It just landed itself for a second round of hot water, this time with the awkwardly painful cutscenes. NikTekOfficial’s viral tweet said, “One of the most cringe-filled cutscenes I have ever witnessed,” and players are piling on horrifying stories.
The game features the protagonist Frey Holland as she journeys through the magical world, and it has split reviews since its launch. Some did praise the fast combat and traversal mechanics. But the writing? Ay ay ay-ay-ay! Gamers are literally giving it a good thumping like a nail-haired bad adaptation on Netflix.
Deil even said, “Writing is not bad. It is terrible. I uninstalled it and I wanted my time back. I didn’t even pay for it but I want the refund.” Ouch. Another stated that it feels like “Disney ahh writing,” and another joked that it felt like “ChatGPT was asked to write a Marvel movie.”
This is not even entirely concerning just the script—the technical issues creep into the mix as well. Deil also noted, “Resolution was so bad I thought my PlayStation Portal was glitching.” Nope. Turns out this game is ugly even on a proper TV.
Okay, not everyone put it down. Some defended it, like Sapphire__96: “And it is still a good game.” But such voices were drowned out by the opposite from divisionagent12, who named the demo “the worst thing I’ve ever downloaded” and said they were going to burn their SSD in an exorcism of the experience.
Some critiques go beyond particular instances of “bad writing.” Brentleworth pointed out “a huge narrative inconsistency where the villains appear clueless about a plague they seemingly are the cause of.” He added: “That sounds small but it’s a massive focus of what starts the narrative which just makes it worse.”
The jokes didn’t go well, either. DailyScroll001 said the jokes were forced, adding, “A genuine reaction instead of meh banter would’ve helped.” Oblivionisback took it further by declaring it worse than “Saints Row,” which… Yikes!
There might be a weird little silver lining amongst the backlash. A couple of players, like Elpaintrain, at least begrudgingly said the combat had a few interesting ideas. But really: when the highest praise you can offer is “the fighting styles were interesting,” that’s not a good look.
At this point, Forspoken might have to take on the title of a cautionary tale. From all the memes and refund requests to the utter disbelieving shock as to how this script got approved, it’s painfully clear that Square Enix utterly missed the opportunity. Let’s hope that next time, they lessen the hiring of writers through the vocabulary of whom the word “quirky” doesn’t equal “unbearable.”
Yeah. So, if you were on the fence about Forspoken, maybe just don’t. Unless cringe compilations are your thing, in which case, by all means, grab the popcorn.
