The Quiet Man Embraces all Their Terrible Reviews

You heard of “The Quiet Man”?

It was a game released by Square Enix not too long ago – one of a small but growing number of “triple-A produced but cheap and short” games that a lot of industry giants are using to show the world that, yes, they’re still capable of making actual video games instead of ‘live services’. This one’s gimmick was that it launched with no audio or subtitles, but those would be unlocked after a set period so people could understand what was actually going on. A bold idea, marred significantly by terrible execution, clumsy gameplay, and generally being all-around awful.

And it seems Square Enix is leaning into that.



To promote the release of the audio patch, Square Enix released the above video, which spends a surprising chunk of its time basking in how horribly people hated the first release. And they lean hard. It takes 51 seconds before they get to a positive review, and even that review feels sort of half-hearted with an “Stick in the mind” quote (which was probably supposed to be “stuck”, but translations are hard).

Finally, at 1:12, we have the bad reviews turning around and going good, presumably as people experience the audio that the first release was missing. Presumably, that’s the goal of the trailer, to get people to realize that the “soundless” gimmick (which really didn’t work) was worth it in the end. And who knows- maybe it was? But over on Steam, the reviews tell a different story: the game still has a negative score, and there’s been no spike in reviews. So either the sound patch isn’t out in the US yet, or no one’s bothered to play to find out.

Both seem equally likely at this point.

Despite everything, though, I still applaud Square Enix for at least trying something new. Probably would have been better if they tried something good as well as new, but hey, you know what they say about beggars and choosers.