Forspoken (formerly known as 'Project Athia') has a new trailer with tentative 2022 release for PS5 and PC

First announced and revealed at a PlayStation 5 digital event back in June of 2020, the title formerly just referred to as 'Project Athia' is now officially named 'Forspoken'. Square-Enix describes the new game as a 'thrilling story-led, action-packed adventure' for the PlayStation 5 and PC platforms sometime in 2022.

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The protagonist is Frey Holland (played by Ella Balinska who had starred in 2019's Charlie's Angels), a young woman who presumably hails from the modern world and finds herself unceremoniously thrust into a dangerous fantasy world in a darker take on the popular isekai genre.

Not much else is known about the game besides its vague descriptions of being an action adventure, though it will be an open-world title created with the Luminous Engine and Luminous Productions, the now-separate division that had previously worked on Final Fantasy XV.

 

'Frey', a wolf, a dragon, magic, abilities which appear to be based on tree roots, and so on...
Smells Norse to me!

This is looking pretty good. I have no idea when I'll own the console to be able to play it, but I am intrigued.

 

I'm excited to see what happens with this IP!

 

The "is that a motherfucking dragon?!!" line took me out for a moment (as did her trainers!) but that's simply because there really aren't many instances of straight out isekai premises in games and I'm not used to it in fantasy video game trailers. There's clearly an overabundance of isekai in modern anime, but they're typically of the Sword Art Online formula where any notion of decent ideas are swept away in favour of perpetuating a male harem power fantasy. So I have faith that this new IP will actually do something fresh and different with the concept of portal fantasy especially with a protagonist so unlike your typical Kirito analogues.

I do wish the world of Athia shown so far has visual landmarks. When all you see are forests and craggy desert landscapes without any sign of a distinctive feature in the distance somewhere, the very little of the world they have shown so far looks lifeless and barren outside of the occasional eldritch abomination. The main screenshot I've used looks visually arresting but there's nothing to really look at in the landscape. Even something as pedestrian as a distant tower would be a landmark to make me think, wow, I wonder what this tower is doing all the way out here and what's in it/atop it.

The movement looks really fluid and fast. If they can make traversal a fun core feature of gameplay with the way she moves like someone from the Mistborn novels, that can go a long way to keep at bay the feeling of arduously trying to navigate a barren open world.

 

I had this game pre-ordered the moment it was announced, I'm still not really sure where to place this game. It's a new IP but it takes several ideas from other guys looking purely at the trailer. It gave me a horizon / Infamous first light kinda vibe. I have faith in SE, especially after buying Eidos Interactive square has steered from their typical RPG style games and worked on more action/adventure-based games like Tomb Raider and Hitman, etc.

I also noticed that the main character has a darker skin tone, which 1 for one think is a good thing. (Not meant in a Racist way) but SE main protagonist has almost all been white-skinned characters. honestly how many characters can we name that weren't? Barret, Sazh. that's all the ones I can remember for now at least.

So I think this is also good because this interracial thing keeps flaring up more and more so I think it's good that SE pays attention to this as well.

I hope they make a CE for this game, most of the time SE Doesn't release a CE for new IPs. but seeing the magic kind of moves could make for 1 heck of a figurine/statue. Fingers Crossed.

 

I also noticed that the main character has a darker skin tone, which 1 for one think is a good thing. (Not meant in a Racist way) but SE main protagonist has almost all been white-skinned characters. honestly how many characters can we name that weren't? Barret, Sazh. that's all the ones I can remember for now at least.

So I think this is also good because this interracial thing keeps flaring up more and more so I think it's good that SE pays attention to this as well.

I hadn't given this any thought until reading your post, but you're right. That's quite a nice milestone. The main character is a female POC.
There have been many people hoping for a protagonist like this. There was going to be a very important female POC character called Sol in FFXV's Lunafreya DLC which was cancelled, and many people were disappointed that they would never get to see Sol in action.

It is nice to see Square Enix announcing Frey, and putting her voice actress out there in such a prominent way so early on. The character and concept of the game does seem intriguing.

 

Normally, I'd say "I'd buy because of my loyalty to Square Enix", but nah. I'd buy it because it's a part of the open-world genre. I'm sorry but there is just something magical about being put into a whole new world and being free to explore the living poop out of that world with all your heart's content. There is a reason Skyrim is one of the highest-selling video games ever.

 

I'm not a fan of the camera perspective so far. hopefully, they get that fixed. it looks like an okay game so far, but nothing has gravitated to me yet other than a new IP. but if its a new IP with more of the same themes and genres as before, its going to not win me over.