Forspoken is a fantasy action roleplaying game with a female lead character from our Earth transported to a magical land, currently slated for release in January.

Right now it's being roasted for a new trailer's dialog widely described and treated as previously unheard and shockingly terrible - except all of that dialog was in a 2021 trailer.

We recognised it instantly because our memory is quite good and it made us cringe when we first heard it.

The game's premise is interesting and we don't mind comedy in general or in games specifically, but this just doesn't come off right.

Though a slightly different cut, the dialog is the same.

Seriously we have to ask, what has changed in the almost year to a day between these two trailers to elicit this reaction now?

If this were just social media we might dismiss it as everyday anti-diversity background noise but major gaming sites which aren't that way inclined are involved, eg. PC Gamer, Kotaku, Giant Freakin Robot, Game Rant and Screen Rant.

IGN also commented on the roasting but note that in an earlier preview they described the game as "maybe just a slight cringe".

Is this a case of diversity blindness?

With a not white female lead, did those publications and many others simply overlook its flaws in the 2021 trailer?

Has the anti-diversity background noise actually moved the needle?

Has Square Enix fatally erred in concentrating this dialog into a thirty second trailer which is now simply too much cringe per second?

Something interesting has happened here - which is why we're commenting on a fantasy game - but we're not sure what it is.

Or what may come of it.

[ Main Image: Forspoken - Frey Holland. Credit. Square Enix via Steam. ]

References

Banis, Fotis (August 11, 2022). New Forspoken Trailer Gets Mercilessly Roasted For Cringe Dialogue. Screen Rant.

Chalk, Andy (August 11, 2022). The internet won't stop roasting this new Forspoken trailer. PC Gamer.

Collins, Jason (August 13, 2022). Forspoken Is Being Relentlessly Roasted for Some Awful Dialogue. Giant Freakin Robot.

Esposito, John (August 10, 2022). Twitter is Roasting Forspoken. Game Rant.

Forspoken [@Forspoken] (August 9, 2022). A beautiful and cruel new land? Twitter.

IGN (September 10, 2021). Forspoken - Official Gameplay Trailer | PlayStation Showcase 2021. YouTube.

Plant, Logan (August 11, 2022). Forspoken Trailer Getting Memed: Elaborate Parody Versions for Bloodborne and More. IGN.

Plunkett, Luke (August 10, 2022). Very Bad Forspoken Ad Gets Absolutely Roasted. Kotaku.

Steam. Forspoken. Square Enix. (viewed August 15, 2022)

Wikipedia. Forspoken. (viewed August 15, 2022)