Olivia Cavallaro Games 08.11.2022 02:Aug AM EDT

Square Enix Releases New Forspoken Trailer, Gets Roasted by the Internet Over Cringey Dialogue

People on the Internet are dragging the new Forspoken trailer and creating memes.

On Monday, Square Enix and Luminous Productions released a new teaser trailer for the upcoming Forspoken, an upcoming RPG that is set to arrive on January 24, 2023 to PlayStation 5 and Windows. But instead of being met with fanfare, the new trailer, which was posted on Forspoken's official Twitter account, was met with a lot of laughs and roasts.

According to Polygon, the new Forspoken trailer features the protagonist Frey as she moves through the fantasy setting of the game, showcasing her magic against her foes, the dragons and otherworldly creatures. While she does look powerful and amazing, the same cannot be said for her dialogue.

Gamers Roast Forspoken for Its Writing

Forspoken was first introduced during the December 2021 preview session, in which it made a pretty good impression on players, PC Gamer reported. The story follows Frey, a young woman from New York City who finds herself traveling through an interdimensional portal and discovering the fantasy world of Athia, which features lots of magic, action, and parkour set in an open world.

But Monday's trailer of Forspoken left some scratching their heads in confusion. The 30-second clip featured gameplay and a peculiar narration from Frey Holland with a "snarky, faux-disbelieving tone."

"So let me get this straight," Frey begins. "I'm somewhere that's not what I would call Earth, I'm seeing freaking dragons, and-oh yeah!-I'm talking to a cuff!"

Frey concludes with, "Yeah, OK, that is something I do now. I do magic, kill jacked-up beasts, I'll probably fly next."

Twitter Error

Viewers of Square Enix's new trailer were not impressed, to say the least. In fact, many of them took to Twitter to make fun of the trailer's dialogue and create their own version of it, much like people do on TikTok.

Many have parodied the trailer's less than amusing voiceover and used its tone to describe the plot of other popular games, including God of War, Yakuza 2, Metal Gear, Undertale, and more, Kotaku reported.

Forspoken Trailer Draws Comparisons to Joss Whedon's Writing Style

On Wednesday, Joss Whedon started trending on Twitter as people began to notice the similarities between the Forspoken trailer's tone and the director's penchant for quips in his movie dialogues. Whedon is not involved in any way in the development of Forspoken, but the game does feature Star Wars writer Gary Whitta, Uncharted writer and director Amy Hennig, as well as veteran television scriptwriter Allison Rymer.

This is exactly why many are questioning the quality or lack thereof of Forspoken's dialogue, given its roster of talent behind the game. The cringey dialogue truly makes for a meme-worthy response from viewers.

This is not the first time Square Enix's Forspoken was criticized. In late 2021, the game was criticized for failing to have more than one black person to be directly involved in the creation of Frey. While the main character is played by actress of color Ella Balinska, no other POC was involved. Square Enix responded at the time that they had worked "closely with a number of consultants from BIPOC backgrounds."