Forespoken Demo Impressions - Forget it

[Old_Hunter_77]

Oh man. This game.
So, overall, I agree with u/CriticalGaming's criticisms.
But I have a horrible sinking foreboding feeling about what this game will be in 2023. Because I'm rooting for it.

For one thing, I like my open-world map with icons games. I know, this is unpopular, as maps with icons is worse than death in modern games criticism and if a map doesn't confuse you and make you pretend to brilliantly sleuth your way to progress (when honestly we're all probably just looking up wikis) then it's a dumbed down baby game for plebs, or something.
But more importantly, I like the idea of playing as a fighter where everything you do is magic-based. Earth rocks for projectiles and fire weapons for swords and colorful magic boosts to simulate current-day Assassins Creed style parkour- that is a nice aesthetic twist on the formula.
Like I'm not saying this would be an amazing game but just a potentially fun one that fits in my favorite style of games.

The success would be the execution of mechanics and this is where I can't deny u/CriticalGaming's criticism because I felt much the same way. If this game feels good to play- move around and fight- then I will play it. If it doesn't, I won't. It's just that simple.

I can't speak to framerates and graphics, I didn't know it was 30fps, lol, I suck at that stuff. I'll take your word for it. I will say the cut scenes they teased and characters models looked absolutely gorgeous.

Here's a thing that doesn't apply to anyone here but is on my mind: the player protagonist is a young black woman. I will be worried that the asshole gamr reactionary crowd will pounce on this to crap on the game unfairly no matter what the actual game is. Of course this is not to excuse bad game design- I want to be clear that I will judge the game on its own merits, and based on the demo so far it's a big meh to me with some potential I'm rooting for.

As I predicted in another thread, I'm seeing an Immortals Fenyx Rising cycle of this game: it will come out to great corporate hype, be met with vicious cynicism from vocal annoying gamrs and bored critics, then a year or two later go on sale and be redeemed as "actually good" and "underrated." And this will happen whether they improve the combat and framerate or not.

 

[BrawlMan]

Here's a thing that doesn't apply to anyone here but is on my mind: the player protagonist is a young black woman. I will be worried that the asshole gamr reactionary crowd will pounce on this to crap on the game unfairly no matter what the actual game is

Forget about them. They'll hate on it regardless. Don't give them any focus or mind. These same ass-hats will throw anything different or multicultural under the bus and try to evaporate it with a rocket.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Forget about them. They'll hate on it regardless. Don't give than any focus or mind. These same ass-hats I'll throw anything different on multicultural under the bus and trying to evaporate it with a rocket.

I think it's more likely that people will dislike the game and the journalists will call us racists for not liking it, when in reality it simply wont be a very good game in general.

 

[Casual Shinji]

As I predicted in another thread, I'm seeing an Immortals Fenyx Rising cycle of this game: it will come out to great corporate hype, be met with vicious cynicism from vocal annoying gamrs and bored critics, then a year or two later go on sale and be redeemed as "actually good" and "underrated." And this will happen whether they improve the combat and framerate or not.

I remember the reception to Immortals: Fenix Rising being relatively positive, from critics anyway. Nothing scathing, just nothing outstanding neither.

Forspoken appears to be Square's first babysteps into gaming without heavy anime vibes. Which I know sounds ridiculous considering it's pretty much an isekai, but it seems to try and be a bit less Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts, and more your Sony first-party title. They got rid of the usual dollfaces and opted for face models, and the dialoge is certainly a lot more gabby, going for that Naughty Dog/Santa Monica type of in-game banter. And so far it doesn't come across as confident as those two studios. Anime itself that tries to go for more of a Western (not that kind of Western) vibe often fall kinda flat too *cough* Black Lagoon. The recent Resident Evil games have fared a lot better in this department.

 

[CriticalGaming]

I remember the reception to Immortals: Fenix Rising being relatively positive, from critics anyway. Nothing scathing, just nothing outstanding neither.

I rather enjoyed that game, and only had to put it away because i got a progression bug 50% of the way through that locked me out of any further progress.

 

[BrawlMan]

I think it's more likely that people will dislike the game and the journalists will call us racists for not liking it, when in reality it simply wont be a very good game in general.

