Athia was once a peaceful place ruled by four powerful women sorcerers known as the Tantas, but a couple of decades before Frey’s arrival, a magical corruption that twisted the living into monsters spread across the land. On the other side lies Athia, a beautiful yet desolate world. The portal pulls them both through and closes behind them. The birthday presents a local gang wants to give her are not so kind, leading to a series of events that leave Frey at rock bottom, only to find Cuff, a sentient piece of jewelry (or a vambrace as he calls himself), and a portal to another world. Luckily for her, a sympathetic judge lets her off with a warning as a birthday present. She has a problem with authority, and sometimes, it brings her into conflict with the law. Enter twenty-year-old Alfre “Frey” Holland, our protagonist. The chance it could ultimately be a mess makes it all the more enticing to review.įorspoken begins not in the mythical lands of Athia but in a New York City courthouse. A beautiful action RPG with an array of incredibly animated magical spells at my disposal, a diverse cast of characters, and breakneck open-world traversal? Sign me up.

Personally, the appeal has never gone away. And yet, Forspoken’s marketing has struggled to find its footing and driven the online discourse in a surprisingly negative direction. Yes, there is some divisive sentiment, but anyone would expect a successor without XV’s troubled development to generate widespread excitement. There is no denying that Luminous Studios’ Final Fantasy XV was an enormous success for Square Enix.

Forspoken cast