Initially, the story was amazing. It beautifully intertwined the present of New York City with the fantastical world of Athia. It had a nice twist, great lore, and was generally something special and relatively original. The graphics were decent, neither something impressive nor something ugly. The gameplay was very enjoyable, especially as you acquired skills and unlocked abilities and spells. The combat was quite good, which you could adjust based on difficulty, deciding how much you wanted to be challenged, from having only 10 hits for bosses to dodging for half an hour. There weren't crazy strategies except for "which spell is weak against another spell," but still, it kept you engaged enough. The interaction between the two main "characters" was AMAZING, with dialogues that covered everything, had coherence, and left nothing to fall flat in real-time gameplay (even after finishing the game, if you continued to play), something I found very impressive. Its length was quite substantial, with plenty of things to do. Also, Frey was a very interesting character, who played her role perfectly, and overall the dialogues were very well executed. In my opinion, it's definitely worth it, comfortably.

At 19.60 that I bought it, it was worth it for me. Overall, the game received excessive hate because it became the sacrifice of content creators for clicks and views. The criticism it received for mediocre storytelling and some bad dialogues was valid, but it was stretched, and some of the clips used to show how bad the protagonist is were completely out of context. In reality, most people her age would react in a similar way if they had her experiences. Also, it's a complete lie that she is a b**** and only cares about herself. We see her perfectly willing to help others and take action when it makes sense in the story. We have seen male characters be much more a**hole to others in games and no one says anything (a characteristic and very recent example is the protagonist of Evil West). When it comes to a female protagonist, suddenly we scrutinize her. Anyway...

The battles and magic parkour are decent elements. but the truth is that they are not anything special. Visually, the spells are very impressive, but unfortunately the support spells (which are supposed to be a key element of strategy in battle) end up just being spammed when there are many enemies on the screen. The battle is not completely braindead, but you do end up spamming a bit.

In general, I enjoyed the game, but definitely not worth the initial price of 80 euros. For me, Square Enix made 2 major mistakes with this game that led to its downfall. 1) terrible marketing 2) unacceptable initial price. However, around 20 euros now, if you are looking for something light and relatively easy to pass the time, go for it.

EDIT: I also want to note that the version I played ran almost flawlessly at 60 fps in Performance Mode. Only 1 short area had noticeable FPS drops. Unfortunately, the graphics are somewhat mediocre for current gen exclusive.

EDIT: I also got the DLC on sale for 5 euros. It's better than the base game! Better pace, better dialogues, minimal and clever humor, 3 incredibly high-quality cutscenes, and slightly improved combat. 4 hours long. I was a bit sad because it ends nicely (with a cliffhanger, but a nice cliffhanger) but we probably won't see a sequel...

Personally, I consider Forspoken to be the most underrated and hidden gem game of the new generation, and I believe it has the potential to become a cult classic over the years. It's a great injustice that it received so much hate. No matter how many words I write, they won't be enough to describe my unique experience with Forspoken. It's truly a shame that in today's world, people don't play games on their own and prefer to blindly follow what critics and some YouTubers say.

Imagine one of the main reasons it was criticized... People got angry about the character of the protagonist... Because she swears a lot... What hypocrisy, my god... Guys, I can say that if you see her backstory and what she went through in life... All of her reactions in the game are incredibly realistic. It fits perfectly... That's how anyone would react if they suddenly found themselves in a place like Athia. I can say that it has some of the best-developed, realistic characters and how they evolve and change as the story progresses.

For those of you who tried the demo, I want to tell you that the game is completely different from day to night. Excellent technical aspect, a truly next-gen game, especially with the latest patches that improved the frame rate. It doesn't have technical issues on the PS5, only on PC from what I've researched. And its strongest aspect is the gameplay with spells and parkour.

And to give you some tips... You need to have enough patience... In the beginning, the first 2 hours pass somewhat slowly... There are many cutscenes. You need to dedicate time to learn the abilities and magic. But once it clicks and you absorb it... You'll feel like a god. If you choose it, you won't regret it.

All the excessive complaints about this game are likely from Fortnite and Call of Duty players who have never played a genuine RPG, let alone a Square Enix game. The pace is almost the same as any other RPG under Square Enix, known for creating unique stories and gaming experiences (Final Fantasy, Nier, Kingdom Hearts, etc.) If you are a genuine fan of any of these games, you will enjoy Forspoken as it doesn't deviate much from their usual formula.

Pros:

- Unique and captivating story loosely based on Alice in Wonderland

- Absolutely impressive visual design for characters, environments, landscapes, architecture, equipment, etc.

- Truly enjoyable game mechanics, including spell combos and traversing

Cons:

- The writing/voice acting can sometimes be somewhat strange and cliché, but this is not uncommon for other Square Enix games.

- The default sound mix is the worst I've heard in a last-gen console game so far, but it can be adjusted in the sound settings to fit your preferences. (These settings helped me a lot in my opinion - Music Volume: 50%, Sound Effect Volume: 90%, Voice Volume: 90%)

- The default Cuff and Frey interactions are very annoying, but they can be modified in the settings to "low" or "minimum" where either they will hardly speak or not speak at all until a cutscene.

Overall, Forspoken is your typical quirky and peculiar Square Enix game, and if you enjoy any of their other games, you will thoroughly enjoy Forspoken.

After 30 hours of gameplay (to be exact, 29 hours and 40 minutes), I can say that it is one of the best video games I have ever played. It has a very interesting story with intense emotions, great battles, a large map with 4 completely different realms, rich in beautiful landscapes and features that make you feel like each realm is a completely different world with many points of interest to explore! There are various types of monsters, field bosses, and even storms that bring along creatures called nightmares and in some cases even bosses of this kind! As for the combat, it is flawless, comfortable, and fast, making you want more. I have not found the same enjoyment anywhere else as I do every time I use one of Frey's ultimate abilities, it is truly unique! Regarding the equipment, I like that you can wear whatever you want and upgrade it to the ultimate level! And if you are a cat lover, this is your game because you can collect many familiars, which are magical cats that will wait for you at the refuge shelters, and you end up with about a dozen cats as company!

The negatives... oh well, nothing is perfect! Besides some cringe-worthy lines and the protagonist becoming somewhat annoying at certain points in the story, we also had the "badly optimized" situation... which I hope will be fixed soon!

Honestly, I highly recommend buying it and experiencing this unique adventure!