Forspoken Is Leaking All Over the Place Ahead of Next Week's Release

To my surprise, my copy has shipped today as well and should be here tomorrow. The first time I played the demo I wasn't that much into it but I have to admit that I didn't really pay attention and just jumped right into it without paying attention to the different abilities too much. However, after the demo patch was released, I decided to go back and give it an earnest try. What can I say? I pre-ordered it right after. Not because I think it will set the world on fire but I can see myself having a very good time with it.

@dschons Please ping me with some initial impressions if you get to play the game this weekend. I'm still on the fence and had mixed (but not really bad) feelings about the demo

I actually did watch the first 45 minutes or so, and....oh dear.... Even outside of the grating dialogue, it just doesn't look good at all.

@Voltan Alright, will do. 👍🏻

Lol earliest i ever got was a day early from amazon but it was a work night early bed early rise I ended up starting the actual game day after release lol I think that was last of us 2 can unplay that lol

@KaijuKaiser Trust me, it's not just one YouTuber!

A 4070 with 32 gb of ram to hit 4k 60fps. That's absolutely absurd. Reeks of extremely poor optimization. The fact they had to patch a demo 6 days before launch is also a huge red flag

You have to think review codes not going out isn’t a good thing for the game. I can’t imagine why you’d do that unless you’re not confident in the product.

@Shepherd_Tallon yeah, I think the parcour is very fun and I just love the whole fantasy vibe and music as well, reminds me of the Narnia films a bit. I think the patched version of the demo looks a bit better as well. I remember the performance mode looking VERY soft the first time around. We'll see. Is there a chance that the game won't live up to my expectations? Sure, but that's potentially true for pretty much every game. My impressions have been pretty good so far. I can see myself having more fun with it than what will be the general consensus. I'm a sucker for those kinds of fantasy worlds.

@dschons where did you order from?

I feel like companies avoid SkillUp when they fear a capital "r" Review. That dude is easily my favorite reviewer, even if I don't always agree with his takes.

I actually want to pick this game up

@KaijuKaiser I definitely know what you mean it seems like its just popular to pile on this game. I have the same gripes as many with the dialogue we have heard and I did not enjoy the demo at all but if it gets a good reception from my trusted critics and people that actually play it I would be happy to give it a chance

Can't believe Freya gets her head caved by a magic golf club and the talking club has to get revenge in her name. Damn.

@KaijuKaiser I don't think there's so much of a hate community, I think there's a lot of people with a lot of issues with the game, and I think that gets amplified by people white knighting it because it's a vaunted Sony excluuuuusive therefore it HAS to be good, which just spins out into people defending something against valid criticism which just leads to very visible arguments.

It ads fuel because the hate plugs into the fact that the game has been it's own meme due to the poor writing and Square being cagey with it doesn't help. And it helps that it's got a lot of the same problems from the same studio as FFXV which itself lent itself to memes, criticism, and white knighting because FF. (I don't even hate FFXV, but it definitely has some serious problems.)

I feel like at the end of the day it'll be like a David Cage exclusive. It'll have it's fans that will love it to death, and most will kind of side-eye it as irrelevant or bad. Then it'll end up on Plus. But that Sony exclusive status puts a spotlight on it it wouldn't have had if it were just a generic Square release to forget, Stranger of Paradise style.

@ShogunRok You don't get to delete your review code and then pretend like you never got it. We're going to force you to review this. Sammy, get the pliers!

Also, one thing I can't get over about this game is the veteran writers that worked on this...and for the writing to still be just, so, so bad. It's bizarre.

