610°

Forspoken Demo Gets A Seriously Mixed Response

Forspoken's free demo has launched on PS5, but if you were hoping this might finally answer whether Square Enix's new open-world RPG is going to be any good, it seems we're still not there yet.

You can grab the Forspoken demo on the PlayStation Store. It offers a brief recap of the setting, throws a very short tutorial at you, and then lets you loose to complete a few objectives and run around the open world. It doesn't look like this is a chunk directly taken out of the game - instead, it seems the demo offers a custom sandbox built out of the game assets to offer a taste of the combat and parkour systems.

The response seems seriously mixed so far - by which I mean some people love it and some people hate it, not that everyone thinks it's mediocre. The Forspoken subreddit is currently filled with discussion on the game, and it doesn't take long to see that players are divided.

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Jin_Sakai521d ago (Edited 521d ago )

I just couldn’t get into it. The gameplay isn’t that great and the combat is pretty average. The world is also pretty barren. Not to mention the main character is annoying and the HDR is awful.

porkChop521d ago

I never understood what people were hyped about.

_SilverHawk_521d ago

I liked the demo a lot and I can't wait to get the game

Crows90521d ago

There hasnt been much hype for this at all. Especially not after that awful trailer.

Bobertt521d ago

You didn't like the hip hop music in a fantasy setting?

FinalFantasyFanatic521d ago (Edited 521d ago )

I thought the trailer looked okay, I was hoping to get a trailer on PC but doesn't look like it. What I've seen from the videos though, looks like a mix of FFXV/KH's style battle, based on that and the comments I've read, I feel like this is typical modern Square-Enix, especially when it comes to action RPGs.

It really reminds me of FFXV.

Si-Fly520d ago

I don’t think anybody was hyped were they?

Abracadabra520d ago (Edited 520d ago )

People got hyped because it was a timed PS5 exclusive. If it was multi-platform at launch, nobody would care...

Palitera520d ago

"A wizard sandbox game", sums it up for me.

But this makes a great case of why AAA games don't get demos anymore. No way I'll buy it after playing this.

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-Foxtrot521d ago

Totally this

It's pretty and you have some good effects but everything is just so average

I can't get my head around that Amy Hennig wrote this...I mean okay she was one of the writers but usually her stuff is pretty great, especially if it's character driven.

I get they wanted this "every day person being transported to a fantasy realm while trying to react how any other normal person would react" character but they've over done it. I think it possibly could be the actor they have aswell, maybe over acting her parts.

Honestly if they were wise, they'd delay this further and rework it however I don't know how they'd rework some of these things.

Going off the demo, there's no flow to the gameplay, you have all this magic and the like yet it feels like a slog to go through everything and use it effectively smoothly. It gives you this letter rating thing at the end of the battles like it's DMC but you had all sorts in that game to use in a snap, even Ghost of Tsushima had a couple of different stances to use and it just blended together really well. The combat in this game isn't like that and getting your 20th battle is like "Here we go again...,.sigh"

Crows90521d ago

But its not an "everyday" person. Its an over the top vocal annoying extrovert.

Knushwood Butt521d ago

The evidence of Amy Hennig being overated is starting to pile up.

EvertonFC520d ago

You got all that story from a demo WoW

Palitera520d ago (Edited 520d ago )

On the gameplay side, I completely agree. It's a bunch of bad ideas piled up... The "two buttons to attack, two to change spells" is incredibly annoying: you're either interrupting the game to change spells or repeating the same over and over... You're either mashing one button to very quick attacks or, worse, counting the time to release the button and repeating it... Super uncomfortable.

I could bet this game is suffering from having a "genius" leading the team, not hearing anyone else. No way nobody on the team pointed out how bad this is turning to be!

Just a side note about the writing, characters, story etc... The game is not aimed at us. It is similar to disliking the teeny Watch Dogs characters. We are not tiktokers, therefore not their target audience. We can't really say the vibe is bad, because it is not even meant to please us. Success for them is to engage much much younger folks. I'd say (and have studied a little bit about it) it is usually wrong to treat this younger audience as dumb, but they must know what they're doing with they product...

-Foxtrot520d ago

"You got all that story from a demo WoW"

Have you not seen all the trailers of her character since the reveal?

RNTody520d ago (Edited 520d ago )

I think the problem is we're all tired of generic awkward protagonist number 64 who has a quippy one liner to every situation and can't be differentiated from any other Marvel character. The idea of the "every man" protagonist has been watered down, because the "every man" doesn't have that kind of bravado in the face of danger or a sassy attitude every 4 and a half minutes or a built in joke book like it's Chandler from Friends. An every man would be someone more like Bryan Cranston's Walt in Breaking Bad, season 1 obviously. Even someone like Arthur Fleck in Joker is more relatable than these characters despite his mental issues. James Gordon in Batman, or the Narrator in Fight Club, are other good examples, who don't require the lame checklist of today's quippy protagonists.

