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Who else is relieved that we won't have to play as a gruff, white male in Nioh 2?

ScOULaris

ScOULaris

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,588
One thing that always annoyed me for purely superficial reasons while playing the original Nioh was the main character. In general I prefer having a set protagonist with his/her own personality and dialog over a mute create-a-character, but with William in Nioh 1 I couldn't help but feel that... well... his ethnicity felt out of place for the game's setting. Yes, I know that he's loosely based on a real Englishman named William Adams who sailed to Japan in 1600. So it's not like there was zero justification for them to go with a Caucasian protagonist in the first game. But it just never quite felt right to me, and to be honest it felt like a missed opportunity to have some cool Japanese main character in a game with such worldwide appeal to stand out in a sea of gruff, white protagonists.

nioh-cover.jpg

Friggin' Chris Hemsworth over here.

I hope that I'm able to tread carefully enough on this topic to not drudge up a heated debate about race or ethnic background, but I'm just really glad that we'll be able to play as a Japanese samurai in the sequel. It's unclear to me how much freedom the new character creation tool affords the player in terms of defining the ethnic look of their character, but everything I've seen so far has yielded more traditionally Japanese-looking character designs.

3590645-nioh-2-screen-07-ps4-us-10sep19.jpg

Now that's more like it.

Am I alone on this?

Also, did Team Ninja ever say whether or not their decision to use a white protag in Nioh one was driven by some desire to appeal to a Western audience? I haven't ever seen that topic broached with the developers, but maybe I just missed it somewhere.
 
Dest

Dest

Has seen more 10s than EA ever will
Coward
Jun 4, 2018
14,039
Work
There was something funny about playing as the worlds biggest weaboo in the first one, though.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,634
ScOULaris said:
Also, did Team Ninja ever say whether or not their decision to use a white protag in Nioh one was driven by some desire to appeal to a Western audience? I haven't ever seen that topic broached with the developers, but maybe I just missed it somewhere.
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It was not. Long before Nioh became the Nioh that released it always had William as the protagonist.
Nioh began development in 2004 for the PlayStation 3 as part of a multimedia project based on an unfinished Akira Kurosawa script.
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Morrigan

Morrigan

Spear of the Metal Church
Member
Oct 24, 2017
34,317
"Relieved" isn't the word I'd use, really. William didn't bother me, but I did replace him with a female skin (Ginchiyo and later Maria) as soon as I could. A character creator is obviously an improvement though, especially since it seems pretty solid as far as options go.
 
@TheFriendlyBro

@TheFriendlyBro

IGN - Video Producer and Editor
Verified
Aug 1, 2019
562
But can I go the way of Oblivion and create a characters like this? Character creators are the best when you can create a monster.

maxresdefault.jpg
 

Deleted member 42105

User requested account closure
Banned
Apr 13, 2018
7,994
Will is alright, I like his design quite a bit, so I definitely wouldn't say relieved but I much prefer a character creator like we're getting.
 
Salty Rice

Salty Rice

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
8,612
Pancake City
Options are good and i prefer playing as a female character so im happy with that change but that said i never had a problem with Geralds brother William.

I would never not play a game because of the playable characters gender or race.
 
entremet

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
60,010
It always depends on the game. I love the DMC series and the series regulars (Dante, Vergil, Nero) are as white as you can get. But they have interesting depictions. Dante being rather well-loved as well.

I also loved Joel from TLOU. He was rather well developed. So it depends.
 
tokubek

tokubek

Self-requested ban
Banned
Nov 2, 2017
469
Germany
Nothing against a set character but I also feel like Nioh's protagonist didn't have to be William - I don't think the story was THAT dependant on having this white guy as the lead.

Dest said:
There was something funny about playing as the worlds biggest weaboo in the first one, though.
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This was my head cannon too. William in this game is just Geese Howard or Sodom.
 
Alienhated

Alienhated

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,527
I don't really care about that in general, but character customization in rpg games is fundamental to me.
 
Clive

Clive

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,089
White male, black female or blue hedgehog. I'm capable of playing them all without issues. Race or gender never bothers my mixed heritage ass. That said, it is great when there are more choices although I never try to make them look like me personally. Diversity and choices are good things but playing as a white male, which I'm not, does not bother me. I would have had to quit AAA gaming if it did.
 
TreIII

TreIII

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,280
Columbia, MD
Morrigan said:
"Relieved" isn't the word I'd use, really. William didn't bother me, but I did replace him with a female skin (Ginchiyo and later Maria) as soon as I could. A character creator is obviously an improvement though, especially since it seems pretty solid as far as options go.
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Ditto me and Yasuke, but I make a bit of an exception when it comes to William, anyway.

