Chronicling the completion of the backlog, one game at a time.

This is Coffee from Games with Coffee, and welcome to Backlog Busting! As the tagline above says, I’m writing about the games in my backlog that I’ve completed in 2024. I’ll share what I enjoyed, what I didn’t, and whether or not it was worth my time and investment. At the end, I’ll share a Busting Grade – an aggregate rating made up of four categories: Length, Difficulty, Replay Value and Fun Factor. Scoring explanations will be found at the end of the post for reference.

The seventh game finished for this year is Forspoken for the PlayStation 5. Yep, that game. I’m sure you all know what I’m talking about. Let’s dig into the report.

I Can Do Magic!

The brainchild of Luminous Productions and published by Square Enix, Forspoken was an attempt to build an new IP outside of Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy that utilized the full capabilities of the PlayStation 5. Ray-Tracing, Adaptive Triggers, High Definition graphics, boundless open world with much to do; if you name it, Forspoken advertised that it had it.

Then the trailers released and it wasn’t as advertised. The open world looked empty and austere. The visuals, while pretty, were not optimized well and had both frame rate and clipping issues. The gameplay looked interesting but wasn’t very captivating. Crafting was fairly basic. But it was the terrible dialouge that became the most egregious offense to the game. Frey became a cringe meme for all stereotypical Gen Z mannerisms and Cuff was the annoying side character you were forced to listen to endlessly. Rough stuff, in my opinion.

Forspoken came and went with a whimper. Even new DLC wasn’t enough to garner interest into it. It lost so much money for Square Enix that they closed down the development studio and doubled down on their existing IP. Yet, something about the game intrigued me. I don’t know why – maybe because I found the protagonist interesting, despite the cringe – but I found myself being drawn to the game.

Fast-forward to end of 2023 when I got my PS5 and I decided that one of the first games I would get for the system would be Forspoken. Clearly, I was perfectly fine torturing myself. Plus, it was on sale for nearly 80% off, so it was a steal.

Busting Report

I walked into this game blind and I can say I was pleasantly surprised. You play as Alfre “Frey” Holland – a young 20-something living in an abandoned apartment building in New York City. The game wastes no time in mentioning that she was abandoned as a baby, was considered brilliant despite being put in the foster system and has a criminal record. Despite her no-nonsense and rakish attitude, Frey is a very goal-oriented person; she scrounged, scrimped and stole enough money to get out of the city with her cat and start a new life. Her criminal past catches up to her though, causing her to lose everything – her apartment, her scant belongings and her money.

With nothing left to live for, Frey gives her cat away to a judge who had been very sympathetic to her and prepares to end her life near where she was found – the Holland Tunnel. Before she could do the deed, something strange within an abandoned warehouse catches her attention – a golden shimmering object that’s revealed to be a cuff on further inspection. Frey touches it and is instantly transported to the land of Athia. It’s here that her journey into her origins, her heritage and the legacy left for her, begins.

One of the biggest criticisms of Forspoken – the dialogue – wasn’t as bad or as cringey as I thought. Sure, in the opening stages it was very cringe, but I found that the dialogue got better as the game progressed. Frey starts out as this woman who really wants to get back home to her cat, screw everyone and everything around her in the process. She comes to care for Athia and the citizens who took her in as she learns of her origins, which shows a sense of maturity on her part.

Part of her growth stems from Cuff, the sentient armband fused to Frey. Cuff serves as Frey’s shield and travelling companion. Cuff can also detect points of interest and analyze weaknesses in monsters. Snarky and acerbic, Cuff aids in Frey’s survival only due to self-preservation. As the journey continues, he comes to care for her only to betray her near the end of the game.

Cuff is the source of all that ails Athia – the Break and the Broken, as christened by Frey. He was once a demon who was sealed away by the first Tanta. He was unsealed a couple of decades before Frey’s birth and then resealed again into his current vambrace form. That twist was cool, but I could also see it from a while away due to Cuff’s persistent insistence on defeating the Tantas.

