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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:11 am Reply with quote
Final Fantasy is dead, the more I see FFXV, the more it digs itself into a nice hole, we'll have a nice tomb to rival the Egyptian pyramids by the time XV is released. It's all about the Bravely series now and I can't wait to play Bravely Second later this month along with Puzzle and Dragons Super Mario Edition.

March was pretty nice for gaming, Etrian Mystery Dungeon was a great game, a little hard but I managed to beat it easier than most titles in the series and Senran Kagura Estival Versus is amazing despite it's buggy launch and simple difficulty, I can't wait for the Ikkitousen and Ayane DLC.
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Via_01



Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:25 am Reply with quote
Seriously, I find the "controversy" around Final Fantasy XV not having women in the playable party to be kind of stupid. I just don't see a reason for such a "controversy" to exist. It'd be more understandable if the game fotage, say, showed some anti-feminist sentiment, or denigrated it's female characters, but I haven't seen any of that; the directors are simply stating that they want to make this a "Boys' trip" story, and that's perfectly OK in my book.

At the very least I don't think I'll make a fuss if for some reason they decide to make Final Fantasy XVI a game about beautiful women on a trip. But if that happens, maybe the same people will stand up to criticize it regardless.
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AiddonValentine



Joined: 07 Aug 2006
Posts: 2201
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:52 am Reply with quote
It almost seems like overcompensation for the fact that FFXIII's female party members were awful (though in all honesty the entire cast in that game was only surpassed by VIII's in terms of insufferability) and Square spending the last few years cramming Lightning down the throats of the audience. But we all know FFXV isn't going to be bad because of lack of female representation. No, it's going to be bad because it's latter-day Square, a company whose talent jumped ship to the point where only talentless hacks are left.
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Themaster20000



Joined: 05 Aug 2014
Posts: 863
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 11:57 am Reply with quote
Via_01 wrote:
Seriously, I find the "controversy" around Final Fantasy XV not having women in the playable party to be kind of stupid. I just don't see a reason for such a "controversy" to exist. It'd be more understandable if the game fotage, say, showed some anti-feminist sentiment, or denigrated it's female characters, but I haven't seen any of that; the directors are simply stating that they want to make this a "Boys' trip" story, and that's perfectly OK in my book.

At the very least I don't think I'll make a fuss if for some reason they decide to make Final Fantasy XVI a game about beautiful women on a trip. But if that happens, maybe the same people will stand up to criticize it regardless.


It really reminds me of the whole backlash Ubisoft got for the AC:Unity cast.People really blew that out of proportion,as if they some motive for not having any playable female characters.
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Sango chan



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 178
Location: In the demon slayers Village
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:09 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Square obviously wants its cast of attractive male heroes to appeal to the women and girls who make up a lot of Final Fantasy's demographic, and for this the staff thinks they don't need actual playable female characters in the game.


.....What about the women that like having atleast one female in the party... come on, they think all the women are like this. seriously.

Minus the kingdom hearts games except BBS which has Aqua, I don't think there's another Jrpg I've played that doesn't have atleast one female in the party.
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Ambimunch



Joined: 30 Aug 2012
Posts: 2012
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:14 pm Reply with quote
I love FF15 the more I see it. I am totally down for a bromance road trip. There is nothing wrong with that. Hanging out with buddies is a different type of relation, there is nothing taboo about it..

FF10-2 was an all female cast and nobody had controversies with that. To me it seems that men are the ones moaning, not the girls, it's the guys who are upset that they're not getting their digital jiggle physics.

So lets drop the "controversy" -- this is not a conservatory, it's stupidity.
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Zac
ANN Executive Editor


Joined: 05 Jan 2002
Posts: 7912
Location: Anime News Network Technodrome
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:22 pm Reply with quote
Saying Final Fantasy XV is sexist because it doesn't have any significant female characters is the same as saying Free! is sexist for the same reason.

These are products aimed at the same audience. Confusion over FFXV stems from Western games journalists and cultural commentators being completely unaware of what a fujoshi is or how potent a consumer base they are in Japan.
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Hoppy800



Joined: 09 Aug 2013
Posts: 3331
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:32 pm Reply with quote
Zac wrote:
Saying Final Fantasy XV is sexist because it doesn't have any significant female characters is the same as saying Free! is sexist for the same reason.

