That FFXV interview.

[owlmoose]

So unless you've been living under a rock (and if so, please tell me where this rock is and let me crawl beneath it with you), and if you're interested in the Final Fantasy series at all, you've probably seen people talking about this interview with Hajime Tabata, the director of Final Fantasy XV. Among other things, he discusses his decision to publish the first Final Fantasy title with an all-male team since 1990 -- yep, that's confirmed now, five dudes and no women in the player party -- in terms that are, shall we say controversial?

"Speaking honestly, an all-male party feels almost more approachable for players. Even the presence of one female in the group will change their behaviour, so that they'll act differently. So to give the most natural feeling, to make them feel sincere and honest, having them all the same gender made sense in that way," Tabata said....

For Tabata, the journey will have the cast adopting what he dubs a "boys will be boys" type demeanor. "It was the story we wanted to tell and what we wanted to show players," he explained.

"The world might be ready to see the curtain lifted on what boys do when girls aren't around, when they come out of the tent all prim and proper."

Ugh. So much ugh, I don't even know where to start.

Maybe I'll start by saying that, for me at least, the all-male player cast of FFXV wasn't a deal-breaker. Given Square Enix’s past track record with providing gender-balanced casts with interesting male and female characters in the Final Fantasy series, I was hoping for better, and the decision to break with that tradition disappointed me. But I had still planned to buy and play the game, to give the story and the characters a chance.

Tabata's interview has pretty much killed that desire for me, and if I'm reading reactions correctly, there's a lot of people who agree with me.

Claiming that male characters are “more approachable” is basically the same as saying “women are weird alien beings and only men are normal”, which is both sexist and demeaning. Whether Tabata realizes it or not, this is a way of denying women full personhood. Equally troubling is the assertion that men can't be their true selves in the presence of women. At least one commenter on Tumblr has suggested that this statement is code for "we don't want to include romance". While entirely possible, the idea that female party characters are only viable as romantic interests is not only offensive, it's obviously untrue in the context of the rest of the series. I can think of multiple Final Fantasy games where romance was a side theme at best, and of female characters who were not primarily (and in some cases even secondarily) love interests.

It's all so tiring, these same sexist arguments that we've seen a thousand times. Speaking of things we've seen a thousand times: games with exclusively male protagonists and a “boys will be boys” mentality. How many stories out there in the world are focused on boys acting like stereotypical boys? How many books, movies, games, shonen manga and anime? A game in this mold is hardly groundbreaking media, and it’s clueless at best for Tabata to assert that it is.

I suppose, given some of their more recent incidents of developer sexism (jiggly boob physics in FFXIII-3, anyone?), I should've learned not to expect better of Squeenix, but I really did. They haven't had a perfect track record of representation, by any means, but they have created a number of exciting and memorable female characters, and at least from Final Fantasy IV onwards, they seem to have made creating gender balanced parties at least some level of priority. Even when they remade the two previous games with all-male parties (the original Final Fantasy and Final Fantasy III), they added female characters to both teams. Going to an all-male team -- especially for a game that fans have been hotly anticipating for nearly a decade -- feels like a huge step backwards, especially when they insult their female fanbase in the process.

If SE wants to break with their traditions and make a Final Fantasy game with an all-male cast, that’s their right. It’s their game, their company, their choice. No one is claiming otherwise. And who knows, maybe Final Fantasy XV will break free of the expectations that Tabata is setting up for us here and be an awesome game. But given his commentary, I have serious doubts. As it stands now, I expect I'm going to have to give this one a pass.

Comments

Agreed

[jaininae]

I think his comments also imply that male characters are more important than female characters by the way he focuses on how the male characters act around women. So even the approach to writing characters is sexist.... which can't be good for the main cast, but I'm open to being proven wrong.

[alias_sqbr]

*sad sigh of agreement*

[seventhe]

*fistbump*

[pete_thomas]

My thoughts when I read that: "Oh. Oohhh." :(

I understand the approach they're trying to accomplish, but the phrasing of it and the idea itself is absolutely horrible. It's almost equally as awful saying "boys will be boys" when the women aren't around. Since when do men not do exactly what they want to in front of women anyway? 90% of them are self-entitled, indulgent little pieces of shit. Percentages not accurate, of course.

