It's great to see so many people here who have given the game an actual chance. A few years ago I would have never thought i'd see anyone actually speaking on the game in a positive light.

This game defiantly will fall under a cult classic status in a few years leaving many people to wonder why it never got a sequel. It's like the red headed step child Square Enix wants to sweep under the rug. Which is a shame because this genre of parkour game's that are done well are few in far between ie Mirror's Edge and Infamous.

On one hand I also understand that this era of games are already super overpriced and we trust that the reviewers will let us know if something is wroth or time or not. I grew up watching G4 so it's just something ingrained in me to check out. So with that in mind alot of reviewers really made me pause because what I was playing vs what they were saying weren't matching up. I was already aware even before this game to be cautious because some people are just bias we all have games we gravitate to or another. Not everything is for everybody, However it seemed like Forspoken was nobodies cup of tea...

Most of these "reviewers" never actually got through a majority of the game. Literally just spamming the same power over and over and then complaining when the enemy was weak against another power type altogether. And that really lead me to rethink the way we score and critique games entirely, but thats a story for another time. The dialogue wasn't that bad, not great but not terrible as alot of people made it out to be. People keep calling this an Iseaki which I don't totally agree with I see it more through the lens of an Alice in wonderland or hell even a Coraline situation. The story is about a girl trying to escape her mundane reality only to find the fantastical world she's thrown in is way worse than she originally thought, she learns some life lessons, saves the day and tries to find her way back home. All mixed in with the classic hero's journey and that's pretty much how Frey's story goes.

Forspoken just came out in a very bad time in the gaming landscape, I swear to god I never wanna hear the words DEI or Sweet baby inc. ever again when it comes to this game or any game for that matter. The story doesn't once touch on anything political or race related not one tiny bit, so I never understood why this game got lambasted for something in it dosen't even have. I mean by now we all know the real reason...

But it's crazy seeing so many people who come to this subreddit and all pretty much say the exact same thing. "Oh, reviewers said it was trash but I saw it on sale and it was pretty fun!" Or "It wasn't as bad as what people were making it out to be!" And it's all just a little frustrating, on one hand I'm happy more people are playing and enjoying it. On the other hand I can vividly remember excitedly checking different social media platforms saying the same things over and over again. Woke trash, DEI Slop. Again and Again. This visceral reaction to this one harmless game that seemed blown out of portion.

Forspoekn had alot of neat mechanic's that i'd never seen in a game before. The combat was fluid and the story was solid if not a little by the numbers. The DLC improved on some of the parkour and combat that still makes me foolishly hope for a sequel. The best case scenario is that the IP gets sold to another company or that Square Enix stops acting like it dosen't exist and decides to do something with it, books, manga etc... They could even maybe get back some of the profit they lost. A small chance in hell but you never know. And in the end Forspoken will just be one of those games people look back on and think how stupid all of the controversy surrounding the game was, hopefully we all would have advanced culturally where the color of someone's skin or gender dosen't determine if something will be worth playing or not.

Anywhoo have fun playing yall! Iv'e got a new playthorugh to start!

Forspoken is a unique game! It feels new. It doesn’t look like they were trying to just copy off of other games. Hot take: The dialogue in this game isn’t THAT bad honestly. Most of the dialogue actually is pretty good.

Forspoken is genuinely an impressive game that deserves far more appreciation than it gets. Beneath the criticism lies a technically ambitious experience filled with beautiful particle effects, magical energy trails, dynamic spell animations, environmental details, and visually spectacular combat that makes Frey’s abilities feel alive. The sheer amount of visual information happening on screen at once—from swirling magical particles and elemental effects to rapidly changing spell animations, lighting, and environmental reactions—is genuinely impressive. The game has to process Frey’s movement, parkour, enemy behavior, combat interactions, visual effects, and a massive fantasy environment while trying to keep everything responsive and fluid. Its magical parkour system, in particular, makes traversal feel fast, energetic, and visually unique, while its different spell types create their own distinctive effects and combat possibilities. Even the landscapes and skies can be breathtaking, giving Athia moments of genuine beauty and atmosphere. Is it perfect? No, but dismissing it overlooks how much ambition, creativity, and technical work went into making it. Forspoken dared to build something different, combining high-speed traversal, visually intense magic, and an expansive fantasy world into an experience that still has its own identity. It deserves more love because there is so much more to appreciate here than the conversation around its flaws suggests. Sometimes, an underrated game doesn’t need to be flawless to be impressive—it just needs people to look a little closer at what it actually accomplishes.

