One of the criticisms among the racing game community of the much-loved Forza Horizon 5 is that the open world racer has no sense of progression You don’t have to work your way up the ladder from slower daily drivers to exotic hypercars as one would expect from any laudable racing game.
So when Forza Horizon 6 was revealed to feature a strict progression system again as seen in past games, even bringing back the whole wristband system to indicate the level of access you have to events within the Horizon Festival, it was celebrated.
But as revealed in a new post, Forza Horizon 6’s campaign hasn’t exactly ditched the whole “do what you want in any car” philosophy of Forza Horizon 5. Rather, Forza Horizon 6 has both a stricter progression system (Horizon Festival) as well as a leisurely one (Discover Japan). Two cakes!
The Horizon Festival is the stricter progression system that racing game goers crave. Starting as just a tourist visiting Japan, you have to complete the Horizon Qualifiers, then compete the Horizon Invitational before you can earn your first wristband, 1 of 7. This will unlock three of Forza Horizon’s four core race event types: Road, Dirt and Cross Country.
Each race event is curated, you are expected to race in specific set of cars. Though you can run custom events once the preset event is completed with your own selected options through the now-called Race Customiser, with more options than ever including individually selecting the cars you race against (up to 11—the grid size is still the same from Forza Horizon 5).
Earning the next wristband is punctuated with a special Wristband Event, which includes the series’ staple Showcase Events. The post confirms that the mecha seen in the gameplay reveal video is indeed a Showcase Event and indeed not a Gundam, it’s called “Chaser Zero,” Forza Horizon’s own creation.
Once all 7 Wristbands are earned which makes players a Horizon Legend (rather than starting out as one like it was in Forza Horizon 5), the Legend Island is unlocked. There will be a Goliath event, the Colossus, which is the longest in Forza Horizon’s history on the account that it’s a loop of the entire map, which itself is bigger than ever.
The Horizon Festival has all the strict progression system fans yearn, but for the more casual fans who just want to mess about and enjoy cars as cars, the Discover Japan progression track is there for you.
This is basically Forza Horizon 5’s freeform progression again. You’ll be collecting stamps as you progress through Discover Japan, which includes food delivery (there has to be tofu delivery runs up and down a mountain switchback), taking photos, playing Horizon Stories (missions with specific themes), collect cars and also compete in Touge Battles (this is the perfect game to have a dedicated Eurobeat and Eurodance radio station) and Street Races.
Street Races, the fourth main race event type is placed in the Discover Japan progression track—fitting as these never are part of the Horizon Festival anyway. You can freely race in any car, even the hypercars, in Street Races from the get-go, without having to grind your way to unlocking the ability to do so.
Forza Horizon 6 has found a way to accommodate both the playstyles of Forza Horizon 5 where you are free to do anything while still have a focused campaign feel of older games in the series. Two cakes is a lot, but we’re not complaining.
Forza Horizon 6 will launch first on Xbox Series X|S and PC (Steam, Microsoft Store) on May 19. It will also arrive on PS5 later this year.
Forza Horizon 6 will feature both cross-play and cross-progression (cross-save), so you can double-dip and play on PS5 later without weight of having to start a new save again.