Square Enix’s newest role-playing game, Forspoken, has been causing controversy for all the wrong reasons. Critics have called the game’s dialogue cringeworthy, poorly written, and completely incomprehensible.
It seems like it was made with discarded Final Fantasy assets. They were just like "Well, we spent a lot of time and money on this stuff, it would suck to just throw them out."
Canceled my pre-order because of all the negativity around it. Just watched a longer stream of the game and... I don't understand it. Game looks fun and the dialog is fine, way blown out of proportion. Will be buying it these days when I get downtime for gaming.
I think alot of hate is coming from a side. Some might not really like it. Personally I think it's alot of nitpicking. People gonna find out. Keep nitpicking stupid things and all were gonna get is same old sequel after sequels because devs will be afraid to be different.
I seen someone cry about the girl saying I think I leveled up.
Dumb.
I seen someone complain about learning lore of the game through books.
Really cause skyrim books. Enough Said.
It's just people being overdramatic and nitpicking. Cringe is another thing. I think some don't know what cringe really is. The word is overly used these days.
If you play AA or A games regularly and not just AAA, the dialogue isn't as bad as others. But, it is a AAA game with mediocre dialogue and a fairly boring world, IMHO.
"Cringe is another thing. I think some don't know what cringe really is." Cringe is subjective. Like, some people can watch The Big Bang Theory without their forehead imploding under the weight of the severe cringe. How, I don't know, but there you have it.
Likewise, I haven't played the game, but the dialogue I've seen in trailers and little snippets seems pretty bloody cringe to me. This combined with a world/story that hasn't sold itself to me is enough to know that this game is absolutely not for me. Not in a style of game that centres around characters, world and story especially. But I'm sure there's people that might like it.
@CrimsonIdol - I think you missed the point of Big Bang Theory leaning INTO cringe. A lot of it is intentional, and it's quite good at hitting that mark on purpose. Please stop acting like it's some sort of flaw on others to enjoy the show. When it's honestly funnier than most other American T.V. shows out there. Really hate seeing people drag a series into the mud on their opinion, just to make a point. Especially when it isn't related to the context of the article whatsoever.
The clips they show in this article aren't even the worst examples of the dialogue, but they definitely serve to demonstrate the tone of the game and how the cringe is relentless. It's so bad.
The constant swearing drives me nuts like i have no issue with "bad" words but like mix it up a bit, hearing "fuck, shit, asshole" so much is hard not to laugh at
Ahh 14. Halo 2 had just come out, I was so cool throwing all the F bombs in Head to Head.
At least this game doesn't have yo momma jokes. I imagine it would've gone something like this in the writers' room... "We can fit one here - look, there's a 200m gap between waypoints" "Yo momma wouldnt fit if it were 300m but we can't, she's an orphan." "Ah what fuckin shit whose stupid ass idea was that?" "Whoa. Ok we'll use THAT! Brilliant!"
What about dynamic swearing? Or the swearing version of the Nemesis system. The more times an enemy or enemy type kills you, the more she and Cuff swear around them.
I feel like thats th enorm nowadays....missed evil west from that watched the intro had some Mofo and S&%k my D8yK and i was out..stupid and no reason for it, its not edgy or young or hip, its stupid.
Wild how hyper sensitive people all of a sudden are, even though the most offensive game with swearing every 5 second and offensive dialogue galore EVERY GRAND THEFT AUTO GAME.
Which also has the most laughable dialogue with people constantly making fun of its cringy writings and core mechanics. But this game…. Oh it’s just so so so offensive with the cussing. And oh the dialogue it to much!
I see what you're saying but it's about the tone of your game. In GTA you expect to hear cursing and raw jokes. The cringy dialogue only bothers me when it doesn't fit the tone. Just my opinion though 🥴
Well isn’t tone a matter of the developers to set? It’s a little odd to believe all isekais that transport people to alternate dimensions are filled exclusively with Eurocentric settings and old timey English don’t you think? And considering this character is an homeless kid who is a product of the New York legal system with no family…. How else would her tone be?
