This is something that has bothered me since I played the expansion on launch. I was having a great time right up until act 2, even though I had been looking forward to going to Shaaloani the most.
Obviously the areas we have access to ingame aren't completely 1:1 to how big the world actually is or travel would be super tedious. But with the way the MSQ unfolded and how the patches have gone, it feels like the Shetona have mostly disappeared. And it doesn't feel like it's considered important enough to address later in the story, which really hurts.
In Act 1, we spend plenty of time with the peoples of Yok Tural, which I truly enjoyed. It felt like the team really meant what they said about doing their research on the South American cultures they pulled from. But it feels like they completely neglected the North American indigenous cultures. Compared to Yok Tural, we get some vague mysticism and atrocious flute audio from the Tonawawta and Hhetsarro and then it's time to go to Alexandria.
Viera are a race that is long lived, so the Heritage Found segment was really frustrating. 30 years should not be as much to them as the other races, yet it seems their culture is the one that has almost completely disappeared, assimilated by Alexandria. The viera Erenville meets when he learns his mom (whom I adore, but her treatment by the story is a whole other can of worms) is actually dead seem to be indistinguishable from native Alexandrians.
I'll detail more examples below because the character limit is my enemy.
It's hard to not feel like the Shetona effectively no longer exists in the game's world, drawing disturbing parallels to how indigenous Americans have been treated in real life. Xak Tural was conceptualized as a pre-contact America but we spend little time there until "contact" does happen and transforms a significant portion of it. It's incredibly unfair to indigenous American fans who seem to be the only ones pointing this out. Neither DT's detractors nor defenders seem keen to acknowledge this.
Maybe we should have expected this. The New World headdress is still in the game despite only being used by trolls and ignorant people who want to play "shaman". Square ignored the Saami Council's request to remove the Far Northern Attire from the store.
Obviously Dawntrail is just the first expansion in an entirely new arc. We were still seeing threads from ARR getting wrapped up in Endwalker. Maybe eventually we'll get to see the Shetona people in their own villages with their culture vibrant and alive. But I feel naive for hoping for this and the waiting has brought me a lot of grief.
The point of this long post is just as long of a shot: it would be incredibly meaningful for any of this to be seen by the team and help them understand how they've really hurt fans who otherwise adore the world of FFXIV and have made so many great memories playing it. I'd even gladly take a simple "yes, there are still plenty of Shetona."
Continue reading...
Obviously the areas we have access to ingame aren't completely 1:1 to how big the world actually is or travel would be super tedious. But with the way the MSQ unfolded and how the patches have gone, it feels like the Shetona have mostly disappeared. And it doesn't feel like it's considered important enough to address later in the story, which really hurts.
In Act 1, we spend plenty of time with the peoples of Yok Tural, which I truly enjoyed. It felt like the team really meant what they said about doing their research on the South American cultures they pulled from. But it feels like they completely neglected the North American indigenous cultures. Compared to Yok Tural, we get some vague mysticism and atrocious flute audio from the Tonawawta and Hhetsarro and then it's time to go to Alexandria.
Viera are a race that is long lived, so the Heritage Found segment was really frustrating. 30 years should not be as much to them as the other races, yet it seems their culture is the one that has almost completely disappeared, assimilated by Alexandria. The viera Erenville meets when he learns his mom (whom I adore, but her treatment by the story is a whole other can of worms) is actually dead seem to be indistinguishable from native Alexandrians.
I'll detail more examples below because the character limit is my enemy.
It's hard to not feel like the Shetona effectively no longer exists in the game's world, drawing disturbing parallels to how indigenous Americans have been treated in real life. Xak Tural was conceptualized as a pre-contact America but we spend little time there until "contact" does happen and transforms a significant portion of it. It's incredibly unfair to indigenous American fans who seem to be the only ones pointing this out. Neither DT's detractors nor defenders seem keen to acknowledge this.
Maybe we should have expected this. The New World headdress is still in the game despite only being used by trolls and ignorant people who want to play "shaman". Square ignored the Saami Council's request to remove the Far Northern Attire from the store.
Obviously Dawntrail is just the first expansion in an entirely new arc. We were still seeing threads from ARR getting wrapped up in Endwalker. Maybe eventually we'll get to see the Shetona people in their own villages with their culture vibrant and alive. But I feel naive for hoping for this and the waiting has brought me a lot of grief.
The point of this long post is just as long of a shot: it would be incredibly meaningful for any of this to be seen by the team and help them understand how they've really hurt fans who otherwise adore the world of FFXIV and have made so many great memories playing it. I'd even gladly take a simple "yes, there are still plenty of Shetona."
Continue reading...