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Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae 2.0 coming in May | Trailer at E3, more at Gamescom

it's also more egregious in a game where people have been requesting a female party member and have been turned down.

Now i get it, i respect their vision and understand that it's not an oversight on their end and that the lack of a female party member is intentional and fits the narrative themes they are looking to tackle, but you tell folks "no female party members" and then follow it up with an impractically dressed mechanic who is blatantly being overspecialized, well, it adds up to what appears to be a game that is pandering to the hormonal and pubescent urges of adolescent young men.

it's not a good look
In regards to that, I'm sure they meant no permanent female party members. They never said no female guest party members, considering they mentioned how the foursome would change their behavior depending on who the guests are.
 
Yeah this is the only thing really worrying me from the report. I think the voice was fine, maybe just a bit too deep but it was the voice acting and script that were the true offenders. If they kept the same guy, assuming he's a decent VA, and just improved his lines and made his dialogue more natural, I think he'd still be a great fit
His voice is wayyy to deep. Hardly understood a word he was saying. The rest of the squad sounds great imo
 

Boke1879

Member
Lol. This game's dev cycle truly is a shit show. I can't believe they are updating a demo and working on rebalancing when they can't even get their fundamental gameplay mechanics and design right. Does Tabata even know what the fuck he wants to do with this game?

This is basically user testing. I wouldn't be shocked if half these things were in the inal game already. They just want feedback.
 

10k

Banned
Hmmm, with this update I could actually play the demo and finish it. Did not like 1.0 at all. Makes me scared for the final game.
 

Arkeband

Banned
Are only the people who responded to the survey eligible for the demo update or is it coming to anyone who has the demo installed on their PS4?

Also I was perfectly fine with Cindy and the voices of the main characters. I don't believe fan input should be at all incorporated when it comes to the artistic vision of a game...
"Sora's clothes have too many buckles. His feet are too big. Hair is too Goku. The keyblade needs to be sharper. Goofy should be wearing armor. Donald needs pants."

Feedback on mechanics is another thing entirely, especially when the devs say things like they aren't experienced with open-world or whatever, then yes, crowdsource opinions to your heart's content.
 

Valnen

Member
Now if Gladiolus looked like this, I would consider it to be on the same level:
ofKnlSx.jpg

Cidney isn't showing that much skin. That's not even close to a fair comparison.
 
it's also more egregious in a game where people have been requesting a female party member and have been turned down.

Now i get it, i respect their vision and understand that it's not an oversight on their end and that the lack of a female party member is intentional and fits the narrative themes they are looking to tackle, but you tell folks "no female party members" and then follow it up with an impractically dressed mechanic who is blatantly being oversexualized, well, it adds up to what appears to be a game that is pandering to the hormonal and pubescent urges of adolescent young men.

it's not a good look

I don't know how anyone with the slightest understanding of the female audience for this sort of stuff can look at the male character designs as well as the dynamic between said characters and conclude that the game is solely trying to appeal to men and gives zero fucks about female players. The only way those characters could pander to fujoshi harder is if they were canonically gay.
 
I don't know how anyone with the slightest understanding of the female audience for this sort of stuff can look at the male character designs as well as the dynamic between said characters and conclude that the game is solely trying to appeal to men and gives zero fucks about female players. The only way those characters could pander to fujoshi harder is if they were canonically gay.

that's fine, really. Who has an issue with the male characters in the game and their portrayal?
 

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
Okay, since several people seem to think I'm reading things out of context or trusting bad translations from people who actually speak Japanese, let's take the Gematsu translation of this entire section: http://gematsu.com/2015/04/final-fa...duscae-2-0-coming-mid-may#dRafstObe1ty8BWZ.99

#2 – Cindy is too sexy. Also, I want a female party member.

Tabata’s comment: “So do these go together? ‘Put Cindy in the party.’ ‘But she’s too sexy.’ I don’t get it.”

(So a lot of feedback from Europe was that Cindy is too sexy, but a lot of people also want a female party member. It does feel a bit contradictory.)

“About Cindy being too sexy, she’s actually not meant to be an erotic character. Her character is very energetic and outgoing, a very active character. With those traits paired with her appearance, we feel it wouldn’t be too problematic even if, say, she shows up on screen while your parents are in the living room. We feel it wouldn’t be too problematic. I just repeated myself there.”

(I think it’s more about the amount of skin she shows for a mechanic…)

“Oh, I see. But she is a very cheerful and active character, I don’t think we want to change the current concept. So maybe it’s about moderating the way she’s presented, where it appears as though overly sexual themes are being brought to the forefront, because that’s not who she’s supposed to be. Maybe as long as we maintain those boundaries…

“Nakaaki-san, who’s been working on Cindy, is here with us. Should we ask him?”

