Because they are literally mad with disease, the antagonists, like Frey, have no depth, and the mysteries of why Frey ended up in Athia and what happened to his parents feel dull once they’re revealed. (I won’t spoil it, but if he’s consumed enough Chosen One stories, I’m sure he can take a guess.) the prophesiedThe central city of Cipal, to tie up loose ends, has more of the same bickering between Frey and Cuff, which is uncharacteristic of them at that plot point.
Throughout my gameplay, I was constantly waiting for some aspect of the game that would make me feel fully immersed, but it never came. Considering the number of delays and the game’s failed marketing campaignthis is not surprising, but still is disappointing, largely because it seems like a relatively easy problem for AAA game developers to improve, if not solve. Luminous Productions and game studios in general need to hire better writers, and yes, some of them should be black. (None of the writers on this game were people of color.)
It wasn’t all bad, though: I found myself briefly admiring the glimpses of narrative that No feel dull or numb. For example, the game centers women, including black women, in leadership (although, yes, magical ones still turn evil and get killed). It also provides space for a black woman to be unlikable and unwilling to sacrifice herself for others and still end up being the hero.
And the timely “Fuck!” de Frey after taking a beating or watching some kind of weird fantasy shit was the closest I got to laughing at the dialogue. (More importantly, she loves cats, and there are plenty of them to pet!) But considering that a GM characterized Balinska as having a “very hip-hop walk” during her motion capture performancethe game’s treatment of race (not to mention its depiction of mental illness) raises the question of whether any portrayal offered by major developers will ever be more than window dressing.
It betrays the cynicism of the gaming industry that it will create a protagonist who is brown to be “a reflection of our diverse audiences” (as stated by a Square Enix spokesperson during a preview of the game in December 2021) without doing the work of getting that character fully formed and moving through the world like a POC would. You can be black in ways that mainstream media considers authentic, like walking in a “very hip-hop” way, collecting sneakers, and stealing cars, all of which Frey does, but not one drop more than that. We wouldn’t. they want to make certain players uncomfortable.
To be fair, Frey is far from the worst video game protagonist I’ve ever met, of any color, and Kotaku reported that Square Enix had hired “several BIPOC consultants” to vet Frey’s characterization. Balinska also gave “impassioned” comments during her recording sessions. The weird “How are you guys?” de Frey are sometimes impressive, but could have easily faded into the background if the game had really been, well, fun. That is, after all, what we expect from a blockbuster. The jokey and sarcastic script does not suddenly turn further irritating just because the protagonist is a black woman.
Rather, I’m upset by the lack of effort among game developers to innovate when it comes to the richness of their characters, especially when those characters are people of color. The interactive nature of video games means there’s always a heavy dose of wish fulfillment involved: we want to imagine ourselves. as the protagonist, doing all the cool things our fingers and history command them to do. But if Frey Holland is wish-fulfillment, she is not wish-fulfillment for black women in general. It is the wish fulfillment of a specific type of black non-black or privileged black person that romanticizes the struggles associated with poverty and systemic neglect without wanting to name any of those things.
