Video Game / Forspoken

She will rise.

Forspoken^note Originally announced under the working title Project Athia is a 2023 Action RPG video game developed by Luminous Productions (Final Fantasy XV) and released by Square Enix. Gary Whitta (Rogue One) and Amy Hennig (Uncharted) devised the original concept but were uninvolved in the final script.

The story focuses on Frey Holland (Ella Balinska), a young New Yorker who finds herself warped from her world to Athia, a world of magic and danger. Armed with a sentient magic bracelet named Cuff, Frey must unlock her own powers in order to challenge the four Tantas, free Athia, and return home, whether she likes it or not.

The game was released on January 24, 2023 on PlayStation 5 and Microsoft Windows.

A story expansion DLC, In Tanta We Trust, has Frey travel 25 years into the past and ally with the pre-corruption Tanta Cinta. It released on May 26, 2023, with those who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition getting early access on May 23.

Trailers: Announcement, Story, Gameplay, Deep Dive: Magic Parkour, Deep Dive: Magic Combat, December 2022 Gameplay Showcase, Cinematic trailer

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Tropes:

• Absent-Minded Professor: Robian Keen was a brilliant researcher, but the Break that's slowly consuming him has left him muddled and forgetful even at his most lucid. 
• After the End: Athia is in a post-apocalyptic state when Frey arrives there, with the entire continent covered by a mutation-inducing miasma she dubs the Break and only one remaining human city left standing amidst the desolation.
• Animal Lover: Frey loves cats, spends an entire sidequest delightedly feeding the local sheep, and her first reaction to the Athian wildlife is to try and pet it.
• Armies Are Evil: Tantas Sila and Prav each control an army of Animated Armor knights that kill anyone that isn't them or their Tanta, whether it be Break creatures or human survivors.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Piercing and Unblockable attacks completely bypass your Defense stat and deal full damage to you; many such attacks, especially those used by bosses, are functionally a HP to 1 attack. This ensures that enemies and bosses can still be a threat to you no matter how much Level Grinding you do.
• Bears Are Bad News: Frey can encounter a few versions of bears warped by the Break; they are among the toughest non-boss enemies, she can face, being able to take and deal substantial damage.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The four Tantas, the once-benevolent rulers of the realm turned wicked tyrants, are the biggest threat Frey must face on her journey. Tanta Sila, the Tanta of Strength, in particular is described as the most formidable of the four and is the one most directly hunting Frey (though she ends up the first Tanta defeated by Frey). Apart from them there is the Break, masterminded by the demon Susurrus.
• Body Horror: The Break manifests in the corrupted as crystal growths that protrude from their bodies in awkward and painful ways. Additionally, many Breakbeasts have visible bones, as a result either of flesh being torn away or the dark magic warping them out of place.
• Boss Remix: The music for the final phase of the Final Boss fight, "Clash of Destinies", features an Ethereal Choir that mixes Frey's theme and Cuff's theme. Which fits as it is Frey and Cuff/Sussurus battling to determine which of them will prevail and fulfill their destiny.
• But Thou Must!: Near the beginning of the game, after gang members set fire to Frey's apartment, you are given a choice between picking up a duffel bag containing Frey's life savings or leaving it to find her cat, Homer. If you attempt to pick up the money, Frey will exclaim that she has to find Homer first and refuse to grab it despite it literally being by her feet at the time. Instead, the player is expected to go find Homer while Frey's bedroom and money are engulfed in flames.
• Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit": The Amphicynodon monster is draconic in appearance, whereas real-life prehistoric Amphicynodons were an early form of bear.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Cuff and Frey keep up their running commentary even in the middle of a boss battle, and there's unique banter for most enemy types. 
• Clingy McGuffin: Frey gets teleported to Athia after touching a magical gold bracelet that the goons she works with were after. Said bracelet, whom she dubs "Cuff", is permanently affixed to her arm, granting her magical powers and guidance on her journey with a fair share of snark. Cuff is apparently indestructible, at least according to himself, so there's no way for Frey to get him off.
• Clock Punk: A fairly understated example, but Olas's lanterns, the devices in the Locked Labyrinths, and Sila's automaton soldiers all operate on an equal mix of magic and mechanical clockwork. There's also the archive entry you can find which appears to be an error log from some kind of ancient device.
