Forspoken went viral in August. But probably not for the reason the developers and publishers at Square Enix would have wanted. A video was released on the game’s social media account that immediately caught the ire of the internet’s biggest meme-lords. Pastiches riffing on the game’s dialogue ran the gamut – there was God of War, Yakuza, Doom, Devil May Cry, and some people even said it came off like a Joss Whedon joint (ouch).
But, stay with me here, the game isn’t actually that bad in your hands. Really. I had over an hour to preview the title at Square Enix’s offices recently, and whilst the dialogue is a little try-hard, it’s not that bad. It’s one of those things; a trailer cannot accurately convey how a game will play out in your hands – the timing is off, the editing is wrong, there’s no context.
“I’m so happy you mentioned the word ‘context’ here,” says Forspoken creative producer, Raio Mitsuno, in a follow-up interview after our preview. “That’s been the the key thing for us in terms of how we’re trying to show fun things about this game without spoiling the story. [The trailers and social media posts] obviously come without the context that’s necessary to really understand it, and really get a feel for it.”