New Forspoken gameplay makes magic parkour look pretty good, actually

A new look at Forspoken shows off some pretty impressive movement mechanics, with the game's magical parkour offering unique ways to flip, jump, and surf through the fantasy world. It looks so good, it has us wondering why Square Enix didn't show off this gameplay earlier on in the game's marketing cycle.

A PlayStation blog post details eight Forspoken parkour abilities you'll want to make use of when the game releases next year. Flow is the "beating heart of parkour in Forspoken" that will let Frey dash through the world with ease and grace. It's activated by holding down the circle button, and seems like the best way to quickly traverse areas with small rocks and walls - but it can't be used to scale high walls. "To really get around with style, you need to combine Flow with Frey’s other moves, and learn how to chain them together." Flow is a foundation for all of Frey's other parkour skills. 

Frey's other magical moves include Rush, which increases the speed of her Flow; Shimmy, which accelerates Frey by kicking her up off the ground; and Scale, which creates "phantom footholds" to launch her high up in the air. Soar will let her pull off multiple leaps in succession, while Zip acts as a sort of magical grappling hook, and Glide lets you ride an imaginary wave on a magical surfboard.

"Forspoken is one of those games where the act of movement itself is enormous fun," says Square Enix content comms manager Duncan Heaney. "Traversal isn’t just about getting from A – B, it’s about getting there with skill and style."

It's always great to see RPGs introduce new and exciting ways to traverse expansive worlds, but it's also wild that we had really no idea how great and varied Forspoken's movement can be until just now. We did know that chaining together magic spells feels great, as our own Ali Jones recently wrote in his Forspoken hands-on preview. Now it looks like the movement and exploration that takes place between combat may be just as exciting. 

Earlier this year, Forspoken was delayed to 2023.