My enthusiasm of this game has been all over the map. It’s gone from my most anticipated game to a complete pass, and then back again as a wishlist item and then dropped down to a maybe when it’s on sale…

It’s going to be one of the most critical-review dependent games for me in a long time. I’m picking up Hogwarts, Jedi Survivor, and FF16 regardless of reviews (unless they are unequivocally and unanimously negative) but for this, reviews will sway me a lot. Could be anything from a launch pick up (if it’s 9-10/10), or buy on sale later (if it’s 7-8/10) or wait for a steep sale or inclusion on PS+ (if it’s 6/10) or skip entirely (5 or less). Unfortunately, I predict reviews will end up being across the board from 6-8, so I’ll have to go with trusted reviewers and an average consensus. Most likely will be a ‘wait and get later’ type of game, but we’ll see! I hope we’re all surprised by an overwhelming positive response.

@NEStalgia Anything but the pliers again

I foresee this getting 7's and occasional 8's. I haven't watched the trailer or seen much gameplay but sometimes you just get a gut feeling don't you. Lol.

I've spent over 7 hours on the demo (yes, there's more content on this demo than many other games one can find out there).

At the first hour or two, it was sort of confusing figuring how the magic parkour worked, and how the combat system works, the demo just sorf of throw you out there and leave you to figure it out on your own. But after this initial learning curve (that any other action rpg game have), oh boy, it's very good. The map is vast, full of ups and downs, but you move quickly through it and the parkour system makes it fluid and satisfying. For example, in a game like Breath of the Wild, it would take you a lot of time and patience to traverse the topography that you find in Forspoken. But in Forspoken, the topography was designed to be integrated with the magical parkour, and it was well inplemented.

On the combat side, as any other game, you need some practice to get the hang of it. The thing is, the games actually estimulates you to be fast, to move around, and circle through your different magic types and different abilities. Each ability has its own cooldown, so if you have a fire "magic reel" with 5 abilities and an earth "magic reel" with 6 abilities, you should strategically circle around it during enemy encounters. It is a very well inplemented combat system: it's fun, and you have plenty of room to develop your own style. You can very quickly jump from direct combat to ranged or vice-versa, and it is very fluid.

From my perspective, this game had the unfortunate of becoming the hate target of the turn on the internet, and specially after a general disliked trailer. If you don't like the (over complained) chat with the Cuff during the game, you can easilly set it to none or low on Settings (I personally set it on low, it is very fine, trust me, it will not bother you during your play time). I'm sorry, but those who complained about the chat during the game simply didn't took their time to check the Settings menu.

I have the impression thar people did not give this game a chance, jumped on the demo with prejudgements, played for a short time, and did not went through the learning curve that any action rpg demands, just as much as playing with Yuffie in FF7R or V in Devil May Cry 5 takes time to get in the flow of its combat system.

Don't know how the story will be, and how the final build of the game will perform. But for the little that we get about its combat system in the demo, it is very solid and well designed, and when you get the hang of it, it is as a Devil May Cry game, you dance around the combat.
Don't jump on the hate train, try it for yourself.

Oh well. I have no intention of playing it anyway.

@Th3solution it'll be a 6/10 you can just tell 😭

I really, really want to be wrong, though, as I want it to be a 9/10, and fill me with wonder if I buy it. But, like you, I'm not banking on it being that way, so definitely not buying early, I want to see honest, open, both sides of the story reviews from good sources, and to hear what actual people I know think about it if they end up buying it. That's why I bought Elden Ring, someone just told me straight up on release day "buy it now, you will love it" and I did, oh I did 😁

I really have no interest in this game at all and didn't really like the demo either, but would like to be proven wrong eventually.

@somnambulance Sadly it's looking very, very unlikely. But we'll try to have a review (possibly a review-in-progress) out as soon as we possibly can.

Select media outlets got a code,.any chance their super square Enix fan boys, and or paid by square 🤣
Select media outlet is just as bad as waiting til night before launch embargo

The gameplay had such a big lack of weight to it. General looking enemies and the story goofy as hell. I’ll still buy it and if it’s more of the same in the demo, use it to swap it for Star Wars or H legacy, but it doesn’t look promising.

