A Tourist’s Guide to Forza Horizon 6, From A Designer’s Perspective

It’s almost time – Forza Horizon 6 launches tomorrow – and plans to take us on a road trip of epic proportions around a mesmerizing recreation of Japan. From the snow-covered alpine hills to the dense, bustling streets of Tokyo City and all things in-between, the Forza team has put together the series’ biggest and most explorative adventure yet.

The adventure is made even more compelling by Forza Horizon 6’s new Journal feature, which encourages drivers to get out there and document as much of the world as you can. The map’s new fog-of-war shows where you’ve been, and where you’re yet to visit, and the photography feature allows you to capture points of interest, iconic landmarks, and breathtaking natural wonders for your Journal as you explore.

While Forza Horizon 6 has taken the utmost care to ensure these spaces are true to life, it’s important to remember that this world is not a one-for-one recreation of real-world Japan, but rather, an interpretation of landmarks and how they’re tied together in an authentic way – while considering how you can get up close and personal with these historic buildings while inside a car. There’s lots to consider from a design perspective, and who better to ask than the team themselves?

To celebrate the launch of Forza Horizon 6, we sat down with Torben Ellert, Design Director, and Don Arceta, Art Director, to learn more about how these beautiful buildings were rebuilt for a driving game, and learn more about the process behind some of the most famous landmarks featured in Horizon’s Japan. If you’re not sure where to visit first, let this also serve as a handy guide on areas in Forza Horizon 6 that deserve to be discovered.

Nachi Falls

The first step to recreating anything – be it a building, an iconic road, or an entire village nestled on Japan’s coast, is to make it feel real and believable the space you’re putting it in. In this example, it’s Nachi Falls, Japan’s tallest waterfall, with a towering, uninterrupted 133 metre drop. The waterfall also serves as the picturesque backdrop to the Kumano Nachi Taisha Grand Shrine, a striking red sanctuary that was of course, built way before we invented cars. According to Arceta, one major consideration while rebuilding this space in Forza Horizon 6 was effectively how to make it accessible for vehicles in a natural, and respectful way.

“We really wanted to capture the essence of this view we see a lot in real tourist guides, the big red temple with the waterfall behind it, but it’s always taken in an off-road area,” Arceta says. “In our game, we wanted to compose that in a way that you could fully appreciate it from the car. You can drive right up and around it, the space fully accommodates the car, and you can park and get a beautiful photo that looks like something you’d see in real life.

“We also take some liberties to ensure you’re not unnecessarily smashing through objects to appreciate the space.”

While it’s a beautiful spot to visit just for the sake of it, Forza Horizon 6 ensures that it’s combining these amazing spaces with gameplay elements. For example, if you follow the river down from the waterfall, you’ll also find an aftermarket car, placed intentionally to reflect where you are and what you’re doing at that moment.

Ellert also tells us that there’s an XP bonus board hidden behind the waterfall – something you’d only discover if you drive right up to the base (or over the top, in my case) – or, if you’re a seasoned gamer, attuned to finding secrets behind waterfalls, somewhere you’ll definitely, specifically go and look.

“Did we follow the iron law of game design? Yes, we did.” Ellert laughs. “Because this is also a traversal game, we lean into the playfulness of it in a way that is uniquely Horizon.”

Ruriko-ji Temple and Hirosaki Castle

Japan is full of breathtaking, ancient structures, heavily protected and deeply respected as either places or worship or the former homes to rulers of Japan’s regions. Ruriko-ji is a Buddhist Temple – recognizable by its towering, five-tiered pagoda surrounded by lush greenery. Hirosaki Castle offers a similarly attractive view, a stark but stunning black and white building surrounded by Sakura (Japan’s iconic cherry blossom trees).

Both locations hold national treasure status  in Japan and preserving their prevalence and dignity as historical monuments was something that the Forza Horizon 6 team did not take lightly. Much like Nachi Falls, they look extremely close to their real-world counterparts, but some accommodations needed to be made to make them car-friendly.

