There was a time when self-referential dialogue from Joss Whedon was a huge thing in movies and video games. Seems like the makers of Forspoken decided to bring that back, albeit with very mixed results.

Square Enix released a new trailer for Forspoken, its upcoming Western isekai action RPG starring a tough young woman named Frey who has magic spells and is stuck in the dangerous open world of Athia. The trailer features 30 seconds of Forspoken gameplay and had Frey talking about her circumstances in a snarky tone that would fit well in the late 2000s.

Let’s type the whole thing down here:

“So let me get this straight,” she says. “I’m somewhere that’s not what I would call Earth, I’m seeing freaking dragons, and—oh yeah!—I’m talking to a cuff!

Yeah, OK, that is something I do now. I do magic, kill jacked-up beasts, I’ll probably fly next.”

A beautiful and cruel new land? Twisted monsters? An array of magical abilities? Sentient jewellery!?

Welcome to the world of #Forspoken. pic.twitter.com/46diiLnQ7M

— Forspoken (@Forspoken) August 8, 2022

The delivery and writing aren’t as witty as its makers make them out to be if this trailer is of any indication. With that, a handful of people have replied in kind, taking popular video game characters and having them speak like Frey.

Forspoken dialogue is… kinda freaking crazy guys, i think they do magic now. from TwoBestFriendsPlay

so let me get this straight pic.twitter.com/la80aJ6gDf

— SungWon Cho (@ProZD) August 9, 2022

If you aren’t turned off by this attempt at being self-referential and the fact that Square Enix are just trying way too hard like they did with Marvel’s Avengers, you can get Forspoken on 24 January 2023 for PlayStation 5 and PC.