The world of Forspoken, Athia, is under siege by a phenomenon called the Break. Ahead of the perpetually-delayed release, players have noted the effects of the Break through glimpses of the struggles of the protagonist, Frey Holland, seen in trailers. Frey lives in New York at the start of the game but is magically transported to Athia and finds it corrupted by a strange force known as the Break. The influence of the Break is not limited to humans, spreading to animals and even capable of rearranging landscapes in areas of high concentration, as seen in the case of Avaolet, a former paradise now a shadow of its former glory. Forspoken developer Luminous Productions says the Break turns everything it comes into contact with into a twisted replica of itself.
Perhaps because she doesn't come from Athia, Frey is unaffected by the Break, but she still has to live with its effects in a battle to find her way back home. Since Luminous Productions worked on Final Fantasy 15 before Forspoken, it makes sense that gamers have noted similarities in early glimpses of the game to features seen in Final Fantasy 15. With the interesting concept of the Break, Forspoken could look to a rival title to draw inspiration in the phenomenon's development. The drawn-out mystery surrounding the Derangement seen in Horizon Zero Dawn could serve as a muse for the curse.
History of Horizon's Derangement
The Derangement, like the Break, is an external influence that changes the day-to-day lives of existing tribes, who are unaware of the triggers behind the phenomenon. Humans repopulated the Earth after the extinction event caused by the Faro Plague. To gather more resources, they started hunting harmless machines designed to aid terraforming efforts. Horizon Zero Dawn uses the Derangement as a paradigm shift in the behaviors of machines; without much warning, they change from nonconfrontational creatures into ruthless beasts. The protagonist, Aloy, learns about the Derangement in a run of the Proving.
A rogue signal made these machines sentient and reprogrammed their responses to finally retaliate to human attacks, resulting in the docile machines of old becoming aggressive. Some even evolve, becoming more fearsome, specifically designed with new features to target humans. Aloy encounters several of these enemy machines in her missions across Earth. Rather than finding answers in the base game, however, Aloy would discover the truth behind the phenomenon in The Frozen Wilds DLC, an expansion pack of the original game.
Derangement as a Blueprint for the Break
Forspoken could gain valuable insight using the manner Horizon presented its world-changing phenomenon. As some trailers have shown, in place of Horizon's machines, the Tantas are the terrorizing malevolent matriarchs of Athia. Tanta Sila now oppresses the world she once protected, and Tanta Prav carries out her proud justice, now acting as judge, jury, and executioner instead of upholding Athia's judicial system. The causes of these changes are attributed to the Break, but there is so much left unanswered in all forms of media that have been released so far.
Fans don't know why the Break came to exist in the first place, and likely won't until they help Frey find a solution to it before heading home. However, the reason for the Break's mysterious background could be simple: the Break might not have a solution in Forspoken. Following in the footsteps of Horizon, Luminous Productions could well expand the story in the form of a DLC or even a sequel game. It certainly makes sense to expect this, given the commercial success of Horizon's sequels.
Forspoken is set to launch on January 24, 2023, on PC and PS5.