Have you ever talked with low income poor people before? They aren’t all exactly speaking perfect English with a grand vocabulary. It’s honestly how I would expect someone under these conditions to talk and she’s technically higher educated(in a poor way) with potential by the stories tone.
But does that immediately erase the fact she was an abandoned baby? Does that erase the bouncing from homes? Does it erase that she’s living in an abandoned apartment complex? Or perhaps it erases the criminal involvement she’s in with local street gangs?
If you play the game the character has a reason to be what they are. But, if you are immediately dismissing the core principles of who the character is in this adventure you are doing yourself a disservice.
I’m 10 hours plus into the game and I’m loving it. The music is excellent. The gameplay addictive, I’ve been grinding LIKE an rpg mastering my first set of magic clearing out zones and ruins. Upgrading my equipment and enhancing the skills through challenges making her super strong all before the first boss.
Graphicallly it’s stable I’ve had 0 crashes and even doing things I thought would break the game never crashed! I got stuck between a mountain and the thing popping out. She was stuck in air animation, after a while of it the game put her back on the map!
When I played Gaurdians of the Galaxy there were SO MANY BUGS! Characters spawning at cutscenes, stuck between a transition point, falling through the board. It was frustrating but those are things I haven’t seen at all in Forspoken.
Top it off that loading literally takes seconds from start up to game and even fast travel! It’s insanely fast, which means I STAY playing it’s amazing.
This game being called bad over dialogue is honestly horse shit. It’s just stubborn people who made their mind up about how they wanted to feel and refuse to change their position. And it’s grown extremely toxic as people who HAVENT played the game are screaming it’s bad now.
This is sucks because as I see this game having an extremely bright future I’m losing hope that it will go anywhere because of the negativity behind it.
@Lexreborn2 I was cringed by every trailer they released and it killed my interest in the game. I also voiced my dissatisfaction alongside others here and on YouTube. However, after watching an hour-long gameplay video, the first 15 minutes alone made me understand why she's exactly the way she is. She's completely different from the cookie-cutter protagonists we usually get in gaming (especially narrative-driven). It convinced me to give the game a chance once it goes on sale.
I don’t understand how you got that from what I said. I literally said at this point it’s people fixated on their own standard they set before the game launched that are being stubborn. How can I draw this conclusion? Because 90% of the people on these boards DONT have the game, they ARENT playing it, thus their views are completely fixed on nonsensical perspectives on dialogue towards the quality of a games primary component… GAMEPLAY!
Exactly. Folks pick & choose what they consider too much cursing in a videogame & GTA games have a lot of cussing but it's fine. You also describe a great point in your comment to FingerAction about the character & how she would react. Glad to read you're enjoying the game as I know I will as well.
Duke Nukem as well lol like this is really a non factor to me. And I hope when Starfield and its obscenely large script drops that people hold this same energy when you realize how bad the dialogue will actually be.
^ Starfield's protagonist won't even be voiced, which is pretty lame, but at least he won't be effing and cussing every other step like he has tourettes.
They made her character into an intolerable, whiny little b***h. Poor writing hands down. The deluxe version of the game should have come with a bar of soap.
I fear that for many of you, you are starting the feel that slightly disconcerting feeling, that the game designers are targeting a new, different, or younger audience than you. They've made a decision to be what you might consider edgy but in their analysis it's what may work better with the target audiences -- they are looking for more mainstream audiences to draw in.
Then they are targeting an audience that doesn't yet have the spending power to purchase a ps5 let alone a 60 dollar mediocre unneeded swear word ridden rpg (niche genre) game on top of it. You cant even say their parents will want to buy it because its rated M lmfao...
I work at a university & several of the students that I know including the staff are gamers who love rpgs & several I spoke to are playing Forspoken & enjoying the game. I'm picking up my copy tomorrow & I'll be enjoying the game as well.
