During A Preview, Forspoken Devs Described Their Black Protag In Cringe-Inducing Ways
Black folks were surprisingly absent during the Forspoken hands-off event
kotaku.com
When I was scheduled for a preview of Forspoken, formerly Project Athia, there were three questions I was pressed to know. One, how the team went about handling the portrayal of its Black protagonist. Two, what the gameplay was like, and three, how Forspoken stands out among other fantasy action role playing games. While Square Enix's hour-long preview provided a serviceable, if not clinical, job in addressing some of those questions, my initial curiosity has turned into trepidation.
While I didn't get to play Forspoken during my preview, I was able to watch early build footage of the game during a pre-recorded stream. The preview showcased Forspoken's magic system, parkour, and combat in action. It also gave me an opportunity to hear about Frey's development from the game's lead writers.
My newfound fears weren't helped when Rymer and Stashwick described Frey's origin story, which came off as a tired amalgamation of Black stereotypes. Those stereotypes included her "being very angry," her having "fallen through cracks of society," and being "on the verge of prison," before being teleported to Athia. The cherry on top of my newfound dread was motion capture and voice over director Tom Keegan describing Balinska's mannerisms during her motion capture performance as having a "very hip-hoppy kind of walk."
I wasn't the only journalist to find Stashwick's awkward remark and the lack of Black writers shown in our preview as harrowing. When Axios' Stephen Totilo asked if there were any Black developers or consultants involved with Forspoken in Square Enix's video chat, he didn't receive an answer during our preview. (Later on, he received an FAQ sheet that rounded up our media questions. Sadly, its answer came off as a canned response that leaned heavily on the hands-off preview where Balinska's "passionate" feedback throughout her motion capture process was regarded as "invaluable feedback" for the team.
"We worked closely with a number of consultants from BIPOC backgrounds to help portray Frey's character and tell the story from her perspective," Square Enix said in the FAQ, adding that Forspoken's supporting cast was "dominated by women and several women of color."
While I don't doubt that Luminous Productions consulted Black folks in how they went about creating Frey, being greeted by white writers, and only hearing about consultation from second-hand account didn't do them any favors for me as a player who's been starving for Black representation in games, both on-screen and in crafting their narratives. When we have discussions about representation and changing the way games are made, it feels like they are often left at superficial changes, like the face on the game cover or a nearly interchangeable protagonist. Sure, they have Black actors like Balinska and Janina Gavankar as antagonist Tanta Sila, but without Black writers or consultants featured prominently during the preview, the game didn't come off well for me. The wince-inducing descriptions levied at the protagonist could have easily been avoided had anyone with melanin been given meaningful positions of power on the project.
