IGN Interview with Yoshi-P about diversity inclusions in FFXVI leaves a lot to be desired.
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When The Rings of Power and House of the Dragon have lots of racial diversity in the cast of characters, the whole "historical context" excuse kinda gets thrown out the window. It's fantasy. You get to do whatever you want. Just admit you wanted to have an only white cast in your game. You don't have to make up bullshit excuses for it.
there were like 5 dudes I assumed were Clive in that trailer until Clive showed up
even then I still wondered if that was actually clive
I'm sure white european inspired people built this :
hopefully there's actual diversity there... we'll see, lol
hopefully there's actual diversity there... we'll see, lol
Uh...I would definitely disagree. There's a long list of issues: the scions are all white as hell, Y'shtola's been getting lighter each expansion, poc fans have been complaining about more diverse hair options for years, the handling of race and diversity in Stormblood wasn't that great, etc. There was an interview like two years ago where Natalie Flores asked Yoshida about diversity in XIV and his answer was terrible there too. It's a trend.
yeah diverse people in a game that features bahamut... is too much.
good luck with that fight.
good luck with that fight.
Part of me hopes that Yoshi-P is similar to Sakurai where it's more ignorance than malice. But this interview doesn't help his case.
Nah, I still think he is quite responsible. He leads CBU3, the studio that makes XIV happen which he directs and produces this game and let's be real outside of Endwalker
(which I will note does do a better job at repping cultures), the representation stuff does leave a lot to be desired in XIV. Can't be selective on where he gets praise and where he is abstained from criticism.
The Smash community here called out the diversity problems of the game in the thread title, so there's hope.
Due to the underlying geographical, technological, and geopolitical constraints of this setting, Valisthea was never going to realistically be as diverse as say a modern-day Earth
This sentence is going to live in my head rent-free all the way to the game's release
"We can't change characters' skin or hair -- our engine won't support it and our technical team don't know how to program that!?!"
They've openly said they're trying to reach a global audience, this mindset is a direct contradiction to that strategy.
This is also a good example of why we should stop putting individual devs on a pedestal.
This is also a good example of why we should stop putting individual devs on a pedestal.
This is correct. Cause even if the decision was made by the Creative Director, Yoshi-P is still the head of CBU3. He's in a position of power to do something. Not doing something is a statement.
This game is such a huge wasted opportunity. Celebrated team coming off of the most praised MMO of the modern era bringing their own unique perspective to a new single player Final Fantasy and they made a game where you only play as an angry white man in a generic medieval fantasy world made up of a citizenry of white people.
Square Enix's western teams working with them really should have said something, and if they did, Yoshi-P and his team should have listened. Just really, really poor form all around.
Maybe Final Fantasy XVII will have playable women and people of color when it releases next decade, haha...
Square Enix's western teams working with them really should have said something, and if they did, Yoshi-P and his team should have listened. Just really, really poor form all around.
Maybe Final Fantasy XVII will have playable women and people of color when it releases next decade, haha...
FF games history with any normal or heroic PoC has been poor to say the least. To overly angry Black man, fetishized "exotic" dark skin rabbit girl to comic relief Afro chocobo black man.
I'm guilty of still buying and enjoying these games but I do wish they would finally add a serious POC crucial to the main story.
I'm guilty of still buying and enjoying these games but I do wish they would finally add a serious POC crucial to the main story.
What get me in this quote is the "as diverse as modern day earth". Like what ? Earth as always been diverse man, what are you talking about lol
Again, I think that there IS a difference between saying Yoshida is more responsible for a game where he is director & producer, vs a game where he's just a producer.
I'm not absolving the team of criticism, I just think that this problem extends beyond this one guy to the point of asking "is he a racist" is silly. Like, he has openly expressed some very progressive views on things like LGBTQ issues, I don't think evidence suggests "Yoshida is a racist".
While I agree, the handling of some racialized people in FFXIV was bad in Stormblood. I think it's a bit more complex. FFXIV doesn't present race like earth, since race is more typically, dragon people, elves, cat people etc. That's just an opinion though, I am not saying POC fans are wrong. I just think that comparing XIV to XVI is a bit of an apples to oranges situation.
I would also like to see improvements in diversity of character creation. It's hard to pick any darker skin-tone because it looks like characters are dyed white folks, but I think that issue goes deeper than a lack of will or care (ie: it's an engine and technology issue).
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I'm still 100% convinced that Barnabas is Clive's secret dad. There's no way they made them look that similar by accident.
Can take Bahamut and Shiva from Arabic and Indian cultures... but to include people with darker skin representing those cultures is too much to ask!
Feels like at this point with people pointing it out fairly consistently to them, saying it's ignorance is just making an excuse for a generally well liked figure.
they have a whole ass desert kingdom inexplicably filled with pale white people in this game.
It's a stupid ass response when your game doesn't even adhere to the skin tones found in the biomes you present in your game. Just say you wanted white people and stop talking out your ass.
It's a stupid ass response when your game doesn't even adhere to the skin tones found in the biomes you present in your game. Just say you wanted white people and stop talking out your ass.
Can't wait for next year's hit RPG: Clive-A-Clive
8 protagonists, all Clive.