The "men being more approachable" not only is inaccurate, but is also really, really fucking stupid. What is this secret power that women have that changes the face of the industry so much that the game just absolutely wouldn't be the same if we didn't just leave them out? Two of the best FF games (arguably) had women in their leads, and some of the better characters in the series as a whole were women. Why limit yourself?

Out of your whole statement, the only thing I disagree with is your comment about FFI and FFIII originally being an all male cast, which was actually never specified. Each character was called Four Warriors of Light and Light Warrior children, respectively, and the names were open to your customization. I know most of the sprites "look male" but that's unfortunately our own culture rubbing off on us. I could be mistaken as I'm not as familiar with both games as I'd like to be, but I'm pretty certain they also never reference gender specific pronouns in the stories either. Everything was incredibly neutral in the Famicom versions. I also don't know of any version of FFI that has a female specific character/sprite. But your point does still stand afterwards of having FFIII changed in the DS remake for one female character.

I have the demo downloaded and am waiting to finish Type-0 (also riddled with both men and women in its cast) before playing it, but I'm nervous to see the full game launch and how it works.

[owlmoose]

Thanks for the correction on FFI and FFIII. I've never played the original game and didn't get very far in the DS remake of FFIII, so I'm not very familiar with either of them, mostly just by fandom osmosis. I did know that the first game didn't really have characters as such, just representations of the different classes, but I hadn't realized that the original FFIII was similar. But like you said, that's the problem with making characters "neutral": because of the assumptions we make about what is the default, absent any evidence one way or another, most people are going to assume that characters written without an explicit gender are male. (I wonder if people have come to think of the FFI characters as having varying genders and personalities in part because of 8-Bit Theater, a fairly popular webcomic that uses the sprites from that game as characters.)

How is Type-0? I haven't been hearing much about it and am curious.

[pete_thomas]

No problem! As I said, it's still not great that we assume all men when we see neutral, but it is all part of the process to try and uncondition ourselves to be so male-centric as a whole within the industry. At least, that is my goal, anyway.

You know I've never seen 8-Bit Theater before? Thanks for linking! I'm super curious to read!

Type-0 is actually pleasantly surprising. I always get a little nervous with spinoffs and big changes to the formula, but this game is surprisingly better done than most. The gameplay itself is very challenging and punishes you for just trying to button mash. There is still the need for grinding which makes it feel very FF-esque, and the storyline is surprisingly deep for this style of game. It even got the "M" rating due to the graphic nature of the game (omg blood everywhere??).

My only real gripe (minus little quirks here and there that bug me specifically) is actually the voice acting/character dev. It's really non-existent, and the characters are so painfully awkward when they have dialog together. This is especially true with Nine, who has the urge to shout "Hey" and "Yo" at the beginning and/or end of his sentences randomly.

The game has been worth the playthrough, and I've got my entire playthrough up on YouTube. The descriptions are pretty good with telling you when I'm just mindlessly roaming vs. completing actual story, so you can find one of just combat or something if you're interested in seeing what it's like. Oh, and the summon designs are absolutely breathtaking (ice skating Shiva <3).

[sathari]

So much yes to everything you say here, SO MUCH YES. I was pretty much planning to give FFXV a pass precisely because a cast full of interchangeable teenage boys and one "elder brother" figure was the OPPOSITE of approachable for me, but now? That pass is a sure thing. (Seriously, until this article I might have persuaded myself that the MC was Larsa-esque enough to interest me, but now? NOPE'ing right out of there, and it is precisely thanks to the attitudes in that article, that they are TRYING to make a game I will not enjoy. Congrats, Squeenix, you just lost my money. I will be over here playing Devil Survivor 2 where I can get myself a nearly-all-female endgame cast with the right dialogue choices and all the ladies are awesome at that.)

[lassarina]

Apparently the gameplay is stellar (I haven't tried the demo that came with Type-0 yet), but this entire interview is so fucking infuriating I could spit acid.

[velithya]

Got here via a friend, and, wow, what a disappointment. I loved the FFXIII games and the way the playable lady characters weren't shoe-horned into dumb romances or seen as love interests so it's a real disappointment to find out that they've taken a step backwards with FFXV. What a shame.