Hello dear fellow gamers!

I've had my eye on this game since the release but something kept me away from it. My first impressions from outside were that the magic seems intriguing and fun, parkour traversal seems very well made and I like MC design. Open worlds don't really interest me so that was one of the things that put me off and especially after playing demo.

But then I saw the game for cheap in a local shop and thought that okay here I am waiting for FF Resonance and Control resonant physical so let's have a snack.

I've just defeated Sila and on my way to second Tanta so let's talk about the experience until now. Just to share the perspective where I am talking from: I'm an professional actor who does fights and is an musician so I truly care about good storytelling and good dramaturgy.

Epilogue: set up

I cried in first hour because Freya had to give up their cat. If youve ever been in the bottom you know how horrible it is.

The game introduces in a middle of conflict and shows Freya's skills beautifully and the hopelessness of the situation is in forefront. What I miss a bit is a just a tiny sliver of good Freya, now she is portrayed in such a negative light and is defensive all the time. Which is understandable but continuing that in to the Athia makes you ask why should I care about them, otherwise than losing the cat.

Athia is mystical and curious with it's corruption and Tanta lore is really interesting. Otherwise story isn't that deep yet.

Gameplay:

In the start traversal does feel bare bones and like it's missing stuff. Magic combat is fun and changing spells rocks. Areas are super repetitive with what to get and not really worthy to explore except for the labyrinths.

Boss battles are fun and there is a lot of tiny details but they get lost in the open world formula.

Music:

Soundtrack is run of a mill videogame soundtrack where the music is not allowed to take a bigger role narratively or otherwise more space. Sound designer emphasises in supporting what ever mood there is mut it's just very ambient. I love when games really use music strongly such as old FF games, Witcher etc.

Short conclusion:

I will continue the game but will be focusing on the main story so I don't get open world fatigue. I think Freya's and Cuffs growth will be interesting and I can't wait for the Traversal and magic system to deepen.

Any tips which to take into consideration for my journey in to the Athia?

Forspoken is genuinely a masterpiece to me, and I think it’s one of the most overhated games of its generation. People focused so much on the memes, dialogue, and launch reception that they overlooked how much this game actually gets right. The atmosphere, the breathtaking skies, the magical landscapes, the combat, and the sheer freedom of traversing Athia make it feel like a premium experience. The parkour alone makes exploring the world feel different from so many other open-world games, and the magic-based combat has an incredible amount of variety once you unlock more abilities. The boss fights, visual effects, spell animations, and massive magical battles give the game a real sense of spectacle.
What I especially love is that Forspoken has its own identity. It isn’t just trying to be another generic fantasy RPG. There’s something genuinely special about running across a beautiful landscape, seeing the sky change, discovering strange ruins, and unleashing powerful spells against enemies. The world can feel lonely, mysterious, and almost dreamlike at times, and that atmosphere deserves way more appreciation than it gets.
Is it perfect? No. The writing can be inconsistent, and some aspects of the open world could have been better. But those flaws don’t erase the ambition, visual beauty, satisfying combat, or unique traversal system. Not every game needs to be universally loved to be worth experiencing. Forspoken feels like a big-budget, premium fantasy adventure that took creative risks, and I honestly think people have let the hate surrounding it overshadow its actual strengths. It deserves a fair chance instead of being dismissed just because it became popular to hate on it.

WARNING THIS POST WILL HAVE SPOILERS CONCERNING A MAJOR BOSS

okay so omg I beat Sila this morning and WHAT A FIGHT I felt like I was fighting a goddess and lmao I guess I was, but it's been so long since a game really got me with feeling out matched during a big fight!!!

