At the June 2020 PS5 reveal event, Square Enix announced Project Athia, a new title from Final Fantasy 15 developer Luminous Productions. This game would be renamed later pronounced, a brand new AAA RPG franchise from one of the largest publishers in the industry. While the game still hasn’t launched, it looks like: pronounced has been a problematic title for Square Enix, as the game has been the subject of much ridicule throughout its marketing cycle for what critics have deemed chilling dialogue, technical glitches, and a series of delays, pushing it from early 2021 all the way to early 2023.
However, this is indicative of a bigger problem with Square Enix, which is the company’s continued clumsiness in marketing its titles. Fans will remember last year’s Square Enix Presents E3 2021 showcase, in which the studio was heavily criticized for hosting half of the show. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxywhile we also release a trailer for Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin which has fallen into disgrace for its hilarious premise and overuse of the word “Chaos”. Fortunately, these titles were well received at launch, although the same remains to be seen pronounced.
Forspoken’s fumbles so far
pronounced‘s first reveal in 2020 came with a lot of promise. The game is Luminous Productions’ first original title and will be the second AAA release ever to use the studio’s Luminous Engine, previously only seen in Final Fantasy 15. Given the project’s status as a PS5 timed console exclusive, this is a great opportunity because pronounced will see the studio flex its muscles on a whole new generation of hardware, not limited by the aging technology of the last generation.
The game also features publisher Square Enix’s first attempt at Western-style storytelling, at least from one of its Japanese teams, as the story is written by writers Todd Stashwick, K. Michel Parandi, and Allison Rymer, led by Rogue One: A Star Wars Story co-writer Gary Whitta, with input from not mapped and legacy of Cain writer Amy Hennig. The game’s soundtrack is also composed by The living Dead and god of war composer Bear McCreary and BioShock Infinite composer Gary Schyman. Finally, the protagonist of the game is Ella Balinska, who recently starred in Charlie’s Angels and Netflix’s Resident Evil TV series.
With all this potential at his disposal, it’s a wonder why pronounced continues to be the subject of discussion with every new trailer Square Enix releases for the game. After more than two years since its unveiling, the game should be a known quantity, with fans willing to dive in when it (hopefully) releases in January 2023. However, the problem that quickly became apparent is that Square Enix continues to get in its own way when marketing certain AAA releases, and it’s marketing for pronounced has been one of the worst to date.
Earlier this month, Square Enix released a teaser for: pronounced on the game’s official Twitter account plucking some of the game’s out of context dialogue, in which protagonist Frey jokes about her situation, having been transported from modern New York to a fantasy world. Many compared this to the much-obsolete dialogue of Joss Whedon, the writer and director of films like The Avengers and the theatrical version of Justice League. Although this writing style can still be found in many works today, its implementation in pronouncedespecially by pronounced‘s awkwardly constructed Twitter video is painfully unoriginal and exaggerated.
How Square Enix Failed in Guardians of the Galaxy and Stranger of Paradise
This is reminiscent of Square Enix’s recent treatment of: Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxytwo games that eventually received positive attention upon release, despite being heavily mocked and criticized before release. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was heavily criticized for its humorous reveal, with many of the jokes being poorly implemented in the game’s trailers, followed by a lengthy gameplay presentation that provided no context to the events that preceded it, making the entire presentation a waste of showcasing the game’s potential.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy also had the unfortunate position of following Marvel’s Avengersa game that remains controversial to this day for its live service game design, monetization, and repetitive content. Guardians of the UniverseIts unveiling less than a year later put it in a tough spot, and Square Enix was clearly unwilling to give the game the attention it deserved, giving it a four-month marketing window between release and unveiling. In the end, there were low expectations of Guardians of the Universe nearing release, until reviews were released that claimed the game was actually a surprise win for developer Eidos Montreal, scoring a solid 80 on Metacritic. Unfortunately, it was too late for the game to sell, as Square Enix later revealed that it was disappointed with the game Guardians of the Universebefore developer Eidos Montreal was sold to Embracer Group earlier this year.
Stranger of Paradise shares a similar story. Developed in collaboration with Koei Tecmo, Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin was not greeted with outright hatred at its unveiling rather than being mocked for the poor editing of the trailer that highlighted some of the more campy elements of the game’s storytelling. The game later received a PS5 exclusive demo that many fans praised for its gameplay but criticized for its disappointing visuals and bizarre story, which was a retelling of Final Fantasy 1‘s story with characters that feel plucked from a modern setting.
This spot of Stranger of Paradise tracked similar to Guardians of the Universe until it was also received positively, scoring a decent 72 on Metacritic. While most of the criticism stayed the same, many fans and reviewers found Stranger of Paradise‘s unintentionally humorous style of storytelling is somewhat endearing, and the game has already earned itself somewhat of a cult following, despite only being released five months ago.
There is still hope for Forspoken
What does this mean? pronounced is that while the game’s marketing seems to be the subject of much criticism and discussion, there is potential for the game to receive positive reception when it comes out. Fans have already started praising the gameplay trailer released during Gamescom 2022, which finally took the time to highlight pronounced‘s various combat and open-world elements, which seem to be the standout features of the game. pronounced‘s battles already seem fun, mechanically diverse and unique compared to anything Square Enix has done before, and the passage continues to look breathtaking.
Hopefully this means the game is yet another victim of Square Enix’s increasingly problematic marketing. Like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Originit can still find an audience and turn out to be great.
pronounced will be released on January 24, 2023 for PC and PS5.
0 Comments