Stop for a moment and have a think of this: when’s the last time you ever appreciate and savour a collectible in a video game?
The Forza Horizon series introduced murals as a form of collectibles in Forza Horizon 5 where you can find cool graphics created by real artists which make for good photo spots.
The upcoming Forza Horizon 6 will have them too, this time partnering with Japanese artists to feature their art in Forza Horizon’s take on Japan.
The full list of featured artists that produced original art for the mural collectibles in Forza Horizon 6 are found here.
But that’s not all what Forza has cooked up. As part of the promo for the upcoming open world racer, Forza has produced a three-episode documentary series dubbed The Art Of Driving where we get to see one of the featured mural artists go on a roadtrip in Japan to explore their inspirations behind their featured art alongside host Larry Chen.
Larry Chen is a seasoned photographer and now content creator who’s been capturing car culture around the world (including Southeast Asia). If you’re a car enthusiast, you might be familiar with his work on the Hagerty YouTube channel on his Capturing Car Culture series, or through his own channel where he directly films and interviews like-minded car nuts on cool cars, cool places for car people to hangout and more.
The Art Of Driving mixes in Chen’s car enthusiasm, some in-game footage of Forza Horizon 6 that blends really with real shots as well as serving an educational purpose in sharing Japanese culture.
The first of the three episodes just dropped, where Chen takes artist Satoshi Fujita a.k.a. Dragon76 on a trip through the Tohoku region to learn about the Nebuta Festival, discover ice sculpting, eat bowls upon small bowls of soba noodles and more.
Dragon76’s cyberpunk/near-future street art is inspired by the same festival, featuring Susanoo-no-Mikoto and a dragon. You get to see the co-hero car as featured in the key art, the brand-new (in real-life and to Forza) 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser, both in real and in Forza Horizon 6 forms cruising through the winter.
The episode ends with a kicker: if you ever thought that these mural collectibles are tacked-on and out of place just for the sake of having content in the open world, at least you’ll give a pass for Forza Horizon 6. It’s justified.
It is crazy to think that this 21-minute educational, beautifully shot car and travel content was produced because an open world racing game has a collectible murals. A collectible, a thing gamers usually just do to simply check a box and move on. Goes to show we should really stop and smell the roses more often. And quite the inventive marketing move.
Forza Horizon 6 will be out on May 19 on PC (Steam, Microsoft Store) and Xbox Series X|S, and later this year on PS5.