There's something genuinely awe-inspiring about playing a game that vividly recreates a real-life setting. The New York City of Insomniac's recent Spider-Man games is a perfect example, and now we have the Tokyo of Forza Horizon 6, a recreation so good, even locals are astounded.
Not just any local residents, either. You've got game developers, such as Keiichiro Toyama, director of the first Silent Hill and creator of the Siren series. After spending some time in the new racer from Playground Games, he stepped out into Japan's capital and found it was like stepping into Forza Horizon 6 for real.
"I was like whoa, it’s Forza Horizon 6 in real life lol!" he tweeted, as translated by Automaton. He included some pictures taken of Tokyo in the evening time, to demonstrate just how well the developers have captured the lighting and local traffic of the bustling city.
昨日都心に出たら、リアルForza Horizon 6や！と変な感じだったw pic.twitter.com/LAPNQYoR5pMay 20, 2026
Toyama is part of a growing chorus of Japanese people who're complimenting the game as such. "The mountains, the rice paddies, the utility poles! It's Japan in every sense," a fan posted on Twitter.
"Laughing because they even included those ridiculously spacious convenience parking lots you always see in the countryside," another player states, with an accompanying screenshot. "It's so Japanese, it's almost too Japanese. It feels like everyday life.," a third person adds.
Yuta Horie, an architect from Japan who lectures at Yokohama National University and Tokyo University of Science, provided a deeper analysis on Twitter of how Playground Games has managed to recreate the logic of the country's layout. "The meticulously recreated urban areas, suburbs, and countryside props form recognizable districts," he explains, as translated by Automaton.
"And at intersections in cities, features like chamfered corner buildings packed with small businesses and pedestrian overpasses create nodes," he continues, "while in rural areas wide bypass roads branch into narrow private roads and farm paths, forming another kind of node structure."
The next time you hop into Forza Horizon 6 for a spin, have a think about just how detailed the setting actually is. It's almost enough to inspire an impulsive holiday - almost.
