Forspoken story and unremarkable dialogue

One of Fry’s first steps into the medieval fantasy land of Athens, Forsebokine The effects appear in full force.

She and Ducks run under the broken walls of an abandoned castle with a giant dragon chasing after her. You get annoying chatter A companion named Cuff, which is literally a modern gold bracelet. Then, after painstakingly avoiding danger, we get a wonderful bird’s-eye view of the landscape, dominated by a huge stone monument arching into the sky.

The game seems to scream: This is a JRPG! This isekai! There might be some glorified anime nonsense here! Even the smaller details, like the stone landmark, reminded me of Xenoblade Chronicles’ Gaur Plain. However, despite the initial promise, much of Frye’s time in Athens unfolds without much whimsy or the requisite amount of luxury. Luminous Productions and Square Enix’s new game strikes a serious tone that makes it hard to persevere throughout the long haul.

Luminous Productions gives Athens a kind of pervasive melancholy. This mainly stems from the “atmosphere of the bubonic plague”. There is actually no epidemic, but there are dark, stormy clouds that surround entire cities and kill all living things within. prophesied It’s also based on a realistic graphics style, which, despite some vibrant charm in the combat, isn’t all that colorful – even its flowers look sad and colorless.

Then we layer on Fry’s story, which is also very sad! She is an orphan who was abandoned by her parents at birth. She lives in poverty in New York City, and on the day she finally saves enough money to move in and make a better life, a gang burns down her house. She finds new confidence in Athena, but continues to live a lonely life. On her journey, she is joined by no band of companions, who fill cinematic scenes with romantic monologues about the power of friendship.

She is an outsider to the world of Athena and gets burned (without spoiling anything) when she opens her heart a little.

Fry’s magical parkour abilities allow him to move around the world without restriction. However, outside of its mechanisms, prophesied It lacks the moments of flight that allow players to endure the long, sad, and sometimes difficult flights of many other “serious” games. There are no silly Cactuars showing up to make you laugh; No overly egotistical friends standing next to you; There are no fancy moments that allow you to take a break and recover from it all. Perhaps the closest you get is a cute little side quest where you feed the sheep, but even then, it ends up being a bit boring because you don’t actually see Frie feeding the sheep because the text on a black screen just says you fed them.

Image: Luminous Productions/Square Enix via Polygon

There’s a reason comic relief is so popular in blockbusters and video games – it gives the audience a break before the next exciting and stressful show. prophesied So earnest in his sweeping narrative that the dialogue becomes too ponderous for the dialogue to bear—thus, the annoyance ensues. Bad jokes and harsh self-narrative are staples in many popular AAA games, but in prophesied When they miss, they seem to fall even harder, because it’s not a world where silly things happen or people talk in weird, incredible ways. The self-referential dialogue feels less like comic relief, and more like self-deprecation.

Personally, I think Fry is worth the fun. She’s clearly enjoying herself at points. The first time she uses her magical parkour abilities, she says, “Well, that’s cool! I’m taking some serious air!” Her life and story don’t have to be completely foolish, but all things sad medieval could use some throwback. And you don’t get anything. For me, it’s stressful enough to put me off.