• Color-Coded Wizardry: The elemental magic types Frey can acquire are denoted with different colors:
  • Her starting earth-based magic is known as Purple Magic.
  • Red Magic is fire-based.
  • Her water magic is referred to as Blue Magic.
  • Green Magic is lightning-based.
• Combos: The game has combination attacks such as Frey trapping an Altered Quinkana in a sphere of water so that she can destroy it with a blast of lightning while it's trapped, and you get more points from stringing spells together during combat.
• The Corruption: "The Break", a form of corruption that is spreading through the land. It turns humans into savage zombies, mutates animals and landscapes, and has transformed the Tantas into tyrants.
• Crapsaccharine World: Athia is shown as a pretty place; but also full of monsters and cruel rulers.
• Cute Kitten: Roaming cats can act as guides, and Frey herself is a cat lover with a Siamese at home.
• Defeat Equals Friendship: Played with. The very end of the game shows that Cuff/Susurrus is still alive after being defeated and reabsorbed by Frey, seemingly resigned to being her sidekick/magic battery. He'd at least prefer to be called Vambrace. However, the Playable Epilogue shows their relationship is notably more sardonic and bitter than it was before, with Cuff making veiled threats and insulting Frey outright; his "friendship" is the product of him being a prisoner rather than any genuine affection. This carries over into In Tanta We Trust, though he does seem to have calmed down a little while still acknowledging he and Frey are in an Enemy Mine situation at best.
• Diabolus ex Machina: Frey begins Chapter 10 ready to hunt down Tanta Cinta, but she is interrupted when Tanta Olas attacks her instead, prompting Frey to switch targets. Had Olas held off, Frey likely would have discovered the truth about her mother and the Break before Susurrus could get a chance to reassemble himself; instead, she recovers the last vambrace and is caught off guard when the demon within is unleashed, setting the final act into motion.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Frey's starting magic is Purple Magic, which is earth-based and has her firing small stones at enemies and blocking with rock barriers.
• Divinely Appearing Demons: While Susurrus, the demon bound by the First Tanta, is portrayed in the in-universe histories as draconic, his preferred form is a six-winged humanoid with a geometric halo, and he also appears as an Ophanim-like wheel of wings and eyes.
• Dire Beast: Many of the game's enemies are native wildlife that have been mutated by the Break, making them more aggressive and often much larger.
• Dogged Nice Guy: Pilo, a young man who becomes enamored with Frey and takes her on a grand tour of Cipal to show her how much her acts of heroism mean to himself and the people of the city. Frey has mixed feelings about her reputation and tells him several times to quit calling her a hero, but he won't take no for an answer.
• Dragons Are Demonic:
  • When Frey first arrives in Athia, she encounters and is pursued by an enormous black dragon which she ultimately loses a Hopeless Boss Fight against. She manages to escape it, but it shows up to pursue her a couple times later.
  • Cuff also notes that the ancient demon depicted in the lore tablets scattered throughout the world bears a striking similarity to the dragon pursuing them, something Frey has noticed as well. This turns out to be misdirection, as Susurrus's true form is more or less humanoid.
  • One of the Optional Boss monsters in the Locked Labyrinth dungeons is the Amphicynodon, a draconic-esque beast (though with more crocodile-like features compared to the Black Dragon which is more of a classic European dragon). Unlike the Black Dragon, it doesn't seem to be able to fly, and spits a single fireball instead of a sustained flame breath.
• Early Game Hell: The In Tanta We Trust DLC removes all of Frey's powers (due to Frey re-living the memories of the past in the body of another person), starting you off with just a basic magic missile and magic sword ability, and most importantly without your magic parkour to run and dodge attacks. Combat in the first chapter can be quite tough since you lack a dodge move and are pitted against large groups of fast and aggressive soldiers rather than the simpler beasts and zombies which were your starting enemies in the base game. Once you re-gain magic parkour in the second chapter and are able to dodge around the battlefield, combat becomes much more manageable.
• Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Certain enemies are more vulnerable to certain magic types.
• Exposition Fairy: Cuff explains enemies and their weaknesses to Frey, and also gives some background information about Athia during idle conversation while traveling.
