What is... Forspoken?

By: Bryce L. Jackson

At Sony’s “PlayStation Experience”, they released an extended story trailer for “Forspoken” a new IP from the development team behind Final Fantasy XV, Luminous Productions. This game was first revealed as “Project Athia” during the Future of Gaming and PS5 Console reveal in June 2020, followed by a short teaser at Square Enix Presents in March. Now, we finally got a full-length Story Introduction trailer. And what was shown was incredible. So for the uninitiated or curious, What is Forspoken?

Source: PlayStation

Forspoken is described as an action-adventure game set in a vast fantasy world, of which Square Enix has a bonafide pedigree. The lead character, Frey, is a 21-year-old girl from New York City, having a rough time figuring out what she wants in life. At the beginning of the trailer, she’s bullied and dreams of a life outside of the concrete jungle. She is suddenly transported to Athia, a world with a more medieval look, very different from her own. She’s suddenly gifted with an elaborate golden cuff that gives her powers and enhanced movement abilities.

Source: PlayStation

The foundation of the story is pretty typical of the genre, “Character is a fish out of water, but is this world’s only hope to defeat the big bad.” What’s exciting about this story are the people in charge of writing it. Legendary writer and game director Amy Hennig of the Uncharted series and Gary Whitta from Rouge One: A Star War Story are leading the way on the writing team. The aforementioned big bad is “Tanta Sila”, being played by Janina Gavankar whose previous work includes playing Iden Versio from the Star Wars: Battlefront II campaign, Blindspotting, and True Blood.

“Forspoken” is currently set for an Early 2022 release date. If it holds there, it joins a stacked roster of games that will release around that time.