Do you think the future Final Fantasy series should be more diverse?

[Odesia]

Like many other movies, books, and video games, most characters (about 3/4 of them) are mainly Caucasian or Caucasian-like. There are too much light-skinned characters and barely any dark-skinned characters or worldwide characters to represent EVERYONE. There could a lot of reasons why there aren't many minority characters.


-The creators have a hard time relating to non-white people
-The creators don't know how to make a non-white character and want to avoid making them controversial and offensive (especially with stereotypes)
-They don't give shiz about non-white people (not caring for them much)
-They think white characters are more pretty, twice as relatable, and ideal.

So overall, people think whites are more generally accepted. I do not agree with this belief. People of color deserve just as much spotlight as whites. Making things more diverse

 

[Dionysos]

The trouble is that the Final Fantasy series often does use stereotypes (as does a lot of fiction). It's not usually intended to be insulting or truly reflective of an entire group of people, but certain archetypes are familiar and relatable. The same goes for 'white character' stereotypes like Cindy's Deep South / Southern Belle personality.

Barrett and Sazh are perhaps the franchise's most notable African-American inspired characters, and both of these are loosely based off of famous icons of some sort (Mr. T and Leonel Richie, respectively).

FF's cast has usually been very diverse, but race is something in which FF hasn't been truly explicitly diverse. They're more likely to introduce a new species (Red XIII's species, animated dolls, yeti, moogles, Ronso, Quina-creatures, etc) than they are to include a 'person of colour' or a 'Hispanic' character, etc.

Why? Let us not forget that Final Fantasy, despite having more Western themes than Anime/Manga, etc, it is a Japanese-made RPG series. It isn't Western and so it is not a case of white Westerners conspiring against 'minorities' to keep them out of games. White-Caucasians are a minority in Japan. Perhaps we could also question why Japanese media idealise the 'white', Western look?

Or do they? Does it just appear that way to white people in the West, as we like to see ourselves in these characters? Tidus' in-game model looked white (albeit beach-tanned) and Caucasian to my eyes, but his CGI model was much, much, much more Asian-like in appearance. Is Tidus Asian? Does it matter?

These races and distinctions don't exist in the FF universes. Maybe there are 'Hispanic', 'Oriental Asian', 'Indian/Pakistan etc Asian', or 'Arabic' characters in FF, but they don't identify as such because that would be out of place? Their ethnic backgrounds can so easily be overlooked because they are not important in their respective game's universes. To find these characters you sometimes have to look for subtler clues.


So I'm not sure where the problem lies. It's not a Western issue in this case. This is Japan's decision.

I'm all for increased diversity in FF games. What I don't want is for the game's plot to be about diversity. I'd rather they adopt the Star Wars approach where race and species just isn't an issue at all. Lead by example by showing an interesting world where characters just exist and their existence isn't a problem.

 

[The Witch]

"people of color" akajapanese people are the ones that created the white majority cast. i interact with a lot of japanese fans and you'll find the fandom split. some think the characters are caucasian others think they're japanese. i think the characters are all kinds of races/ethnicities tbh (cloud, italian; aerith, irish; red xiii, native american; tifa, japanese; yuffie, japanese; barret, BLACK; rude, Brazilian; rinoa, french; etc) maybe you're a part of the problem by assuming they're white, you know? either way, this is not a case of white power over minorities because it's JAPANESE people that made these characters.

i could just as easily argue that since japanese people are the majority in japan and white people are the minority. maybe square enix makes their cast "white" because they want to let the minorities in their country of JAPAN have some representation, too.

just because white people are the majority in america/europe doesn't mean that's the case in every part of the world.

but @Dionysos said it much more eloquently than I did so read his post.


tl;dr, i don't play final fantasy for politics. i want magic crystal powers and guys swinging big swords, their exterior only matters if they're hot.

edit: i forgot to say, "minority" people in america often demand representation for "minorities" but then they complain about it being done "wrong". i mean, look at barret. he's a major character, one of the most well-written and consistent characters in FFVII and yet people say he's a racist stereotype just because of how he speaks (which is actually racist of them to assume that only black people talk like that, which, they don't. it's a southern thing more than a race thing). so it's a lose-lose.