…

“So what Nakaaki-san said, just like what I just just explained, is that her character is not about sex. She is not supposed to be too sexy, but the male members on the dev team did their best to create her. As a result, perhaps too much of their heart and soul went into her… So if we put too much into her, then we should remove the excess heart and soul, and make sure she’s a character you’d be completely comfortable seeing while in the living room. That’s where our line will be, so please be assured.

“In terms of adding a female character to the party, our concept is that this about following the foursome’s journey in an environment where they can be themselves, and thereby allowing the player to feel like they are traveling with them. So removing Prompto, who was the least favorite, and replacing him with a new female character just doesn’t sound right…

(I guess people are anxious because you said there would be guest party characters—like General Cor—so I think there’s a certain level of expectation coming from players…)

“I see. We won’t be letting anyone down. Normally, it’s just the four guys, so the tent’s probably not in tip top shape, but if a female character gets thrown into the mix, you can expect things to be a little different than usual.

“They’ll probably clean and say things they wouldn’t normally say around her. Things like that. I think it’ll be fun to see the differences when the guys are being themselves, and when it’s not just the four of them. That’s how I want the players to journey with them. We’re working hard to make sure this really gets across. Please look forward to seeing the differences when a guest character joins your party.”

I'm having a lot of trouble reading that as anything other than:

1.) They think people are concerned about Cindy's appearance because they might get in trouble if their parents see a character showing that much skin, as opposed to it being an issue about respect.

2.) They imply that it's paradoxical people want a female party member, but think Cindy is too sexy, because why else would you want a female party member?

What's notably disappointing to me about this is that they got a ton of feedback about women in their game, but instead of interpreting it as adults asking for better representation of women, they're acting like their fans are a bunch of horny teenagers who have prudish parents.
 

berzeli

Banned
Cidney isn't showing that much skin. That's not even close to a fair comparison.

I'm sorry that I couldn't find a picture that showed the exact same percentage of skin, the exact same pose as Cidney, with clothes with exact same colour as Cidney, and the exact same shitty design.

The point wasn't that the two designs are equal, but to show that appealing to an audience isn't the same as pandering to it. The designs of Gladiolus and Cidney are not equal in terms of "fanservice" and the argument that since Gladiolus shows a moderate amount of abs Cidney's design is perfectly ok isn't a sound argument.
 

Dark_castle

Junior Member
As someone who's still highly looking forward to the game, I wished the overall ratings for the demo aren't near as high as what's being collected here. Wouldn't want to send the wrong message and let the development team knew that they're made a masterpiece here.

..Maybe I just really wish Tabata will come out and talk about how they will go about designing the world and make exploration interesting, and how the quests are being handled, how much fetch quests are there, etc. I refuse to believe that nobody in the development team share what I felt about the landscape of Duscae in the demo being too flat and stale to explore.

Also want to know what other battle actions are available at Noctis's disposal. Is monster free-run still a thing? Haven't heard that in a long while. Also having doubts about the usefulness of a dedicated warp button. Is the main purpose of it is to teleport to a higher spot to recover MP, since it now has no use for quick traversal? How about the ability to swap weapon loadouts? Is there a way we can map weapon abilities to a shortcut button? Etc etc.

There are many more important things to discuss about the game that should take precedence over what an NPC wears.
 
I don't know how anyone with the slightest understanding of the female audience for this sort of stuff can look at the male character designs as well as the dynamic between said characters and conclude that the game is solely trying to appeal to men and gives zero fucks about female players. The only way those characters could pander to fujoshi harder is if they were canonically gay.

Exactly. This is a cultural thing. Fujoshis absolutely love these kind of guys. Do you people know how much yaoi is going to be made here? I'd stake my life that there will be a hot springs scene with the four of them in a risque situations. Final Fantasy is a series where nearly everybody is eye candy. Square Enix is a Japanese company and they know what a lot of Japanese game playing women want.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
As someone who's still highly looking forward to the game, I wished the overall ratings for the demo aren't near as high as what's being collected here. Wouldn't want to send the wrong message and let the development team knew that they're made a masterpiece here.

M_Night was truly ahead of his time
 

Valnen

Member
I'm sorry that I couldn't find a picture that showed the exact same percentage of skin, the exact same pose as Cidney, with clothes with exact same colour as Cidney, and the exact same shitty design.

The point wasn't that the two designs are equal, but to show that appealing to an audience isn't the same as pandering to it. The designs of Gladiolus and Cidney are not equal in terms of "fanservice" and the argument that since Gladiolus shows a moderate amount of abs Cidney's design is perfectly ok isn't a sound argument.

Cidney is also showing a moderate amount of skin though. I'm not sure what the problem is.
 
