The original Forspoken writer says it 'was nothing like the final game'

By Sean Lawson,

The original Forspoken writer has spoken out against the finalised story we saw in the PS5 launch of the game.

The Forspoken trophies have caused a few problems for PS5 players thanks to the mistranslation that almost made the platinum trophy unobtainable. It really hasn't been smooth sailing for the game and now the original writer of Forspoken has jumped on the bandwagon sharing some of his criticisms.

ForspokenForspoken has had a very rocky road so far!

Forspoken's original story was cut while final PS5 version somehow survived

Spotted by GamesRadar, the original Forspoken writer, Gary Whitta, has spoken out about the game's story. Speaking to Alanah Pearce on her podcast, Whitta revealed how he actually had very little involvement with the final version of Forspoken we all bore witness to. Whitta alleges that the story was rebooted between him handing in his original script and the final script that was inevitably used.

Whitta doesn't reveal anything about his original script and what the story centred around, meaning we are left to imagine what it may or may not have looked like. What Whitta does say is that the original story looked very different to what we all ended up seeing. Allegedly Square Enix and Luminous approached Whitta and asked if he would write the new version of Forspoken's story that was based around interdimensional portals, sadly Whitta had prior commitments and was unable to facilitate the request.
While Whitta's original story never ended up seeing the light of day, he was still credited in Forspoken's credits under 'Original Concept,' which further adds an element of credibility to Whitta's claims here. Forspoken has come under a lot of fire before and after its release, with a lot of critiques being based on the dialogue that infests the game in an incredibly cringy way. Who knows, maybe Whitta's original script could have been the slamdunk Square Enix was hoping for. The mind does ponder on why Square Enix chose to change up the script so heavily and what may have come of the game had the company just used Whitta's original story.

Our Forspoken review certainly highlights some of the issues the fans have with the dialogue. What do you make of all this? Interested to see what Whitta's script looks like? Think it could have saved Forspoken from the lynching it has received? Or do you think it would have still seen the same treatment? Sound off in the comments with all your thoughts and feelings!
Sean Lawson
Written by Sean Lawson
Sean is a Staff Writer with a focus on the geekiest Sony news. He writes stories about unobtainable PlayStation trophies, the best PS Plus games, as well as RPGs and Fighting games. He is also excited for Tekken 8, Dragon Age Dreadwolf, Baldur's Gate 3, and Dragon's Dogma 2 to launch on PS5. Sean’s favourite games include Mass Effect, Tomb Raider, Tekken, and Persona.
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