 

[Donald Trump]

I must agree with my good pals Argor and Cali.
I think the vast majority of ff characters are Japanese, and only seem white when viewed in the West. I put some thought into this and the last character that I would definitely identify as white would be Steiner. I think that's partly because Asian and Caucasian people have pretty much the same colour skin. It's only in the cutscenes where you can see the faces in more detail that the characters look more Asian than Caucasian. You could argue that is because the character developers have an eye on the westerm market, so the characters are to some extent ambiguous. Allied to that you have the characters talking in English unless you're playing with the original voice actors plus the localisation (most famously Yuna saying I love you vs Thank you). All of which gives the impression the characters are white as opposed to Japanese.

You're right when you say it's not particularly representative of the global population. If it were one character would have to be Chinese; another Indian, one Muslim, one Catholic, one gay, one should have some sort of disability, etc etc. I don't really care about the characters' ethnicity/whatever as it's committed to the genre. It has very to say other than the plot, which is pretty much always related to a quest to beat a bad guy, probably involving a kingdom.

 

[FinalxxSin]

....

First of all, diversity =/= better quality. FFXV is actually in this situation right now with numerous people in the internet complaining about a lack of females in the main cast. I don't care if a cast is all male, all female, all old, all young, all one ethic, mixed ethnics and etc. What matters to me is if I can either relate with the character and/or enjoy them.


Your question is more of an industry question than anything else so I'll be blunt with you. Look at the people in the positions that are creating these contents. A majority of them are either white or Asian. That's the reality of the situation. Yes, there is a lack of minority representation, but complaining about it does not solve the problem. The problem only truly starts to get fixed when there are people that are viewed to be minorities getting into positions where they can create their own content and/or have influence on major projects by contributing in a helpful manner. If you live in the western part of the world, perhaps you have heard of a black man by the name of Tyler Perry. At one point in time he was homeless. Current day, he has created multiple plays casting a good number of blacks, and some successful tv series that have a mixed cast of characters. That's to provide an example that it can be done.

 

[Martel]

I think Final Fantasy games could stand to be more diverse. The "they're Japanese" excuse really isn't going to hold much weight when Square Enix market their games to a Western audience as well as an Eastern one. They're about as far from a JRPG as a JRPG can get; those distinctly Japanese elements you'll find in JRPGs by companies like NIS, Koei Tecmo, Compile Heart, etc, are absent. They could be made by a Western developer for all the potentially confusing cultural elements they have that you'll find in other JRPGs that get localised for Western audiences. FF is a very culture-neutral franchise, and if they're going to try to appeal to a broader audience, a wider variety of character designs would go a long way towards that. Ethnicity isn't really a huge thing in a fantasy setting - although they could stand to world-build a little more rather than having one culturally identical race that always seems to fit the white Westerner stereotype in some way or another - and because it is a fantasy setting it doesn't come across as particularly racist, but even so, it would make sense that in different parts of the world you would have people with different physical characteristics. It's not a hard thing to do.

But diversity for diversity's sake is banal and irritating, and it doesn't automatically indicate a better quality title...in fact, sometimes diversity is just an excuse for bad character tropes to come into play. Not only that, but quite often these things become selling points, when in reality they're not even particularly noteworthy (or shouldn't be) and, in the case of LGBT characters, very poorly written most of the time. As I said, they don't automatically mean the game will be better for it. If you're going to do it, do it right. It is not - or should not be - a big deal for there to be LGBT characters in video games. Plenty of other video games manage it. Similarly, disabled characters should not be made a spectacle of. Just include these things, do them well, and leave them at that. Don't highlight it with flashing neon lights in every goddamn advert for the game and try to sell it based on that. I realise that is a tangent, but diversity is not solely limited to a character's race, so it was a point I wanted to make.

So, yes, I think it would be a good thing. But I don't think Square Enix would be able to do it properly, so a part of me thinks they should just leave the whole concept of diversity alone and stick with what they can still sort of do right. A good story is a good story, and can be told without these things. If you can't tell it with them, tell it without them. Really, it's just a minor aesthetic detail that might contribute to the immersion in the world or the ability to relate to a character, but it doesn't affect the quality of the writing or the gameplay, and those two elements are far more important. An African-American looking character with a one-dimensional personality is no better than a White Caucasian character with a one-dimensional personality.

 

[ZaXo Ken'Ichi]

These races and distinctions don't exist in the FF universes. Maybe there are 'Hispanic', 'Oriental Asian', 'Indian/Pakistan etc Asian', or 'Arabic' characters in FF, but they don't identify as such because that would be out of place? Their ethnic backgrounds can so easily be overlooked because they are not important in their respective game's universes. To find these characters you sometimes have to look for subtler clues.

