Forspoken Developers Respond to Player Feedback on Frey and Cuff Dialogue

Luminous Productions, the developer behind Forspoken, has officially responded to player feedback concerning the dialogue between the game's protagonist and sidekick.

During an interview with Game Informer published on Friday, March 25, Raio Mitsuno, creative producer on the project, answered players' concerns about the dialogue between Forspoken's protagonist, Frey, and her sidekick, Cuff—the metal cuff companion she carries on her forearm throughout the game. Concerns primarily regard the dialogue's frequency and, according to Mitsuno, the team is looking to create a good balance between the two.

Forspoken Developers Hoping to Strike Good Balance with Character Dialogue

"Those kinds of things we’re looking at in terms of fine-tuning the frequency, making sure that it’s not to the point where it feels overwhelming, but we want to make sure it’s timed nicely," Mitsuno said, "You know, you don’t want it to be noise, obviously. So, we are taking a lot of feedback and making sure we’re adjusting things to make sure that it’s kind of the optimal experience."

He explained that they were attempting to find a happy medium "where it doesn’t feel like there’s too much silence when you’re playing out in the vast world. But we don’t want it to be too much."

Throughout the process, however, the team plans to keep the general feeling surrounding the relationship between the two. Essentially, they're trying to trim the fat without taking away from the depth of the narrative. For example, at the start of the game, Frey is entirely removed from Athia and its plight, which frustrates Cuff.

Earlier in production, publisher Square Enix came under fire from fans after it described Frey, Forspoken's Black protagonist, as "an orphan" who is very angry" and has "fallen through [the] cracks of society" and on the precipice of going to prison. She also has a "hip-hoppy walk," according to Tom Keegan, the game's performance director.

The studio has since reached out to Eurogramer last December to explain they worked with "a number of consultants from BIPOC backgrounds to help portray Frey's character and tell the story from her perspective."

Forspoken is slated for release on Oct. 11, 2022 on PC and PlayStation 5.