These are products aimed at the same audience. Confusion over FFXV stems from Western games journalists and cultural commentators being completely unaware of what a fujoshi is or how potent a consumer base they are in Japan.


However that base is far less common outside of Asia also the criticisms are much higher outside of Asia. I have more reasons on why the game won't be very good besides the cast such as the battle system being action based, as a Final Fantasy fan who started playing late in the 8-bit era, I cringe at how SE does such a battle system as it's too casualized and an action based system doesn't have the spirit and essence of Final Fantasy. Compare that to Bravely Default and Second which while casualized a bit, still has the Final Fantasy spirit in it's battle system Then there's the fact that you only get to control one character, that type of deal shouldn't have been thought of, take for instance Tokyo Xanadu another RPG with an action based system for 2015, you get to play as more than one character.


Last edited by Hoppy800 on Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:33 pm; edited 2 times in total
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doctordoom85



Joined: 12 Jun 2008
Posts: 2091
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:32 pm Reply with quote
I think the issue is that the developers just couldn't resist speaking up about and start digging themselves in when arguably they had no reason to pick up a shovel in the first place.

In AC Unity's case, it was their ridiculous explanation of that designing female characters takes money and time. NO KIDDING, you know I've heard making a game period requires that as well, but maybe I was mistaken. Seriously, this "explanation" was so stupid that the trailer for Sunset Overdrive actually made fun of it (IIRC the narrator character is talking about how diverse the character customization appearances are and makes fun of the idea that having female appearance options is some monumental task).

In FF's case, the director claims that guys will always relate to girls differently. Now that's maybe that's true for some guys, heck maybe most guys. But it certainly wouldn't apply to me or my various circles of close friends I've had for most of my years. Generally, most of my closest female friends I could talk to no differently than a close male friend, heck two in particular I've probably shared more personal details with than almost anybody I've ever known. And yes, a few of these female friends I've had secret crushes on, but that had zero impact in how I interacted with them openly. This isn't the movies where any guy with a crush almost always stumbles over his words and/or speaks awkwardly (and in some cases, comes off as kinda stalker-ish). Since the director seems to want characterization that's really honest, you'd think he would have a less narrow viewpoint of the sort of bonds a man is capable of.

Heck, even prior games in the series contradict this. Sure, in IX Zidane was interested in Garnet/Dagger, but Freya and Eiko were treated no differently by the male members than I could imagine they would if they were both boys. This is true with practically everyone in XII as well (Balthier being the only one who flirts on occasion). I also can't imagine Lightning and Fang being women impacted the way the guys in the party interacted with them either.

If the main playable characters the director/writers envisioned as they were creating the game just happened to be male, I wouldn't have complained really. I would prefer a more diverse cast, but it's nowhere near a deal breaker. But it's this stereotyping "justification" that irks me and they would have been better off not saying anything. Sometimes silence really is golden.

Ambimunch: way to stereotype about anyone voicing an opinion. If the only female character in the party of XV looked exactly like Freya (rat-humanoid with zero emphasis placed on her breasts or any sort of traditional attractiveness) I wouldn't mind at all. Don't try to disrespect someone's opinion by claiming you know why they have it as if you have mind-reading powers or something.
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Sheleigha



Joined: 09 May 2008
Posts: 1670
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:33 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Bandai Namco has said nothing yet, but they clearly haven't given up on Digimon. Cyber Sleuth is welcoming for new players, though its tilt toward slightly older audiences could trouble some localizers. Designer Suzuhito Yasuda's habit of giving every woman ridiculously jutting breasts might be too much for the frail sensibilities of North American children.


I wish the western branches would see the franchise as something that would be more for a grown up audience, at this point. The game would be rated T so with that in mind, why not just target it towards the proper demographic instead of just kids kids kids all the time?
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prime_pm



Joined: 06 Feb 2004
Posts: 2333
Location: Your Mother's Bedroom
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:35 pm Reply with quote
Video game controversies nowadays have gotten really weird. And not in a fun kind of "murder death kill" kind of weird. Just dumb weird.

If a woman wants to pretend to mass murder faceless drones on a TV screen while playing whatever gender they want, then let her. Video games should have equal opportunity genocide.

