Forza Horizon 6: Just how authentic is its Japanese world?

The choice of Japan as the setting for Forza Horizon 6 (featured here in Notebookcheck’s benchmark test) has been one of the community’s biggest wishes for years. It is no secret that the Japanese open world has been very well received by players. But how authentic is FH 6’s version of Japan? Anyone who has never been to the Land of the Rising Sun will find that difficult to judge. According to Reddit user u/Airflow2k, who says they are from Japan themselves, the map in Forza Horizon 6 looks very authentic overall – though the player homes are missing a bit of modern Tokyo flair.

As u/Airflow2k writes on Reddit, Playground Games has recreated Japan “in such incredible detail.” They even call it “hands down the most authentic and well-balanced version of Japan” they have ever seen in a game from a non-Japanese studio. The roads are not entirely true to life, as they are wider than in reality. However, they see this as only a minor issue. According to the Reddit user, the wider roads make sense from a gameplay perspective, since multiple cars need to be able to drive side by side.

There is some criticism, however, specifically regarding the player homes. Here, u/Airflow2k feels the game leans a little too heavily on familiar Japanese clichés. Examples include old wooden houses, small traditional shops and references to the “Fujiwara Tofu Shop” from Initial D. While this is charming and generally fits the atmosphere, it also gives the impression that, with FH6, the developers relied heavily on familiar images of Japan from movies, anime and racing-game culture. Precisely because the game world otherwise appears to show many different facets of Japan, the user would have liked to see more variety among the player homes. As an example, they cite a modern high-rise apartment in downtown Tokyo, which would have emphasized Japan’s urban side more strongly.

Many community members understand the criticism of the player homes. Several users also say they would have liked to see modern Japanese architecture represented more prominently. Others question how much realism a Forza Horizon game actually needs, pointing out that the series has never aimed to recreate an entire country on a one-to-one scale. Instead, the focus is more on creating a condensed, drivable version of a country, with wider roads, varied locations and as many iconic backdrops as possible packed into a compact space. Even so, with Forza Horizon 6 (Xbox version currently available for around $67 on Amazon), Playground appears to have succeeded in combining that formula with a convincing Japanese atmosphere.