There are 4 sets of magic too, it's entirely possible that if you are just exploring and doing open world things it could be over 40hours before you unlock your full set of skills.
Forespoken Demo Impressions - Forget it
- Thread starter CriticalGaming
- Start date
When things are a paddling, they can't be oarsome.
I've heard that if you race to the end credits it's only like a 10 hour game. So.....shrug. I find myself wanting to dick around with the open world than ever doing anything story related.
I did, more than adequately, however you decided to ignore it because it doesn't fit your narrative that it's not sexist despite the fact that the only way the mechanic could be more obviously sexist if Frey was literally painting "THIS IS SEXIST" on her nails in the game.
It's a nearly exclusively girl activity that is used as a central mechanic that the protagonist even outright hates having to do that could easily have been done to accomplish the same thing without that girl activity. One that a male protagonist wouldn't do anything even remotely like. If you can't see what's sexist about that despite me outright explaining how in plain simple english three times now, then you're the one with the issue here.
I'm 53 hours in and I have 3 out of presumably 4 magic schools, doing pretty much 100% of every area as it unlock. But the game is obviously not built with that playstyle in mind, I already fully upgraded most of what can be upgraded, killed a couple of end game boss and, despite playing on hard, almost everything dies within second of starting a fight against me. There's these coin token you can find around the world to be traded in for extra goodies and I'm almost at inventory cap for these, there's apparently a shop toward the end of the game with more stuff to be brought with these, but I think I'll hit cap before I unlock it.
But yeah if I was ignoring most of the areas and just rushing boss I think the game would be done in 10-15 hours, most of which would have been cutscene tbh. Also, I know I already harped on that multiple time, but its truly bizarre just how far the game goes to make sure you know how shit of a person Frey is. I'm probably 2/3 of the way trough the game and every cutscene is still banging that drum as hard as it can. Apparently Frey was based on some irl actress, I wonder if someone in production just really hate her or something. Also the game was probably written by a bunch of people who don't talk to each others, at some point a character tell Frey that the people of Cipal welcomed her with open arms when she arrived in town, when in reality they threw her in jail without even giving her food while debating whether they'd execute her for being a "demon", despite no such things being in the game (tbf Frey said she was from "hell's kitchen" as if they'd know where that is, as always Frey is not a very smart person).
Do you think we’ll ever see the day when everything is not sexist/gender-biased? Just androgynous beings, idk. I get it though. Chicks don’t always like being the ones that have to doll themselves up with makeup and mannies and peddies, etc. Kinda like guys don’t always like being the ones that have to fix stuff around the house or take the dirty, physically demanding shit jobs that you never see women do but that our society still depends upon. Maybe we need to just go back to simpler times.
…but wait! Those were really sexist too. I guess there’s no way out of this social/physiological conundrum.
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So finished the game, kinda surprised actually since it just kinda rush the ending with a massive portion of the map left unexplored. It's... not exactly glorious, spoiler for those who will never play it but are kinda curious.
So Frey find out that she's actually the daughter of one of the Tanta (4 magic ruler), turn out her mom came to earth for awhile, meet some guy, got knocked up, and came back to magic land. After learning this, Frey does a full 180 and decide that now it's worth protecting the people from magic land, whereas before she didn't care if they all died cause they weren't her people. We find out the backstory is that some sort of demon showed up in magic land, the 4 Tanta fought it but couldn't kill it, so they split it among the 4 of them. This turn out to be a no good very bad idea as the demon then slowly corrupted them. They then take the very smart decision to literally not tell a single person about this so that everyone will be surprised when they turn insane and start wantonly killing everyone. They also don't really seem to do anything about this. Frey mom decide that she's going to leave the magic land (that was an option?) so she can raise her daugther, but then she also think she might evntually hurt her, so she just open a portal to earth and yeet Frey trough it, with no one to help her or anything to explain the situation. She doesn't even try to get Frey earth dad to take care of her (we know nothing about her dad, so I guess he's just a deadbeat dad who got her mom pregnant and then dumbed her). Also apparently she could have used those portal to evacuate magic land people to earth to spare them from the demon apocalypse but didn't. So overall, Frey being a dumbass is par for the course as far as Tanta goes. Anyway, when Frey mom threw Frey trough the portal the demon corruption went trough the portal along with Frey and this is actually the bracelet thingy you find at the start of the game. This also mean that Frey mom is now free from the corruption, but it also caused her to turn into a dragon (for some reason). Now free from the corruption she could have tried to help her people and explained to them what's.... AHAHAHA, hell no, she just bum around and does nothing for the next two decade, if there's one thing the game subtext makes very clear its that the Tanta were terrible ruler, which is awkward since the text keeps trying to say they were amazing ruler.
