Forspoken Reveals More Details About Its Story

Forspoken, the open-world action RPG first announced as Project Athia, is ready to reveal a few more details about the narrative that will drive players to explore the world of Athia through the eyes of protagonist Frey Holland.

Much of the early marketing for Forspoken focused on the game's technical and visual achievements, with the PS5 and PC title being a poster child for both AMD's new FidelityFX Super Resolution tech, and Microsoft's DirectStorage on PC. Now, more is starting to be revealed about the game's story and, more specifically its protagonist Frey Holland.

We already knew that Forspoken's narrative would be leaning into the so-called isekai genre made popular by anime and Japanese games, with its protagonist Frey Holland being an orphan from New York City who finds herself thrust into the strange magical world of Athia. Previous game previews gave us more information about Frey's main companion in Athia, a talking bangle named Cuff who will banter with Frey while she explores the game's dangerous open world.

A new feature from Game Informer has pieced together more details on the narrative, based on a new part of the game that was shown off in a behind-the-scenes demo. The demo included plenty more story content, including an argument between Frey and Cuff in which it was shown that the protagonist is far more interested in finding a way back to her world than in helping the citizens of Athia. During this conversation, Cuff also reveals that he knows something about Frey's mother--even though the character has grown up as an orphan.

Another scene in the demo shows a confrontation between Frey and Tanta Prav, just one of the Tantas who are known as powerful sorceresses and the former rulers of Athia. Frey seeks an audience with Tanta Prav to ask her to help in stopping the apocalyptic Break that is threatening all of Athia. In this scene, Tanta Prav also references a previous encounter Frey had with one of her fellow sorceresses, before entrapping the protagonist in a floating ball of water.

Another Game Informer article focuses more on Frey's character and her journey, coming from a fraught life on the streets of New York where it's implied she has gotten herself in trouble with the law. In New York, Frey's only companion or family is her cat Homer, and as well as being an instant fan favorite from Forspoken's trailers, the game's writers have said that the adorable cat is also important to Frey's character.

Writer Todd Stashwick told Game Informer that Frey's major conflicts include: "A Hell’s Kitchen Gang. The New York legal system. The council of Athia. The evil Tantas. Her own self-doubt. Freaky beasts and a dragon." In general, it seems that Luminous Productions is invested in making Forspoken a heavily character-focused game, exploring what hardships of both mundane and magical natures will do to its protagonist Frey Holland.

Forspoken was recently delayed to October 11, 2022, after originally being intended for a May release. The game will release simultaneously on PS5 and PC, and will be console-exclusive on PS5 for at least two years.