She finds new confidence in Athia, but still lives a solitary life.

She lives in poverty in New York City, and the day she finally saved enough money to move and make a better life, her home gets burned down by a gang. Then we layer on Frey’s story, which is also very sad! She’s an orphan abandoned by her parents at birth. Forspoken also relies on a photorealistic graphics style that, despite some of the vibrant magic in the combat, isn’t all that colorful - even its flowers look a little sad and colorless.

There isn’t actually a plague, but there are dark and stormy clouds that envelop entire towns and kill all the living things within. This mainly stems from the “bubonic plague vibe” it has going. Luminous Productions imbues Athia with a sort of pervasive sadness. Luminous Productions and Square Enix’s new game strikes a distinctively serious tone that makes it difficult to persevere throughout the long journey. However, despite its initial promise, much of Frey’s time in Athia unfolds without much whimsy or the requisite amount of levity. The game seems to scream: This is a JRPG! This is an isekai! There might be some glorious anime bullshit in here! Even smaller details, like the stone landmark, reminded me of Xenoblade Chronicles’ Gaur Plain. Then, after narrowly avoiding danger, we get a dramatic bird’s-eye view of the landscape, dominated by a massive stone landmark arching up into the sky. She gets an annoyingly chatty companion named Cuff, who is literally a talking gold bracelet. She runs and ducks under broken walls in an abandoned castle with a giant dragon in pursuit. From Frey’s very first steps in the medieval fantasy land of Athia, Forspoken’s influences emerge in full force.

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