Recent releases including Marvel's Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Babylon's Fall have stumbled, and in April, Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka said straight-up that he doesn't think Square Enix ' cares about games.' In May, Square Enix offloaded Eidos Montreal, Crystal Dynamics, and Square Enix Montreal-and all their games, including Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain-to Embracer Group for $300 million, leading Eidos Montreal founder Stephane D'Astous to say in July that Square Enix's handling of the studio was 'a train wreck in slow motion.' Square Enix president Yosuke Matsuda continues to be bullish on the blockchain, meanwhile, despite a strong pushback from Square Enix fans.

The trailer botch is the latest misstep on a long, rough path for Square Enix in the West. That's an impressive collection of talent, which makes the cringe factor of this video even more remarkable-and, for followers who had previously been impressed by Forspoken's gameplay, frustrating.

Whedon is not involved in Forspoken, for the record, but several other high-profile writers of note are, including Star Wars writer (and way-back-when PC Gamer editor) Gary Whitta, Uncharted writer and director Amy Hennig, and veteran television scriptwriter Allison Rymer.

One redditor in this thread, for instance, said Holland talks 'like a Joss Whedon parody,' while another complains that 'every piece of dialogue so far is quippy, Whedon-esque tier crap.' Some who watched the trailer found that it reminded them of the quip-heavy style of Joss Whedon, the once-beloved writer and director of Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and a couple of Avengers flicks.

Forspoken trailer twitter