The fantasy realm of Athia is a hostile and dangerous place for Frey, due largely to the villainous Tantas and the Break making every inch of the world of Forspoken more and more treacherous. So, having a small space for the player to kick back, relax, and gear up for the adventure to come is a welcome addition to Forspoken's open world.
These rest zones in Forspoken are currently referred to as the Pilgrim's Refuge, and allow Frey to rest in order to restore health, select new Spellcraft Challenges, and craft armor upgrades alongside consumable items. However, as nice as these locations are, it's unclear at the moment if Luminous Productions is going to let players upgrade and customize these safe zones throughout their playthrough.
Make Frey's House into a Home
The ability to customize a rest zone often means more to players than a simple reskin or a preferred color scheme might suggest. Updating the safe areas allows players to put their own spin on the world, and make their own unique play experience that likely won't look the same as most others running through the same spaces. So, something as simple as a paint job could help turn the Pilgrim's Refuges in Forspoken from a simple shack to take a breather into a place for Frey to return to and feel at home.
To accomplish this feeling of making the Pilgrim's Refuges into a home, the simplest option is for Luminous Productions to add new paint and patterns for the walls and floors. However, if Forspoken wants a fully customizable home, then another place to start could be a system for updating and upgrading the furniture like the tables and bed. Pulling from all across the world of Athia, there could be different interior designs that players could mix and match from several regions in order to make their safe zones their own.
Familiars Add a Spark of Life to Pilgrim's Refuge
In the current build of Forspoken's PS5 demo, players can find at least one familiar in the form of Saglan, who will appear in the Pilgrim's Refuge after completing their challenge. This first familiar takes the form of a unicorn cat, and will hang around on the spare boxes that rest in an unused corner of the room. Frey can also pet Saglan when first arriving to the Pilgrim's Refuge, but doesn't currently have much extra interaction outside of that initial meeting in the rest area.
If Forspoken gives players more to do with Saglan and other familiars, these creatures can become a well-loved part of the Pilgrim's Refuge and a highlight to coming back to the rest areas every once in a while. It's a small improvement to these safe zones, but it is a great start for giving these spaces the type of lived-in feel that full customization also allows for players. These are exactly the types of small advancements that could easily help players relate to Frey Holland as she interacts with all the adorable familiars scattered throughout Forspoken.
The familiars could also act as the key for another aspect of customization that could help make the Pilgrim's Refuge feel more unique to each individual player. Specifically, the ability to replace Saglan's regular location of a wooden box with a small bed or a scratching post could be even more rewarding than giving Frey a new place to sleep. Especially considering that Frey's cat Homer doesn't appear to have made it to Athia, these little companions could be a huge boon for making Forspoken's locations feel like a place where players want to stay for longer than a simple visit.
Forspoken is set to release on January 24, 2023, for PC and PS5.
