The 2020 announcement video and the 2022 demo are not on the same visual level.

A comparison video of Luminous Productions’ action RPG has been made by ElAnalistaDeBits, as the demo is available on PlayStation Store for PlayStation 5. The game is running on the in-house developed Luminous Engine. Still, it might have been a better idea for the Japanese studio to switch to Unreal Engine 5, as the lighting, textures, terrain geometry, and detail density are lower than in the reveal video.

Forspoken has three graphical modes in the demo (Quality, Ray Tracing, and Performance), which is just an excerpt of the final game and is unlikely to change significantly until the final release. In Quality mode, the textures and the draw distance are better, and the resolution is higher (1728p on average). In Ray Tracing mode, resolution averages 1512p, which is lower, and the texture quality and draw detail are degraded, but in return, some things have better shadows. However, there is no ray tracing for global illumination and reflections. Vegetation does not look any better this way, so running the game demo in this mode is not recommended.

The Performance mode also cuts texture quality and viewing distance. It brings the resolution down to a dynamic 1440p via temporal reconstruction, and the frame rate cannot remain stable at 60 frames per second. Forspoken supports 120 Hz, but whichever graphics mode you choose, the game resolution remains at 1440p. Ray Tracing and Quality modes achieve 40 FPS at 120 Hz, and Performance stays at 60. Compared to the 2020 video, the visuals are significantly degraded no matter which mode you choose.

According to ElAnalistaDeBits, Forspoken’s situation (the Luminous Engine can’t deliver the promised graphical level) proves why Square Enix moved Final Fantasy XVI to the Unreal Engine (XV was still running on the Luminous Engine). Forspoken will be released on PlayStation 5 and PC on January 24.

Source: WCCFTech