Square’s open-world action game finds its magic in movement

Developer/publisher Square Enix (Luminous Productions)

Format PC, PS5

Origin Japan

Release May 24

Watching Forspoken in action, it’s hard not to shake the impression that you’re looking at a tech demo for thirdperson movement in an open world with a game awkwardly bolted onto it. Perhaps that’s because we’re not too young to recall 2012’s Agni’s Philosophy, a Final Fantasythemed showcase for Square Enix’s Luminous Engine, with which Forspoken shares one or two obvious similarities. And perhaps part of it is down to a curious presentation promising an “in-depth” look that doesn’t really live up to the billing.

Instead, we get a lengthy introduction to protagonist Frey Holland, involving two writers and a performance-capture director – none of whom seems entirely at ease – with no input from Ella Balinska, the actor playing her. In truth, Frey’s “hip-hoppy walk” seems less of a problem than her hackneyed characterisation as an “angry” New Yorker “on the verge of prison” who has “fallen through the cracks of society”. That Gary Whitta and Amy Hennig were both attached and are now no longer part of the project is mildly concerning, too – though we’re told that Whitta’s original idea forms the backbone of the narrative.