You can turn off Frey and Cuff’s banter in Forspoken

By Tomas Franzese January 23, 2023

Even since reviews for Forspoken dropped, its snarky sense of humor has proven to be very divisive. Still, if that witty banter bleeding over into gameplay is one of the things preventing you from picking up Forspoken, know that you can adjust the amount of dialogue Frey and Cuff have in the game’s settings.

As Frey explores Athia, she and Cuff often comment on what they see and other goings-on from their adventure. Cuff will also give audio cues during combat encounters that dynamically happen in the open world. Of course, these aren’t all purely informational, as Cuff and Frey will joke about what’s going on or boast about how amazing they are in an effort to show off to one another.

If this all proves to be too much for you, pause Forspoken and head on over to the Accessibility Settings tab of the Settings Menu. Forspoken features quite a few accessibility options, some of which have to do with Cuff’s functionality in the game. Scroll down to the Cuff Settings section of the Accessibility Settings tab, and you’ll see a Cuff Chat Frequency option.

"Adjust how often Frey and Cuff speak to one another," Forspoken's Cuff Chat Frequency description says. "The 'minimal' setting will mean that you will only hear dialogue required to advance the story."

“Adjust how often Frey and Cuff speak to one another,” the option’s description says. “The ‘minimal’ setting will mean that you will only hear dialogue required to advance the story.” You can set Cuff Chat Frequency to minimal, low, default, or high to modify how much Frey and Cuff speak to each other. From our experience, choosing low will only activate dialogue during critical combat scenarios or when you first arrive in a brand-new area, while selecting high will initiate quippy banter at almost any given opportunity. If you genuinely can’t stand Frey and Cuff, you’ll want to skip the game’s cutscenes and set Cuff Chat Frequency to minimal.

Hopefully, modifying Cuff Chat Frequency can make the game a little more bearable or entertaining for you. Forspoken launches on January 24 for PC and PlayStation 5.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Tech News

Gaming Staff Writer

Tomas Franzese is a Staff Writer at Digital Trends, where he reports on and reviews the latest releases and exciting…

Gaming

Forspoken cloaks: all cloak locations and abilities

Frey uses fire magic in Forspoken.

Frey is from New York, but she can't wear her normal attire for long once she's whisked away into the fantasy world of Athia. Among Frey's new duds is her flowing cloak. Aside from looking awesome, this is one piece of gear in Forspoken that you can swap out and upgrade for stat buffs. It may not seem like a particularly strong armor piece, but once you see how much a good cloak can improve your abilities, you'll be glad to know how to get them all.
What cloaks do

Cloaks serve as Frey's primary piece of gear, along with necklaces and nail designs. They give different stat boosts, can be upgraded, and have a nice visual flair too. You will get them through a variety of tasks, such as defeating bosses, found in the world, and completing quests.
All cloaks, what they do, and how to get them

Computing

I can’t believe I’m recommending Forspoken on PS5 over PC

Frey using magic in Forspoken.

I'll almost always recommend a PC release over a console release. You have access to more graphics options, more opportunities to optimize your performance, and a community-driven support system for modifying or repairing your games. That's especially true as the current generation of consoles begin to show their age.

But there is still an unsung advantage of playing games on console over a PC, and Square Enix's Forspoken brings that advantage the PS5 has over PC into the spotlight.
Forspoken on PS5
Forspoken PS5 Quality vs. Performance vs. Ray Tracing

Gaming

Despite divisive dialogue, Forspoken gets a lot right about open-world games

Frey jumps in a magical New York City in Forspoken.

Games can learn a lot from Forspoken’s traversal mechanics, but you probably wouldn't glean that from the discussion surrounding it right now.
A lot of the chatter around Forspoken has been quite negative due to its lackluster story, but there are still things that the Square Enix and Luminous Productions game does quite well. Primarily, exploring the vast and beautiful open world of Athia is quite enjoyable because of all the helpful mobility options Frey has at her disposal. As Forspoken does some critical aspects of gameplay well, it’s a shame that the conversation surrounding it primarily focuses on the shortcomings of the game’s writing.
Forspoken Deep Dive | Exploring Athia
Yes, the story pacing and writing are its weak point, but that’s also not the only thing Forspoken has to offer. Good or bad, every game brings something to the table that both developers and players can learn from. The whole industry would benefit if we were willing to engage with what works in games like Forspoken as much as we discuss what doesn't.
What Forspoken gets right
After slogging through several hours of linear story content, Forspoken finally opens up, and players can truly get a feel for its traversal mechanics and its open world. That’s when they’ll discover the game’s real magic. Frey feels weighty like a human character would in a game like Uncharted, but can reach higher speeds by dashing around with her Flow ability.
This gives the game a great sense of momentum, as every step feels satisfying and powerful as Frey speeds up. She’ll naturally parkour over smaller objects too, so forward movement isn’t inhibited by the environment too often. This only becomes more of the case as the game continues, as players can eventually unlock magical abilities like Zip to grapple or swing upwards, Glide to surf across the water, and Float to glide and break Frey’s fall in the air.
Forspoken makes traversal more involved than just pushing forward and holding the circle button. As part of open-world exploration, players can encounter Fountains that will give them abilities like Soar, Shimmy, Rush, and Scale. These give players movement boosts like more jumps or a momentary speed boost if they time button presses correctly. While it’s only a recurring timed button press, it adds some depth to traversal that ensures that the player will pay attention to the game and everything they see in its world.

The only thing holding a player’s movement back is the stamina bar and the number of skills Frey has at her disposal. Even then, that helps pace out explorations and gives players a tangible feeling of progression as it increases throughout the game, making them feel quite strong. At its best, Forspoken is actually a lot like the imaginary AAA Avatar: The Last Airbender game that I’ve always wanted, using multiple element-based abilities to feel powerful as I traversed its large landscapes.
Couple all of that with a satisfying open-world design that ensures that you’ll always gain something useful from whatever you encounter, and Forspoken’s traversal and open-world mechanics become something that other games can learn from.
Give games a chance
Because Forspoken is frontloaded with a focus on its divisive story and dialogue, the gameplay aspects of it aren’t getting the time of day they deserve currently. And as it's an open-world action-adventure RPG, it's a pretty big oversight to not consider what the playable aspect of this game does quite well because of a couple of awkward banter exchanges, some of which are optional.