Square Enix's Forspoken had an exciting initial reveal that, since then, has perhaps been bogged down by lackluster dialogue reveals and delays, but the game does look like pure fun. Forspoken sees main character Frey Holland transported to Athia where she must use her magical powers to survive.
Part of that translates to how Frey traverses the land of Athia, and sometimes, traversal is only part of a game instead of a focus. That's not the case here, as Square Enix reveals new gameplay focused on Forspoken's traversal. Its focus on "magic parkour" looks fun and exciting.
Forspoken's magic parkour gameplay has a solid base that players can expand on with other abilities. Simply by holding down a button, Frey will activate her Flow ability that see her take off, jumping certain obstacles, and flowing across the lands with ease. This does require stamina, but as players advance in Frey's skills, they can expand on this beyond its inherent limitations. Triggering her Rush ability, for example, sees Frey jump forward and restore stamina, while the Shimmy ability allows her to jump from target to target, like rooftop to rooftop, while conserving stamina.
Shimmy won't get Frey to the heights she needs though, not at first, and that's where the Scale ability comes in. This allows Frey to create magic footholds to climp higher into the sky, and if that wasn't enough, Sora sees Frey propel herself even higher in Forspoken. Square Enix describes it as an "extra extra jump." Meanwhile, the Zip ability lets Frey target a specific location to flash forward to, while if she needs to slow a fall, her Float ability lowers her slowly while she takes in her surroundings. The final ability is Glide and sees Frey use all of her abilities, yet over water.
It's implied that some of these abilities, like Glide, are unlocked over the course of Forspoken's story, which makes sense. However Square Enix eases players into this detailed traversal system, it's clear that exploring the world of Athia is a major component of the game and something designed to be fun. Of course, fun traversal alone does not make a game great, but it is a promising component of Forspoken's approach.
Forspoken is set to launch on January 24, 2023, on PC and PS5.
Source: PlayStation Blog