Forza Horizon 6 and Japan: What a Marvel!

And finally, it was Japan. A courtship spanning 6 chapters and 14 years, a chase through the roads of half the world, from Colorado to the border between Italy and France, from the United Kingdom to Australia, and then Mexico, before setting foot, or rather, placing tires on Japanese asphalt. But Japan was always in Playground Games' destiny, both due to the never-ending demand from fans to bring the Festival to the streets of the Land of the Rising Sun, and due to the nature of a racing game with ambitions of being a tourist simulator that Forza Horizon has carried since its very first chapter. And today, there is no other country in the world that has entered the imagination quite like Japan, a destination for millions of tourists every year, to the point where the island's symbolic places, temples, and cherry blossom avenues have become familiar to everyone, even those who have never been there in person. Like the New York of 90s TV series. 

With the difference that Japan has always had a privileged relationship with 2 and 4 wheels, a country with a true motoring culture (like Italy, after all) where the roar of engines is present both in its DNA and in its cultural manifestations. Initial D, Shuichi Shigeno's famous motoring manga later adapted into anime and OAVs, is not only one of many entertainment works that have introduced Japan to the world beyond its borders, but it is also inspired by a truly existing underground subculture made of mechanical modifications, aesthetic excesses, and clandestine night races, through alleys or hairpin bends. A motoring game with tourist ambitions and a country with such a peculiar imagination linked to the world of motors, in short, could only meet in a happy union. 

Forza Horizon 6 is the Pinnacle of the Saga 

The limitation that Forza Horizon has carried for a few chapters is that it hit upon an almost perfect formula so early in its journey that there aren't many improvements left to apply. The added value therefore becomes the setting, but even more than locations and biomes, it's the bond formed between the type of racing that Forza Horizon is and the roads that host the Festival events that makes the difference. And perhaps there is no better place on Earth to host a game that has embraced the philosophy of Mini-Italia, the amusement park where Italy is condensed and from the Leaning Tower of Pisa you can see the Colosseum. If in the accounts of those who have been there, “modernity and tradition coexist,” in Forza Horizon they are often two turns apart, and it works so well because it is at the same time an exaggeration of a conformation that nevertheless characterizes Japan, but which also fits perfectly with the saga's traditional approach. 

If Forza Horizon 5 with its scorching Mexican scenarios had effectively marked the beginning of the next gen of Xbox Series X, Forza Horizon 6 demonstrates that this gen can still deliver satisfaction before its twilight, but also that PC has made a leap forward that the next gen will have to bridge. While on console the difference between the two graphics modes, Performance and Quality, has further narrowed, on PC with a good graphics card you can enjoy a triumph of effects that further enhance the dazzling beauty of Playground Games' Japan. Tokyo and its surroundings are more than depicted; they are celebrated: it's impressive to stop anywhere and observe the fidelity of details that extend to the different layers of asphalt on the road surface, to the climbing plants under the columns of elevated roads, the air conditioners, and the meticulously detailed shop windows even in the most remote alleys. 

Boss, I'm not here, I'm on vacation in Japan

In this adaptation process, therefore, if the territory itself lends itself to the Forza Horizon formula, made of a crescendo of ever-different races, including drifts on mountain passes and night races where traffic is added to opponents, jumps on snowy slopes and off-road through rice paddies, it is the very formula of Forza Horizon 6 that expands to further enhance locations and scenarios. By concretizing that tourist vocation that has always distinguished the saga, Forza Horizon 6 transforms it into a playable mode and activities in the territory. The appreciable adjustment to the narrative component (especially in tone) this time leads us to be simultaneously wannabe drivers and accidental tourists in the Land of the Rising Sun. The Festival events see us participate on this occasion as ambitious amateurs who find themselves making their way towards increasingly exclusive races and wristbands. However, the Festival is not the only reason that drives us to Japan, and free time must be divided between races and sightseeing trips with friends among the postcard-perfect locations of the gigantic game map. To get by in Japan, however, you also need some money, easily earned through delivery missions: a small rider van and off you go through the streets of Tokyo, drifting to the delight of customers (oh, if they're happy!). How to spend it? Well, by restoring old properties, of course. 

Forza Horizon 6 has two souls. There's the more boisterous, exaggerated, flashy one made of increasingly extreme, over-the-top races, bordering on stunts until the stunt actually arrives and it's a 7-story tall mecha running outside the window. Then there's the more reflective one that offers unexpected glimpses to observe by pulling over into a lay-by, day trips, and a filtered taste through the screen of the daily life of the Japanese motorist. Forza Horizon 6 also extends the nature of racing to its maximum possibilities, flirting with other genres and even incorporating a corner of management, with the property administration phase now having become a miniature city builder. Forza Horizon 6 is Forza Horizon to the nth power, having strengthened its merits and polished its flaws: the cut-scenes are still forced and more generally the entire narrative counter sometimes conveys a bit of empathetic embarrassment, while (but this is my subjective opinion) the photography is still a bit cold and the result of an “American” gaze (or a standard Netflix production, to make clear what I mean), however, on this front, numerous appreciations from local users for the feeling that the digital transposition conveys are read, so it can all be chalked up to my taste problem and moved past. 

I'll close with a note on a detail that is perhaps trivial, but which for me perfectly exemplifies the philosophy of Forza Horizon 6: in the AI menu (called Anna) there is an option to set the autopilot. It seems like a stupid option, what's the point of a driving game that drives itself? Surprisingly, several, including observing how the CPU handles the most complex cars to tame: but above all, sitting in the passenger seat and enjoying the scenery flowing outside the window.