I'm just going to preface this with the admission that I do not frequent the forums much, so I don't know what it takes to get the community team's attention, but I'm just going to shoot my shot.
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My name is Ariel, and I’d like to start out by saying, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV since August 2013--since 2.0 launched. And in all this time, I’ve never been one to complain much about the game itself. I always try to be understanding of things like limitations of budget, time, horrendous base code, potential cultural differences corporate interference, and just the nature of trying new ideas.
That said, I think using Ryne’s head on Eden Shiva was not a good decision. Ysayle’s face would have been a better route to take. Not only would that have gotten a more powerful emotional reaction from the players when seeing Shiva again, it would make the Savage Phase 2 form more meaningful. And you would not have this literal child’s face on what appears to be an adult woman’s body, wearing outfits that start with a rather deep neckline, to one that plunges so far you might not even call it a neckline anymore, to...all of what Savage phase 2 is.
The character/monster designs and the fight design are actually really cool. But the conflict between the body design and Ryne’s face really distracts from that, and that’s a shame. For example, my own reaction to seeing that pre-fight scene upon entering the instance was, “Oooh, I want to cosplay thaaaaat’s Ryne’s baby face on cleavage [cringe].” I couldn't enjoy the fight because I was too busy thinking, "YIKES," over and over, especially on every Redress mechanic. I'm still not sure if I want to go back in or not because of how uncomfortable it made me.
What’s worse is that there are already some...less mature members of the community who have begun making unsavory jokes and comments about her (with artwork likely to come), which wouldn’t make my skin crawl if it weren’t Ryne’s face. Before Shadowbringers even launched, there were multiple people (myself included) who made comments on social platforms like, “If you lewd the baby Minfilia, we will decimate your entire bloodline,” because...we're, you know, not too fond of pedophilia. And I know she's just fictitious pixels, but she's still a depiction of a child. We’d already seen people sexually objectify Alphinaud and Alisaie in the past, so we knew it could happen, and the original Minfilia has also been an object of sexual fantasy. But she’s an adult character. Ryne is not. And putting her head on an adult body, whether you intended it to or not, invites that kind of behavior from some people. At best, it would fall into a shady grey area but, at least to me, it’s still really not okay.
Using a different head would have avoided a visual connection between this Shiva appearance and Ryne, even though Ryne is the “vessel.” Ideally, a different voice would also have been used, but the visual is significantly more powerful than the audial. It would not lessen the motivation Ryne, because we still know she is in there, it might slightly detract from the significance Hydaelyn-themed form, but I feel like that's a small price to pay to make the whole thing less cringe-worthy.
It’s not too late to sever the visual connection, so I do hope you will consider altering Eden Shiva’s models to use Ysayle’s head.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Continue reading...
________________
My name is Ariel, and I’d like to start out by saying, I’ve been playing Final Fantasy XIV since August 2013--since 2.0 launched. And in all this time, I’ve never been one to complain much about the game itself. I always try to be understanding of things like limitations of budget, time, horrendous base code, potential cultural differences corporate interference, and just the nature of trying new ideas.
That said, I think using Ryne’s head on Eden Shiva was not a good decision. Ysayle’s face would have been a better route to take. Not only would that have gotten a more powerful emotional reaction from the players when seeing Shiva again, it would make the Savage Phase 2 form more meaningful. And you would not have this literal child’s face on what appears to be an adult woman’s body, wearing outfits that start with a rather deep neckline, to one that plunges so far you might not even call it a neckline anymore, to...all of what Savage phase 2 is.
The character/monster designs and the fight design are actually really cool. But the conflict between the body design and Ryne’s face really distracts from that, and that’s a shame. For example, my own reaction to seeing that pre-fight scene upon entering the instance was, “Oooh, I want to cosplay thaaaaat’s Ryne’s baby face on cleavage [cringe].” I couldn't enjoy the fight because I was too busy thinking, "YIKES," over and over, especially on every Redress mechanic. I'm still not sure if I want to go back in or not because of how uncomfortable it made me.
What’s worse is that there are already some...less mature members of the community who have begun making unsavory jokes and comments about her (with artwork likely to come), which wouldn’t make my skin crawl if it weren’t Ryne’s face. Before Shadowbringers even launched, there were multiple people (myself included) who made comments on social platforms like, “If you lewd the baby Minfilia, we will decimate your entire bloodline,” because...we're, you know, not too fond of pedophilia. And I know she's just fictitious pixels, but she's still a depiction of a child. We’d already seen people sexually objectify Alphinaud and Alisaie in the past, so we knew it could happen, and the original Minfilia has also been an object of sexual fantasy. But she’s an adult character. Ryne is not. And putting her head on an adult body, whether you intended it to or not, invites that kind of behavior from some people. At best, it would fall into a shady grey area but, at least to me, it’s still really not okay.
Using a different head would have avoided a visual connection between this Shiva appearance and Ryne, even though Ryne is the “vessel.” Ideally, a different voice would also have been used, but the visual is significantly more powerful than the audial. It would not lessen the motivation Ryne, because we still know she is in there, it might slightly detract from the significance Hydaelyn-themed form, but I feel like that's a small price to pay to make the whole thing less cringe-worthy.
It’s not too late to sever the visual connection, so I do hope you will consider altering Eden Shiva’s models to use Ysayle’s head.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Continue reading...