“With places like these, we’re always trying to be as respectful as we possibly can,” Don explains. “With Hirosaki, we have cherry blossoms scattered around the castle, but that is actually one of the only trees you cannot smash in the game, out of respect, which is something that Kyoko Yamashita, our cultural consultant, highlighted. Kyoko was so important in helping us understand what we’re actually building and giving us the confidence to craft these landmarks.”

These two locations are also part of a collection of tourist hot spots that contributed to Forza Horizon 6’s Discover Japan path – the game includes Day Trip missions that mirror the trips that visitors often take.

“Those missions are bite-sized pieces of content scattered around the map, inspired by the things that people visiting Japan will often do – with a Horizon twist,” Ellert explains. “We thought very carefully about which Day Trips to create, what they would showcase, and how we would lead players to them, in a way that’s structured to reward you from a gameplay perspective.”

Ine Fishing Village and Shirakawa-go

Recreating singular, iconic buildings is one job, but redesigning entire settlements in Japan presents its own design hurdles. As mentioned earlier, the Forza Horizon 6 team can’t just effectively place a one-for-one recreation of an entire village inside the game – they had to work to bottle the vibe of a location instead – how do you make it feel authentic, like you’re really there, within the boundaries of a video game experience?

Ine Fishing Village and Shirakawa-go are two locations where this design approach really shines. Ine is a charming fishing town, made up of small, traditional buildings that hug Japan’s Northern Coast. One of its most recognizable features is its unique Funaya – a cluster of boathouses lining Ine Bay.

“We wanted to capture the main street going through the town, with all of the wooden houses and the koinobori fishes, two distinct visuals that captured the essence of the place,” Arceta says. “That leads to capturing the view you get from across the water, looking back at those boathouses. We wanted to make sure we factored in a road network that lets you appreciate it.”

There’s also a player house for sale in Ine, and a story mission very close to the village – again, giving players activities that reward your efforts to explore these areas.

Shirakawa-go is a similarly picturesque village, but instead it sits deep within the Ryohaku Mountains, obscured by forest greenery. Here, you’ll see beautiful, thatched farmhouses, designed to withstand the mountain’s brisk winters – something that the team wanted to showcase in Forza Horizon 6.

“The seasonality of this location was something that we really wanted to capture,” Arceta says. “Shirakawa gets super heavy snowfall, and they get these massive piles of snow on those roofs, which really captures the essence of the place.”

Forza Horizon 6’s seasons run in weekly instalments – a week of spring, a week of summer, and so on. This lets players experience Japan through vastly different conditions – and allows enough time to revisit certain areas that go through the most striking seasonal changes, like Shirakawa. Plus, the game’s race events – like the Shirakawa Circuit, for example – will look and play completely different depending on which season the game is currently in, another way to emphasizehow much seasonality affects the real-world area.

The team also had to think about the layout of both Ine and Shirakawa – to place a precedent on feeling real-world accurate rather than actually being true to life.

“We used videos of people walking through the village as a lens, so when you’re driving through, it feels authentic to that experience,” Arceta explains. “Sometimes, we’ll need to introduce something that might not exist there, but working with Kyoko [Yamashita], we explored elements that could believably exist. Like, ’Could this petrol station go here? Maybe not in the town centre, but on the outskirts.’ Or, ‘We’ll swap one building that exists for something else – adding flourishes to meet design needs for the game.’”

Mount Haruna and Tateyama Kurobe

It’s tough to truly appreciate an area’s sheer size and presence without seeing it with your own eyes. In Forza Horizon 6, you’ll soar down the cliffs of Japan’s Mount Haruna on thin, winding roads that require extreme control. From the top, they’re a scenic marvel – miles and miles of Japanese landscape where you’re often looking at beach, forest and snow-kissed peaks all at once. In comparison, Tateyama Kurobe – Japan’s epic alpine route that snakes through towering, immovable blocks of snowy walls, make you feel tiny, like you’re driving through a well-kept secret.

