way.

I actually found the combat fun even if it was repeative . It was the awful story and cringe dialogue that makes it unplayable

It's more fun with the dual sense edge. I made the circle on the right back button, and it made the game play more flexible and fun. However, it's still disappointing.

No one should be surprised by this.

Is normal to have these types of failures when they are the very first focused current gen projects. No matter how much more power a system has…you need to domesticate the inner beast first…you need experience…know the beast

people say that old games are ahead of their time but in reality these triple a companies are just lazy and uninspired when it comes to fulfilling the full scope of the game when we all know there is more than enough technology to complete a game at the very least. This isnt a game its a shitty marvel movie for a heros background story lol which is saying something because in my opinion marvels story telling is very generic probably due to how long marvels been around but at least they have an excuse.

This is the first review of this game I found that actually deserves to be called that. Most people reduce their "review" to memeing on the awkward writing.

Welcome to painfully bad writing: the game

so they wanted to write a stroy instead of making a game and failed at that

Poorspoken

Modern games are trash. Hence why so many remakes / remasters.

I am pessimistic of your pessimism.

I tried the demo. I probably lasted an hour and decided this was not for me. Not worth 31gb storage so deleted it. Nor is it with $93 CAD.

thank god I didn't get it day 1

Do not add "very fast load times" as a positive… That will become a super common thing in games till it isn't.