• Evil All Along: Cuff turns out to be Susurrus, an ancient demon from Athia's past that wants to destroy the land, whom the four Tantas sealed inside themselves. This eventually drove them insane. Once Frey kills the other three cuffed Tantas, Susurrus is able to reassemble himself and pulls a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on Frey.
• Fallen Hero: All of the Tantas were once beloved benevolent leaders of the people before corruption turned them into deranged tyrants.
• Finishing Move: Frey can finish off stunned enemies with a Killer Blow, in which she stabs them in the chest with a knife formed from magic.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Cuff is very cagey whenever Frey asks him whether killing the Tantas will fix the Break, warning her that it may only stop the spread and so she shouldn't get her hopes up. This is because he is the one causing the Break, and when killing the Tantas releases him, he quickly sets about making it worse.
  • Cuff consistently encourages Frey to go after the Tantas, with his reasoning becoming shakier as her quest goes on. Most notably, when Frey commits herself to making Cinta her third target, he pushes hard for her to go after Olas instead, without much justification; as it turns out, this is because Olas had the last fragment of Susurrus left for Cuff to become whole again, Cuff himself being Cinta's fragment; had Frey gone to Cinta first, she could have revealed who Cuff was and stopped him from returning to his true form.
  • The first boss fight with the dragon ends with it cornering Frey, only to stop and sniff her curiously before grabbing her and carrying her off. As it turns out, the dragon is a transformed Tanta Cinta, who recognizes the cuff that Frey is wearing and realizes that this must be her daughter.
• Friendly Zombie: Hidden in an out-of-the-way region of the game world is the Curiousity Shop, a magic item store. The shopkeeper has, like every other human caught out in the Break, been transformed into a Breakzombie, but somehow has retained his human intelligence and personality (most likely as an effect of one of the magical items in his store). You can trade old coins with him for magic items, but the cost is very high so this is mostly only useful for completionists who are thoroughly looting the entire game world.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Frey uses quite a few of her spells in cutscenes, such as tangling a would-be attacker in vines, and these effects are usually applied when the cutscene ends.
• A Glitch in the Matrix: When Frey ends up in the illusory New York City, she starts to notice visual distortions of posters trying to remind her of the real world and make her question her reality, implied to be from Cuff.
• Great Offscreen War: Much of Athia's lore and politics are informed by their long-running conflict with Rheddah, a neighboring kingdom, which culminated in a massive invasion that took place a few decades before the story starts.
• Greater-Scope Paragon: The Locked Labyrinths reveal that there was a person who defeated and sealed away Susurrus, being known as the First Tanta as a result.
• Greater-Scope Villain: The In Tanta We Trust DLC reveals that the Rheddah didn't create Susurrus, instead he came from "a more terrifying power", making whatever it is directly responsible for the events of the base game and the DLC, as the invading force of the Rheddah and the Gloaming ritual were all meant to bring back Susurrus so he can destroy Athia.
• Green Thumb: Purple magic includes control over plant life, which Frey uses for some of her spells in the Magic Combat trailer.
• Hate Plague: The Break (or, as the Athians call it, the Corruption) doesn't just mutate living beings' bodies - it also strips away every part of their minds except their appetite for violence and destruction. This is not a coincidence - it's a magical military bioweapon created and controlled by a literal demon, and tearing the country apart is its entire purpose.
• The Homeward Journey: Frey's main motivation is simply to get back home after she was mysteriously transported to Athia from New York.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: The Dragon at the start of the game can't be beaten. Once you deplete a certain amount of HP, the fight just ends in the exact same way as it would if you ran out of HP normally.
• The Immune: Frey is somehow immune to the Break's influence. Being bonded to the creature that caused it might have something to do with that. Cuff theorizes that her being half-Tanta might account for her physical resistance, but that there could very well be nastier side effects in the long term that they just haven't gotten to yet. 
• Ink-Suit Actor: Frey bears the likeness of her actress, Ella Balinska, who portrays her through motion capture in addition to her voice. This applies to several other characters as well, such as Keala Settle as Johedy.