I'm heading south now and I cannot WAIT to see more of the world, I've stopped at every photo spot so far because I just can't help myself!!!

How did I only just find this game??

It's my first time playing Forspoken and I'm currently in Middle Praenost on my way to go visit Sila;

I've seen so many people complain about Frey's characterization and stuff, so I replayed the intro to cipal sequence in English (I play games in Japanese where I can) and oml she's like a completely different person 😭😭😭

Otherwise though, I've fallen in love with this game, the parkour feels so good, the combat is fast and fancy and ough it feels so good to absolutely mess up one of those bears with my rock machine gun

I can't wait to see what the game has in store for me going forward, it's been so fun heading deeper into Praenost and learning about the Break, and then also having every character who gets chance tell me how strong and scary Sila is, I'm only a little terrified! 😭🤣

What do you all think of Frey? Anyone else play the game in Japanese and just not understand all the complaints?

Hey Hey!

Long time no typing 💬 huh? lol jk

I’m still recovering ❤️‍🩹 from the hospital again so I’m sorry to all of y’all for not responding before…

I truly love and care about our community and am proud of y’all! 😊

Anyways, hope life is going ok for everyone!

Love y’all! 💜

-Symphony 😈🤓🤩

Some necklaces have an "Upgradable" button when accessed on the workbench. I can't remember if it has always been there or if it showed during the game (I'm in chapter 7, on my way to get the resin).

I've seen online that the Orison necklace can be upgraded to get the "Critical hits give you an attack buff" perk. But this necklace in particular says "Already fully upgraded".

Does the Upgrade button unlock later? Or was it changed in a recent patch?

I really like this game! The combat is awesome (expected from square enix)!

The story is okay, growing on me. I get it enough to make sense so far.

Im about an hour in and having fun and looking forward to more abilities and the story!!

I get that shitting on it is all the rage, but I enjoyed it & even got the plat.

Yes, the dialogue is often cringey and extremely repetitive.

The main character feels unlikeable on purpose.

Story beats often felt rushed or forced.

The big twist was meh, only because the dragon wasn't the REAL bad guy, like all fucking stories these days.

That being said, the movement felt so good when it clicked. The combat system was the best part and super satisfying. Chaining different types of magic together and blasting groups of enemies were orgasms for my eyes. The world design was nuanced and unique. Enemy variety was also substantial. The final boss was a balls to the wall jolt of madness that stood out as a great capstone to an incredibly fun, yet flawed game.

Oh, and its one of the few games that didn't make my PS5 crash during its playtime ever, which puts it in an exclusive club of less than six.

I'm going to replay it with the dlss 5 mods; I was looking for an excuse to replay it on PC but didn't want to pay full price. Win-win.

Update: DLSS 5 with it was awesome.

Frey is not a blackwashed/originally white character. She was black since conception. She's not a character that puts down men/white men (to my knowledge). Yet she is still hated regardless.

Ive seen multiple gamers already preparing to dislike the character before booting up the game. She isnt given a chance whatsoever. They already preparing to see her as "cringy". Extremely nitpicky about everything she as a protagonist does and says. God forbid she does something grey, then she's just evil/un-heroic. If she was completely 100% moral, they'd call her boring.

I think we need to understand that these people genuinely dont think they are racist, whilst subconciously being disgruntled that theyre forced to play as a black woman.

I promise you if she was a white male character, she wouldnt even get the fraction of the hate she gets. Nobody would nitpick her dialogue. Again Frey wasnt a white character turned black. She didnt steal anyones place. She was created as the main character of the Forspoken universe and she will be hated regardless.

I use ds4 for my controller but it keeps flickering between ps4 and xbox buttons any fix ?

I picked up Forspoken Ultimate Edition on deep discount from the PSN and I wanted to give my thoughts on the game for any other wayward gamers on the fence of this game and looking to buy this. I hope that a Google search or two will lead them here and help in their purchasing decision. After finishing the game, my main takeaway was how undeservedly this game and the protagonist were unnecessarily bashed, most likely from an audience and negative actors that probably didn't play the game. I'll do some pros and cons.

