Still, most of the elemental effects, Frey’s movements and a lot of the world of Athia is beautifully realized. Running on Square Enix’s in-house Luminous Engine (the team that made the game is a newly-formed group called Luminous Productions), Forspoken gives some beautiful moments of magical pyrotechnics, but it’s not quite up to the consistent environmental beauty (and attention to detail) of games like Horizon Forbidden West or Returnal. You keep moving, through the lands of Athia, through the adventure, because it’s really fun and satisfying, but also because when you slow down, you start to see the cracks.

The developer was a subsidiary of the larger company which is why we're seeing something like 'merged' used here instead of 'acquired.' What this essentially means for Luminous Productions, based on what Square Enix has suggested in its wording, is that the developer will be absorbed into Square Enix, so while it'll still be contributing to the games the company makes, we likely won't be seeing Luminous Productions' name headlining new games.In Forspoken, you control the agile, angry Frey (voiced by Ella Balinska), slinging elemental attacks (and f-bombs) at multiple monsters before leaping off a cliff face and swinging from a molten outcrop.

This announcement is different from the occasional acquisition news that we hear about frequently enough when it other companies simply for the fact that Square Enix already owned Luminous Productions. Square Enix did not mention Forspoken at all in its announcement about the merger but rather said that Luminous Productions will continue to work under Square Enix 'to develop HD games.' This move follows the middling launch of the game that came out in January and was met with lackluster review scores from both users and critics upon its release.

Forspoken developer Luminous Productions will be merged into Square Enix, the parent company announced this week.

Forspoken movie