Hi everyone, my name is Ryota Nozoe, Principal Visual Effects Artist on Forspoken.
This expansive new action RPG puts you in control of Frey Holland, a young woman transported to the mysterious world of Athia! This land can be beautiful but also dangerous – a phenomenon called ‘The Break’ has corrupted people and creatures… and turned them into hideous monsters.
Fortunately, Frey can use a variety of spells to defend herself, from exploiting the elements to manipulating herself. You can watch the exciting battle up close in our latest in-depth video:
As you can see, the magic is varied and spectacular! Read on and I’ll tell you a little bit about how we got there:
Define the ‘appearance’ of the Forspoken magic
We spent a lot of time and thought about how we visualize the magic in Forspoken.
First and foremost, we want to stay away from things like fire or rocks that suddenly appear out of nowhere. While that would certainly be fine and wouldn’t cause any problems, doing it feels overly expected and boring – especially for a game so focused on magic.
We decided that every spell would have the same rule – it would start with magical energy, and transform into natural phenomena like fire and stone mentioned above. Then, when the spell is cast, it reverts back to magical energy before disappearing.
We also wanted to avoid using auras or summoning circles when Frey was casting spells – this would lack originality. During early development, we decided that the magical energy in Forspoken would be represented by geometric patterns.
This informed the visual design of all the magic of the game and ensured that we kept a consistent visual style throughout the game.
Every spell in the game is the result of a team of visual artists, game designers, and programmers who all work very closely together. To give you an example of this, here are three spells you can cast in the game – and what brought them to life!
Broken shot
Continuous firing shoots explosive rocks that deal area damage.
It’s a land blast spell that deals area damage, so we thought it felt appropriate and like magic to conjure a large rock that quickly juts out in all four directions.
This was the first spell Frey had – and also the first spell we practiced – so we made sure it was pretty simple!
Because Burst Shot was the first spell we completed, it became the guideline for all the spells in Forspoken. While crafting, we used it to perfect the general rule of geometries turning into stone and returning to geometries before disappearing.
So while it may not be the most visually impressive spell, it’s definitely special as it used to be the departure point for everyone else in the game!
Cataract
Cataracts create a whirlpool that sucks in enemies, damaging them. If you hold the button, you can send out water pillars to attack enemies, and if you hold it longer, you can send out more ice water pillars to freeze enemies!
During development, we came up with the idea of water currents converging and causing a massive icy explosion. We challenged ourselves to visually express how water transforms into ice – only if we can achieve that, will the spell complete.
Of course, easier said than done! For example, this is a spell that has different levels – at level two it’s just an explosion of water, and at level three, the water blast turns into ice. Capturing the blast of water and freezing it was extremely difficult – we had to essentially develop it into two separate spells, which meant double the work!
It was worth it, though, because we were able to figure out how to express the concept of water turning into ice. We’ve also been very particular about developing the shading agents we use for these – I think Cataracts are one of those magical things that look great, even at a glance.
Genesis
Genesis summons thorny branches, which shoot out in front of you and skewer enemies over a large area. If you hold the button, it will hit harder and over an equal area, and if you hold the buttons longer, it will also attack and poison your enemies!
The ‘origin’ of this spell actually came from a spell that we tested during early development. We decided very early on that Frey would be able to manipulate nature, and I thought it would be very fitting and visually impactful if she could make a big tree out of the ground!
The original design showed the tree growing and attacking enemies, but as we progressed further in development, we tweaked the design to better suit the game’s system.
We tested this spell even while we were still in pre-production. It’s a rather lavish concept – a tree will sprout from the ground and flowers will bloom, then an even larger tree will obscure everything in sight!
It took a lot of trial and error to show that plants were created on such a scale. Spotting the trees that rose from the ground was a particular challenge. We tested a lot of different methods and had to start over again and again.
Then once we think we’re done with it, it becomes a spell with multiple levels, so we have to find a way to distinguish levels 1-3, which is quite trying!
I’m happy with how it turned out though – I think we were able to achieve something great!
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As you can tell, we’ve worked extremely hard to make the battle in Forspoken look good – and feel comfortable to play as well. We can’t wait for you to see all the amazing magic we’ve created – but you’ll have to wait until the game is over for that!
Forspoken releases January 24, 2023 for PlayStation 5 and is available for bid immediately.
