Forspoken Is The New Name For Project Athia, Coming 2022

Square Enix held their first digital Square Enix Presents event today and it was jam-packed with announcements. The show ended with a brand new look at the action-RPG Project Athia, now called Forspoken, revealing that it’s coming out in 2022.

This new look at the game offered up some details about the game’s premise and main character. “Originally revealed as PROJECT ATHIA last year, Forspoken puts players in the shoes of Frey Holland, an ordinary young woman who must harness her magical abilities to survive in a fantastical and dangerous land called Athia.”

The new footage of the game had some brief snippets of gameplay that showcased some of the very flashy traversal abilities that Frey has at her disposal, as well as a few combat moves. That’s not all we got to see from Forspoken though. A short cutscene was shown as well. In it, Frey is inside a building and hiding from a dragon that she had some choice words for while talking to an unseen person.

Bringing Frey to life is actress Ella Balinska who recently starred in the 2019 Charlie’s Angels movie. Balinska describes her as someone “raw” who has “lost her way,” elements that helped Balinska connect with Frey right away.

“We were looking for someone who could convincingly portray Frey’s dynamic character, and we knew immediately that Ella was the perfect person to play her,” said game director Takeshi Aramaki on the PlayStation Blog. “From the beginning, Ella understood the themes and concept of the game and was able to channel this in her performance to bring Frey’s character to life.”

Forspoken was first announced last year during the June PS5 reveal event without a release window, but we now know that the game will be coming out next year on PS5 and PC simultaneously. When it comes out, it’ll be a console exclusive for at least 2 years, so those who are interested on Xbox will have to wait quite a while before they’re able to get their hands on the game.