We’ve been hearing about Forspoken for months and marveling at the magic action that will be the main form of combat in the game. From the trailers and clips we’ve seen so far, it’s been clear that the main character’s magic is weaponized with plenty of flashy spells and menus. Plus, she has magic-imbued parkour to travel in style across the magical realm of Athia, where she is now trapped. However, we didn’t know how the moment-to-moment gameplay of spellcasting in battle would work until now.
The senior specialist of content communications at SIE, Gillen McAllister, published a post on PlayStation’s blog detailing her experience playing a demo of Forspoken. She played a demo version of the upcoming action-adventure game that plopped her in a valley with five objectives to choose from. Each objective is a mission-based tour of the main character’s magic abilities. So don’t worry. You don’t have to leap into the adventure while figuring out the controls.
The tutorial walks you from skirmish to skirmish to gradually build your skills. In McAllister’s experience, the demo started with a couple of slow-moving humanoids and then ended in an epic battle against a larger, faster, more aggressive opponent that looked like an enormous alligator with gold-finned bunny ears. The ears were kind of funny until it scurried towards Frey, the main character, snapping its giant jaws. No, thank you. You can see that altercation below.
McAllister described the magic as being divided into sets with each set having two strands. There are multiple Support types as one strand and three Attack types as the other. For example, she uses a fire set against the opponent above, and the fire set will have both Support and Attack options. Based on the previous trailers, we already knew that Frey had a large catalog of spells to choose from, but how practical is that menu in a fight? Take the snappy bunny-gator for example. How do players flip between spells when that thing comes at them?
Though toggling between spells frequently will be required based on your enemies, it seems like there will be a steep learning curve in the beginning. You’ll be working with multiple settings and buttons at once with L2 and R2 triggering different menu types. Luckily, it does look like attackers are slowed down while you switch spells, but you’ll still have to know what spell to use when, and where to find it quickly. Plus, each spell has a cool-down period and may only work on certain types of opponents.
Another way to understand your opponent in order to pick a spell is to use your Cuff, the talking bracelet the developers are really proud of, to do a “scan.” The scan works kind of like a Pokedex. You will get a deep dive walkthrough of how that opponent fairs against a variety of spells, so you can plan your strategy before you start the altercation. This will help with the menu navigating mid-battle.
Once you get the hang of it, the game really does look lovely and fun. Flinging magic at aggressive monsters while your tattered cape flutters behind you is a childhood dream come true. Join Frey, a teenage New Yorker who is suddenly transported to the magical realm of Athia, as she uses her newfound magic to save the world. You can play Forspoken on January 24, 2023, on PlayStation 5 and PC.
