[The Verge] Final Fantasy XVI has a medieval approach to diversity

[Swift_Star]

So, it seems it's pretty much confirmed there's no diversity on FFXVI.

I had the opportunity to sit down with Yoshida and the senior development team behind FFXVI, and I asked if, since that interview with IGN, Yoshida had the opportunity to hear feedback and if he had anything to say to the fans of color who may be turning their back on the game.

"I believe that with Final Fantasy XVI, we weave together a variety of peoples and cultures set in this kind of sweeping fantasy narrative and world, and one that we strived to create with care and respect," Yosida answered through translator Michael-Christopher Koji-Fox. "We hope that when players finally are able to take up the game in their own hands, that they will be able to see what we've aimed for and will hopefully ultimately be able to connect with that unique experience."

So… judging from this answer, not really.

Yoshida talked about how "over-inclusion" of people of color would "violate narrative boundaries" and, in his answer to my follow-up, brought up the different peoples and cultures the development team included in FFXVI. In introducing the game, he gave an overview of the different kingdoms and factions vying for control of the all-powerful mothercrystals.

Well, you see, I really don't find that a real problem tbh. It's a medieval fantasy setting and they are free to include whatever they want to, black, gay and whatnot people, it's their choice.
I mean, you had black Viera in the past, like Fran, she is black

You also had Sazh

And of course, Barret

For crying out loud, they had a lesbian couple in FFXIII, released on 2009:

And Fang ISN'T white.
Also, wake up call for some: Final Fantasy characters are mostly asian, mostly japanese, not white. So it's more diverse than western games by definition.
Little reminder that Japan is still conservative in a lot of ways and Square Enix is way ahead of what most japanese developers are doing.
Final Fantasy has always been ahead of its time and somewhat inclusive and now they're crying because ONE entry in the series dared not to have inclusivity? Why? Aren't creators free to do whatever they want as long as they're not offending anyone?
As much as I hate the detractors of The Last of Us because it has lots of black, gay and trans people, I'm also very annoyed at people saying they'll skip FFXVI because it doesn't have diversity. What gives?
Yeah, I love myself a cast of diverse characters, give me more of them, but no way in hell I'm skipping a game because it doesn't have representation.
And by his reply, he pretty much said the game might have a diverse cast.

 

[Zeroing]

I saw people getting angry over this, if only people knew that in different countries not everything revolves about race and diversity or the lack of it.

I agree with you! It is nice to have diverse characters and new perspectives but being angry over the lack of it is just silly.

We are just going to be even more polarized, ending up on 2 very different groups on endlessly arguments.

 

[nongkris]

Shit reason to not have non white people in a game with fantasy in the title but the game looks good enough that I'll ignore it.

The japanese devs chose to make a fantasy game about medieval europe, which had multiple races and ethnicities. So the excuse that their being realistic to the time is false. But that's sadly to be expected from eastern devs where darker skin tones barely exist to them in games.

 

[Zeroing]

Shit reason to not have non white people in a game with fantasy in the title but the game looks good enough that I'll ignore it.

The japanese devs chose to make a fantasy game about medieval europe, which had multiple races and ethnicities. So the excuse that their being realistic to the time is false. But that's sadly to be expected from eastern devs where darker skin tones barely exist to them in games.

Yep in Portugal we have records of Black and Arabs people being knights. I don’t think it’s only eastern devs who do that. Most people view Middle Ages from a wrong perspective or have little knowledge. I had history so I know Europen Middle Ages was filled with diversity, Spain and the catholic church forced a mass exodus.

That is why I never understood why medieval = white people

 

[Swift_Star]

Shit reason to not have non white people in a game with fantasy in the title but the game looks good enough that I'll ignore it.

The japanese devs chose to make a fantasy game about medieval europe, which had multiple races and ethnicities. So the excuse that their being realistic to the time is false. But that's sadly to be expected from eastern devs where darker skin tones barely exist to them in games.

Yes the excuse is lame but it’s a shitty reason to skip a game either way. I’d rather the game to have diversity.

 

[Gods&Monsters]

They already know the whole cast months before release?

