The Magic Parkour traversal mechanic across the world of Athia inForspokenmight be a flashy way to quickly scale mountains, but it doesn’t exactly match the vibe of parkour as the name might suggest. This diversion from how parkour is more commonly described is mostly a product of the design of howForspoken’s open worldhas been designed around wide-open landscapes as opposed to tightly packed cities.
In addition to the design philosophy of the world of Athia,Forspokenalso falls just short of hitting true parkour with some of the fantastical ways that Frey flips around while traversing. As a result, those looking for the parkour as made popular by franchises likeAssassin’s Creedmight not get exactly what they are looking for.
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Forspoken’s Lack of Dense Architecture
While both the city of New York andCipal can be found inForspoken, neither one gives players the option to take Frey’s Magic Parkour for a spin in these densely populated locales. Instead, most of the game takes place across the four realms of Athia, which are mostly comprised of large open plains, deep canyons, and jagged mountain ranges that have been warped by the Break. While these locales are beautiful and filled with things to do, none are really reminiscent of the tightly packed buildings and architecture that lends itself to be climbed over and around.
Theopening segments ofForspokeneven show off some of Frey’s own skills at parkour without magic, which makes the way that the mechanic is later implemented all the more disappointing in comparison. This is because while in New York, Frey has to escape some characters for story reasons, and she manages to get away by climbing over fences and shimmying across a fire escape. It’s exactly the type of architecture that lends itself perfectly to the sport of parkour that focuses on taking the fastest, straightest route between two points.
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Frey’s Magic Parkour in Practice
Beyond the literal architecture of Athia and its open fields,Forspoken’s Magic Parkouralso appears to have been built around quick, horizontal movement over the climbing and jumping that is most commonly associated with parkour. This means that ordinary traversal is lightning fast, but gaining any kind of height is somewhat of an ordeal in comparison. While some spells gained after defeating some of the Tanta bosses can make vertical traversal quicker and easier, they do little to actually speed the basic time it takes for Frey to grab and jump over a ledge.
This lack of vertical speed comes mostly from the way that Frey treats any type of ledge or rock that she encounters while Magic Parkour is active. Specifically, this is in relation to the way that she tends to do very flashy, acrobatic flips in order to climb over any type of elevation, rather than simply grabbing the ledge and pushing forward. So any rock or cliff scattered acrossAthia throughoutForspokenisn’t a simple obstacle for Frey to quickly climb over, but a massive stop in momentum as the character stops to dance around the structure before finally moving on.
All of these flips and high-flying acrobatics become even more encumbering when in combat, rather than when simply running across Athia. Especially during certainboss fights inForspoken, the lack of moment over even minor obstacles means that Frey will suddenly transition from actually dodging and evading enemy attacks to doing some epic looking backflip that leaves her open for damage. The result can be some unintentional damage or deaths from attacks that would otherwise be easy to dodge if it wasn’t for Frey’s habit of completely stopping her forward momentum for a few seconds.
Forspokenis available now for PC and PS5.