I'm really on the fence with this one. Playing the demo didn't help with my decision at all either. The game wold looks amazing but it felt empty. Combat was alright but got repetitive fairly quickly. Definitely going to be waiting on reviews and player impressions before picking this up.

@Ravix I’m with you, bud. I’m feeling like it’s going to be closer to a 6 than a 9, but would be happy to be wrong.

And there are some consensus 6’s out there that I quite liked and am glad that I played. But this game would have done so much better if it got out sooner during the quieter parts of 2022 when we didn’t have options to be more picky. It’s only saving grace is that it’s going to get out a couple weeks before the onslaught of big games start pouring in.

But I agree, the community and fan reaction will be as important as the critical reviews. If fellow gamers start highly recommending it then I’m completely open to jumping on it earlier rather than late.

I'm just waiting for Dead Space while enjoying the ps5 upgrades we got recently + some good ps extra/monthly games

@ShogunRok yeah, a PS exclusive site not able to review a PS exclusive(ish) release so that they can share their thoughts with PS owners and potential customers. Doesn't fill me with hope 😵

@thechetearly They can't write anything they want. They have to write what the agenda tells them to write.

I tried the PS5 demo and it runs like crap, the game world is super dull as is the parkour and the god awful voice acting, made it an easy decision to not pick this up

@Shepherd_Tallon A strong black female lead character of cause it was going to cause people to hate it online. Me I will be buying this along with Hogwarts legacy to support both game developers. Just don't ask when I will get time to play them !!!

Skill Up sounds butthurt.

@dschons oh wow, bad luck

I appreciate when a developer / publisher releases a demo, but what is the point if you aren't going to listen to the feedback.

In the case of this game, if they really have high hopes for this new IP, the studio behind it, and anything beyond preorder and day one sales; they would have delayed this title again to at least fall 2023 after demo feedback and implement often cited shortcomings.

It's clear though, with the lack of review codes having been sent out, that Square has once again shipped a game to die, only hoping to garner those preorder / day one sales, and then abandon the IP, blame everyone else and poor sales and move on to the next mediocre JRPG. It's indicative of a larger problem with large legacy companies that so heavily turned into corporatocracies, that they forgot what made them great and have let board members, shareholders, and the aging archaic management they control, slowly tank what made them what they were at their height, in favor of short-term profits and the myth of endless growth.

Naughty Dog, Square, Rockstar, Ubisoft, Activision, EA, Bethesda, the list goes on. They have all become formulaic machines producing little in the way of creative content. when they do, they often end up not giving the resources and support to let something new flourish the minute there is a sign that the growth numbers for a fiscal quarter are in decline, and instead churn out the same garbage or even more disgusting, rerelease old content for a quick buck.

This game will flop, and perhaps for more than just Square being a shell of its former self. However, the medium of gaming as a whole continues to suffer and consolidate into something far less creative and far more predatory.

Something looks rotten about this game

https://emopulse.com/news/gaming/reviewers-havent-received-forspoken-review-codes/

One day embargo and a lack of review codes. Never a good sign.

@Capirdbara I had a lot of the same opinions as you did. I thought the combat and traversal were very well done and enjoyable once you got the hang of them. I also agree with your feeling that many people went in to it with preconceived opinions and didn't give it a "fair" chance. That's no to say that I think the game will be amazing and win a bunch of awards or anything. I don't know I'm intentionally avoiding as much story spoiler as possible so that I can hopefully enjoy it on launch. I hope it's a good game and a fun experience. Playing Elden Ring this last year has gotten me back into RPGs and Single Player Adventure games as I had/have been on a FPS/Survival game obsession for the last few years. I am hoping that's this will be a nice fun engaging open world to explore with a nice "brighter" aesthetic compared to the "Darker" fantasy's I have been playing like Elden Ring and The Witcher 3.

I'm still looking forward to this but I really don't see why Sony paid for 2 years of exclusivity.

I may have had my perceptions altered through playing a million JRPGs, but I really don’t see what is bad about the characterisation or dialogue.