However, it certainly can be said that a lot of this humor seems at odds with the visual style Forspoken has going for it. And while some of the so-called “cringy” dialogue from that 30 second ad is still present, when presented in context of a back and forth, the dialogue is not as bad as it seemed going in and, at times, got some great chuckles out of me. It’s hilarious seeing Frey sometimes try to explain her slang/f-bombs to them with a straight face. The contrast between Frey being this foul mouthed New Yorker juxtaposes hilariously with all the people from Athia who speak in the most medieval fantasy way possible. The story by itself is not too dissimilar from classic “fish outta water” tropes or a classic Japanese Isekai, but it does a decent job of mining some fun out of the scenario. Frey begrudgingly takes it upon herself to find a way to stop/get rid of this “Break” plague as a means to an end to go back to her home in New York and to Homer. After an early incident forces her to separate from Homer, by a twist of fate she finds a magical cuff which, as soon as she wears it, teleports her immediately to the fantasy dimension of Athia, a land ravaged by a mist plague called “The Break” which turns many people and creatures into zombies with rock-like growth formations. In Forspoken, you play as Alfre Holland, aka “Frey,” a down on her luck young adult barely scraping by in New York City as she tries to find a way to better herself to find a better life with her cat Homer. All while delivering a coming of age story with heart not too dissimilar from what people see in something like the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It manages to transcend some of its bland trappings to deliver a mostly satisfying power fantasy which hearkens back to the Infamous and Prototype games of old. However, like the saying goes, “the devil is in the details.” After a good 29 hours of playtime, amidst the rubble that makes Forspoken seem rubbish, is a game that, when all is said and done, has a ton of charm. Coupled with visuals that didn’t seem to take advantage of its position as a major exclusive tent-pole title for the PlayStation 5 (with an amazing 2-year exclusivity contract locking it in on top of that), it’s easy to write off Forspoken as a whiff, specially in the crazy week it ended up releasing in. Originally announced as “Project Athia” back at the PlayStation 5 reveal event in 2020 (and positioned as one of the key titles for the console), Forspoken became a game easily mockable thanks to its fantasy trappings mixed with its seemingly out of touch “How Do You Do Fellow Kids?” try-hard tone. This quote from a small 30 second ad released on August 8th, 2022, has really come to define Forspoken, the new, timed PlayStation 5 and PC exclusive from Square Enix and their beleaguered Luminous Productions team. Yeah, OK, that is something that I do now.” I’m somewhere that’s not what I would call Earth.
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