Please change Hunt monster: Aswang

As the title says, the lore team made a big WTF when they made the Pterodactyl monster called an Aswang. The Aswang is NOTHING like a dinosaur. It is more like a Succubus in real life in Filipino mythology. It's supposed to attack pregnant women and suck out the unborn fetus through the belly button during the dead of night. No way an Aswang is a dinosaur in real life. And no, I have not seen an Aswang as I live in the US and not the Philippines, but I study cryptid creatures.

https://www.google.com/search?q=aswa...w=1268&bih=856

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aswang

I was coming in expecting a rant about the name. Learned something new.

On a side note what the hell is wrong with people and their mythological creations?

I wish SE would think about these things before they add the monsters. How can it be a Pterodactyl? LOL.. It's not even close. Step it up SE.

At night, they transform into creatures such as a bat, bird (usually a crow), wild boar, black cat, or most often, a big black dog. <...> They love to eat unborn fetuses and small children, favoring livers and hearts. Some have long proboscises....

I can maybe see what they were maybe going for. It does have big leathery wings and a massive snout.

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Originally Posted by Anonymoose

At night, they transform into creatures such as a bat, bird (usually a crow), wild boar, black cat, or most often, a big black dog. <...> They love to eat unborn fetuses and small children, favoring livers and hearts. Some have long proboscises....

I can maybe see what they were maybe going for. It does have big leathery wings and a massive snout.

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That actually makes sense, Moose, now that you mention that. So a combination of those things would equal a Pterodactyl in an appearance.

Factor in a few more maybes and you never know! :p

I can't always tell when I've found logic or just conjured up something that looks passably like it.

It's probably not even the most absurd naming choice this franchise has used.

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Originally Posted by Zohar_Lahar

It's probably not even the most absurd naming choice this franchise has used.

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It is pronounced "Az-wong," yet people may think it sounds like @$$-wang.

Bahamut was originally a space whale believed to carry the world on its back, so it's not as though taking creative liberties with the characters/monsters they name after mythological beings after is new.

This is a common theme in FF games. XI was especially guilty of taking mythological creature names and affixing them to whatever species loosely fit it. So it's no surprise that XIV does the same thing.

-Shiva is a male God and has nothing to do with Ice in Hindu religion.

No change, leave it as it is. This is not something to get offended by.

I'm not offended, it's just that if you name something that's based in the real world, try to at least show some similarities. You'd think I would pitch a fit over the gorilla we fight being called a Sasquatch? Lol. Still an ape.

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Originally Posted by Naraku_Diabolos

I'm not offended, it's just that if you name something that's based in the real world, try to at least show some similarities. You'd think I would pitch a fit over the gorilla we fight being called a Sasquatch? Lol. Still an ape.

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Fair enough.

Granted, at some point, when some culture's variant of, say, the slender man looks instead like Jabba the Hutt (and not by any reason of intentional turn of phrase or idea) there's reason enough for complaint.

If only because I've seen more fitting and aethetically interesting variants of the Aswang in other games, this seems borderline complaint-worthy to me. I mean, if they just needed a random name to attach to their pterodactyl re-dye, I would figure there are plenty others.

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Originally Posted by KageTokage

Bahamut was originally a space whale believed to carry the world on its back, so it's not as though taking creative liberties with the characters/monsters they name after mythological beings after is new.

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He was actually a giant fish, not a whale (whales are mammals after all ;)), but yes, he was from Arabian mythology (Kujata is from the same myth). And to be fair to SE, Bahamut being portrayed as a dragon was not even SE's idea, as it was Gary Gygax of Dungeons and Dragons fame who originally attached Bahamut's name to a dragon (Square borrowed a lot of things from DnD in the original FF game).

And as someone else mentioned, the FF series has a tradition of taking ideas, concepts and names from real world history, mythology, legend and pop culture and adapting them, so this is hardly unusual.

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Originally Posted by Naraku_Diabolos

I'm not offended, it's just that if you name something that's based in the real world, try to at least show some similarities. You'd think I would pitch a fit over the gorilla we fight being called a Sasquatch? Lol. Still an ape.

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... "real world". ..


I am amused.

I see your point. really I do. But this is FFXIV. Things will be named things that are familiar but very different. We have gods/monsters/demons of all types, many will vary WILDLY from their "traditional" sources.
I don't see any reason to limit design to someone elses preconceived notion of what it SHOULD look like.

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Originally Posted by Shurrikhan

If only because I've seen more fitting and aethetically interesting variants of the Aswang in other games, this seems borderline complaint-worthy to me. I mean, if they just needed a random name to attach to their pterodactyl re-dye, I would figure there are plenty others.

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I'm not sure what other games you're referring to here, but keep in mind that the Aswang in FF is a small fry B rank that SE isn't going to push any additional resources towards making a more correct model for. They just looked at their existing models and chose one they thought was fitting, in this case being a pterodactyl which has leathery wings similar to the bat form mentioned on the wiki. As far as I know there aren't really many good aswang-esque models for XIV to draw from (do we even have giant bats?)

