Things you need to know before buying the video game Forspoken

And we’re back with another episode of

before you buy that show we give you

some straight up gameplay and our first

impressions of the latest games

releasing as usual it’s me Jake and

today we’re talking about forespoken uh

thank you for your patience if you were

waiting to see our impressions of this

one now we’re a little late we didn’t

get our hands on it early and we didn’t

want to rush it uh forespoken is a weird

game I’m not the biggest fan of it

straight up it’s not a disaster it just

feels like something was really missing

here something I can’t quite put my

finger on maybe like too many cooks in

the kitchen or something Get Lost in

Translation I don’t know I say that

because it’s an ambitious idea on paper

and one that I straight up want to love

first I mean the people working on it

the team up of Japanese game developers

from Final Fantasy and Western writers

and creatives like bear McCreary Amy

Hennig and a few others and then

secondly the concept itself you know

it’s a big next-gen game with high-speed

magical parkour where you’re a girl from

New York thrust into this magical world

sounds really awesome right well uh what

we have here kind of feels like a jack

of all trades master of none something

that gets caught up in the paint by

numbers and ends up just being a bit

dull it has a lot of frustrating

elements to it but some decent gameplay

but it wasn’t enough to save it for me

that’s just me of course so uh let’s

break it all down a bit the story set up

here you play as Frey a 20 year old

woman who lives in New York City who

finds herself in and out of court for

stealing and she’s at the end of a rope

you know she has no family she was

discovered as a baby in the Holland

Tunnel so her last name is Holland and

that’s actually pretty cool if you ask

me but uh she’s in cahoots with like

these local really corny looking

criminals but she wants out she’s

basically left penniless and homeless

and just when she’s totally screwed she

finds a magical bracelet thing that

transports her to the magical world of

athia with no way back home this magical

bracelet nicknamed cuff talks and gives

Fray some magical powers and the ability

to resist the corruption that is

poisoning this world turning its

citizens into zombies and tearing the

landscape to Pieces so she’s the special

unlikely hero Outsider in a world of

people with strange customs and cultures

and she’s confused all the time just

says the f word a lot and nobody knows

what she’s referencing half the time and

after finding some actual motivation in

this world she sets out to get more

powerful and fight monsters and dragons

and these powerful kind of Fallen

leaders now like I said that is a cool

setup that’s a good pitch right there

Fish Out of Water normal person in a

fantasy world you know Ash in Army of

Darkness Thor finding his way on Earth

Joe Pesci and my cousin Vinnie I mean

we’ve seen this and I think we’ve seen

this plot in some games I think at this

point but it’s still cool enough where

it should work but the problem here is

that the characters and the world the

presentation the cutscenes none of it is

very interesting now a lot of that can

hinge on the writing and the dialogue

there’s a lot of it and it can be very

quippy yeah you may have seen Clips I’ve

seen some people say it’s like MCU jokey

dialogue but whatever it is for me it

ended up in a lot of cringe inducing

jokes and just characters that you can’t

really connect with everyone I was kind

of mixed on I found Frey sometimes

awkward and charming and real other

times completely grating and just

totally fake the cuff the talking

bracelet has the occasional good joke

but Falls kind of flat and then

supporting characters are mostly

forgettable except for some of the

bosses they have good energy but all

that coupled with a world that I just

didn’t care about saving made for not a

great combo the last big Bastion of

civilization is holed up in this big

empty City you go through and everyone

is kind of just like a basic medieval

Trope person making most side quests and

conversations not very appealing the

city itself is pretty Barren it’s really

big big but empty but it looks cool like

really cool whoever was behind the

actual visual design behind it was on

point and heavily inspired definitely

majored in art history or something I

love the way it looked now the thing

that really took me out of a lot of it

was that the game just has a really

rough start it’s extremely slow you know

like walk 10 feet and another cutscene

happens just to tell you something that

could have been a pop-up and it’s slow

and it’s sluggish like you stop there’s

a pause the character talks slowly then

there’s another pause and then the next

character talks and then the game waits

like five seconds before actually

letting you walk again there are also so

many scenes that unnecessarily Fade to

Black and fade back in it’s just very

jarring and something about it all feels

kind of incomplete and sloppy really all

this kills any pacing and excitement and

really wonder of first getting into this

world there’s a couple cool moments at

the start but mostly it falls flat and I

mean I love a story heavy game I like a

walking simulator I like story as much

as the next guy but this is just

awkwardly paced now after some really

frustrating sequences for a significant

amount of time like once you’re finally

out in the open world you’re set out

you’re fighting enemies you’re

parkouring around at high speeds the

game definitely gets better it’s all

about casting magic with the triggers uh

charged attacks with cooldowns and

ultimates but also running around and

positioning the game encourages you to

run and Dodge to kind of Auto Dodge

certain attacks and you have a cool

little protect counter when you get hit

sometimes and there’s quite a bit to a

lot of it each trigger kind of gets like

a weapon wheel select for all the

different spells and you can do a lot