These two areas are strong examples of how the team has worked to capture a sense of scale, both wildly sprawling and expertly contained – simultaneously making them feel epic to explore, but feasible within the boundaries of Forza’s gameplay experience.

“It’s about collapsing these specific, memorable moments and getting rid of the filler between them, basically,” Ellert explains. “One thing that helps us express this is the point of transition between biomes. The linear distance isn’t massive, but moving between different areas and watching the scenery change around you adds to that scale.”

Ginkgo Avenue, Tokyo City… All of It

Tokyo City is of course, one of the most iconic places to visit of all. From its pleasant, suburban outskirts to the vibrant, neon-soaked central streets full of Japan’s most revered hotspots, it’s one of the most thrilling places to drive through, and one of Arceta’s favorite places on the map.

“A lot of work, love and learning has gone into developing Tokyo City, it’s the most three dimensional, layered, overlapping, and overall authentic urban area I think we’ve ever built.”

Here, the density of landmarks doesn’t feel out of place. Shibuya Crossing and Ginkgo Avenue for example – these two landmarks are pretty close in real-life, so it doesn’t feel unrealistic to see them both in quick succession here.

What makes Tokyo City feel so special is that it’s made up of lots of “little vibes” as Arceta describes it. Akihabara is a buzzing retail hub for technology and entertainment, it’s constantly alive and feels electric no matter when you pass through. Daikoku, just a short distance away, has a more chilled out feel in comparison, as does Ginkgo Avenue, a golden-hued pocket of natural beauty in otherwise highly urban environment, in which Shibuya Crossing sits, just that short drive away.

It’s the dichotomy of looming skyscrapers and overstimulated lightshows mixed with the serenity of small, green spaces and more “underground” areas that make Tokyo City feel truly special, and believable inside Forza Horizon 6’s impressive world.

Bonus Trip: Hokobu Time Circuit and Urakawa Space Center

If you got this far, here’s a departing treat. The Hokobu Circuit is a Time Attack mission available in Forza Horizon 6, where the goal is simply to set your best time, and challenge your friends. Ellert highlights this activity as one of his favorites, not just from a gameplay standpoint, but also as a homage to real-world Japanese car culture.

“It’s this wonderful, communal experience of people driving their cars on these little, rundown tracks that exist inside mountain valleys that is so quintessentially Japanese,” Ellert says. “We were then able to integrate game features that are about being together and competing with yourself, improving, and being with other people, and Hokobu is the one I like the most, possibly because I’ve spent the most time there.”

One final location that Ellert is particularly proud of is the Urakawa Space centre, which you’ll race to during Forza Horizon 6’s introduction.

“I’m a giant space nerd, and there’s something pure and aspirational about civilian spaceflight, and I was delighted that we managed to get this location in and integrate it into the campaign the way that we did,” Ellert adds. “There’s also a Drag Meet here, and several race routes that wind in and out, but overall, it was just lovely to have that incredibly modern expression of hyper-technology alongside ancient buildings just to indicate the sheer range of contrasts in Japan.”

“It’s also an encapsulation of the human desire to just… go.”

That sentiment is of course, captured perfectly in Forza Horizon 6, and this is just a small selection of the places you’ll be able to visit, document, and photograph as part of your own journey through Japan, which you’ll be able to embark on very soon, from today,by purchasing the Forza Horizon 6 Premium Edition.

The road trip begins May 19, Forza Horizon 6 will be available on XBOX Series X|S, XBOX on PC and XBOX Cloud as an XBOX Play Anywhere title, and playable day one with XBOX Game Pass.

Forza Horizon 6 Standard Edition

Xbox Game Studios

☆☆☆☆☆
1994

★★★★★

$69.99

Pre-order Forza Horizon 6 now and get a pre-tuned and exclusive Ferrari J50 in-game!