Also please note, if you've checked my earlier forum posts I tend to sound a tad satirical.
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Via_01



Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Posts: 551
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:48 pm Reply with quote
doctordoom85 wrote:
In AC Unity's case, it was their ridiculous explanation of that designing female characters takes money and time. NO KIDDING, you know I've heard making a game period requires that as well, but maybe I was mistaken.


AC Unity has a lot of faults, but that's not one of them. Designing a female character wouldn't take money and time... it'd take A LOT of money and time. It's not just about making a different avatar: her movements, the physics, how she climbs, how she jumps, how she does everything in a game that's really parkour based... everything would need to be adjusted entirely from the male version, basically from scratch.

Plus, the change would need to apply to the main story as well, as online mode is basically simply transporting your own Arno Dorian to help another Arno Dorian with a slightly different hood so that you don't confuse them. And making a female PROTAGONIST means basically re-doing large chunks of the story (as a female assassin would certainly be treated quite different from a male one. Because time period).

But returning to FFXV... well, not much to add, really. The party members are boys, and it's about a boys' road trip. That doesn't mean there won't be ANY interaction with female characters at all. Heck, maybe we'll even have a lot of it.

People seem to be jumping the gun here, pointing their finger at FFXV and deeming it bad already without much proof. Honestly, I believe it's going to be good: the battle system looks nice and the world beautiful. And this is coming from someone whose favorite titles are VI and (believe it) V. This is certainly not old school JRPG, but I'll accept changes as long as it is a good change (which has yet to be proven).
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Tenebrae



Joined: 26 Apr 2008
Posts: 485
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:01 pm Reply with quote
Regarding Tyranobuilder, I don't understand why people would pay money for a program like that when there's good free alternatives around that have been developed for many years. Or maybe it is my programming background that makes me an exception, when I'm not immediately going into panic mode when confronted with something even remotely like program code. (caveat: I don't know if Tyranobuilder throws code pages at you too.)
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doctordoom85



Joined: 12 Jun 2008
Posts: 2091
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:18 pm Reply with quote
Via_01 wrote:
And making a female PROTAGONIST means basically re-doing large chunks of the story (as a female assassin would certainly be treated quite different from a male one. Because time period).


Yeah, the time period where possibly the most famous assassination committed by a woman took pace.....
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gloverrandal



Joined: 20 May 2014
Posts: 406
Location: Oita
PostPosted: Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:24 pm Reply with quote
Ambimunch wrote:
To me it seems that men are the ones moaning, not the girls, it's the guys who are upset that they're not getting their digital jiggle physics.


It's actually the opposite. The people complaining about it are the male feminists who are upset about the lack of female representation in the game. The issue generally stems from men speaking for women and stating woman won't like this game based on the lack of playable female characters. But like Zac mentioned it's misguided because of the whole fujoshi appeal that's common in a lot of Japanese media, and it would be akin to saying Free or Kurobas wouldn't appeal to women because it focuses on the male comradery of the sports team, unaware that that's a large draw of the appeal for their female audiences. In my opinion, any critique of the game that doesn't mention fujoshi or know what fujoshi are probably doesn't have a wide enough perspective to adequately critique the game on the basis of female appeal.

Also about FFX-2, I remember a lot of complaints about that back in the day from men. There were complaints that it was too girly and they didn't want to play as a bunch of teenage girls. Despite the 'jiggly physics' as you put it.

Personally, I'm not very interested in FFXV because of the setting and combat. I loved XIII, but FFXV just seems too realistic. FFXV looks a lot more grounded in modern era with driving around in a car which is kind of unappealing to me for a Final Fantasy game, but maybe future information about the game will change that. I'll still pick it up, but I wonder how much I'll enjoy it.

Sheleigha wrote:
I wish the western branches would see the franchise as something that would be more for a grown up audience, at this point. The game would be rated T so with that in mind, why not just target it towards the proper demographic instead of just kids kids kids all the time?


Digimon is still a kids franchise in Japan, it's just what's allowed in kids media in Japan is different from America. Sadly, very few kids media franchises get respect in America. Generally it's only a select few like Naruto and One Piece, but even those had problems on TV at the start of their airing in America. Everything else has to be heavily edited and censored for American children. It also doesn't help the Vita is seen as a dead system in America, and not one that's popular with children, so licensing a kid's game for it would be very risky, if not an outright poor decision.
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