Forspoken Needs to Balance Its Combat Carefully

gamerant.com:

A lot of the trailers that Luminous Productions and Square Enix have released for Forspoken focus on the game's magic system, and for good reason. Frey Holland may have been whisked away from Earth and dropped on Athia without warning, but as a sorcerer, she's a natural. In Forspoken, players will have tons of ways to obliterate their enemies, whether they prefer pelting foes with rapid-fire stones or crushing the enemy in an explosion of ice. Luminous and Square Enix may not have gone into great detail about how spellcasting works yet, but Forspoken clearly affords players a lot of liberty in their spellcraft.

While Forspoken seems to put power in the player's hands through magic, that design also raises questions about enemy design. While it's important to make players feel powerful, it's also important to design enemies that make Frey's strengths feel worth using. If Frey's magic constantly overwhelms everyone she comes across, then Forspoken's combat will grow dull, but if Forspoken enemies can easily push through Frey's attacks, then players will feel disempowered and frustrated before long. Luminous Productions needs to craft each type of Forspoken enemy carefully, making sure that they all pose a reasonable threat, even in the face of Forspoken's elaborate magic system.

Forspoken's Emphasis on Magic Sets It Apart

Forspoken's magic seems particularly threatening to the smaller enemies that Frey will come across. Many of Frey's spells seem to be area-of-effect spells, dealing damage in wide swaths of Frey's battlefield, which means she's innately well-equipped to clear out hordes of fragile foes in an instant. One Forspoken gameplay clip shows Frey kiting effortlessly around a group of zombie-like enemies, pelting them