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Thomas Froehlicher
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The Tokyo Game Show is finally back on track after two years of online-only events due to COVID. The exhibition reopened in physical form this year and the event managers provided visa support to the foreign press, which allowed me to attend, play some demos and write some previews again. pronounced was easily TGS 2022’s biggest game, but also the most intriguing – so double reason to play the demo twice (and wait in the long line) to learn as much as you can about the upcoming western-style action RPG from SquareEnix.
pronouncedThe TGS demo takes place in an open area of the game. The player is given a number of goals that must be completed within the 15 minutes allowed (in any order). These give a good idea of some of the features the game will offer – the closest target from the start has a crafting board very similar to the one in The Last of Us Part II, for example. Frey can craft new items from materials collected in the wild and improve her gear here.
Our isekai heroine’s outfit consists only of cloaks and necklaces, which I found actually quite fitting for the heroic fantasy world she finds herself in. This differs from the genre’s traditional weapons and equipment, but is more coherent with a world ruled by magic. Each device has a unique design and different effects ranging from things like self-heal to critical hits. There were quite a few unique cloaks and effects available in the demo alone, so this bodes well for the game with many different play styles.
How you actually play is probably the most surprising part of pronounced. Magic is the only mode of combat and it is therefore much more developed than the magic found in most other action RPGs, where you carve your way to success with an old-fashioned sword or other similar combat weapons. Frey had two kinds of magic in the demo: Earth and Fire. That doesn’t sound like much, but each of these magical species gives access to many different moves. Earth magic lets you fire small rocks like you would an assault rifle, throw a large crystal for a greater range of damage, deploy a stone shield, or set traps. Fire magic grants a flame sword, flame lance, or flame gloves. The earth magic is cool to use, but fire magic felt a little more powerful. Each magic type also has an even more powerful spell that can only be used from time to time; the fire literally engulfs the zone in front of you in a wall of flames. I couldn’t help but be impressed by the range of offensive capabilities available in this short demo.
Unfortunately I didn’t find the controls very optimal – you have to press L1+R1 to change your current magic, then R1+direction to select the skill you want to use. This causes a lot of short interruptions during combat, and sometimes it just seemed to change without noticing (unless I missed something, of course). pronouncedThe real-time battles are quite dynamic and fast, so this is far from ideal. Precision is also a bit lacking, especially with the fire style. Enemy lock didn’t work as well or as well as I wanted, making it difficult to move towards enemies efficiently, resulting in misses.
Exploration is an area where pronounced Surprise me. Thanks to the magic concentrated beneath her feet, Frey travels across the land at great strides, and this is strongly felt by the player thanks to the Dualsense’s haptic feedback. She can easily cross water and, even more strikingly, fall from almost any height without a scratch. Climbing is also possible thanks to a Spiderman-esque string you can hook onto rocks, but it didn’t feel very intuitive. You have to aim for every jump and it can only stick to certain specific parts of walls. While this gets tiring and ironically reduces the overall feeling of freedom, Magic Parkour (as the exploration system is called) is generally innovative and fun, allowing for some of the smoothest travel I’ve ever seen in an open world game.
The demo room was quite large. I found a hidden side mission where I had to defend a few locals from waves of monsters. I also saw some other players in front of me taking on a special boss, although unfortunately I didn’t manage to find it during one of my playthroughs. The main boss was located on a bridge and was remarkably imposing, so I think we can expect some unique and cool boss fights in the rest of the game. There was an altar that could be discovered that gave Frey some (permanent) defense points. I thought that was very smart; Exploration can be boring if it’s just about finding a few trinkets, but getting stronger lastingly is definitely a strong motivation to look around. pronounced could turn out to be an excellent open world game if all the elements in this demo are realized in the final product.
Visually it is also impressive. The level of detail is great and the monster designs are convincing, but the magical effects in particular are absolutely stunning. Some of the larger fire, earth, and (enemy) water spells have an impact and magnitude that I’ve rarely experienced in a video game. The environment wasn’t as strong as I expected for a flagship game like this; it consisted of a number of common valleys with no prominent architecture. The geography itself lacks the fantasy you would expect from such a title. From what I’ve been through so far, pronounced is very far from anything like Elden Ring in terms of level design. There was no trace of story in the demo, but you could get a taste of each character’s mood and personality. Frey talks constantly to a voice called Cuff (I understand it’s her bracelet), whose unnecessary and ridiculous commentary got on my nerves within seconds. Cuff often joked about Frey (and the player) when she took damage. I really hope that doesn’t define the kind of fantasy story and dialogue that Forspoken will provide.
Although there are clear advantages and disadvantages to pronounced at this point, the most important thing I took away from the demo was how original it is, especially in terms of combat design and exploration. I still have some doubts about the controls, but the demo was a great first experience that provided a real sense of discovery. The role-playing mechanics seem great, enemies look great, and there are all kinds of things to do while exploring the world, so if Square Enix can just add more baroque fantasy to the full game, PC and PS5 gamers will find a strong action-packed game. RPG have imminent in 2023.
After graduating from a French business school, Thomas felt an irresistible force that prompted him to study Japanese, which eventually led him to the Level 1 Japanese Proficiency Test in 2012. During the day, Thomas is a normal account manager. But at night, he becomes Ryuzaki57, an extreme otaku gamer hungry for Japanese games (preferably starring beautiful girls). His knowledge now allows him to import Japanese-released games at unimaginable prices and then tell everyone about them. You can also find him on French video game media. Feel free to get in touch via twitter at @Ryuz4ki57
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