We’re told throughout Athia has a rich history, but the narrative generally fails to do anything surprising or complex with it. Most of the story involves figuring out what happened to Athia and its Tanta, and how Frey fits into the grand scheme of things. Forespoken wastes no time introducing villains called the Tantas, formerly benevolent rulers who became homicidal tyrants. A talking bracelet transports Frey to Athia and attaches itself to her arm, and she quickly learns the world has been wracked by a magical cataclysm known as The Break. Things improve somewhat once we leave New York. Worse, Forspoken never engages with Frey’s backstory in a meaningful way, dropping her into a mostly generic fantasy yarn rather than exploring how her life in New York shaped her worldview.įorspoken fails to do anything truly interesting with its story setup, but its biggest failing is a complete unwillingness to engage with deeper themes or context. It’s a tone-deaf setup from a writing team that includes industry luminaries like Amy Hennig and Gary Whitta, especially considering critics and audiences have voiced concerns about the portrayal of Frey ever since a developer described the character as having a “hip-hoppy walk” in a now-infamous 2021 interview. Video games like the Persona series have been making clever excuses for how teens wind up alone in the big city for decades, but this isn’t one of them. In the opening hour of the game, she goes to court for grand larceny, is held up at gunpoint, and then gets transported to another world - before getting captured and sent to court again. After a lifetime spent in the foster system, Frey now lives alone in an abandoned apartment with her adorable cat, Homer. Forspoken casts you as a young Black woman named Frey Holland who was abandoned by her parents as a baby on the streets of New York.

Forspoken for apple download