Palitera520d ago

Try replacing "every man" with "every teen" and you are closer to what they're seeking.

X-23520d ago

You can't judge a game's story prowess off snippets from a gameplay demo. I don't expect the story to be revolutionary, but I think you've jumped the gun here.

senorfartcushion520d ago

Gary Witta has also wrote this. He’s awful

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RedDevils520d ago (Edited 520d ago )

I have to turn off the HDR, it so bright I couldn't see anything and it hurt my eyes. The gameplay is okay nothing mind blown, in fact very average maybe it an early built. I want to see review and with update/patch to fix that HDR before I even consider buying it.

Lexreborn2520d ago

I didn’t get the same impression at all, I legit came across literal waves of enemies. At times even over whelming. I didn’t go more than a minute without something attacking me. Literally the elk and birds in the world attack you.

Then I had over 10 enemies on a bridge to fight and found a swarm of 20+ alligators that just relentlessly came at me.

My biggest hang up was initial quality mode with the sensitivity camera angles did not work. So I turned it to performance, sensitivity to 1.5-1.7 and changed parkour to toggle and it was fair game.

I don’t know what about the main character is annoying… you still barely have any dialogue except her talking mid fights. That’s a bit weak to be honest.

And I uploaded a video of my gameplay and got a lot of people liking the game and mechanics at play.

Tacoboto520d ago

Initial impressions from my first 20-30ish minutes are pretty much the opposite. I'm having a blast in it with 120hz enabled in the RT mode on my LG OLED. Colors pop more with 120hz off but I'll gladly take that 40fps.

Definitely interested enough to play through the rest of the demo later but I suppose this is just a divisive game. I can tell this has similar vibes with FFXV though - movement feels so similar and the world looks lit the same way.

Did you (or anyone else not liking the demo) also not get into FFXV?

ravens52520d ago

How is she annoying? Lol. She barely even spoke in the demo.

ravens52520d ago

I liked it they just need to fix the dodge mechanic

Broncob519d ago

Totally agree with this, it's pants...

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Orchard521d ago

Pretty average game tbh. I don't think it's going to set the world on fire, and it certainly feels like Square pulled a fast one here by having Sony pay for 2 years of exclusivity for this.

Bobertt521d ago (Edited 521d ago )

They are at their best when they make games that are made for the East but they have stated they are going to move away from the East and focus on making games for the West because they can't make enough money of the Japanese. Now we have shitty games as a service Avengers, NFTs, and a fantasy game that they clearly tried to make for the West. But their idea of Westernizing it is just adding a talkative black girl with hip hop music because that fits the narrative other countries see when they look at the woke media from the west now.

carrotcakeag521d ago

They are definitely worse creatively when they do this. I wonder if JP focused games really can't do well globally. Things were different back when they used to make more whimsical games for domestic tastes. Lots of factors could have played into their international performance. They have stronger brand recognition now, they have digital distribution with a longer tail than limited time on retail shelves, more ways to monetize. I would love them to go all-in on stuff they are masters at rather than trying to mimic western successes which they can't match well. Squaresoft before the merger and watered down global thinking was a thing of beauty.

RaidenBlack520d ago

I was pretty excited when it was initially revealed.
Then, the more gameplay they started showing off the more generic it started to look ....
and the visuals doesn't even look " designed for PS5* "-special anymore ...
*as was advertised in the Project Athia reveal trailer

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VivaLaManual521d ago

It's really just not good. Boring, empty world. Basic combat. You could literally just alternate circle button and R2 and she just seeks out an enemy on her own. The only skill required is just keep alternating two buttons. Her chatter is fucking terrible. Yes, I know you can turn it off, but then it's just so quiet.

Lightning Mr Bubbles520d ago (Edited 520d ago )

What can I say? So far I like it... At first the control layout was a bit different but after a little while I was blasting enemies or cutting them down with fire sword attacks all while moving swiftly and dodging attacks. The key it to stay moving so you don't get hit a lot, it kind of auto locks on enemies for you so that helps. The health system is also interesting, it plays more like a FPS like Halo, where your health just respawns after a little bit. So anytime you get in trouble you just back off for a bit till your health comes back.

The world also surprised me, for a game where you run around and jump like a super hero, it felt surprisingly realistic. Early on I fell off a bridge and took a long fall, but getting back wasn't so easy. It's a big world and I had to go all the way around and look at the map to see where I could make my way back up. The mountain terrain was really steep. Maybe later in the game you get other powers that help you climb high places easier but at that point in the game I didn't have it yet.

So yeah, I'm not saying it's GOTY or anything, but I was having fun with it.

