With a thumbnail like the one in this article, you may believe that I accidentally uploaded the wrong image to the article, but believe it or not, that’s an actual image of Forza Horizon 6, being the starting sequence to a race between your car and an actual Gundam-like mecha. As of now, I have over 40 hours put into this title, with only 10 achievements left to obtain. I’ve obtained every stamp, wristband, mascot, and bonus board, and I’ve driven every single road in the game. I didn’t want to base this review on an early glimpse, but rather on its longevity, so let’s dive into everything I have to say about Forza Horizon 6.
Japan As A Setting
If you’re somebody who has gone to Japan before in real life, then you know what to expect from a Japan-themed map, but let me tell you something that surprised me about Forza Horizon 6 that I wasn’t expecting to notice: the gas stations and konbinis are absolutely everywhere. Now, it’s not the real brands like Seven Eleven or Family Mart, instead having more generic names like 365 for a gas station, but they’re dotted across the map with the same casual frequency you’d actually find them across Japan. It’s a super small detail that not many people will even care about if they’re here just for the driving aspect of Forza, but it’s something that I appreciate heavily due to the slight realistic nature it throws into the world.
This small attention to detail shows that Playground didn’t just pick Japan because it looks beautiful on a render or because they wanted to shove cherry blossoms in your face. Instead, they paid attention to what Japan actually feels like, and decided to build a game around not just the aesthetics but the realism of that side of the world. You have small side alleys that are basically entirely sidewalk for cars to drive on, you have big open roads, you have a million konbinis, and even a faithful re-creation of the Lawson posted in front of Mount Fuji in real life made into the Forza world.
Despite these faithful recreations and real-world identity put into Forza Horizon 6, it’s important to note the fact that this isn’t actually Japan. It’s the gamified version of a “best-of” clips montage you’d find for a TV show like Family Guy. It’s not actually Japan, but instead a condensed-down version designed to turn Japan into a vehicle playground, and even with that, they managed to put important locations like Shibuya Crossing into the game! If I’m being honest, I played Forza Horizon 5 a decent amount, but I’m not sure what it was with that map; I just couldn’t find myself being too drawn to the map. Maybe I’m a nerd for Japan, but the Forza Horizon 6 map feels a lot more dynamic, larger, and fun to explore. I genuinely believe this is because of the map variety you get in this new title, with a larger map.
Beyond the fake-brand konbinis and gas stations, there are shrines, ryokan, rice paddies, fishing villages, and industrial ports. Each region has its own setting that is trying to communicate something specific about that part of Japan, rather than just being a scenery set piece.
The Driving, The Cars, The Feels
If you have played a Forza Horizon game before, you know what the driving feels like; it’s accessible enough for casual players, while having deep enough settings for players who want to tune every aspect of their setup. It’s a very satisfying system for all types of players, and Horizon 6 doesn’t try to reinvent that formula, because it honestly doesn’t need to. What it does is apply touches to the map and car roster that help make the game feel like the freshest Forza we’ve gotten, and that’s what matters the most. Some pessimistic players might see this title and just try to call it a map expansion to previous Forza Horizon titles, but that would be doing a disservice to how that “map expansion” plays into everything, and how systems like Treasure Cars, Food Delivery, Car Meets, and more work.
The nine radio stations you get access to in Horizon 6 are more than just fillers for silence. Gacha City Radio, the J-pop station, is the most culturally specific addition I think the series has ever made to fit into a specific setting. Horizon XS has BABYMETAL twice and Linkin Park on the same station, which is exactly the kind of chaotic rock curation that makes long drives genuinely fun. I could talk about each radio station for the entirety of this article, but it has something for everyone. If you want to just ride around and not think too much about this being Japan, you can select any radio station and hear a lot of English, but if you specifically play the Gacha City Radio, the song intermissions are actually in Japanese, something I was shocked to see in this title. If I’m being honest, I wish more of the game had Japanese language by default. Sure, I may be able to select that as a language option, but for being in Japan, I noticed a lot more American or British-sounding characters than anything else. Even if it was something where we had subtitles for specific dialogue options, I would’ve liked that more, but it’s not a deal breaker at all. Just feels funny delivering an order in-game to hear a very American man being like “Ah, yes! It’s still hot, thank you!”
Two Things Worth Flagging
Forza Horizon 6 is very close to being a game I have absolutely no complaints about. The two genuine caveats worth raising for anyone who cares about slight issues are completionist-related. Firstly, if you love getting achievements, you may be here a while due to Horizon Play, the online multiplayer minigame mode covering things like Hide and Seek, the Eliminator, and various social events. The leveling in Horizon Play is genuinely slow to progress through. For a game that focuses on going fast, exploring, and racing, the modes I’ve tried so far in Horizon Play don’t seem to level me up that fast, and getting level 10 is required for one achievement. That on its own isn’t that bad, but if you’re going for a true 100% you’ll need to hit level 100 in Horizon Play, a milestone that will most likely burn you out of progression due to trying to optimize leveling or playing a specific mode over and over and over.
The other complaint I have is related to 100% road discovery. There isn’t an achievement for this at all, but I had some issues discovering every road. When I was at 670/671 roads discovered that my entire map was fully uncovered. Come to find out, the road I was missing was covered by three other roads that I had already uncovered, and I was only able to find out that was what I needed by shaking my cursor on the map until the fast travel option disappeared. It’s a rough spot for those trying to discover everything this title has to offer, but once you figure out where your potential highway road spot is, you’ll feel super happy and relieved to get it over with.
That’s it, though. That’s the entire complaint list. In over 40 hours of solo play, I didn’t find anything else that really took me out of the game’s enjoyment other than slight visual glitches of a floating car one time and car wheels being displaced from the car itself, both of which I only spotted one time and never saw again.
The Short Version
Forza Horizon 6 is a Forza game. If you like Forza, you will love this game. If you like Japan, you will love this game. If you like both, you are about to lose weeks of your life to it and feel fine about every single week lost. Playground Games has been building toward a map and setting combination that fully realizes what the Horizon formula was meant to be, and I can’t wait to sink 100+ hours into this title for weeks and months to come.
