I've not added a poll on this one since it is more of a conversation piece I feel than seeing stats for one or the other.

One of the standout talking points about Forspoken has been it's dialogue. Across sites and forums you will hear and read how it is cringe, cliché, and just plain and simply bad.

Then comes the story which has also been blasted as being bad, cliche and cringe worthy.

The above is universal I would say. I'm about 30 hours in, love the gameplay loop, combat, RPG elements and traversal, but the story and dialogue is shit. I don't care about the swearing, it do t bother me but it just feels like a homemade B movie.

The reason why I feel there is a greater conversation to be had is due to Uncharted 4 and the departure of Amy Henning. Amy was supposed to be the better writer and story teller and a big deal was made about how everything will be worse without her, but here we have a big project Amy has worked on as a writer and the two biggest things which have torn the game apart by critics and gamers are elements that Amy has been involved in.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12497068/

Amy Henning and Todd Swashtick are both credited as writers for this game. I know there are other writers, but knowing they played a part, does this change your opinion on Amy Henning and Neil with the whole Uncharted departures.

Do you think the dialogue would have been better if the animations were better or the motion capture? Was it maybe the actors who didn't.l do the dialogue justice or maybe the directing?

Amazingly, I would have thought reviewer's would have picked up on who's written the game story and dialogue considering how much of a big talking point this was during Uncharted 4 development, but this seems to have knowingly or unknowingly flown under the radar 

I was cautiously optimistic about this title since Amy Hennig is attached as a writer, but there's like 5 other writers that are credited on this game. So, idk what happened behind the scenes, but you can't help but get the feeling that Amy's voice may have been pushed out. Just the demo alone had me doing a hard pass. A couple friends of mine who did get the game told me it doesn't get much better. And for $70, it's not worth my time. I really didn't like the protagonist either. She's supposed to be the hero when she's one of the most unlikeable characters I've played in recent memory.

I don't have as much time to game anymore as I used to, so when I buy a game, it has to be because it drew me in so much that I just can't ignore it. The demo should've absolutely floored me! The demo for a game should make you go, "oh shit, this is awesome!" The Forspoken demo did everything but that. This game is probably worth $30-$40 at the most. I'll wait for a very steep sale.

Also, the credited writers on Uncharted 4 are Neil Druckmann and Josh Scherr. Amy Hennig was out at some point in development and the script was rewritten. IIRC

It's like the worst attempt at the worst MCU kinda dialogue from 2010 mixed with the annoyance and frequency of a Bubsy game. Never gave a fuck about Amy. Still think Neil is a hack. ND is the most overrated dev in history. (R* not far behind) Bad is bad. IDGAF who wrote it. I love Bayonetta games and Kamiya but I will never claim he's a good writer. He's a brilliant game designer with great ideas but can't write a cohesive story for shit. If Yoko Taro wrote Forspoken and still sounded like it did I'd still hate it. Honestly to me, the best story writers in gaming are Yoko Taro and the team behind the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. Tak at Monolith is pretty good as well. Spiderman was well done.

ND stuff to me is good at tricking people they're better than they are. They hit the familiar cliche high notes in movies so people recognize it as familiar and therefore good but not really. TLOU is a pretty standard zombie story and wasn't even done as well as TWD. Uncharted the one I played, again very well produced and knows when to hit that popcorn movie notes at the right time to make seem better than it is. Then the gameplay is meh. The story overall isn't really great. The same formula by design modern songs in pop music is done. They've done an entire study on this. Then the gameplay is so average. I like Soul Reaver at the time but it hasn't aged well in any respect..except the VA.

Even to this day I dont really know what the game is about tbh. Ever since their last trailer (the one previous to game launch) came out I lost all interest. The tone of the game was just not for me. And then the game released and well, we all know how that went down. With all those delays, rocky development, and just plain bad trailers I guess this was predictable. Square needs some heavier quality control over their projects. 

*shrugs*

Watching a playthrough of it as I type this, I might be able to see why some might not be able to take the story seriously. I'm a gameplay-first kind of player so I don't mind silly or goofy cutscenes if gameplay is good. Sometimes, silly/goofy can still be entertaining and it can lead to fun/interesting set pieces in gameplay...

So far, I think the backlash seems undeserved...

 I can only comment on the demo. Depending on the game yeah I can forgive a dumb story when the gameplay is the focus. DMC,Bayonetta as a couple examples. The gameplay in those is the reason people buy them. Forpsoken made a big deal about who was writing it. Then that writing turned out to be a dud. I didn't find the gameplay all that interesting mainly because the bland enemies who felt like mindless sponges. The art design felt like just UE4 asset use. (I'm aware it's not UE4) and the menus and UI made me personally feel clausterphobic. I love a UI that tries to be stylish yet functional fitting the theme of a game. Atlus does this well in Tokyo Mirage Sessions esp. Just Forpsoen's menus felt limiting usung fisheye and had bad color choices making things hard to read.

You realise that Amy is only credited for Story Concept (in the actual credits of the game), and that she herself referred to her involvement as a creative consultant on the project.

She is neither the main story writer nor the driving force behind it's conception.

I'm not sure what the purpose is of your obvious negative framing, but it comes across as based on a very limited understanding of who did what in the game.

It certainly made me think. I have always thought Amy Hennig is a good writer, but after this debacle I have to question that. Perhaps her getting the boot from Uncharted 4 was a blessing? Then again, didn't she write all of the previous Uncharted games as well, and those turned out fine?

Even the best artists will make something that is not great from time to time.

One can do a masterpiece and then a pile of garbage with neither detracting nor exculpating the other.

Sorry didn't mean to leave the reply so late. It's been busy at work.

Didn't realise she was only did concept. Didn't see the credits until the game finished. Also thought those articles would have been more accurate.

Uncharted was light hearted and fun. Thought we might see some more of that quality writing again from Amy and just wondering what this would mean for her post uncharted since we never got her Star Wars game. Especially if she was behind stone if the writing but that's either not the case or questionable. 

Either way Forspoken was a fun game I think missed the mark sure to budget or time constraints. It had all the makings of a good game which fell short with the exception of combat and traversal. It's a real shame.