The magical world of Athia is a dangerous one in Forspoken, but fortunately, protagonist Frey has plenty of magical firepower that she can wield when she’s confronted by corrupted beasts and people. Luminous Productions wanted to lay down some ground rules for how sorcery looks and works in Forspoken, with the developer settling on an idea of exotic energy manipulating natural elements around the player.

“We also wanted to stay away from using auras or summoning circles when Frey was using spells –this would lack originality,” lead visual effects artist Ryota Nozoe explained in a PS Blog post. “Early in development, we decided that magic energy in Forspoken would be represented by geometric patterns. This informed the visual design of all of the game’s magic, and ensured we kept a consistent visual style throughout the game.”

With those ideas in place, the combat magic of was broken up into various specialties. Earth-based purple magic can unleash quick projectiles, more powerful charged-up shots, and clusters of explosive rocks. Shield Shot covers Frey in a protective shield that explodes upon release, Scatter Shot is a steady stream of high-speed rocks followed up by a high-damage explosive projectile, while other support magic can leave behind mines, create barriers, and leech health from enemies with tendrils.

Red magic is a fire-based selection of spells that mostly focuses on offensive abilities. With it, Frey can launch fireballs, cloak herself in flames, and summon fire-elemental familiars into battle. Melee options are also expanded with Red magic, allowing Frey to enhance her physical attacks and summon a powerful blade into battle with the Slice spell. Green magic utilizes water for support and defensive spells, while also slowly charging up the Surge ability. When used at the right moment, Surge is a devastating skill that can wipe out scores of enemies simultaneously.

All of these abilities can also be used in conjunction with each other, and when combined with Frey’s magical parkour skills, she’ll have a variety of abilities to use for any dangerous situation that she finds herself in. Forspoken’s cast also includes Star Wars actor Janina Gavankar as Frey, and it will launch as a console-exclusive on PS5 and on PC in January 2023.