Discover the breathtaking landscapes of Japan in over 550 real-world cars and become a racing Legend at the Horizon Festival. Start your journey as a tourist and explore a world full of hit music and Japanese culture. Build a Valley Estate, acquire awe-inspiring homes, and display your prized car collection in fully Customizable Garages. Cruise the roads with your friends and join Car Meets around Japan, unleash your imagination with EventLab and build together in Horizon CoLab.*

Your journey to a Horizon Legend starts now – Japan Awaits!

EXPERIENCE TOKYO, HORIZON’S LARGEST EVER CITY
Welcome to Japan, a place where the stunning contrasts of rural and urban come together as you uncover the secrets hidden within Horizon’s most dense map yet, full of verticality, diverse biomes and spectacular driving experiences. Cruise the suburbs and iconic downtown streets or challenge yourself in the docks and industrial districts of Tokyo City, the largest ever urban area in a Forza Horizon game, and the home for car enthusiasts.

FEEL IMMERSED IN JAPANESE CAR CULTURE
Drive over 550 real-world cars, including some much loved and fan favorite JDM classics, featuring cutting-edge engine audio and updated steering animations with up to 540 degrees of wheel rotation. As you explore Japan, collect special Forza Edition cars fitted with extreme modifications and find rare Aftermarket Cars to test drive and buy. Your path to making a name for yourself will see you meet the Legends of the Horizon Festival, participate in Touge Battles, and experience authentic stories rooted in Japan’s legendary car culture.

RACE AND DISCOVER IN JAPAN
In Forza Horizon 6, you will explore a vast campaign of discovery and Festival racing, playable solo and in co-op with your friends.* You’ll start as a tourist and must prove you’ve got what it takes to join the Horizon Festival as a rookie driver, all while you Discover Japan and complete your Collection Journal. Qualify for the Festival in the Horizon Invitational, then rise through the ranks in progressively faster cars and earn new Wristbands to become a Horizon Legend. Your newfound status will grant you access to Legend Island, an exclusive space reserved for the greatest drivers.

MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD YOURS
Your journey will see you purchase gorgeous homes in Japan, each with customizable garages – allowing you to create the ideal spaces to showcase your car collection, or you can download layouts shared online by the community. Unlock the Estate, a mountain valley where you can build freely in the open world, creating nearly anything you can imagine. And for your favorite cars, those can be upgraded with body kits and new Forza Aero options, as well as the ability to paint custom liveries on windows.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY IN MULTIPLAYER
This Festival is always better with your friends.* Seamlessly participate in Time Attack Circuits and Drag Meets or show off your customized cars at Car Meets. Earn new co-op LINK skills with other players, compete in Spec Racing Championships, or jump into the Horizon Multiplayer modes you know and love including The Eliminator and nailbiting Hide & Seek.

BUILD TOGETHER, ANYWHERE IN JAPAN
Create with unprecedented freedom anywhere in Japan as you build custom events with your friends in CoLab, the upgraded EventLab toolset – now featuring multiplayer support* and the ability to build literally anywhere in the world. Share your masterpieces for everyone to play and discover an always evolving catalog of exciting new content created by the community.

THE FESTIVAL FOR EVERY DRIVER
Hit the open road in our most approachable Horizon game yet. Our customization options include Granular High Contrast Mode, Car Proximity Radar, American and British Sign Language, and AutoDrive, allowing players to experience the beautiful cars, hit music and spectacular locations of the Horizon Festival.

Discover your Legend, and Explore the Contrasts and Culture of Japan.

*Online console multiplayer requires a Game Pass subscription that includes online multiplayer, sold separately.

Forza Horizon 6 Premium Edition

Xbox Game Studios

☆☆☆☆☆
2177

★★★★★

$119.99

Pre-order Forza Horizon 6 now and get a pre-tuned and exclusive Ferrari J50 in-game!

