The most fun I had in Forspoken was when I ignored the story and explored Athia instead. Once it stops focusing so heavily on who New York Frey is and puts more emphasis on Athia Frey, it becomes a much more enjoyable story. The beginning of the game is mired by some rather choice story beats, like making Frey a petty criminal who squats in an abandoned apartment and has some troubling run-ins with a local gang. For what it's worth, though, I enjoyed the latter half of the narrative. Game stories don't necessarily have to have Bioshock or Nier: Automata levels of clever plot twists, but Forspoken too often fails to have fun with its premise. It's a pedestrian premise, one that never goes anywhere particularly exciting. Along with her talking bracelet companion Cuff, she navigates the world of Athia and the Break which threatens to consume the land and everyone in it. It does play into some isekai tropes, with protagonist Frey Holland whisked away from her New York home and plonked into a fantastical world. An open world RPG with superpowers, mystical creatures, and a terrifying world-ending threat. In many ways, it's the exact type of game you've seen countless times across the last 15 years. Yet, Forspoken is let down by its sheer unwillingness to break the mould.

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