• Insistent Terminology: Cuff is a Vambrace, thank you very much.
• Item Crafting: Frey can use materials gathered through exploring to craft or upgrade Necklaces and Cloaks that boost her abilities at Refuges in the Gameplay trailer.
• Last-Second Ending Choice: At the climax the player has the choice between returning home to New York and reuniting with Homer, or staying in Athia to face Susurrus.
• Le Parkour: During the beginning, Frey is shown to be good at this. Traversing through Athia also involves this a lot.
• Light Is Not Good: Break creatures seem to have a strong gold motif, with gold body parts (usually some kind of bone or horn) or gold shards jutting out of their skin. This is similar to the gold motif of Cuff and his magic, an early sign that he and the Break are linked. When he finally reveals himself as Susurrus, he manifests as a light-emitting angel-like polygonal figure made of sheets of gold, whose attacks are also light-based.
• Limit Break: As Frey continues to use magic in combat her Surge Magic meter goes up, and once it's full she can pull off even more powerful magic, such as the massive lightning storm she summons in the Magic Combat trailer to destroy several corrupted soldiers.
• Lotus-Eater Machine: Tanta Olas's power is illusion, which she uses to trap Frey in an idealized dream of New York. Lore entries also mention people spending lifetimes inside her illusions without realizing.
• Kung-Fu Wizard: Frey's combat style combines Combat Parkour with magic.
• Medieval Stasis: Athia seems to have been in roughly the same developmental stage since at least the first Tanta's rule, although to be fair, technological and political innovation have been severely hampered by the spread of The Corruption.
• Mêlée à Trois: The Tantas' Animated Armor soldiers are hostile to the Break creatures as well as to Frey, and you'll occasionally find yourself fighting both soldiers and Break monsters at the same time while they fight each other.
• Non-Human Sidekick: Frey's main companion is a talking bracelet named Cuff.
• Non-Standard Game Over: While the Last-Second Ending Choice to abandon Athia for New York City is presented as its own ending with credits, the abrupt cutscene and lack of a Playable Epilogue make it clear this isn't how the game is really supposed to end.
• Playable Epilogue: After defeating the Final Boss, Frey can continue to explore Athia to mop up missing side objectives and hone her powers.
• Playing with Fire: Frey can obtain Red Magic, to create flaming swords, augment her physical attacks and defense, and even create groups of fire soldiers, as well as the more traditional walls of fires and making enemies explode.
• Prehistoric Monster: Many of the corrupted monsters faced by Frey are based on prehistoric animals, such as the Altered Quinkana, which are based on the prehistoric Quinkana, a semi- or fully terrestrial species of crocodilian native to Australia.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Judge Bird, Councilwoman Belette, and Councilman Treahy all fill positions of power and come across as reasonable and fair. Belette in particular remains justifiably suspicious of Frey throughout the first act, but still refuses to condemn her without being given due cause.
• The Reveal: Three of them.
  • Frey learns about halfway through the game that she's the daughter of Tanta Cinta, who left her behind on Earth. Frey has a great deal of resentment towards her for this.
  • Cuff is revealed to be an ancient demon named Susurrus that was defeated and sealed away long ago by the first Tanta. He was set free by the Rheddig, a rival country to Athia which were wiped out by them in a great war, for the purposes of destroying Athia. The four current Tantas sealed Susurrus inside themselves, but this slowly drove them insane and also caused the Break.
  • Finally, the Dragon is a Break-transformed Tanta Cinta. Unlike other Break creatures and the other Tantas, Cinta has retained her sanity (partially because she left her portion of Susurrus on Earth), but the fact she's permanently stuck as a giant demonic-looking dragon makes it hard for her to communicate this important information to Frey.
• Right Hand Versus Left Hand: Even though his leaking ambient evil is the source of the Break and the Tantas' insanity, Cuff doesn't have any actual control over either, which is a challenge for him since he needs Frey to be his MacGuffin Delivery Service, which won't happen if she gets killed by a Break monster or one of the Tantas.
