“Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores developers react to review bombing and criticism of lesbian romance storyline”

A certain part of the community did not take the lesbian romance of Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores very well and crashed the game on the server Metacritic a number of negative reviews. Now story director Ben McCaw and head writer Annie Kitain in an interview for VGC they react to the review bombing of their work. Commenting on the criticism of the players as a whole, McCaw said: “We are happy to have constructive feedback on this or that. And we’re perfectly happy for them to say they don’t like this or that, for virtually any aspect of the game they’ve really thought about,“

While substantive comments are helpful for creators, downright negative ones represent “easily ignored” element, which McCaw commented as follows: “But when there’s just this kind of blatant negativity, it’s pretty easy for me personally to just pick it apart and realize that I can never relate to that kind of mindset, and stuff like that.According to the authors, whether Aloy is homosexual or, on the contrary, heterosexual, should not be essential for the canon. It should primarily be a reflection of the path that Aloy traveled in Horizon Zero Dawn and Forbidden West in the player’s eyes. According to MacCaw, each of the options should be viable.

However, according to Kitainová, it is primarily about “whether the player thinks Aloy is ready to take the next step and go through this romantic experience or whether Aloy is not yet ready“. In any case, however, this should be a valid step that “applies“. It is certain that the situation that has arisen is not at all pleasant for the creators, but they can be pleased by the fact that Horizon Forbidden West has become one of the most successful exclusives for PlayStation.

Interview: We spoke to Guerrilla’s @ben_mccaw and @iguannie about the future of Horizon, Burning Shores and the reaction to ‘that’ kiss. pic.twitter.com/43U4bFuYaG

— VGC (@VGC_News) May 18, 2023