Square Enix has announced that the official title of what was otherwise known as Project Athia is Forspoken. Described as a “narrative-driven adventure set in a beautiful yet cruel world,” Forspoken is the latest project from Square Enix and its subsidiary, Luminous Productions, the team behind Final Fantasy XV, and it will arrive for PC and PlayStation 5 sometime in 2022.
Forspoken was teased as Project Athia in June 2020, and its teaser trailer featured few details beyond a sneaker-clad female protagonist traveling through a world of magic and monsters. The sneakers gave rise to the theory that the protagonist, then unnamed, was out of place in her fantastical surroundings, suggesting that the storyline for the game is based on the trope of a character from the real world somehow being transported into an unfamiliar, mythical realm. The game’s working title, Project Athia, revealed next to nothing about what it would entail, and details remained fairly scarce in the months that followed.
But at the end of the Square Enix Presents presentation, actor Ella Balinska, known for her work on the popular British series Midsomer Murders and Stateside in 2019’s adaptation of Charlie’s Angels, appeared in Project Athia’s official title announcement trailer to reveal that she would be starring as the game’s lead character, Frey Holland, traversing the land of beautiful but dangerous land of Athia, harnessing her magical abilities to survive. The trailer, released today on YouTube, also revealed the official title of the game to be Forspoken, as well as information that its official release will happen sometime in 2022.
The trailer offers more of a glimpse of what the world of Athia entails, particularly its spectacular ruins and diverse landscapes, all of which are seemingly (so far) bereft of any other humans; the only other hint that intelligent life beyond Frey exists is an unseen male voice giving her instructions while hiding from a massive dragon stomping around nearby. From the minimal dialogue the trailer offers up, it’s pretty clear that earlier speculation that Frey is a foreigner in the world of Athia was about on the money. There’s a lot of potential in the portal fantasy trope, and it certainly isn’t the first time Square Enix has taken it on, so hopefully Forspoken will live up to that potential — even if the title is a misspelling of the word “forespoken.”
Regardless of its spelling, Forspoken will be a timed PS5 console exclusive for at least two years, so Xbox players are in for a wait before it’s made available on other consoles. PlayStation 5 and PC players, however, have roughly a year left to wait for Forspoken, which is slated to be released at an unconfirmed date in 2022.
Next: Black Panther & More DLC Content For Marvel’s Avengers Revealed
Forspoken will be available on PS5 and PC in 2022.