VivaLaManual519d ago

The combat is awful. All you need to do, due to the self-locking you mentioned, is just spam alternating circle and r2. She just hops from one enemy to the other without getting hit. Once I discovered that I just turned it off.

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Eonjay521d ago

It's okay for people to be divided. My favorite games are not everyone's favorite. Totally fine. I enjoyed it. Specifically I like the flow and combat system. Really makes you feel like a powerhouse. I liked the fact that the world wasn't filled with a bunch of NPCs. I'm actually excited for the story as it's obvious that it has been largely withheld as it should be in my eyes. It is also visual impressive at first I found the dialogue to be annoying but it grew on me.

blackblades521d ago

Some people hate it because of woke or something because she a black female lead. Others say they played just 15mins and said its trash. People been negative about it since they showed it the 2nd time. Its like how they hated on deathloop since the beginning but yet it got good ratings and nominations.

-Foxtrot521d ago

"Its like how they hated on deathloop since the beginning"

What are you talking about, Deathloop got nothing but praise since the reveal, it's only when it came out and the reviews made out it was better than it was. I loved it but it was not 10/10 worthy.

Eonjay521d ago

Yeah you can beat the demo in 20 minutes but to really get a feel for the game you gotta play for an hour or two. I watch tons of videos of people playing and a lot of them aren't even playing it right. Secret to the combat is using flow and online you see a lot of people just standing there like it's a mindless shooter. I think I like it because I took a few minutes to see how to actually play it. Then there are comments about people navigating the magic selections when you can do it with one button.

About the woke complaints, understand these people are unintelligent racists and look for something to point their finger at an claim harm. Your game stars a black chick? Why do you hate white people? Its fear based mind control designed to replace critical thinking with preprogramming. Scared people are easier to control.

blackblades521d ago

@Foxtrot bull shyt it got negativity from players before the game came out dont know what youve been looking at but I seen negatively similar how this game was receiving to an extent.

@Eonjay they automatically say woke when they seen a black girl then a typical white skin guy. They say the story isnt good without even knowing story etc...

RauLeCreuset520d ago

"Some people hate it because of woke or something because she a black female lead."

The number of people in these comments using "woke" as a code word are proving your point.

Palitera520d ago

I was very interested in the premise, but the demo gameplay has put me down. It is very clunky IMO.

Still, one of the things I really like and value is that the protagonist is a black female. I might not like the game, but if it enrages racist nerds, I'm 100% in.

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130°

Most Disappointing Game of 2023

VGChartz's Craig S: "Who doesn't love a good dose of schadenfreude every now and then? There was no shortage of that on offer in terms of video games last year, hidden in plain sight amongst the more genuine disappointments (I'll leave it for you to decide which category each of the following games falls into).

One unfortunate trend when it comes to the biggest disappointments of the last year was that so many were new IPs, including Bethesda's latest major release Starfield, the Arkane Studio B-team's abortive attempt at a co-op vampire shooter, and Square Enix's action RPG Forspoken. Mega-franchise Call of Duty and the perennially delayed The Lord of the Rings: Gollum round out the list of Nominees."

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Profchaos113d ago

I think disappointing and bad are not the same thing.

The article calls out lotr Gollum that was not disappointing it was bad

Redfall is both disappointing and bad.

starfield, MW3 sure disappointing.

But if I was to add some disappointments of the year I'd add

firewall ultra absolutely a dumpster fire that killed the studio.

007 goldeneye the port of the N64 game it's disappointing as we didn't get the rare remaster version and the switch version has very poor controls.

Rdr was not the remake we wanted a simple port that didn't even run at 60 fps on launch on ps5

Jedi survivor Just broken on day 1

coolbeans112d ago

-"The article calls out lotr Gollum that was not disappointing it was bad"

I personally fall on the 'Gollum disappointing' spectrum. Here's why: even though Daedalic Entertainment was hopping out of their point-n-click lane, they *were* a solid group of devs that had an unexpected concept. Those two things, cheering on a dev taking a risk with a brand and the odd-yet-intriguing template, at least made me hope for something decent; instead, it's the reason they're only publishing now.

CBaoth112d ago

But the concept never stood a chance, even in the heyday of the Metal Gear/Splinter Cell days. When this was announced, no one was intrigued by its premise. Fell flat on its face. Even if Gollum had come out to glowing reviews the game would've struggled to perform financially. That's why it's not disappointing, just bad. Had no hype. All the other games Prof listed had the potential to sell great or be reviewed better but failed. Low effort remasters like the GTA collection, the RDR port, and MGS Collection could all sell well but still be severely disappointing. Gollum was uninteresting at concept, terrible in its execution. The result was expected sadly.

Sephiroushin10d ago

I don’t know but i don't even would put Gollum on a disappointment list, those list would be for games people expected much more than what they delivered and most people expected Gollum to be bad!

