Farspoken ended up being Gary Whitta’s original pitch ‘Nothing Like’

Came and went in a flash, didn’t it? After so much buildup pre-release, the magical action RPG fizzled out almost immediately upon release into the wild. Part of the hype for the game was tied to the writing talent, including Rogue One writer Gary Vita and Amy Hennig of Unwanted fame. But as these things often go, it seems that very little of anyone’s contribution made it into the final version of the game.

In an interview with Alanah Pearce on that Video Game Writing 101 podcast (thanks, GamesRadar+), Witta discussed his involvement with the project, noting that “I did some very early foundational world-building on Forspoken, I never wrote an actual line of dialogue.”

He explains how the whole thing came together: “What happened was five or six years ago Square came to me and said ‘We have an idea but it’s just a germ of an idea, can you help us build the world. Will you be willing to help? And myth and story?’

Vita accepted and was asked to lead a writer’s room, which she did, where much of Athia’s lore and history was created. Incidentally, Vitta says the name “Athia” was one of his few contributions that actually made it into the final game.

A few months later, Witta says that “they came back to me and another writer and said ‘we’re going to start over to completely reboot the story, we want it to be now'”. This new story was about a young woman from the real world who was sucked into a fantasy realm, the story that Forspoken would eventually ship with.

Witta is credited in Farspoken under ‘Original Concept’, with Hennig’s contribution billed as ‘Story Concept’. Witta believes that having such high-profile writers’ names attached to the project has raised the game’s prestige level.

We thought Forsaken was filled with bland characters, boring sidequests, and a disjointed main story, and you can read our full thoughts on the matter in our review.

What do you think of the vitae’s words, are you surprised by the author’s lack of involvement, or does it make sense to consider the final product? Let us know in the comments section below.