As someone who's still highly looking forward to the game, I wished the overall ratings for the demo aren't near as high as what's being collected here. Wouldn't want to send the wrong message and let the development team knew that they're made a masterpiece here.
A bunch of 8s is hardly a "masterpiece"
 

Falk

that puzzling face
that defeats the fucking purpose as well. Most people that complained are people that enjoyed the diversity in casts in FF games and the interactions that provided

But... an all-female cast diversified the party dynamics of the franchise as a whole.

Sure it was cringeworthy at many points (all the girly hi-five mini-hops, girly talks, Brother lol) but you can't say it's like any party dynamic that existed prior in the franchise.

I think a lot of people seem to want "diversity" on a micro scale which leads more to "homogeneity" on a macro scale. Like shit, let's have every single game have a 50-50 split of males and females and always have a token Black character. Might as well throw in a token Latino character and a token Asian character while we're at it every single entry.

It's sorta like the misappropriation of the term "random" when someone flips a coin 5 times and it so happens to land 4 times heads, then you complain the coin isn't random. Having results like 4 heads is random. Having an exact 50-50 split in every single sample set isn't.
 

Klossen

Banned
I'm sorry that I couldn't find a picture that showed the exact same percentage of skin, the exact same pose as Cidney, with clothes with exact same colour as Cidney, and the exact same shitty design.

The point wasn't that the two designs are equal, but to show that appealing to an audience isn't the same as pandering to it. The designs of Gladiolus and Cidney are not equal in terms of "fanservice" and the argument that since Gladiolus shows a moderate amount of abs Cidney's design is perfectly ok isn't a sound argument.

On one hand, you're saying that quantifying skin is a stupid thing, on the other, you're quantifying how "pandering" (a dumb phrase if you'd ask me) different characters are. There are male characters meant to look sexy for female players and vice versa. There is no difference in "pandering levels". You're probably more sensitive to Cindy because of your confirmation bias.
 
that defeats the fucking purpose as well. Most people that complained are people that enjoyed the diversity in casts in FF games and the interactions that provided
Theyve said it time and time again. Why do you (I dont mean you specifically) keep bitching about the same exact thing? How many times do you want them to repeat the same exact shit? Its a game about bros, thats it. Buy it or get over it. Everything doesnt have to be diverse just for the sake of it, if this fits their vision then so be it. Id rather they do their own thing then add a female member just for the sake of it
Yeah, who wants to play new things?
sure play the new game, just accept its a game about bros doing bro shit. You want a female cast play that other ff game, want diversity play like any of the other ff games. Problem solved
 
Theyve said it time and time again. Why do you (I dont mean you specifically) keep bitching about the same exact thing? How many times do you want them to repeat the same exact shit? Its a game about bros, thats it. Buy it or get over it
im just answering the batshit response you had, but idk, why do people keep bitching about cidney's fantastic outfit
 

muteki

Member
As someone who's still highly looking forward to the game, I wished the overall ratings for the demo aren't near as high as what's being collected here. Wouldn't want to send the wrong message and let the development team knew that they're made a masterpiece here.

..Maybe I just really wish Tabata will come out and talk about how they will go about designing the world and make exploration interesting, and how the quests are being handled, how much fetch quests are there, etc. I refuse to believe that nobody in the development team share what I felt about the landscape of Duscae in the demo being too flat and stale to explore.

Also want to know what other battle actions are available at Noctis's disposal. Is monster free-run still a thing? Haven't heard that in a long while. Also having doubts about the usefulness of a dedicated warp button. Is the main purpose of it is to teleport to a higher spot to recover MP, since it now has no use for quick traversal? How about the ability to swap weapon loadouts? Is there a way we can map weapon abilities to a shortcut button? Etc etc.

There are many more important things to discuss about the game that should take precedence over what an NPC wears.

As someone who was generally pleased with the demo, I'm halfway relieved that the feedback hasn't been incredibly negative and they don't have the desire to go back and change everything. There is a ton of features missing from the demo but the core is there, fix the lockon/camera and balance the MP usage and I think they are heading down the right track.
 

berzeli

Banned
Cidney is also showing a moderate amount of skin though. I'm not sure what the problem is.

It isn't about the exact percentage of skin shown, it is how sexualised the respective designs are. Also about how the characters are presented, how they move, what the camera focuses on, what they say, how the other characters interact with them, etc.

My point, which I thought was clear is that Gladiolus may be appealing (I don't find him to be), Cidney is pandering.
Adding to that Square Enix have already shown that they are capable of changing the design of a character based on the internet finding them "too sexy" so I immensely dislike they way that they are approaching this. Their comments on the stream are troubling as well.
edit:
On one hand, you're saying that quantifying skin is a stupid thing, on the other, you're quantifying how "pandering" (a dumb phrase if you'd ask me) different characters are. There are male characters meant to look sexy for female players and vice versa. There is no difference in "pandering levels". You're probably more sensitive to Cindy because of your confirmation bias.

