They were saying that Western values corrupted Japan when Hikaru Utada came out as NB. Absolutely bonkers way of viewing the world.
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Final Fantasy 7 Remake Director Praises The Last of Us Part 2's Diversity
- Thread starter Equanimity
- Start date
Unlike many other FF main characters, the three you mentioned them being straight is a defining and important trait to that game's iconic story. Like if you said to me "imagine if Vann from FF12 or Lightning from 13 were revealed to be LGBT" I'd say sure, I could see that. But that love triangle from FFVII is a pivotal part, would mess with the story, and they'd have to be willing to drastically alter everything.
Id rather them make new characters LGBT (either for 7R or new games) rather than changing established ones. Especially ones who's orientation are so important to the game's narrative.
Those gold saucer dates can't come soon enough~
It really warms my gay heart to see a Japanese developer say something like this though, especially from one of my favorite franchises. Would be amazing to see FF take bigger steps toward inclusion in the future. No more rose mockery, we stan Toriyama. <3
It really warms my gay heart to see a Japanese developer say something like this though, especially from one of my favorite franchises. Would be amazing to see FF take bigger steps toward inclusion in the future. No more rose mockery, we stan Toriyama. <3
Except for the walking cliche named Manny. But whatever, the good does outweighs the bad.
I'm not saying to take the love triangle out or to remove Cloud/Aerith and Cloud/Tifa but bisexuality is a thing. All it takes is rewriting the Barret Golden Saucer date and nothing is drastically altered with the story
Considering how different 7R is to the "established" stuff....
Wouldn't you rather push for Square to make new, prominent characters in future FFs be LGBT rather than tacked-on changes to previous established characters and risk coming across as queer baiting? Either commit to it and do it right with something new rather than trying to change previous stuff they can't change that much because they already exist.
Am I making any sense?
What's even dumber is Utada was born in the US before moving to Japan.
Not as different as you'd think and they've said they don't want to stray from what ppl know on the next games.
It could technically happen but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.
I love how completely illiterate these chuds are on history. When Japan begun to westernise the country in the 20th century they adopted a lot of conservative European values. Which lead to things like homophobia becoming more widespread and many other things but we all know these chuds would never complain about those western values being adopted by the Japanese.
gee, I wonder why 🤔
I don't think you know what queer baiting is. Making characters LGBT is the opposite of queer baiting. And none of this stops FFXVI or future FF games from having LGBT characters. It's not an either/or situation
Of course, I agree!
It's just interesting when you look at FF right now, it's not that diverse. FF7R, yes, but so far XVI hasn't shown much in the way of diversity, XV was absolutely devoid of it, FFO has Ash but we'll have to wait and see what the verdict on that game is.
I won't speak to XIV's main/supporting characters since I'm not well-versed with the game, but I do know that at least in terms of character creation and marriage in the game, they have been way more progressive with it.
I want to see more of a shift to more inclusive games in the future. We know the company is very big on it, so maybe it is just a matter of waiting for new games to come down the pipeline.
Yes same with india for example. The British imposed homophobic laws when it was something that was much more accepted than in the west, as was transgender culture. The west has spread a lot of transphobia and homophobia.
The devs spent a shit ton of time and money to put men, women, trans, white, black, Asian, straight, queer, Jewish, young people and old people, all in prominent roles. What other game, especially in the AAA space, comes close to that?
I really hope FFXVI gets some playable female character. I am so burned out on XV boys club road trip.
Can you name another AAA game with a gay couple given a major focus without shying away from things like open forms of affection? This isn't even getting into the other aspects they cover like trans folks and so on.
LGBT couple as the main characters and a gay woman as the main character…
cmon
FF7R mostly had better diversity than most JRPGs I've played. The director taking notice of TLOU:P2 is a good sign.
That being said---- and I do not think it had an insidious intent whatsoever, but Barrett's over the top Mister T voice really took me out of it multiple times. Whenever I would get used to it, he would drop a "aww hell naw""sucka" almost as bad as the garbage dialogue they gave to Lock Rock in MHA. I can only speak for myself but seeing other non-white ERA members voice their discomfort with Barret's voice in FF7R only confirmed my feelings.
Totally fine if it didn't bother you, but it doesn't surprise me that his voice rubbed some people the wrong way.
LGBTQ+ representation has been celebrated in that particular game but Naughty Dog are kinda repeat offenders in their treatment of Black characters, TLOU:P2 is considered by many to be the worst of them. Look, I think that Naughty Dog's efforts are well-meaning and mostly positive but they should still do better in this area. If we want to see change, we gotta let people speak up.
That being said---- and I do not think it had an insidious intent whatsoever, but Barrett's over the top Mister T voice really took me out of it multiple times. Whenever I would get used to it, he would drop a "aww hell naw""sucka" almost as bad as the garbage dialogue they gave to Lock Rock in MHA. I can only speak for myself but seeing other non-white ERA members voice their discomfort with Barret's voice in FF7R only confirmed my feelings.
Totally fine if it didn't bother you, but it doesn't surprise me that his voice rubbed some people the wrong way.
To be fair, diversity is not a binary concept.
LGBTQ+ representation has been celebrated in that particular game but Naughty Dog are kinda repeat offenders in their treatment of Black characters, TLOU:P2 is considered by many to be the worst of them. Look, I think that Naughty Dog's efforts are well-meaning and mostly positive but they should still do better in this area. If we want to see change, we gotta let people speak up.
I don't think he needs to be 'toned down' per se - just localized a bit better.
