So, Forspoken’s verdict is in effect, and it looks… suspicious. The game, the latest from the developer behind Final Fantasy 15, made a lot of promises ahead of launch; whether it’s claiming to tackle the thorny issue of open-world fatigue or trying to push the PS5 as hard as it can, Forspoken made a lot of promises ahead of launch. Both have a lot to say.
And, it turns out, the game has a lot to say about it more generally. At the heart of the game is the idea of down-and-out New Yorker Frey Holland being transported to another world – the magical land of Athia – where a sentient Cuff straps himself around her wrist and guides her through this bizarre fantasy . The problem is, the cuff won’t shut up. Similar to High on Life’s muzzle in 2022, cuff seems to think we want constant feedback on everything we do.
However, it’s safe to say that a lot of players don’t really like this. The reaction to the game’s demo (and the massive leak that popped up ahead of the game’s release) has unequivocally demonstrated this. It makes sense; it takes a lot of attention to hear your smug Brit Cuff slapping its proverbial gums when all you want to do is set fire to some weird magical crocodile or something.
So you’ll be happy to know that you can tone down the frequency of Cuff’s smart alec punchlines—or, if you prefer, turn them off entirely. Thank you Christ, right?
By hitting pause and going into the menu, you can find a little submenu called “Cuff Settings”. Here you have a range of options, including a switch for whether or not Cuff will show you where you’re going in-game, and an option for how often Cuff will talk to you. If you lower the latter to “Minimum”, the cuffs will only start with dialogue directly related to the story. You can also turn up the frequency, but we can’t really report on that option because we’ve avoided that option like the plague.
Knocking it down means less “banter” between it and Frey as your protagonist runs around the lush world of Athia, and less war of words between these two unlikely allies. will decrease. For you, the player, it means less headaches and more room to devote to the fights in the game that aren’t actually that bad.
Accessibility options like this in games are just good things; whether it’s an option to block annoying NPCs like this one, or an option to completely remove spiders from the game, we’re happy to see it becoming more and more common. Platform holders are turning to accessibility; the PlayStation 5’s built-in options and the Xbox’s amazing Adaptive Controller are all part of the picture, and we expect things to get better as the industry continues to mature.
Forspoken is out now on PS5 and PC.