pronounced (opens in new tab)Square Enix’s next big RPG, made a pretty positive impression on us when we checked it out in a December 2021 preview session (opens in new tab). The story of a tough young woman from New York City who falls through an interdimensional portal into the fantasy world of Athia promises a stylish mix of action, magic and parkour in a perilous open world, and while we didn’t get to see everything, the pieces the ones we saw were “sick as hell”. Unfortunately, a trailer shared on Twitter yesterday sparked a different kind of reaction.
The trailer shows off 30 seconds of Forspoken gameplay, which seems fine, but it also has lead character Frey Holland describing her newfound circumstances in a snappy, fake infidel tone. “So let me get this straight,” she says. “I’m somewhere I wouldn’t call Earth, I see goddamn dragons, and – oh yes! – I’m talking to a cuff! Yeah, okay, that’s something I do now. I do magic, jacked-up dead beasts, I’ll probably fly next.”
A beautiful and cruel new land? Twisted monsters? A range of magical abilities? Sensitive jewelry!? Welcome to the world of #Forspoken. pic.twitter.com/46diiLnQ7MAugust 8, 2022
And then of course she flies. Well, jumps a long way.
Unfortunately for Square Enix, the edgy, “witty” dialogue didn’t go over well. Not at all. Asking for multiple answers, with varying degrees of severity, to fire the writers, voice director, and/or marketing team; others say the dialogue dampened (or downright killed) enthusiasm for Forspoken based on previous dialogue-free gameplay clips.
Of course it wasn’t all bad. A handful of creatively minded respondents applied the formula to other games, with wonderful results:
Some who watched the trailer found that it reminded them of the funny style of Joss Whedon, the once beloved writer and director of Buffy, Angel, Firefly and a few Avengers movies. A redditor in this thread (opens in new tab)for example, said Holland talks “like a Joss Whedon parody,” while another complains that “every bit of dialogue so far has been funny, Whedon-esque nonsense.”
Whedon isn’t involved with Forspoken, for the record, but several other high-profile writers are, including Star Wars writer (and long-ago PC Gamer editor) Gary Whitta, Uncharted writer and director Amy Hennig, and veteran television screenwriter. Allison Rymer. That’s an impressive roster of talent, which makes the cringe factor of this video even more remarkable – and, for followers previously impressed by Forspoken’s gameplay, frustrating.
The trailer botch is the latest misstep on a long, rough path for Square Enix in the West. Recent releases including Marvel’s Avengers (opens in new tab)Guardians of the Universe (opens in new tab)and the fall of Babylon (opens in new tab) stumbled, and in April, Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka honestly said he thinks Square Enix “don’t care about games (opens in new tab)In May, Square Enix transferred Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix Montreal — and all of their games, including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain — to Embracer Group for $300 million. (opens in new tab)leading Eidos Montreal founder Stephane D’Astous to say in July that Square Enix’s handling of the studio was “a train wreck in slow motion”. (opens in new tab)Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda remains optimistic about the blockchain (opens in new tab)meanwhile, despite a strong pushback from Square Enix fans.
This new Forspoken trailer probably won’t bolster anyone’s faith in Square Enix, but hopefully it’s just some early voiceovers and poor editing, and the game itself will still live up to our previous expectations. We’ll find out early next year: Forspoken comes out on January 24, 2023.
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