This is a point that I think is extraordinarily important to make. As I believe I brought up in another thread here before, I've found that many minorities don't like to be represented if that representation is shoehorned in just to be there. A lot of minorities are usually only filling roles of 'the gay character', or 'the Mexican character', or the 'Asian character' (it's not even ever like the Japanese or Vietnamese character... it's just generic Asian), or 'the trans character'. This isn't actually being more diverse in a positive way. Instead it serves to further generic stereotypes, typecast actors of certain orientations or ethnicity as specific types of characters, and it also really gets in the way of the story.

You know what upset me when it was revealed that Dumbledore in Harry Potter was gay? It wasn't the fact that he was gay; it was the idea that it somehow mattered to his character. It feels disingenuous, because it didn't feel like it impacted anything. Should we really care if Ed, Edd, and Eddy are gay? Does it have anything to do with what goes on in each episode? Does it actually inform the character's personality, or does it inform your subjective view of them? If Han Solo was black, would that really matter? Sure, there's nothing wrong with that, but as soon as you call attention to it, you're isolating him from the rest of the group. You're stating that it's important that he's different in such a superficial way, and therefore diluting the rest of his characteristics. Race, gender, sexuality, etc. need only matter in places where it's relevant, lest you risk stories being bogged down in their attempts to seem (not be, just seem) more accepting. There's a really fine line there, and it comes down to how you present characters, and how much weight you put on their superficial characteristics VS how much it matters to their story.

That's not to say of course, that we should -for example- cast black people mostly in roles where their race is a focal point. While all of these recent movies about old American slaves may be well made and interesting, I've seen many people of African descent upset at the fact that these are the movies they're most recognized for acting in. Instead of being treated like normal actors, Hollywood treats them like scapegoats for showcasing 'improvements in white American racial acceptance'; they're used as trophy victims. Overweight people are used either as a joke, or their whole character centers around dealing with their weight. Female characters always seem to have 'women problems' unique to them. They throw all of these diverse types of people in their work, but it's always superficially diverse, because it sticks to all of the stereotypes. If they actually cared, why does Hollywood refuse to romantically pair a black male with a white female, instead always opting for a woman of mixed race or who at least has like Mexican ancestry? The answer is because they care more about the number of minorities they have in their product, than who these characters actually are. It's taboo to them for a 'dangerous black man' to be with a 'defenseless white woman'. "So instead, let's make the black man the next door neighbor sidekick to a white guy (who's instead with the white woman), and have him throw out LA gangster lingo all the time. That works, right? That way people know we have a black character in our story, but we're not doing anything weird like having him be with a white woman."

The point is, there needs to be a balance, and it's a really fine line that's hard to pin down. There's no reason not to include people of all colors and creeds in games and movies. But it should never come at the expense of those people being seen as individuals, nor at the expense of the story trying to be told.

I think Final Fantasy does a decent job at this for being a Japanese company. Yes, in skin color the characters are usually white. But that is not the same as making them European in descent. Final Fantasy is often rather fair with female characters, characters of different races, etc. Most media would have made Sahz a troubled father who isn't capable of taking care of his child, because he's black. Instead, Sahz is clearly shown as a fantastic, loving father who has a great relationship with his son. What the characters do is far more important than just making them a certain color.

If anything, I'm more annoyed at the rest of the gaming industry. As an example I relate to personally, FF's white skinned main characters have all sorts of personalities, and dress all kinds of ways. The rest of them in the industry are usually grizzled, badass, meat-heads who are only a few superficial steps above Doom Guy. Not only do I not want to see the same exact character starring in every damn game. But -as a white male- I'm also frustrated that this is basically the only portrayal I get. Even though I'm far more than over-represented in games when it comes to my skin color and my gender, I feel I'm far under-represented in terms of anything else that isn't superficial. And it's significantly worse for people who aren't a straight white male. At least I get dozens of chances every year to be represented by a main character who isn't just a meat-head. Many people from other backgrounds don't.

And that doesn't even get into the issues with people who are so adamant about diversity issues, that you really can't win. Make a black character speak in Ebonics? You're placing them in a box as 'the black character'. Make them speak without relying on Ebonics? You're white-washing their character and stealing away their cultural identity. This all stems from people caring more about surface level diversity than true diversity, and it only makes proper representation harder to accomplish.