Upon learning all his, Frey forgive her mother for abandoning her and they team up to fight the demon that's now being resurrected since you reunited its 4 parts. During the fight, Frey dragon mom get killed for absolutely no reason and then Frey finish it off. But, since the demon is unkillable it now attachs itself to Frey. Meaning Frey will go insane in a couple of months and start killing everyone. In a spectacularly stupid move, she also decide not to tell this to anyone. The corruption that blighted the land is still around, there's maybe 100 humans left alive and the city is in semi ruin with no way to be fixed. But the game pretend its a happy ending. The end.
Except no, you can still do stuff around the map. You still have the bracelet and Frey still has banter with it, except now she know hes a demon hell bent on wiping out all of humanity. This is actually kinda fun because he keep low key insulting her which is a big plus in my book. Although at the same time it still re use his old voice line when he was being fake kind to Frey so a lot of what he says doesn't really make sense.
So Frey find out that she's actually the daughter of one of the Tanta (4 magic ruler), turn out her mom came to earth for awhile, meet some guy, got knocked up, and came back to magic land. After learning this, Frey does a full 180 and decide that now it's worth protecting the people from magic land, whereas before she didn't care if they all died cause they weren't her people. We find out the backstory is that some sort of demon showed up in magic land, the 4 Tanta fought it but couldn't kill it, so they split it among the 4 of them. This turn out to be a no good very bad idea as the demon then slowly corrupted them. They then take the very smart decision to literally not tell a single person about this so that everyone will be surprised when they turn insane and start wantonly killing everyone. They also don't really seem to do anything about this. Frey mom decide that she's going to leave the magic land (that was an option?) so she can raise her daugther, but then she also think she might evntually hurt her, so she just open a portal to earth and yeet Frey trough it, with no one to help her or anything to explain the situation. She doesn't even try to get Frey earth dad to take care of her (we know nothing about her dad, so I guess he's just a deadbeat dad who got her mom pregnant and then dumbed her). Also apparently she could have used those portal to evacuate magic land people to earth to spare them from the demon apocalypse but didn't. So overall, Frey being a dumbass is par for the course as far as Tanta goes. Anyway, when Frey mom threw Frey trough the portal the demon corruption went trough the portal along with Frey and this is actually the bracelet thingy you find at the start of the game. This also mean that Frey mom is now free from the corruption, but it also caused her to turn into a dragon (for some reason). Now free from the corruption she could have tried to help her people and explained to them what's.... AHAHAHA, hell no, she just bum around and does nothing for the next two decade, if there's one thing the game subtext makes very clear its that the Tanta were terrible ruler, which is awkward since the text keeps trying to say they were amazing ruler.
Upon learning all his, Frey forgive her mother for abandoning her and they team up to fight the demon that's now being resurrected since you reunited its 4 parts. During the fight, Frey dragon mom get killed for absolutely no reason and then Frey finish it off. But, since the demon is unkillable it now attachs itself to Frey. Meaning Frey will go insane in a couple of months and start killing everyone. In a spectacularly stupid move, she also decide not to tell this to anyone. The corruption that blighted the land is still around, there's maybe 100 humans left alive and the city is in semi ruin with no way to be fixed. But the game pretend its a happy ending. The end.
Except no, you can still do stuff around the map. You still have the bracelet and Frey still has banter with it, except now she know hes a demon hell bent on wiping out all of humanity. This is actually kinda fun because he keep low key insulting her which is a big plus in my book. Although at the same time it still re use his old voice line when he was being fake kind to Frey so a lot of what he says doesn't really make sense.
So this game isn't sexist, it's actually just totally racist instead lmao. Frey is every negative PoC stereotype all wrapped into one miserable person. Debeat dad, constant criminal, liar, cheat, thief, etc.
Well then, Wakanda Forever then I guess. GG Square.
Well then, Wakanda Forever then I guess. GG Square.
Seraphim17 talks about Forspoken at the 9-minute mark.
Once again, Capcom, Sega, Namco, WayForward, and Grasshopper Studios beat Square at making a black female character not be a negative stereotype.
Realistically it shouldn't matter, like white, black, asian, purple, a shitty character is shitty no matter what. But there is a irony in not only being a shit character just on the merits of personality and who they are, but to also hit every negative trope possible on top of that is...I mean it's malice right?
Someone mentioned earlier that maybe the actress who plays Frey is just a royal asshole so the writers just made Frey a total piece of shit. Though I really doubt it, this whole game reeks of ignorance and it's so sloppy that I can't help but wonder if they rushed the project entirely.
Like maybe they had a decent gameplay system here for an open world, but it took too long to develop so when they needed to do story and characters and actually give the game a point there was no time left. I mean hell the vast majority of the story is told via textbooks and I'm not reading any of that babble.
Best guess is it was underfunded and meant to be more of a concept than an actual game, but elements were added to try and make something out of it.
I dunno.
Dead Space is good though.
Not actual malice, but a total fucking misfire and complete tone deaf. Fey ain't hurting black girls and women much, but it still sucks when it happens. Thankfully, she'll be forgotten about in a month or two.