Usually FF is good with women protagonists and black characters, might be too early to say.

 

[Entropi]

Square gave them forspoken just last month. Did they care enough?

 

[Swift_Star]

Square gave them forspoken just last month. Did they care enough?

They shat on the game from reveal to release.

 

[Zeroing]

Square gave them forspoken just last month. Did they care enough?

People really have bad short term memory when doing gaming articles, specially the tittle.

This is the state of gaming journalism, You mostly get concern articles…

 

[anonpuffs]

Jesus christ enough of this already, cant you just be normal for once

 

[Sircaw]

I honestly think the world is focusing way too much on the diversity factor of late.

It's becoming ad nauseam and hearing about race sexuality colour in anything and everything is getting really boring.

I prefer judging people by the context of their character, and wish we could do that more in games.

 

[Swift_Star]

I honestly think the world is focusing way too much on the diversity factor of late.

It's becoming ad nauseam and hearing about race sexuality colour in anything and everything is getting really boring.

I prefer judging people by the context of their character, and wish we could do that more in games.

I honestly think it should be talked about until it’s normalized. When it gets normalized, peiole will stop talking about it. We will get there.
But I really don’t think it’s right to force creators to put diverse characters for the sake of it. They should do it if they feel they want to. And this kind of article is stupid. Specially considering it’s a Japanese game.

 

[ethomaz]

I though the article is very dumb… very ERA focused.

 

[anonpuffs]

I honestly think it should be talked about until it’s normalized. When it gets normalized, peiole will stop talking about it. We will get there.
But I really don’t think it’s right to force creators to put diverse characters for the sake of it. They should do it if they feel they want to. And this kind of article is stupid. Specially considering it’s a Japanese game.

I agree. Games should be judged as games first and foremost. There's certainly enough people in the industry -and in leading roles- that want to promote diversity in representation that I don't feel there's some sort of systemic bias that every single game needs to have judgment passed on it. People have just stopped being reasonable... I used to think it was to drive clicks but now I think it's because shitting on something from a position of assumed moral authority gives these "journalists" a sense of power that they lack in their own lives.

 

[Shmunter]

Some crazy takes here proclaiming Medievil Europe looking like California in 2023

 

[Satoru]

Some crazy takes here proclaiming Medievil Europe looking like California in 2023

Medieval Europe had shitloads of diversity though. At the beginning of the Medieval era the western Roman empire had just fallen, but you still had the remnants of their reign. The eastern Roman empire was hugely diverse, with Muslims, Catholics, orthodox, etc. southern Europe was a mix bag of Central European, Mediterranean, North African.

 

[anonpuffs]

This game isnt even set in europe ffs

 

[nongkris]

Some crazy takes here proclaiming Medievil Europe looking like California in 2023

The only questionable take is yours 0_0.

What's funny is the same company, different team of course, created a diverse medieval themed game in Forspoken, so they know it's possible. But like I said originally, its very rare for Japanese/Korean devs to create NPC's/characters with anything other than light skin tones. That's only really changed as of late.

 

[Shmunter]

The only questionable take is yours 0_0.

What's funny is the same company, different team of course, created a diverse medieval themed game in Forspoken, so they know it's possible. But like I said originally, its very rare for Japanese/Korean devs to create NPC's/characters with anything other than light skin tones. That's only really changed as of late.

If Europe has always been as diverse as you imagine, diversity wouldn’t even be a topic today because it would just be the way of things. A handful of examples of painting or artefacts do not a baseline make.

This garbage that Europe was never white and the race has no roots is pure racism.

 

[nongkris]

If Europe has always been as diverse as you imagine, diversity wouldn’t even be a topic today because it would just be the way of things. A handful of examples of painting or artefacts do not a baseline make.

This garbage that Europe was never white and the race has no roots is pure racism.

You're clearly approaching or have entered the stages of the white replacement theory, so I'll just point you to Dodrake's post above and use my ignore feature.

1) It's a video game with flying bird monsters, it can have non white people if they so chose. And 2) Europe was and still is ethnically diverse.