• Rush Boss: The Gyro Optional Boss will heal itself to full if it isn't killed within a few minutes, so you need to kill it as fast as possible to beat it.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Frey eventually discovers that the cause of the Break is the demon Susurrus, who was defeated by the Tantas previously by being split into 4 pieces and being sealed within themselves. Only Tanta Cinta avoided doing so, instead sending her piece of Susurrus to Earth along with her infant daughter to protect her from the Break and avoid letting the demon corrupt her like her sisters. When her daughter, Frey, turned 21, Susurrus was able to lure her to his remnant on Earth, bond with her, and transport them both back to Athia, using her as his pawn to reassemble his scattered pieces. Once the Final Battle with him concludes, Frey successfully defeats and re-seals him in his entirety within herself once again. The post-game dialogue indicates he intends to eventually drive Frey insane like the other Tantas, though it's hinted he has developed a soft spot for her and is resigned to being sealed within her for the foreseeable future.
• Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: The Break, the mutations of the local wildlife that it inflicts, and the insanity of the reigning Tantas are all revealed to be caused directly or indirectly by Cuff, or his true identity of the demon Susurrus. He was unleashed to destroy the land of Athia by its enemies, and ultimately the only way the Tantas could stop him was to split his essence into 4 parts and seal it within themselves, though this had the side-effect of gradually driving them insane over time. Tanta Cinta alone didn't take her portion of Susurrus inside herself, which allowed her to retain her sanity even as her body was deformed into a draconic creature, but instead transported it and her daughter Frey to Earth, both exiting near the Holland Tunnel in New York City. When Frey returns to the area on her 21st birthday, Susurrus is able to draw her to his location and bond with her, transporting both to Athia and using Frey as his Unwitting Pawn to reunite his scattered pieces.
• Sensor Character: Frey can use Cuff to scan for points of interest and enemies.
• Sequel Hook: In Tanta We Trust ends it story with Frey deciding to head to Rheddah at the behast of the voice that sent her back in time in the first place, who reveals that she's one of the Tantas of Rheddah and shall be waiting for her there, setting up the stage and location for the next game.
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: Frey's speech is peppered with casual use of the word "fuck" to make her stand out amongst the humans in Athia.
• Snark-to-Snark Combat: Frey and Cuff are endlessly bickering and snarking at each other.
• Spellblade: Several of Frey's spells involve creating weapons out of magic such as knives and flaming swords.
• Stupidity Is the Only Option: When Frey's apartment is under fire, Frey will refuse to pick up the bag full of her life savings that is at her feet, no matter how many times the player prompts her to, and insists on stepping over it to look for her cat Homer first. As the result, the savings is lost, and Frey is left penniless in addition to being homeless.
• Talking Weapon: Frey is armed with a magic bracelet called "Cuff", which is capable of full speech.
• Technicolor Lightning: Green Magic has Frey fire green lightning at enemies.
• Trapped in Another World: Frey is teleported to Athia from New York City and spends the game trying to get back.
• Vampiric Draining: The Tendril spell heals Frey by how much damage it deals to the enemy.
• Wake-Up Call Boss: The dragon. It has powerful combos, unblockable attacks, a fiery breath that's devastating unless you take cover, has to be attacked in its weak point, and apart from all the new stuff it teaches you, it also has more than one healthbar.
• Wham Line: In Tanta We Trust has one near its end.
  Frey: Hold, I-I don't even know who I'm talking to! Who are you!?
  Mysterious Voice: I...am one of the Tantas of Rheddah.
• Wham Episode: The In Tanta We Trust DLC ends with some very stunning revelations: The Gloaming is the ritual used to revive Susurrus, Susurrus was created by a "more terrifying power", and the voice that's been guiding Frey the entire time is apparently one of Rheddah's Tantas, with Frey needing to go to Rheddah in order to find out Susurrus's origins and how to truly stop the Break.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: The Broken humans still retain at least some fragment of who they used to be, and Frey initially expresses reluctance to kill them because of it, even though they're actively attacking her.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Frey is called out by Auden when she curses because the death of Auden's dad has left several of her questions unanswered. Auden has treated Frey well until now, but Frey's self-centered disinterest in the wake of a very personal tragedy is more than she can tolerate.
• Would Hurt a Child: Tanta Sila's first (onscreen) victim is Olevia, the Street Urchin Frey has befriended.

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