I'm saying that quantifying the exact amount of skin shown is a stupid metric to appraise how sexualised a character is. I intentionally chose a stupid design of a warrior type person to illustrate how an overly sexualised Gladiolus might look, barely showing abs isn't equal to showing of underwear and pushing the boobs in your face. If you can't see how obvious the pandering is in the way that Cidney is presented in the game compared to the way they present Gladiolus then I'm not sure how I can convince you of it.
 

Valnen

Member
It isn't about the exact percentage of skin shown, it is how sexualised the respective designs are. Also about how the characters are presented, how they move, what the camera focuses on, what they say, how the other characters interact with them, etc.

My point, which I thought was clear is that Gladiolus may be appealing (I don't find him to be), Cidney is pandering.
Adding to that Square Enix have already shown that they are capable of changing the design of a character based on the internet finding them "too sexy" so I immensely dislike they way that they are approaching this. Their comments on the stream are troubling as well.

And what exactly is wrong with a sexualized presentation? I'm not finding the cause for outrage here. Some characters are typically portrayed that way in fiction, it's part of what makes it entertaining.
 
im just answering the batshit response you had, but idk, why do people keep bitching about cidney's fantastic outfit
I know little to nothing about game development but that would be way easier than adding another member to the squad and including them in the story, unless you just want thwm to just stand there and be ignored by the rest of the cast.

Personally, couldnt care less about her design. Could be in a suit of armor or her birthday suit, I honestly wouldnt care. At all.

Basically I dont really have an opinion on her design
 

Lucreto

Member
Not a big fan of Cindy's look, they can moderate her look but keep her personality the same. She remains me of Kaylee from Firefly for some reason.

latest
 

Ran rp

Member
As a result, perhaps too much of their heart and soul went into her… So if we put too much into her, then we should remove the excess heart and soul, and make sure she’s a character you’d be completely comfortable seeing while in the living room. That’s where our line will be, so please be assured.

The "heart and soul" bit is hilarious.

"We tried too hard to make her the perfect waifu."
 

pszet0

Banned
Square needs to give us some more story and character details so we can move on from this Cindy discussion. All this discussion about a character who is such minor part of the game and will have no role in the main plot of the game.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Square needs to give us some more story and character details so we can move on from this Cindy discussion. She's such a minor part of the game and has no role in the main plot of the game.

Like the spoilery ending of the demo?

Guess it didn't work.

:^)
 
And what exactly is wrong with a sexualized presentation? I'm not finding the cause for outrage here. Some characters are typically portrayed that way in fiction, it's part of what makes it entertaining.

I feel the same way, to me this is a non-issue in the grand scheme of things. Combat should be the only thing analyzing in great detail but I respect the otherside point of view.
 

Dynomutt

Member
10. Battles are too difficult( Japan found battles difficult, NA found them easy; possibility of adding a difficulty option)

Interesting. I think it's the open world action rpg aspect vs the turn based rpg aspect.

Being a fan of FF7-FF10 I do prefer the latter. But, change is welcome.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I knew after reading the OP this thread would be all about her.

Yeah, recent JRPG threads have been quite a bad place to come and discuss the technical aspects of these games. They mostly get dominated by charatcer designs (Star Ocean, FFXV, Xenoblade etc..)

My interest has decreased quite a bit in these threads.



M_Night was truly ahead of his time

Mentioned Batman in my feedback and with my 5/10 they might as well put me on the feedback team. Will soon graduate with a degree in Marketing.

Hit me up, Square. NeoGAF PM is fine.
 

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
I can't believe another FFXV thread has devolved into a Cidney debate. A character with limited importance. The only real disappointment, is how Tabata doesn't seem to "get" the motivation for people wanting female characters. Hope that means female guest characters aren't scantily clad airheads.


I exaggerated it a little. Meant to say 'great game with little to zero issues'. When I looked at the world design aspect scoring 8.9, I couldn't believe what I saw.
Because this is the "grassland" section, and as a grassland, it looks pretty fricking great.
 

Go_Ly_Dow

Member
I suppose the designs are sexualized, both male and female, but at the same time we are evolved monkey's that came from thousands of years of self sexualization and sex with one another. Even the dev team were born from sex which came from the act of human sexualization. Its all natural man.
 

Damerman

Member
damn, after that comment about female party member and sexual cindy being a contradiction... they literally have no choice but to change cindy's design. Either that, or add a female party member. I really want to see the whole dynamic of "all male cast", but if they are going to be this insensitive... something's gotta give.
 
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