Forspoken

But will she rise, though?

Me and Square Enix aren't exactly in sync these days, and the big reason why should be fairly clear. (I've spoken about it out loud once or twice.) At the risk of repeating myself, I'll elaborate: there is no way on this earth I'm every going to give them £70 for a video game, and I don't even care if it's something incredibly close to my own tastes like Final Fantasy VII Remake. (Of course that game is also an Epic Store exclusive, that helps me feel less bad about ignoring it.) And if Final Fantasy isn'y going to win me over, you best bet that this 'Forspoken' game, which leaves such little impression that I would have forgotten it entirely if I hadn't made note of it at every single gaming show I've covered for the last year, hasn't got a chance in hades. (Everytime I've gotten around to talking about the game next on my docket of blogs, I've just been like- "you know what? I'm not feeling it.") But let us take a good look at exactly what a 'next gen' £70 game looks like in Square Enix's eyes.

Aside from having a simply insanely generic name (I mean they must have needed to workshop for months to devise a title that slips out of mind that easily!) Forspoken has a protagonist in a young girl called Frey who is described as a 'New Yorker' (yikes) who gets transported to the 'beautiful and cruel land of Athia'. And if you think that sounds like an Isekai- ding ding, that is indeed the inspiration and you win 10 points! So that's your big next gen £70 idea, is it Square? An Isekai? One of the laziest, artistically bankrupt, done to death genres in all of Anime? I mean sure, this isn't an anime; but that's pretty much it's only saving grace because the anime community would have roasted an Isekai that takes itself seriously in this day and age to death. This genre is so empty that every single ongoing Isekai series right now is at least part born of a parody of the genre and how overdone it is. At the very least, Square, you have to let us see Frey get run over by the Isekai truck, it won't be the same if she doesn't.

But sure, we're doing an Isekai, whatever. What about the game itself, what is that like? Well that has been where this game has scored a few fans, because this very game managed to both stun and wow on it's first showing through merit of superior visualisation of the environment and main character's fluid movement. Like those tech demos for Unreal Engine 5 that were blowing us away last year, Forspoken seemed to challenge the limits of onscreen vertices one could have, or the fidelity of capturing flowing character movement without just resulting to a scrappy blur that everyone turns off within the first few seconds of gameplay anyway. (Seriously, does anyone actually play with motion blur on? Please reach out if you do, I have so many questions.) Nevermind the fact that the world in question, now named Athia, boasted a few instantly recognisable mountain range assets that were clearly lifted (or adapted) from Final Fantasy XV, but nothing ruined the aesthetic- the game looked fine. And it still does, kinda.

And that right there, my lack of being able to commit a game looking great or brilliant or different or diverse, is the point where I start to shake my interest. Because with how many games are flying at us nowadays, with crazy and interesting ideas behind them or world-level modellers breathing life into them, something needs to stand out in the crowd to make a lasting mark. This game should have done that with the fidelity of it's graphics, but it just doesn't. Maybe it's the abundance of vast open... rock. Or wide plateaus of... more rock. There was a lack of diversity. Which is something I think the developers really heeded when coming to make the Game Awards trailer which has been our latest look into this world. But I'm going to be honest right away in saying that I don't think they've gone far enough to convince me that this Athia is going to be the next cool fantasy world I want to explore and know more about so badly- (Which is kind of what you need for an Isekai to work.) but they're on the right track.

This Game Awards gave as our first look at Forspoken's story, which so far doesn't appear to amount to much, what with some hammy cutscenes and odd-looking monster designs that are all either too messy or dark to stick in my mind, oh and some dialogue that just doesn't click at all. (Sneaking 'Freakin' into your script once is highly questionable on it's own, but twice? You need a wordsmith to make that work in a read.) Some of the environments do look cooler than the reveal trailer initially teased, however, and I'm really getting into the 'European medieval with fantastical elaboration' aesthetic they've got going on for the character designs. (They just need to be careful they don't go stepping on Final Fantasy XVI's shoes.) But there's a nagging part of the core design of the game that I really can't come to like, and it's so arbitrary that it's tearing me apart; and that's the weapon. The story has a 'talking weapon' dynamic going on, because ingenuity is dead, and it's this bangle around Frey's wrist which shoots out magic stuff. That's her attack. She just thrusts her hand out and gunk blasts out the other end. I hate it. It's hard to explain why, but I think it makes combat look so lacksidasical and unexciting, and I know this is my own prejudice getting in my head but I can't shake it- I think combat looks off because of that choice alone.

It is annoying, because outside of that stupid arbitrary point of contention I think there's some cool gameplay hints in this trailer. One of which being the way that the hand gunk apparently gets to mess around with elements at some point, potentially setting up elemental combination attacks, and a handy quick shield which might betray some high-speed Sekiro style rush boss fights at some point. (That shield gotta be around for some reason.) I mean the team were even kind enough to put together a gameplay trailer which- oh, okay this sort of looks like how the back of my mind was saying it would. Yeah- I think that maybe the call for a gameplay trailer was mandated by Square proper and the team really didn't have the time to throw together your typical vertical chunk with exciting moments, set pieces and, you know, a purpose.

Looking at the gameplay trailer, this game almost feels like a beta build of a DMC 2 remake, for the bland desert level the game wants explored, the complete circumvention of several fight scenes (for no apparent reason) and then a passive looking zombie bout that does little to prove itself 'impressive' or 'exciting'. It's... well it's boring to watch. And I think it's a good thing this little gameplay snippet isn't exactly well known, because this isn't the kind of foot forward you want for your game. Although at the same time this looks exactly like I expected it to, so I'm trying to figure out if there is a solid game here at all. I know there are more solid vistas, but will the fighting be compelling in any significant, and crucially lasting, way? I would say that it's a wait-and-see topic, but with the 'curse of forgetting' this game seems perpetually under, I may and many others might not remember to check up on this game when it launches. (Only when writing this blog did I realise there was a whole other story trailer released not that long ago; marketing are doing this game dirty!)

But those are just my hopes for any game to do well, then I'm forced to remember how this title is being weaponised as a vanguard in Sqaure's attempt to normalise extortionate game pricing and my sympathies dry up fast. I'm sure this is a mandate from Square corporate and the developers aren't at all involved with pricing concerns, but that doesn't change the fact that this title is now embroiled in something toxic for all the industry, and if it does well then that will encourage the rest of this industry to jump aboard a 'nakedly hostile to consumers' trend. It makes an already hard to find game even harder to like, and that is currently where I'm at with Forspoken right now. (I was so close to writing 'Forsaken'; what a terrible title.) It's an invisible game, with never ending marketing woes and a deathly legacy tied to it's success, needless to say I am not a ready fan waiting with bated breath. Not today, and maybe not in a perfect future where Square realise their folly and sell this game for a reasonable price either.