Also artistic liberties as other people mentioned, etc.

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Originally Posted by Naraku_Diabolos

It is pronounced "Az-wong," yet people may think it sounds like @$$-wang.

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As a native speaker, I can assure you that the latter pronunciation is one that is widely used, albeit spoken faster so it doesn't emphasize on the first syllable that much. Also, if people here happen to see something large with leathery wings at night, they will most likely associate it with aswang, specifically a wakwak.

In a similar boat there's Rangda (first boss of the Aery) and its Leyak add.

Leyak being a flying head entrails hanging out but still attached that goes after the blood of pregnant woman's baby or newborn. Rangda being the demonic queen of said leyaks.

https://www.google.com/search?q=rang...w=1920&bih=950

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangda

https://www.google.com/search?q=leya...w=1920&bih=950

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leyak

Let's not forget the hunt mark formerly called Gigantopithecus, now named False Gigantopithecus (giant gorilla in the Hinterlands, and giant ape irl), and the beast in Diadem they gave the name Gigantopithecus to when revamping Diadem (which looks nothing like an ape.)

The weird thing is, the actual Gigantopithecus was a giant orangutang.

I'm waiting for the inevitable complaints that Squee butchered Celtic legends with its outlandish interpretations of Cuchulain, Scathach and other heroes and villains from Irish mythology.

...or we can, you know, accept that this is a somewhat silly and narrow-minded quibble in a universe of so many other possible gripes. I can understand why the OP might be annoyed by the apparent lack of "fidelity", but it's still rather presumptuous to think every other gamer shares the same opinion on an otherwise insignificant monster.

Hello filipino here, "aswang" is generally referred to any kind of monster to scare kids, this is the general use common folks use of it :D and when i saw the hunt for the first time I thought it was really an "aswang"

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Originally Posted by DJMau

On a side note what the hell is wrong with people and their mythological creations?

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Oh that's nothing. We've also got the Manananggal, which also eats unborn babies, the Matruculan, which gets virgins pregnant and, yes, also eats the unborn baby and the Tiyanak, which for variety is an unborn baby that eats people.

Come to think of it, "Tiyanak" would be a great name for a Lalafellin Cannibal. Get on it, Lore Team!

Vinegaroons are...not...dinosaurs. They're not even remotely dinosaurs. They're, like, the opposite of dinosaurs.

(They're kind of like scorpions.)

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Originally Posted by holographica

Vinegaroons are...not...dinosaurs. They're not even remotely dinosaurs. They're, like, the opposite of dinosaurs.

(They're kind of like scorpions.)

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I remember Vinegaroon being a scorpion NM in FFXI. When I saw the dinosaur models used for them I did raise an eyebrow, but again as is SE's habit it loosely ties into the base inspiration. They have bladed deadly tails. And for them that's close enough *shrug*

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Originally Posted by Mirch

Hello filipino here, "aswang" is generally referred to any kind of monster to scare kids, this is the general use common folks use of it :D and when i saw the hunt for the first time I thought it was really an "aswang"

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*returnee necroposting*
this is true. though in the region where I live in the Philippines, the aswang should be more akin to a (humanoid) manananggal , and occasionally a body snatcher.
so when I saw this hunt I just found it amusing. there are a handful of NPC names I have a laugh at when I first read them, because they mean something else in Filipino, but I don't think Squeenix needs to change them. I actually like this tidbit from the wiki: " Forced to accept the truth of its existence, we call it by the word the merchant taught us in his native tongue: Aswang." (does this mean there will be an SEA expac in the future?) :3

Okay I'm kind of late to the party (I'm Filipino afterall) but Square Enix doesn't NEED to change this lol. You study cryptozoology but the rigid kind. Locals here would literally call any flying things with leathery wings an aswang. Aswangs are SHAPESHIFTERS. I grew up in a province where people actually believe the things are real and heard claims of aswangs in the form of a black dog, a pig, and YES a pterodactyl. So Squenix actually nailed this on the head... after a fashion. XD

Also pterodactyls aren't dinosaurs if you want to be pendatic like that haha. Peace :P

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Originally Posted by duvvvv

*returnee necroposting*
this is true. though in the region where I live in the Philippines, the aswang should be more akin to a (humanoid) manananggal , and occasionally a body snatcher.
so when I saw this hunt I just found it amusing. there are a handful of NPC names I have a laugh at when I first read them, because they mean something else in Filipino, but I don't think Squeenix needs to change them. I actually like this tidbit from the wiki: " Forced to accept the truth of its existence, we call it by the word the merchant taught us in his native tongue: Aswang." (does this mean there will be an SEA expac in the future?) :3

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Well, there is the entire southern half of Othard, which includes Nag'xia.

FF isn't has has never been...particularly accurate when referencing other mythologies. Sometimes on the surface level there are similarities but that's it. Doesn't really bother me to be honest.