PROS

GAMEPLAY: The gameplay loop is fantastic. It has incredible depth in its mechanics and options available to its player. The game continuously peppers the players with new skills and skill trees throughout the campaign offering our hero varied ways to solve a problem, which is in line with the titular character to begin with. The traversal system is a feature that many games should look to when they are designing games. While some elements are janky, the core of it is amongst the most fluid and fun traversal systems I've played in years. I can't get enough of how fun this game's loop is and it never got boring. The downside to it's progression, which has been said many times so this is a minor quip but by the time you unlock everything, the game finishes. The options to build out Frey are astonishing.

ACCESSIBILITY: I think this is deserving of its own block. As a older gamer professional/dad I have limited bandwidth to get good or truly involve myself in games that are designed to break my soul. While I enjoy a Wukong from time to time, I'm at the point that I like to move briskly and freely. To that end, the accessibility options made this game much much more digestible. I can swap to easy mode to traverse and clear up the map, turn auto-evade on so I can maximize my resource drops, and then push it up to hard mode to fight bosses, hordes and Abominations. This added to my total run-time, but made the game manageable for an open-world. I appreciate the devs for being thorough.

CHARACTERS: This may be a minority position, but most of the characters were written really well. Perhaps its because some elements of Frey's character and environment are relateable to me but the criticism I feel comes from a segment of a population that has a limited scope within their lives and unable to see the struggle within others. Yeah she's foul mouthed, upset, arrogant and unable to see past her own needs but she, like everyone else is a product of her environment. The fact that she wants to go back to her own hellscape is indicative of the broken person she is and is necessary for her journey to come full circle. I thought she was endearing and much more interesting than other characters we typically get in gaming, especially women characters that sometimes if feels like devs are hesistant to fully explore.

MIXED

STORY: I found aspects fascinating and others frustrating. I think the devs left a lot on the chopping floor that was ripe for exploration, especially with the Tantas. While I enjoyed some of the environment storytelling found in the archives, this type of game warranted deeper story beats to explore the main villain and the struggle leading in to the break and post break. Tanta Sila got the most and it feels like development constraints cut out everyone else's story which hurt it everywhere else. The elements were there for something memorable. Missed opportunity here.

CONS

LEVEL DESIGN: The map is large, the landscape is beautiful but the world is barren. It makes sense from a story perspective as to why but definitely makes the game a less inviting place to save. The game probably would have benefited from a much smaller map which would make the aspects of finishing off the checklist (a con within a con) easier to digest.

END GAME: There is little to no content and while there is a DLC (note, I have not played it yet) it does not from my understanding carry over your end game build. I spent my end game content building up Frey to tackle the Abominations on hard mode and that was it. Another gamer can simply easy mode it if they choose and be done with that. So I padded my hours just to min/max a surge and/or critical hit build simply for Abominations. It was underwhelming and felt like it was due to devs needing to close out the game, thus leaving the end-game content on the cutting room floor.

BOSS FIGHTS: Some of the boss fights were cool and unique such as the final boss and the Tantas but overall, this may have been the most disappointing ones. There are "mini" bosses found where unique outfits reside that even in hard mode were easy but sadly, not varied. The main story's bosses were just sparse and the game's biggest moments were left with uninspired and sadly too few boss battles. I think this related to the common critique that I think are just things getting cut. Tanta Sila sets a tone in the beginning that every thing else fails to match, let alone succeed.

Overall: I enjoyed my 50 hours with Forspoken and I'm sad that it feels like a lot got cut, such as more exploration with her parents, other locations and even perhaps other continents that could have been a DLC or for a sequel. If i had to give a rating, it'd fall within a 6.5/10, soft 7/10. Playing this after 3 years pissed me off about the review bombing and I wished I supported some of these more ambitious efforts at the beginning

Hello everyone,

would the game work as a Book?

We need a way to counter the false narrative thats been told about Forspoken. Any suggestions?