I've played almost 10 hours and I'm having fun. It reminds me a bit of Infamous and Nier. Graphics are fine, music is great and the gameplay has been fun. Story is ok. Can it be a bit repetitive at times? Yea, but what game isn't. Is the dialog a bit cringe? Yea, but we are talking video games. Games aren't Shakespeare. It's a GAME, not a movie. I think too many people put stock in many reviews or influencers. I'm fine with someone doing a review, but when they start saying DONT BUY THIS GAME!! That's where it gets stupid. They have many followers or fans that will just do what they say. I've been gaming for a long time and I know what I'll like and when it comes to buying games and thinking for myself, the good has outdated the bad by miles. I loved Callisto Protocol. Valkyrie Elysium was good, and I enjoyed Gotham Knights for what it was. This is why we get sequels constantly and remakes. When new IP comes out it gets crapped all over most times. Who knows, it's just my opinion. Now, back to Forspoken.
Watched some gameplay from WorthABuy and even though that guy has a massive PC bias, the gameplay…it looked so bad, the protagonist does not stop talking and it’s so cringe and out of place.
Is there any other reason this game is rated M other than to have Frey cursing like a sailor the whole time? Cuz i saw nothing sexual or gory in the demo, did they really make it so teens need permission to buy this just so that Frey can curse like waaaaaaaay too much in a hamfisted attempt to be edgy? I’ll play this down the road when it’s free/cheap, patched, and I’ll set the dialogue to Japanese with English subtitles. Will probably enjoy it then.
The complaints about the dialogue is kinda overplayed. I been playing the game and I'm surprised how big of an issue people are making this. I would've expected it to be worse and I'm left just feeling like people are just hoping on what others are saying despite not experiencing it themselves.
It happens a lot with game reviews. People create a narrative and others just go with it.
The game is okay. Not amazing not brilliant just okay. Freys ways of speaking is kinda explained though. She's a New Yorker who lived in Hells Kitchen and was basically a petty criminal. She's transported into another world. Her speaking causes the other characters to be confused by what she's saying.
I just think the games execution of mission design, cinematics, and structure is outdated which stops it from being a better game.
It's not just the content , it's the delivery. It's like a socially awkward center-of-the-universe child that does not understand how, when to communicate or why. Spectacular armor-piercing, rapid fire belt-fed cringe.
The rest of it is so focused on setting up a gala of marvel-like scenes and those dumb poses, snarling faces, gnarling of teeth. It's an overload of nope that should existed on deviant art back in the early 2000's.
Here's a simple review, it's 💩💩 🤣 and truly a waste of direct storage tech. DS should have been used on so many other good PC games coming this year. Hell make a patch for DS if it's possible for some older games.
Had high hopes for this when it was 1st announced. My God the dialogue is so cringey. Havent played it. It does does look really nice and the particle effects are amazing, but I don't think I could make it through listening to that banter. I read that square said that that you could essentially turn off the dialogue if you choose to, can anyone confirm that? I'll just save my money for hogwarts.
Almost every game is poorly written. This is a problem industry wide. All the pearl clutching is coming from a certain side , everyone knows who they are.
They say when you use curse words to get your point across or express your displeasure about something it means you lack the verbal and emotional intelligence to speak and express yourself in a meaningful way. This is the second game I've come across where the constant unnecessary swearing just killed the game for me. The other game was evil west. I can only assume the people making these games are young and inexperienced with life.
Forspoken: Cringe / 10 There are much better examples of ISEKAI characters done right everywhere, but SQEX has gotten to use the worst archetype for this game.
I'm not going to lie it's really cringy at times but I still enjoyed the game overall.
The clips they show in this article aren't even the worst examples of the dialogue, but they definitely serve to demonstrate the tone of the game and how the cringe is relentless. It's so bad.
The constant swearing drives me nuts
like i have no issue with "bad" words but like
mix it up a bit, hearing "fuck, shit, asshole" so much is hard not to laugh at
Wild how hyper sensitive people all of a sudden are, even though the most offensive game with swearing every 5 second and offensive dialogue galore EVERY GRAND THEFT AUTO GAME.
Which also has the most laughable dialogue with people constantly making fun of its cringy writings and core mechanics. But this game…. Oh it’s just so so so offensive with the cussing. And oh the dialogue it to much!