This is almost certainly going to inspire a wave of "those" people to excitedly buy FF16. Great. >.<
Is the criticism leveled at Yoshi-P's response (and the game's lack of diversity), or at the interviewer (IGN)?
Thread title implies it's the interview - not necessarily the responses - that is problematic. Based on the one question copy pasta'd by OP it seems like a thoughtful question.
Perhaps a slight grammatical tweaking of the title is in order, if the subject of criticism is Yoshi-P's answer.
Thread title implies it's the interview - not necessarily the responses - that is problematic. Based on the one question copy pasta'd by OP it seems like a thoughtful question.
Perhaps a slight grammatical tweaking of the title is in order, if the subject of criticism is Yoshi-P's answer.
User Banned (Permanent): Dismissing concerns of representation, account in junior phase
Don't see the problem but reviewers will be going crazy over this in the reviews
I don't get it. Many of these Japanese companies don't have any interest in diversifying representation. Or, when they do, it's a caricature. Clearly we're not a significant enough audience for them to consider during development. Let's just stop buying their games. No more dollars. No more airtime. No more cosplay, ie, free promotion. No more rent free fandom.
Capcom changed Street Fighter because a significant amount of their audience was black and brown. All of the tournaments and YouTube presence reflects that and Ono-San literally sees and interacts with that audience at the events.
I'm never going to understand these pleas for Japanese companies to change when they're clearly falling on deaf ears. Seems that it would be more effective to signal boost American companies making great choices in hopes that those games with those protagonists become financially successful enough to have some international creative influence.
Waiting on, say, Nintendo to add a gender fluid person of color might as well be like waiting on Apple to buy Microsoft.
Capcom changed Street Fighter because a significant amount of their audience was black and brown. All of the tournaments and YouTube presence reflects that and Ono-San literally sees and interacts with that audience at the events.
I'm never going to understand these pleas for Japanese companies to change when they're clearly falling on deaf ears. Seems that it would be more effective to signal boost American companies making great choices in hopes that those games with those protagonists become financially successful enough to have some international creative influence.
Waiting on, say, Nintendo to add a gender fluid person of color might as well be like waiting on Apple to buy Microsoft.
Will they? A small number will probably mention it, but I'd wager it goes largely unremarked upon.
Have we actually SEEN enough of that kingdom to say that's the case? Like the game's not out yet, and we have seen literally zero town exploration, so I'm not sure there's value in making that kind of judgment just yet. Once the game's out if we get to run around that city and everybody is white, that shit would be mega-weak though. Just like FFXII all over again.
OP
OP
I mean this game was created to appeal to western sensibilities so that tracks
😏
Brother its almost 2023, stop giving people the benefit of the doubt when it's been interviewed and written about for decades.
It doesn't absolve him, the head of the whole business unit, of being complicit in casual/institutionalised racism. Like it was with the case of Sakurai, that sucks. It's made even worse with all that the FFXIV playerbase has been giving them in feedback for years, and SE themselves stating that they want to focus on being a global-looking company. There's a lot of groundwork for them to cover if so.
If only they weren't so constrained by cultural accuracy to the setting that they made up. Maybe they'll have invented Black people by the time of XVI-2.
I feel like Jrpg devs in general has a really really stereotypical idea of medieval europe so games meant to be set in an actual medieval fantasy always suffer from this bs. But it's a lot worse with FFXVI since it is meant to cater to the west playerbase, and they are kind of not aware how racist (In a more structural way tbh) they are being. They are probably completely clueless on how this won't roll well in the west.
Most anime and related media have almost exclusively characters that are or are meant to be japanese, which makes sense on how they aim for their local market. As for anything else, i feel like they don't really care about researching stuff, and the reference they have for black people doesn't get deeper than hollywood stereotypes like the badass Mr T like dude or the butt of the jokes Eddie Murphy type. Hard to blame them though, if you don't really have real life reference of people other than your family or coworkers.
Yoshi-P probably doesn't even understand why he's being wrong here.
Aside that, it's incredible how FF games feels progressively more juvenile the more adult they want them to be. FFIX is still probably the most actual mature game in the series despite the fairy tale vibes, while FFXVI looks like something that an edgy 14 years old would think of.
Most anime and related media have almost exclusively characters that are or are meant to be japanese, which makes sense on how they aim for their local market. As for anything else, i feel like they don't really care about researching stuff, and the reference they have for black people doesn't get deeper than hollywood stereotypes like the badass Mr T like dude or the butt of the jokes Eddie Murphy type. Hard to blame them though, if you don't really have real life reference of people other than your family or coworkers.
Yoshi-P probably doesn't even understand why he's being wrong here.
Aside that, it's incredible how FF games feels progressively more juvenile the more adult they want them to be. FFIX is still probably the most actual mature game in the series despite the fairy tale vibes, while FFXVI looks like something that an edgy 14 years old would think of.
Yeah, agreed.
Agreed. It's basically this:
And you don't even need to read books on it. These days there's audiobooks or plenty of content you can watch/listen to on YouTube.
I don't even really think this excuse tracks any more. As Spork4000 says above, they have desert regions full of white people. You don't need to read history books to have a basic understanding of this.
The most controversial thing about that will be whether it's pronounced Clive or Clive.