The Forspoken demo: six graphics modes to choose from but what do they do?

Forspoken was one of the most intriguing early demos for the PlayStation 5. Based on a brand-new IP and developed by Luminous Productions – the Square Enix development group that produced Final Fantasy 15 – expectations were high and the early footage definitely impressed. Now, after multiple delays and two and a half years of additional development, Forspoken is finally here, or a demo version of it at least. Ahead of the game’s January 2023 release, Square Enix has released a lengthy playable sample on PS5, allowing players to complete a variety of content in an open-world space. We were interested to see whether the demo lived up to the promise of initial media and also how the six visual modes compare.

First of all, I think it’s worth noting that the Forspoken demo isn’t like most other game demos. This is a pretty substantial taste of the full game, with several hours of content spread across a vast space. Narrative is kept to a minimum, but you get a good sense of how the game actually plays – and I generally liked what I saw. Combat is fast, fluid, and reminiscent of battle sequences in prerendered Final Fantasy media. It’s relatively simple to control, combining basic attacks, a dodge, and a mix of special abilities, but the fighting feels fantastic in motion. It feels a bit like the combat from Final Fantasy 15, but with a greater focus on real-time battle and with a lot more polish.

The action is definitely the visual highlight of this demo as well. There are a lot of great-looking combat animations that flow smoothly into one another with plenty of bespoke animations for common actions like dodges depending on player positioning. Each move is punctuated with an explosion of particles, which feels satisfying, particularly for the screen-filling special attacks. Square Enix has made valiant attempts to emulate the acrobatic combat from their CG movies in other games, but this is the closest effort yet.

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