Forza Horizon 6 Premium Edition includes the full game with Early Access – Play 4 days early starting May 15, and VIP Membership, Welcome Pack, Time Attack Car Pack, and Car Pass (30 cars delivered to your game, one per week), as well as the Italian Passion Car Pack and two Premium Expansions coming post-launch.

Discover the breathtaking landscapes of Japan in over 550 real-world cars and become a racing Legend at the Horizon Festival. Start your journey as a tourist and explore a world full of hit music and Japanese culture. Build a Valley Estate, acquire awe-inspiring homes, and display your prized car collection in fully Customizable Garages. Cruise the roads with your friends and join Car Meets around Japan, unleash your imagination with EventLab and build together in Horizon CoLab.*

Your journey to a Horizon Legend starts now – Japan Awaits!

EXPERIENCE TOKYO, HORIZON’S LARGEST EVER CITY
Welcome to Japan, a place where the stunning contrasts of rural and urban come together as you uncover the secrets hidden within Horizon’s most dense map yet, full of verticality, diverse biomes and spectacular driving experiences. Cruise the suburbs and iconic downtown streets or challenge yourself in the docks and industrial districts of Tokyo City, the largest ever urban area in a Forza Horizon game, and the home for car enthusiasts.

FEEL IMMERSED IN JAPANESE CAR CULTURE
Drive over 550 real-world cars, including some much loved and fan favorite JDM classics, featuring cutting-edge engine audio and updated steering animations with up to 540 degrees of wheel rotation. As you explore Japan, collect special Forza Edition cars fitted with extreme modifications and find rare Aftermarket Cars to test drive and buy. Your path to making a name for yourself will see you meet the Legends of the Horizon Festival, participate in Touge Battles, and experience authentic stories rooted in Japan’s legendary car culture.

RACE AND DISCOVER IN JAPAN
In Forza Horizon 6, you will explore a vast campaign of discovery and Festival racing, playable solo and in co-op with your friends.* You’ll start as a tourist and must prove you’ve got what it takes to join the Horizon Festival as a rookie driver, all while you Discover Japan and complete your Collection Journal. Qualify for the Festival in the Horizon Invitational, then rise through the ranks in progressively faster cars and earn new Wristbands to become a Horizon Legend. Your newfound status will grant you access to Legend Island, an exclusive space reserved for the greatest drivers.

MAKE THE WHOLE WORLD YOURS
Your journey will see you purchase gorgeous homes in Japan, each with customizable garages – allowing you to create the ideal spaces to showcase your car collection, or you can download layouts shared online by the community. Unlock the Estate, a mountain valley where you can build freely in the open world, creating nearly anything you can imagine. And for your favorite cars, those can be upgraded with body kits and new Forza Aero options, as well as the ability to paint custom liveries on windows.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY IN MULTIPLAYER
This Festival is always better with your friends.* Seamlessly participate in Time Attack Circuits and Drag Meets or show off your customized cars at Car Meets. Earn new co-op LINK skills with other players, compete in Spec Racing Championships, or jump into the Horizon Multiplayer modes you know and love including The Eliminator and nailbiting Hide & Seek.

BUILD TOGETHER, ANYWHERE IN JAPAN
Create with unprecedented freedom anywhere in Japan as you build custom events with your friends in CoLab, the upgraded EventLab toolset – now featuring multiplayer support* and the ability to build literally anywhere in the world. Share your masterpieces for everyone to play and discover an always evolving catalog of exciting new content created by the community.

THE FESTIVAL FOR EVERY DRIVER
Hit the open road in our most approachable Horizon game yet. Our customization options include Granular High Contrast Mode, Car Proximity Radar, American and British Sign Language, and AutoDrive, allowing players to experience the beautiful cars, hit music and spectacular locations of the Horizon Festival.
Discover your Legend, and Explore the Contrasts and Culture of Japan.

*Online console multiplayer requires a Game Pass subscription that includes online multiplayer, sold separately.