Last week we got a taste of Forspoken’s parkour traversal system, and now Square Enix and Luminous Productions have released a new trailer focused on combat. Forspoken protagonist Frey will be able to wield various types of elemental magic, each with its own attack and support spells. For instance, purple earth magic is more defensive, while red fire magic allows you to unleash fiery destruction. Of course, your parkour abilities come into play during combat as well, with dodging and counterattacking being key to winning fights. Overall, the action looks a lot more fluid in this new trailer than in some past footage, where performance was somewhat of a concern. Check out the action for yourself, below.

　　In a new PlayStation Blog post, Forspoken lead visual effects artist Ryota Nozoe describes the philosophy behind the creation of the game’s spells.

　　“We put a great deal of time and thought into how we visualise the spells in Forspoken. First and foremost, we wanted to stay away from having things like fire or rocks just suddenly appearing out of nowhere. While that certainly would have been fine, and wouldn’t have caused any issues, doing that felt too expected and boring – especially for a game so focused on magic. We decided that every spell would start with magic energy, and transition into natural phenomena like the afore-mentioned fire and rocks. Then, when the spell is cast, it would revert back to magic energy before fading away.

　　We also wanted to stay away from using auras or summoning circles when Frey was using spells – this would lack originality. Early in development, we decided that magic energy in Forspoken would be represented by geometric patterns.  This informed the visual design of all of the game’s magic, and ensured we kept a consistent visual style throughout the game.”

　　And here’s some more detail on three of the game’s more useful spells…

　　Burst Shot - Burst shot fires explosive lumps of rock that deal area damage. It’s an explosive earth-based spell that deals area damage, so we thought it would feel appropriate and magic-like to conjure a large rock that quickly protrudes in four directions.  This is the first spell that Frey gets – and the first one we worked on – so we made sure it was pretty straightforward!Cataract - Cataract spins up a watery vortex that sucks in enemies, damaging them as it does so. If you hold the button, you can send out pillars of water out to attack enemies, and if you hold it even longer, you can send out more pillars of icy water to freeze foes solid!Genesis - Genesis summons barbed branches, which fire out in front of you and skewer foes over a wide area. If you hold the button, it hits harder and over an even area, and if you hold the buttons even longer, it also strikes and poisons your enemies!Forspoken casts its spell on PC and PS5 on January 24, 2023.