their side and Behind Enemy bonuses so

the game wants you to run around and use

all of your tools and get the proper

positioning right and then casting and

it can be chaotic and kind of messy with

it all in a way that doesn’t feel

totally smooth it’s hard to explain but

you get used to it some people might not

like the way it feels but with the Dual

set sense and all the visual effects and

getting into chaining stuff together

doing a mid-spell Dodges for even cooler

bonuses and flourishes all of it like

made it feel much more satisfying it

certainly isn’t perfect but it’s mostly

fun it’s way better with larger enemies

in more Arena style areas blasting

smaller creatures or slow zombies in the

open world that just kind of disappear

into the backdrop like they don’t even

look colorful a lot of that is not

thrilling at all but the large enemies

can be pretty chaotic and fun to fight

especially when they’re filling the

screens even if the lock on and the

camera throws you off sometimes blasting

flipping dodging and super running when

it all really works like it can be fun

like you can run hit an enemy with a

poisonous seed thing cause long-term

damage then drop plants that shoot

enemies then start hurling some rocks

and enemies like bullets from your hands

and then it gets better over time really

with like the later game spells because

you’re given a lot more Choice you’re

going to be hurling fire Spears and

energy blasts and cooler melee attacks

and that translates over to traversal

too you know first you’re just running

super fast but then you’re boosting

yourself up walls and kind of lasso

flinging yourself around the environment

without spoiling all of them it does

improve free running has a good sense of

speed to it too and even if you’ll

occasionally get screwed up it still

feels powerful to like blast around at

just the right amount of Auto jumping

over objects and stuff with cool

animations and you can cover a lot of

ground because the game’s open world is

massive the biomes are varied but it’s a

lot of just open World stuff to do

higher level enemies to take on for

bonuses little challenge dungeons bases

to clear special items to find that’ll

help you see more of the map it’s open

world busy work which I mean I know I’ve

been very critical of in the past but I

don’t mind open World stuff when it’s

meaningful or at least well explained

within the world here it feels just kind

of like a bunch of cobbled together

nonsense that exists solely for you to

do and they just kind of invented an

awkward lore reason as to what it all is

I know technically if you want to get

really into it most games do that but

here it just really didn’t feel right

most of the exploration gives you

materials for simple crafting systems

that allow you to make healing and other

items upgrades for capacities and stuff

you can dump into your equipment and

level it up it’s pretty simple it’s not

super addictive or anything but it works

now what I do really like is the gear

itself and the progression of skills the

skill tree allows you to unlock new

abilities but also grow existing

abilities by finding these certain

bookshelves at home bases that you

select a skill and focus on

accomplishing an achievement with it say

like kill 100 enemies while dodging or

something that then allows you to go

back and unlock the next layer of that

skill in your tree like go from your

blast attack from level two to level

three it’s a simple but smart way of

doing things and I like progressing

along with it the gear as well well you

know all of it looks cool the character

design is pretty cool and it’s all

simple and straightforward but it’s at

least satisfying to dump things into it

all to make the stats stronger and also

equip smaller side Buffs if you want to

prioritize saying more damage or health

or critical bonuses and stuff also for

extra little perks you can find certain

different templates for painting your

character’s Nails I haven’t really seen

that in a game before so points to that

creativity I guess ultimately man it

just doesn’t quite come together like I

said for me personally wasn’t a fan of

the world they built and seemingly

massive amounts of lore they spent time

on I just didn’t want to pursue side

quests I didn’t want to explore that

much I just kind of like the combat and

traversal and that wasn’t really quite

good enough for me you know little

issues with the camera lock-on system or

the least of it the game is repetitive

from the encounters down to the music

the environments are sparse and don’t

look great and technically like the

performance behind it ain’t too hot

either ultimately I’m just disappointed

because it had potential hey it might

still be for you I might be harsh on

this one they put out a demo a few weeks

back and credit where credit is due I’m

glad they did that they showed you the

game they let you play it I’m glad they

were up front so if you didn’t like the

demo I don’t know you might not like the

rest of the game but if you didn’t hate

the demo or kind of enjoyed it then you

might like seeing what else the game has

in store for you just don’t expect

anything too groundbreaking for me

sometimes Flaws and All a Game can just

come down to like is it memorable and

I’m probably gonna forget this one

pretty quickly I really hate to say that

clearly a lot of work was put into this

but yeah that’s where I’m at and that’s

how before you buy works you know how

this goes by now I give you some pros

some cons a bunch of information and my

personal opinion and now I want to hear

yours down in the comments the game is

out so you definitely probably got some

takes on this one if you’ve played it

would love to hear what you’re thinking

let us know whatever you think about for

spoken hopefully this helped you out

steered you in the right direction again

sorry it’s late but hey it is what it is

clicking the like button does help us

out thank you but as always thank you

for watching and we’ll see you guys next

time

I wouldn’t say good exactly