Of all the various changes they could've made to William Adams to make him more interesting/palatable for historical fantasy game, making him an Irish guy was actually a nice twist. Also, he wasn't the typical "white savior", either, which is something I was really hoping Koei Tecmo and Team Ninja wouldn't let me down with.

That said, I'm glad I get to roll with my own character(s), this time around. Also find it interesting that for Nioh 2, they bought back the other part of the original Ni-oh concept (main character is a half demon who has oni-like horns).
 
Psychotron

Psychotron

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,683
As has been said, options are always better....but....I will waste an absurd amount of time adjusting my character, afraid to commit to a design. It stresses me out, lol.
 
Pyro

Pyro

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Jul 30, 2018
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I thought he was a cool protagonist considering how it borrowed from history (however liberally). Sure he doesn't stand out in the big picture of VG protagonists, but it was neat nonetheless.

As for whether or not Team Ninja was targeting a Western audience, I think your guess is as good as anybody's considering the game started development in like 2005.
 

Deleted member 679

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
14,741
Morrigan said:
"Relieved" isn't the word I'd use, really. William didn't bother me, but I did replace him with a female skin (Ginchiyo and later Maria) as soon as I could. A character creator is obviously an improvement though, especially since it seems pretty solid as far as options go.
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Yep, same. It's not something that bothers me, but I am very happy about the character creator.
 
Van Bur3n

Van Bur3n

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
26,089
Kalentan said:
I mean he didn't have the most personality but at least he had a presence. From the little of the beta we saw your character just nods (if at all). Which is a tad more boring.
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The feck is a "presence". I don't find William's one or two sentences uttered throughout the game to be any more compelling than some nods. Like the increased levels of bore gained from William's absence are so marginally small it's like the size of a tadpole's dick.
 
Cactuar

Cactuar

Banned
Nov 30, 2018
5,878
Never bothered me because they game was made by Japanese and they told a story that the Japanese wanted to tell. I might have felt a certain type of way if it were done by a western developer who used the same lead, in a Tom Cruise/"The Last Samurai" or Daniel Day-Lewis/"The Last of the Mohicans" type of way, where the white man has to come in and save the day because the indigenous people weren't good enough..

In other words, I'm glad Sucker Punch didn't use an Irish character for Ghost (though I would have played it anyway), but I have no problem with a Japanese developer using one for Nioh.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,634
Van Bur3n said:
The feck is a "presence". I don't find William's one or two sentences uttered throughout the game to be any more compelling than some nods. Like the increased levels of bore gained from William's absence are so marginally small it's like the size of a tadpole's dick.
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I mean he had more dialogue than that and the connection with the villain made you have some urgency in the story.
 
aesync

aesync

Member
Jan 19, 2018
560
Chicago
Oh dang I didn't realize we could make a character in 2! This makes me really interested now. I was fine with the guy from 1 but would much rather make my own dude.
 
Melkezadek

Melkezadek

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,168
It didn't bother me that he was a gruff white male. I just thought he looked like a bootleg Geralt. Glad they decided to let us create our own characters. Especially in a game like Nioh.
 
TortadeJamon

TortadeJamon

Banned
Dec 23, 2018
908
Cactuar said:
I might have felt a certain type of way if it were done by a western developer who used the same lead, in a Tom Cruise/"The Last Samurai" or Daniel Day-Lewis/"The Last of the Mohicans" type of way, where the white man has to come in and save the day because the indigenous people weren't good enough.
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I think you may have missed the point of The Last Samurai.
 
Kalentan

Kalentan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,634
Cactuar said:
Never bothered me because they game was made by Japanese and they told a story that the Japanese wanted to tell. I might have felt a certain type of way if it were done by a western developer who used the same lead, in a Tom Cruise/"The Last Samurai" or Daniel Day-Lewis/"The Last of the Mohicans" type of way, where the white man has to come in and save the day because the indigenous people weren't good enough..
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But... That wasn't the point of The Last Samurai. He didn't save anyone. The Samurai were wiped out.
 
PlzUninstall

PlzUninstall

Member
Oct 30, 2017
563
It was odd but after years of white generic protag it really didn't phase me and it certainly didn't impact my enjoyment of the first game. I'm glad we have more options now.
 
K' Dash

K' Dash

Banned
Nov 10, 2017
4,156
it could be a gremlin for all I care, I don't give a fuck, I completely forget about it when I'm playing.

With that said, more options are always nice.
 
monmagman

monmagman

Member
Dec 6, 2018
4,126
England,UK
I prefer games that have a set protagonist with a personality tbh....if that's a gruff white male then that's fine,as would be any other combination.
 
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