-Foxtrot112d ago

Goldeneye is so weird

We got no proper remaster for it despite the fact it was being worked on and it was almost done apparently then the Xbox version didn't come with online play but the Nintendo Switch one did...the Switch...the system where online play is a f***** ballache.

https://youtu.be/6B8ssbyAeR...

RhinoGamer88113d ago

I recently came back to Redfall, my lord...the controls and movement were a disgrace! I felt like my character was drunk. Zero fine movement control. The XBOX producers on this game should be fired.

OtterX113d ago

I think Diablo IV deserves to be on this list. While not the worst made game, it was one of the most disappointing. Many of us had such high expectations for it and it turned out to be so incredibly dull, a slog to play.

Sonic1881112d ago

It's basically Diablo Immoral 2.0 with lots of microtransactions

DarkZane112d ago

Diablo 3 was as much as a dumpster fire at launch, but a year later, it became a very good game and was well worth playing. Give Diablo 4 the same time. In a year, it's going to be awesome I bet.

coolbeans112d ago

I was under the impression their most-recent update fits that bill.

OtterX112d ago

K I'll try reinstalling in a year or 2.

I didn't play D3 until after the first year, so I will certainly give it another shot.. especially to try and get my money's worth out of it. But at launch, I was bored out of my mind and uninstalled it.

Sonic1881111d ago

That's the biggest issue. Unfinished games with lots of flaws and issues during launch. Unfortunately, most gamers don't forget or forgive that and would rather spend their money on another game

jznrpg112d ago (Edited 112d ago )

Jedi Survivor was disappointing for me because I waited until a month ago to play it and it still has major issues. My saves were getting corrupted so I had to restart an old save however many times and a plethora of other bugs.

Of course there is Redfall Starfield but to me it’s MS overhype underdeliver so I expected it to some extent but not as bad as it was.

Gollum had little to no expectations.

Forspoken was a disappointment but not as bad as it was made out to be especially if you turned on Japanese voice acting. It was a 7 type of game but it looked like it could have been better.

Diablo 4 was scored well at launch but all my friends that loved and played 3 (after years of swasons) up until 4 were disappointed with 4 and don’t play it anymore .

Factions getting canceled was a bit of a disappointment. Not huge as I don’t play gaas much but it was disappointing.

Nintendo not releasing Switch 2 again was disappointing to me. I don’t use my Switch much it’s just so outdated and mosty kiddy games release some more games that I want to play not my kids!

No physical copy for Alan Wake 3 disappointing as hell, actually beyond that it is upsetting (to some extent,I will live of course)

Gamers getting used to owning nothing and renting games is very disappointing. I don’t watch Netflix anymore it’s mosty mediocre crap and rental services will go that direction if allowed.

CBaoth112d ago

this whole gen has been a major disappointment to me. Least amount of gaming I've done since bar/clubbing days. Watching fanboys argue now is akin to a couple of kids fighting over the front seat of a short bus. They can't even argue over games anymore.....cuz there aren't any! With two of the console manufacturers "switching' over to x86 architecture we shouldn't be having these draughts but here we are. And the third happily chugs along selling games on decade old microchips with an OLED screen.

Profchaos112d ago (Edited 112d ago )

X86 is a shared architecture but both run different development pipelines so they still have to Dev for those consoles plus PC and Arm if a switch port is included.

None of this will reduce Dev times games are complex now probably more than they need to be honestly but if every studio takes 3 to 5 or even 10 years to bring out their big titles there's going to be many dry spells

On that note arm processing is far more efficient than x86 I think Nintendo is making the right call sticking with that and we will probably see Sony and Microsoft do the same next gen as more effort is being made to bring arm into desktop space lately

Profchaos112d ago

Being disappointed that Nintendo isn't releasing ultra violent games is like being disappointed that the the next GTA game is open world. Plus totk and Metroid prime remaster did come out this year that's about as violent as they will even get

Im pretty certain that one experiment in publishing devils third is one they would like to forget.

Plus all rumours for the switch 2 places it's release in 2024 they make killer numbers at Christmas if they announce they are making a switch 2 those sales dwindle and shareholders get upset. If a switch 2 doesn't release this year that's disappointing. And if third party's don't develop for it even more so there's zero garuntee they will

I agree gamers getting used to owning nothing is a huge disappointment I don't think many will go silently into that one though

90°

I Hope 2024 Isn't As Bad For PC Ports As 2023 Was

Ahmed from eXputer writes "The quality of PC ports has been seeing a severe decline recently, and many gamers have had enough."

anast153d ago

Switch Forspoken with Redfall.

JEECE153d ago

It can be an unfortunate trend in our industry to lump games people were looking forward to that didn't end up meeting their expectations and were just okay (Forspoken) with games that are broken (Gollum) or little more than asset flips (The Day Before). If expectations (and price) had been set appropriately, Forspoken wouldn't even be that bad.