Ahead of its May launch, Playground Games reveals new details for Forza Horizon 6, showing off the many gorgeous biomes in Japan that players will be driving through. Playground Games has made a name for itself by recreating these iconic areas of the world and translating them beautifully into its video games. Based on what the studio has been showing off, Forza Horizon 6 will be following suit with its diverse biomes of Japan.
Leading up to its official reveal, rumors were swirling that Forza Horizon 6 would be featuring Japan, joining other iconic landscapes from France and Italy, to Australia, Great Britain, and more recently, Mexico. In fact, a leak spoiled a bit of the surprise after the Australian car importer Cult and Classic deleted an Instagram post showing a Playground Games developer scanning “late-model Kei cars” for the next Forza Horizon entry. As it turns out, the now-deleted Instagram post was telling the truth, as Japan is the next stop on the Horizon Tour and Playground Games is showcasing just how impressive their version of the country is.
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Forza Horizon 6’s Japan setting is a dream come true for fans, but it may also be part of Xbox’s long-term strategy to expand its presence in Japan.
Forza Horizon 6 Shows Off 5 Gorgeous Biomes
In a series of posts on the Forza Horizon social media channels, Playground Games highlighted 5 of the nature-centric biomes that fans will be able to drive around in Japan. While there are likely more to be featured, as Forza Horizon 5 featured 11 in total, the 5 biomes on display now are for the Plains, Coast, Alpine Region, Lowlands and Highlands. With a few more months until Forza Horizon 6 finally launches, fans should keep an eye out for more news and highlights of the other zones that will be available on Day 1.
While the Plains biome may initially make players think of wide open and flat spaces, the in-engine footage certainly has a variety of elements on display, including bridges, quiet streams and other bodies of water, small villages, and a variety of plant life.
The Japanese coastline will also be explorable, marked by small towns, winding roads, and sandy beaches. The footage also shows off beached fishing boats, coastal cliffs overlooking roads, as well as iconic torii gates that can be seen in the water.
For a change of pace, players can race around the alpine region of Japan, which the debut Forza Horizon 6 trailer highlighted with a bullet train and the sight of Mount Fuji. Snow-covered roads, rocky terrain, and challenging curves will be on display in this biome, and according to Playground games, snow will be present here during all four seasons. Players will likely want to take one of the many trucks within the game to explore this area, or make sure their vehicle is equipped with the correct tires.
Next up is the lowlands biome, which features plenty of hills to climb, bamboo forests, cherry blossom trees and an iconic shot of Mount Fuji waiting in the distance. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Highlands biome, which Playground Games calls the most elevated map to date. The trailer shows twisting roads moving throughout the hills, massive stretches alongside mountains, an areas of the map that let players look out across the landscape for miles. It should present many opportunities to utilize the Forza Horizon franchise’s popular Photo Mode.
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Interestingly enough, there’s still 1 biome which hasn’t yet been fully detailed. Outside these nature-specific zones of Japan, players will also be able to experience driving through the big city, as Tokyo was initially confirmed in Microsoft’s Xbox Developer Direct event in January. Playground also revealed that Horizon 6 will be the biggest map in franchise history by a wide margin, with Tokyo being the largest urban area the team has designed. What’s impressive is that the Japan map is estimated to be five times larger than Horizon 5‘s already massive version of Mexico.