I'd love a Barret who talks using a little bit of the structures of real-life Black wit and vernacular - not full AAVE or anything, but there's a correct note to hit there - rather than sounding like he's based on blaxploitation films *or* completely scrubbed so that he doesn't have a unique voice anymore. I think it's possible. The character already shines in the current localization in scenes about his political ideals (and not just his anger toward Shin-Ra) or where Marlene is concerned - the things they got not-quite-right could really be fixed in the next game without it feeling like he's written as a totally different character, IMO.
Read this:
The Untold Story Behind Lev's Voice in 'The Last of Us Part II'
The game's creator and the teen who voiced the character talk to WIRED about bringing Lev to life and the importance of trans voices in video games.
Read this:The Untold Story Behind Lev's Voice in 'The Last of Us Part II'
The game's creator and the teen who voiced the character talk to WIRED about bringing Lev to life and the importance of trans voices in video games.www.wired.com
Y'all right, I totally forgot about Lev
"Joel, Owen, Mel and and Yara have entered the chat"
But seriously if it wasn't for that one really-uncomfortable-when-you-analyse-it-even-a-little boss fight I don't think the perception of black characters in TLOU would be so bad.
Well that and having one of them survive to the credits.
Oh, for sure. I definitely would much rather see Toriyama helm another mainline game.
I kind of wish Isaac got more screen time as he was rather terrifying in that incredibly calm unperturbed by anything manner.
I would actually love it if they explored the idea of Barret being gay or bi in a future FF7R instalment - maybe his friendship with Dyne could have had an unrequited (or even requited) love aspect to it, which might make the eventual reunion with him and subsequent fight into quite a bittersweet emotional moment.
I instantly thought of that thread. I know the main topic is about the women of TLoU2, but Naughty Dog needs to do some serious reflection & improvement regarding how they treat their Black characters.Good to hear from him.
TLOU2's accessibility options were tremendous, but I can't hear about its diversity without thinking about previous discussion on here:
Naughty Dog's Anti-Blackness (TLOU2 Spoilers)
Months ago, I had a single thought which I spoke of half-jokingly. And I really hoped it wouldn’t be true this time around. Oh my sweet summer child, it was all of them Now I’m positive I wasn’t the only Black person who had this thought in the back of their mind before they started the...www.resetera.com
It's true but as a black dude, I understand that this is a marathon and not a sprint. Things are way better than they've ever been but it doesn't mean the race is over.Good to hear from him.
TLOU2's accessibility options were tremendous, but I can't hear about its diversity without thinking about previous discussion on here:
Naughty Dog's Anti-Blackness (TLOU2 Spoilers)
Months ago, I had a single thought which I spoke of half-jokingly. And I really hoped it wouldn’t be true this time around. Oh my sweet summer child, it was all of them Now I’m positive I wasn’t the only Black person who had this thought in the back of their mind before they started the...
It's right to hold their feet to the fire but it's also right to give them praise where they have helped to take small steps forward.
FF7 and TLOU are better games for having given thought to these kinds of things, whether they nail them or not. If they keep working at it, we'll all be better off.
But they're Japanese! So obviously, that's all that matters about them. Nationality? Hometown? Gender identity? Unimportant. They're Japanese and tangentially related to video games, so they means you can project any ideology you have onto them and disregard their own personhood. /s
More convenient to do no research of their own. They can't even get Utada's place of birth correct.
User Banned (1 Month): Insensitive commentary regarding racial representation
Is Barrett actually black in FF7R? He looks like a dark skinned Japanese dude. Just saying. I totally thought he was black in FF7 but now with the Remake I felt that they wanted to change that. They can say it's the lighting all they want but I don't buy it.
I really liked Barret in Remake and thought he was an improvement over the OG, but I also understand why people right not agree with that. After seeing Forspoken/Deathloop, one area I hope Devs improve in is including black women in their stories. I would love to play more games with people that look like me.
Even if Japanese were okay with it, I feel like complaints about poor stereotyping of a prominent black character are....pretty detrimental to overseas localization. I personally would like to believe they would tone it down for future games. ...I'd like to believe anyways. As Broseph mentioned above, Barret has a really good arc coming up, I'd love to see him strain his voice left to hit those Mr T levels. John Eric Bentley sounds pretty great even just normally.
I really enjoyed watching Berret and Aerith playing the original.
Seeing Honey Bee's sequence change from what it was to what it became (a literal song and dance EVENT).... oooohmygood I can totally see them putting the same sorta TLC into the Gold Saucer date.
After how the female protagonist was treated in The Third Birthday when he was the writer for that game, I have little hope that female characters will be shown better treatment.
Especially with the way Tifa and Aerith animate in the Remake.
I guess we'll see with Part 2, but I don't have much hope.
Especially with the way Tifa and Aerith animate in the Remake.
I guess we'll see with Part 2, but I don't have much hope.
Is it really a "defining and important trait"? Just because the party showed affection towards each other doesn't necessarily mean they were going to be romantically involved in a way that requires the characters to be hard-coded as straight.
Also this.
lol wut?
Lmao Barret is black. Looks Puerto Rican with that haircut, too lol
I dunno... I guess no more than some characters look like a distinct ethnicity than sorta just "Final Fantasy" looking.
But Barret as a "dark skinned Japanese dude" is a biiig reach heh.
Is this one of those "He's not black enough to be considered black" that some dark skinned people have to deal with in their own communities?
They can totally make Reeve gay and it wouldn't change anything. There were hints of that in the original game anyways with how dismissive he is of Scarlet.
Sorry but how would you have made him seem "actually black" then?
I think at this point it wouldn't be a stretch if they revealed Aerith as bi.
She seems to be the most "open-minded" of the group in Remake. I think everyone else in the main party is pretty much locked in stone, except perhaps
Reeve
Yes he very much is and please let's not do this again. Back when FFVIIR came out there was a disgusting thread on Era all about how some members thought Barret "wasn't black enough" or whatever the fuck that means.