Forspoken is a story-heavy game with the story mostly related to the central quest. But Forspoken isn’t a linear game, and with such a massive open world, we wondered what would happen if you stepped off the golden path. To satisfy our curiosity, we recently sat down with developer Luminous Productions and got our first look at the game’s various side activities and optional objectives you can find. seen on the map. Besides seeing lots of magical parkours in action and noticing lots of crafting materials lying around the realm, the team guided us through crafting in Refuges, raising stats at Ruins, finding ants awaken in the Guild Tower and venture into the Abyss of Corruption.
A quiet place
As the name suggests, the Refuges scattered throughout Athia provide Frey with a space away from the hazy fog and the hostile creatures under its influence. The retreat we saw, Water Garden: Central Refuge, reflects Athia’s current state. Its exterior is plastered with ecclesiastical images of the Middle Ages and Renaissance of our world. This shows that Athia was, at one point, a prosperous culture with a rich artistic tradition. Now, however, those images are fading and shrouded in a terrifying fog. The roof of the building is missing patches and its stone foundation is starting to crumble.
Entering the bunker, the game informs us that the structure is now a fast travel destination as Frey walks towards a cobweb corner with a desk. Players can upgrade their equipment or craft new items here. Crafting options include cooking potions and increasing capacity for potions and ingredients. A helpful note on the desk opposite the desk details the lore of the world, including information about Athia’s once benevolent but now ruined rulers, Tantas. The information is neatly hidden in a menu tab that players can access later if they wish. Perhaps the most intriguing data gleaned from the Refugee manuscripts are the locations of various other shelters in the nearby area, all of which are automatically populated on the player’s map so Frey can risk finding them later. This system seems like a really good way to give players an idea of what to do in the world without requiring them to blindly stumble on Break.
Consciousness is strength
Not far from the hideout, the map shows an unexplored structure called the Lutetia Guild. It may be off of the important road, but the pyramidal map marker proved too tempting to ignore. Flagging it on the map will prompt a floating icon to appear in the world, making it easy for the Guild to locate. The magical parkour system really shines along the way as Frey jumps up and over some stylish steep cliffs.
Forspoken’s transmission really seems like one of its biggest draws, and the open world is the perfect playground to enjoy Frey’s mesmerizing brilliance. According to the game’s co-director Takefumi Terada, the developers put a lot of effort into perfecting the fast-paced and agile movement. This work is evident as we watch Frey traverse the landscape and, within seconds, reach the facade of a majestic stone building. Larger than the Hideout, this multi-story tower holds rows of books, crafting resource scores, and even unexpected enemies.
A group of scholars once fascinated the site’s halls, and by rummaging through their abandoned research, Frey uncovers clues to the lore of her own quest along with many others. Other points of interest to explore. After climbing a few stairs to the top, we found that the descent was even more fun than the ascent. Frey launched from the rooftops, activating a handy, gravity-defying spell to cushion the fall before actually hitting the ground. A good thing, because the devs confirmed there is fall damage in Forspoken, so be careful not to rush off cliffs without the necessary magic!
Carved in stone
During your travels through Athia, you’ll sometimes find lofty memorials that give Frey a chance to increase her stats, called monuments. In the preview, we took a look at the Monument of Strength. Its shape is reminiscent of the Ankh of Egypt, just one of the game’s real-world cultural inspirations. Raio Mitsuno, creative producer of Forspoken, explains that the team was interested in bringing ideas from our world into Athia. According to Mitsuno, this is where the developers come up with the idea for the stat-boosting nail polish. “Just like how ancient Egyptian and Babylonian societies decorated and adorned their fingernails was part of the culture, it is very similar to Athia,” says Mitsuno. Given the game’s unusually expansive female cast, this system raises some concerns, but it’s difficult to say how the game will ultimately execute on the idea.
It’s easy to imagine that the massive monument would have made an impression when it was first erected, but its cracked, worn foundation now only brings back its long-faded grandeur. The elements are chipping away at the cut stones lining the path, and grass is starting to grow through the cracks. A spike, otherworldly aura surrounded the main temple, but Frey dispelled this with an explosion of her own magic, and the damaged shell cracked and slid off.
Reaching out in front of the newly revealed monument, Frey gains an upgrade in her defense. This is a reasonable benefit to get from the Monument of Strength – a memorial connected to Athia’s Tanta Sila, who shares the same characteristics. Other monuments you’ll find around the world will similarly associate with other Tantas, and they’ll likely increase stats related to each ruling woman’s defining trait.
Into The Mist
In an earlier preview event, Luminous Productions introduced players to Break Storms, a type of mist that sweeps across the land, devouring anything in its path. If Frey gets caught up in the phenomenon, she’ll face a ton of extremely difficult enemies, but the team promises the challenge will be worth the reward. We can’t see what will happen at the end of Break Storm, as Frey died in battle. But in our recent sit-down, the developers introduced us to another phenomenon known as Depth of Corruption.
Different areas will have a location dominated by fog. We’ve seen Frey venture into the most infested part of a kingdom, its grasslands quickly giving way to mist. At the densest point, Frey stood in a mist-like landscape. There is a hole in its center and the player is prompted to jump in. On command, Frey appears as if she’s plunged into a deep abyss and at the bottom is a surreal land where enemies provide plenty of challenges.
Along with specific landmarks and dangerous Break locations, Forspoken’s open world offers abandoned villages to explore, geological features to jump over, and treasures to loot. There are even mini dungeons called Seat of Reflections for combat – although we’ll dive deeper into these later this month as we continue to celebrate Forspoken like Our March cover story.