Haha play on words. I see what you did there.
Yeah my dude I think you're reading way too into like how bad the character is, and what kind of stereotyping it is or whatever.
Yes I think the reaction from gamurs exceeds the awfulness because the character is a woman of color, but the negatives of the game and the character have nothing to do with that, it is just poor game design and writing and the same stuff that makes may other games weak.
If you go by the idea the representation matters- which is a whole, you know, thing, complicated- then we have a woman of color character being represented in a shit game. Which is... something, I guess. Personally I don't think it matters much. I have seen the argument that it means something that you have a AAA major game where not only is the playable character a woman of color, but many of the principle characters are women and the whole game story centers women, and that is cool and unique, and some critics/review outlets are praising it on that merit. As a dude who hasn't played the game yet, I'm obviously not gonna weigh in on that yet but it's worth noting.
Kotaku's review for example is interesting, it basically is making that argument while regretting its technical flaws and lamenting how that limits the potential, which I think is very fair. I know that outlet isn't really loved around here but every once in a while someone over there gets something sort of right.
Written by a black woman -
www.buzzfeednews.com
Apparently none of the game’s writers were people of color.
Well now, that’s a big WTF which also explains quite a bit.
The Writing On The Game “Forspoken” Is As Bad As Everyone’s Saying. Its Black Woman Lead Is Just One Of The Casualties.
The game uses tokenized diversity to try to make a generic Hero’s Journey feel fresh, but the end result is completely uninterested in its characters’ interior lives.
www.buzzfeednews.com
Apparently none of the game’s writers were people of color.
Well now, that’s a big WTF which also explains quite a bit.
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Someone get this woman a copy of Streets of Rage 4, Street Fighter 3-Street Fighter 5 (& 6 when it eventually comes out this year), the recent King of Fighters games, and Zombie Army 4 (each of the four characters you can play in single player and they have their own unique dialogue when not in co-op at least). Pronto, so she can wash the bad taste out of her mouth! I know these are games with an ensemble cast, but the black women in all those games are winning way better than Fey. They're either nicer people, charming, have interesting character depth or backstories, and have better designs. And of course, are actually fun to play.Written by a black woman -
The Writing On The Game “Forspoken” Is As Bad As Everyone’s Saying. Its Black Woman Lead Is Just One Of The Casualties.
The game uses tokenized diversity to try to make a generic Hero’s Journey feel fresh, but the end result is completely uninterested in its characters’ interior lives.
Apparently none of the game’s writers were people of color.
Well now, that’s a big WTF which also explains quite a bit.
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I know, I was being sarcastic. It was an exaggeration based on how bad the character and the overall writing in the game is entirely.
You don't have to be black to write black characters. It shouldn't take a geniusto figure that shit out, but of course journalists just LOVE to bait for clicks.
Bottom line is it's just a bad character in every core concept, her skin tone is not really important to that fact because she'd be a piece of shit regardless of her skin color. And frankly I think her design is purely because of the actress they hired for the role over any stupid intent. Racial stereotypes that occur are just ironic really.
And check this out. If this game had been written better, people would have been praising the progressiveness of the thing at the top of their lungs. Considering the entire game is driven by women, the bad, the good, 90% of the cast is women and you best believe that journalists would have been sucking the game off if the writing had been decent.
It's a shame really because it could have been a fine game, not great, but fine. Instead it's Forespoopy.
And like I told you before, while that is true, you still have to tread very carefully. Cuz if you're not going to hire a person of color as a writer, at least get some consultants that are people of color and of different gender. While things have gotten better, that still doesn't change the fact that in the past, you had many people writing somebody of a different race, gender, or religion and didn't write them well, either to be stereotyped, assuming they knew everything, or felt they didn't need to check on their research or info. Didn't matter if we're talking about books, comic books, TV/movies, or games.
Sydnee Thompson ain't wrong. She ain't doing clickbait. She does go into heavy detail how Fey isn't the only problem. The writing is bad for the main duo and a lot of the characters involved.
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I think this is a racist and sexist attitude, because im implied that nobody can write characters outside their race/gender which is fucking gross. Good character writing is about portraying a part of the human condition within the circumstances of the story and world, gender and race do not apply.
The idea that people want to make a claim that you can't write outside of your personal spectrum just propagates racist and sexist ideals. The ONLY exception is if you are writing something in the attempt to be culturally accurate. But in the universe of fiction, the race/gender of your characters do not and should not matter (we are all supposed to be equal right) and what instead matters is the core of the characters you're writing, their experiences and how they handle the situations around them.
This is especially true in fantasy worlds where race and genders are anything the author imagines with or without connection to real-world trappings.
It is clickbait because of the race baiting in the title. Why couldn't the article title be, "Forespoken's failings are rooted in a cast of terrible characters." Or something along those lines. By specifically stating the race of the lead character when it's entirely unnecessary is clickbait.