There will be some of that too, but it still doesn't change the fact that the reactionaries are going to be even more louder and overbearing than the critics. I cannot give a fuck about either of them. If there are people who genuinely love the game, I am more than fine with it.

 

[BrawlMan]

Anime itself that tries to go for more of a Western (not that kind of Western) vibe often fall kinda flat too *cough* Black Lagoon.

Yyyyyyeeeeeesssssssss.....

 

[Dreiko]

I saw a trailer for this game on the japanese SE channel and it looked pretty good...right up until they got to the gameplay bit. The whole pew pew magical attack thing looks lame. The other actions look fine but the basic machinegun shot type thing is just boring as all hell. Also it had JP voices which make things sound badass due to utilizing anime voice actors for them, I can bet if it was in English it'd be a lot less cool, especially that old lady boss who went nuts and burned everything around her.

 

[BrawlMan]

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[hanselthecaretaker]

Bloodborne 2 is never happening. I don't know why people keep whipping themselves into a frenzy leading to disappointment. The closest you're going to get is Lies of P.

If it doesn’t then it would ultimately be at Sony’s behest. Miyazaki has publicly stated his interest in returning to that world but that the decision wasn’t up to him.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Another case of words no longer having any meaning. Used to be that "demo" was short for "demonstration", i.e. giving you a taste what the game is actually like.

I recall during seventh gen when a demo could even outdone by the final game. GoW3 being a prime example.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Sounds like they are being picky about who gets codes. And we all know what that shit means.

 

[Gordon_4]

Square. Why do you make it so hard for me to love you?

 

[BrawlMan]

Sounds like they are being picky about who gets codes. And we all know what that shit means.

Why you scared SquarePants? It's only Skill Up. He won't hurt you...much....

Square. Why do you make it so hard for me to love you?

Because the president of the company likes to smell his own farts.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Why you scared SquarePants? It's only Skill Up. He won't hurt you...much....


Because the president of the company likes to smell his own farts.

Also it's another Calisto Protocrap situation. The game releases on Tuesday so we better start seeing reviews pop up no later than Tomorrow. If not, we know something's wrong.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Man have my hopes plummeted for this game. On initial reveal with teasers it looked like precisely my kind of jam. Then when the whole nonsense about everybody making fun of the trailer, I was hoping that was just the internet being exaggerated (and frankly a little sexist/racist) and that the gameplay had nothing to do with the dialogue.
Then the demo dropped and it was a big meh, and my hopes for it became for it to be just something that would be fun enough to mess with, kind of like a modern Assassins Creed game.
Now... blech, I just don't care any more.

 

[BrawlMan]

Then when the whole nonsense about everybody making fun of the trailer, I was hoping that was just the internet being exaggerated (and frankly a little sexist/racist)

There was a little, but most people were acting like it was the worst trailer with the worst dialogue ever made. When there had been so much worse before and after that point. I still don't have a PS5 yet, so my interest wasn't that high to begin with.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

There was a little, but most people were acting like it was the worst trailer with the worst dialogue ever made. When there had been so much worse before and after that point. I still don't have a PS5 yet, so my interest wasn't that high to begin with.

Well yeah, exactly, that's what I meant.
Kind of the same with this whole Velma thing.. like, yeah, the show looks corny, but a chunk of internet culture is treating it like a crime against humanity and the intense voluminous reaction is equally suspicious.
Like.. Velma and Forspoken. Hundreds of shows and thousands of games suck the same or worse, though, you know?

 

[BrawlMan]

Like.. Velma and Forspoken. Hundreds of shows and thousands of games suck the same or worse, though, you know?

Reactionary jackass will always go overboard, because they don't know anything else or just being theatrical for the sake of their (depraved, foolish, and gullible) audience. Though I say Velma is still worse than anything Forspoken is going to do. Velma it's just a crappy Harley Quinn, Deadpool, and Rick and Morty clone that is stuck in the mid-2000s. Forspoken just looks to be a mediocre isaekai game. At least this game doesn't offend me in any actual way. Not that Velma offends me, but it's the worst kind of bad and boring.

 

[BrawlMan]

Thank you @FakeSympathy.

Forspoken Review Embargo Details

Forspoken Reviews come out on Monday - here are the full Forspoken review embargo details.

opencritic.com