Forspoken knows what it’s about: spellcasting, quips, and magic parkour. Of course, there’s a big world to explore, an exciting story to unravel, and interesting characters to meet, which makes that parkour all the sweeter.
For its vast size gives you much to do and more to explore. Even its hiccups, either technically or story-wise, feel endearing, somehow. Frey might not want to be in Athia, but we all do, and our time in this land might be eerily similar.
9 Fussing With The Graphic Settings
This one goes out to all you PC players. Forspoken’s specs are intense, to say the least. While you might be a tried-and-tested PC gamer, whether your PC will be up to it is a different story.
With that in mind, you’ll likely find yourself fiddling with different graphical settings in the early game. Do you really need “cloud quality” to be so high, anyway? Mix and match the settings, and find what works best for you. Even if your PC can run other graphical powerhouses, it may still struggle with Forspoken, so it may take a while to find your Goldilocks zone.
8 Awkwardly Waiting For Scenes To Load In
Sometimes, you get to an area that is clearly meant to trigger a cutscene or some dialogue, but nothing happens. More often than not, it's in what is meant to be a boss arena. You might, if possible, run around for a little bit (Frey’s agile movements are a blast), or spin the camera aimlessly as you wait. You know there’s something here - yet the world feels so still.
After a beat, the cutscene will begin, and you’ll be off to the races. Honestly, you might be glad for the breather when the gameplay is so hectic. Frey probably is, too - no one wants to face down bears that seem like they could be great friends with Dark Souls’ Gaping Dragon.
7 Parkour!
One thing everyone can agree on about Forspoken: Frey can really move. She’s already an expert on parkour before you step into her cool kicks, and the magic she wields only makes her more adept. It’s a great character detail - especially considering her love of cats.
But, outside of character relevance and traversal, freerunning around is just fun. Even before you get the magic dash mechanic early in the game, Frey is an agile speedster, weaving through obstacles with enviable ease. Forspoken might occasionally fall on its face when it comes to story, but when it comes to parkour, it soars.
6 Spamming The Same Spells
You get a lot of excellent spells in Forspoken that can do all kinds of cool things. As your skill tree fills out, your magical arsenal grows. Yet, you might find yourself relying on the same spells repeatedly. Even when you want to branch out to try some new things, you fall right back onto the basics.
As they say, there’s no use fixing something that isn’t broken. If it works, and you’re comfortable, then it’s the right way to play. Athia is a scary place, full of monsters you wouldn’t want to meet in your darkest daydreams - using the old reliables help you feel in control and ready to rumble.
5 Slowing The Camera Down
This camera is just too fast - and with motion smoothing on, it can feel downright disorienting. Thankfully, Forspoken gives you some options to help make the game as pleasant as possible. And they’re pretty specific options, too - you can manually adjust how fast you want the camera to be on a scale.
Forspoken is already a quick-paced, somewhat chaotic experience. While the speedy camera control is meant to complement that sense of urgency, it can be a little too much. You know that slowing it down just a little will let you properly enjoy all the highs and lows that Athia has to offer.
4 Trying To Climb Everything
Breath of the Wild, this is not. Frey may be an exceptionally accomplished free runner, but unfortunately, she can’t climb everything. Really, you shouldn’t expect her to, yet Forspoken has cursed you with unspeakably extraordinary parkour powers, and you probably feel like they should work on anything and everything.
Who could blame you? Sometimes, you see a rock around Frey’s height, nestled against a stone wall with other building blocks that seem completely, totally manageable, yet Frey jumps listlessly at them. No climbing. You’re there, in the corner, jumping uselessly, thinking, “this time, it’s gonna work.” Sad to say - no, it’s not.
3 Skipping (Some) Dialogue
Regardless of how you feel about the dialogue of Forspoken, there are some points where you want to get back to playing the game rather than listening to the characters work their way through long conversations. When some of the talks are just exposition, it can be easy to jump through them. It’s not like you’re skipping the whole scene - only small fragments.
Thankfully, because of subtitles, it doesn’t mean the information is lost to us. It does feel a little wrong to skip through these performances, because the actors clearly put work into them, but how can you be expected to resist the siren call of magic parkour?
2 Ignoring The Archive
Despite the neat world-building and further fleshing out of characters, it’s entirely too easy to ignore the archive in your journal altogether. Even when the game forces you to open it up and look for a new entry, you probably won’t find yourself perusing for more information.
This isn’t to say the journal isn’t handy at times - all game journals serve valuable functions - but you’re probably itching to get back to running around aimlessly between the long exposition-filled walk-and-talk segments.
1 Let's Play Dress Up
Frey would be the first to tell you she doesn't care all too much about fashion. Still, who can resist a game that lets you pick your fit. While your basic clothing never changes - Frey appreciates a good flannel and cool sneakers - you can choose from different cloaks, necklaces, and nails.
It’s not entirely customizable when you only have three things to mix and match, and everything serves as a buff to your stats, but you still get to mess around with your look. Frey probably won’t mind if you prioritize making her look cool rather than using clothes as only stats boosts, so make the most of it.