Speaking of the Tantas, they are the main antagonists Frey has to contend with on her journey. The Tantas are witches imbued with incredible magical powers. Prior to Frey’s arrival, there existed four Tantas. Three of them – Silas, Prav and Olas – were once benevolent rulers of their lands, but turned tyrannical upon their corruption by the Break. The fourth – Cinta – is revealed to be Frey’s mother, who sent her away to Earth before becoming corrupted herself.

The movement system of the game should not have been this fun. Most of the game felt a tad dull, with fetch quests and points of interest yielding treasure or new armour/accessories and the like. But getting to these places was so much fun! There was something Sonic the Hedgehog-esque about traversing the environment at lightning-fast speeds that gave me that adrenaline kick I yearned for. Magic Parkour and the various combinations that let Frey leap, scale walls, launch great distances and even surf on water were just so much fun to watch and execute. It gave me the feeling like I was progressing to something. It helped that the controls weren’t super complicated.

The magic system, while different, was also intriguing. Frey starts off with Purple Magic; an Earth elemental, shot-based magic. As she encounters the other Tantas, Frey can siphon off and use their respective coloured magic: Red, Blue and Green. Red Magic allows Frey to generate fire-based weapons for close combat. Blue Magic is another shot-based magic that’s designed to take on enemies at a distance. And Green Magic uses lightning bolts as markers for multi-target chain spells. Each colour of magic has its own distinct spell and ability list. Aside from the three base attacking spells, Frey can also use support spells with various effects. These include status afflictions, traps, buffs and summoning familiars, to name a few.

Frey can learn new spells by spending Mana points. She can earn points through level ups or by picking up Mana energy on the field. Frey can also improve her spells by undertaking challenges – destroy x number of enemies with a spell or perform a certain action x amount of times, for example. Mastering spells grants a bevy of effects but the downside is that you can only choose three spells to master at any given time. Anytime you master one, you’ll have to go to a bookshelf to select a new one.

Despite all the negativity surrounding the game, I found that Forspoken was just OK. Not great, not terrible, but OK. There was enough to do to keep me interested, the lore behind Athia was quite interesting to learn about and I felt a sense of accomplishment when I figured out how to surmount a mountain or reach a difficult spot with a decent reward. Battles were fun at the start, became repetitive in the middle, but became fun again once I spent time on mastering spells due to their requirements. There are lots of graphical issues, including clipping and textures not loading and the game crashed on me two or three times during my playthrough. Is it unplayable as a result? No, it’s mostly optimization issues and resource underutilization, but it’s not like it’s an extraordinary buggy mess. Is this something I’m going to return to? Maybe, if the mood strikes me? But I do know that the time I spent with Frey in Athia, listening to her chatter away with Cuff, exploring the lands and finding out her origins, was soothing. Also, you can pet all of the cats! Frey is basically a crazy cat lady and I love it.

Backlog Busting Grade

Length: 1/5

Difficulty: 3/5

Replay Value: 4/5

Fun Factor: 4/5 + bonus point because cats.

Busting Grade: C+

The Backlog Busting Grade is an aggregate letter grade made up of four categories: Length, Difficulty, Replay Value and Fun Factor. A high grade means that the game in review is an excellent addition to the backlog. On the other hand, a low grade means that you can choose to pass up on this title if you wish. Honestly though, the grades aren’t meant to be taken seriously – this is just me having fun with clearing my backlog. Your mileage may vary depending on preferences, time commitments, etc.

Each category is given a score out of five. Length measures how long a game took for me to complete. 5 being extremely short (30 minutes – 1 hour) and 1 being extremely long (40+ hours). Difficulty is self-explanatory – 5 for being very easy and 1 for being very hard. Replay Value scores how likely I’ll return to play again. 5 for most likely and 1 for never touching it again. And Fun Factor measures how much fun I had with the title. 5 for lots of fun and 1 for no fun at all.