Story behind changing to Au Ra?

[LineageRazor]

I'd always hoped that Yugiri was savagely scarred, or something, under her mask, and that when she said she prefers to keep the mask on to avoid shocking people it wasn't because of her race, but rather because of her horrendous scarring. It wouldn't be unreasonable for her to be scarred; she's a Ninja, a dangerous profession sure to put her in harm's way. Sadly, when revealed, she was totally unblemished, and Tataru even outright states that she's pretty. So, yeah, now the only possible reason she could be hiding her face to avoid shocking people is so that they won't be shocked by her race, which won't make much sense to an NPC if you're running through the Main Scenario for the first time as an Au Ra yourself. Sloppy.

For folks defending it, saying, "Eh, it's an MMO, there's no way they can keep track of everything, just roll with it," please stop making excuses. It is perfectly reasonable to be irritated by poor writing in a story-driven MMO. Expressing that irritation is how we let the devs know that they dun bad, so that they can learn from their mistakes and improve.

[Drakkaelus]

For folks defending it, saying, "Eh, it's an MMO, there's no way they can keep track of everything, just roll with it," please stop making excuses.

It's not an excuse, it's an inevitability when you're dealing with these kinds of games. They're not going to rewrite all of the old content every time new content gets added to the game. There are times when you have to separate lore from gameplay.

[Nyalia]

They do have dialogue changes if you have certain classes at certain points while doing the main story. Yugiri will comment if you're already a ninja when she would normally offer to train you, instead saying that she notices that you don't need it. When a certain Lala does a certain class's opening quest, there slightly different dialogue based on if you do not have the class, have done the class's opening quest, or have finished all of the class's quests. A certain NPC will say different things when you meet him in the 2.55 storyline if you have DRG at 50, and I assume he says something else if you have DRG high enough to have met him, but haven't done the final quest. When you finish the 2.55 storyline, a large number of NPCs change what they say when you talk to them to explain why your movements are unrestricted, but certain other NPCs have to stay in hiding.

There's only one actual unexplained paradox in the game as far as I know, and that's the CUL 50 quest post 2.55. I don't know of anyone who has actually done it post 2.55 though - has anyone confirmed that the quest is totally unchanged?

There are NPCs who react to your race, though not too many. The dialogue isn't really changed much.

They have the capability to change dialogue based on triggers, and they've shown that they will use it and do use it.

I fully expect that if you went through the story as an Au ra, Yugiri would have slightly different dialogue in one or two scenes to acknowledge this and explain why she has to hide her face anyway. There will be some really simple reason that doesn't change any of the action and only changes a single line or two of dialogue. As others have said, the Warrior of Light isn't from Eorzea. She can be from anywhere. There's no paradox inherent in the Warrior of Light being an Au ra any more than the other races that are super rare or functionally non-existent in Eorzea (male Miqo, Duskwright Elezen).

[Dualblade]

If I'm correct its also inferred that, regardless if every player characters is a male catboy or an Au'ra and all that, there aren't actually that many of them running around, just like how you may play with other Dragoons, but only YOU are the Azure Dragoon (of players atleast). THe same could be said of here that you are the only, or one of very few, Au'ra to show up before Yugiri (once you hit 3.0 areas its a bit more fair game though as far as we know for now.)

[Cilia]

I'd always hoped that Yugiri was savagely scarred, or something, under her mask, and that when she said she prefers to keep the mask on to avoid shocking people it wasn't because of her race, but rather because of her horrendous scarring. It wouldn't be unreasonable for her to be scarred; she's a Ninja, a dangerous profession sure to put her in harm's way. Sadly, when revealed, she was totally unblemished, and Tataru even outright states that she's pretty. So, yeah, now the only possible reason she could be hiding her face to avoid shocking people is so that they won't be shocked by her race, which won't make much sense to an NPC if you're running through the Main Scenario for the first time as an Au Ra yourself. Sloppy.

Ninja is a dangerous profession, but expecting her to be horrifically scarred probably wasn't the best. She's a ninja - good ninja don't get hit. They also don't wear outfits that scream "I'm a ninja" either, but that's besides the point.

For folks defending it, saying, "Eh, it's an MMO, there's no way they can keep track of everything, just roll with it," please stop making excuses. It is perfectly reasonable to be irritated by poor writing in a story-driven MMO. Expressing that irritation is how we let the devs know that they dun bad, so that they can learn from their mistakes and improve.

The alternative is to have the devs spend time reworking the entire 2.x scenario for Au Ra and Au Ra alone. That's just not worth the time or effort. A few lines here and there would be nice, but I'm not even expecting that because there's going to be Au Ra EVERYWHERE once 3.0 hits; not from a sudden in-story appearance, but because everyone's probably going to roll at least one.

EDIT: Another possibility is that Yugiri simply won't wear her mask in 2.x content once 3.0 hits. It's not a hard change to implement and with Au Ra PCs running around everywhere she shouldn't feel self-conscious.

[LineageRazor]

Ninja is a dangerous profession, but expecting her to be horrifically scarred probably wasn't the best. She's a ninja - good ninja don't get hit. They also don't wear outfits that scream "I'm a ninja" either, but that's besides the point.

Oh, trust me, I wasn't EXPECTING her to be scarred. I was expecting her to be gorgeous and perfect, just like pretty damn well near every other NPC in this game who ever shows their face, and plenty who don't. And in what should be a surprise to no one, she's a total knockout! Can't have an ugly or unpleasant-looking ally, after all - that would be unseemly!

I was HOPING for the scarring, because it would provide an elegant solution to the lore paradox we're about to crash into, one I saw coming since Yugiri was first introduced. The meta reasons for her mask (mysterious new race under development, give a teaser to the players) would have no conflict with the lore reasons for her mask (shockingly scarred face). Instead, it appears that she'd going to nonsensically wear a mask to hide her race, even while speaking to a bare-faced hulking seven-foot Au Ra WAR with a flaming axe while a parade of Au Ra men and women march up and down the streets of Ul'dah.

And however skilled a Ninja she may be, everyone starts out as a newbie; the scars could have been from very early in her career. Or, perhaps, whatever gave her the scars is what motivated her to become a Ninja - interesting backstory opportunity.

The alternative is to have the devs spend time reworking the entire 2.x scenario for Au Ra and Au Ra alone. That's just not worth the time or effort. A few lines here and there would be nice, but I'm not even expecting that because there's going to be Au Ra EVERYWHERE once 3.0 hits; not from a sudden in-story appearance, but because everyone's probably going to roll at least one.

To my knowledge, unless you count potential Ishgardian prejudices, the Yugiri scenes are the only instances in the game where anyone suggests that Au Ra might be disturbing or shocking to anyone, and the way the lines are presented they could easily be interpreted to imply that Yugiri meant that her own appearance was disturbing or shocking, not necessarily that of her race in general.

As for Ishgardian prejudice, that is entirely up to the writers. While it seems logical that such a people should instantly and automatically be on guard against anything even remotely dragon-like, the writers could make it so they could have a long history with the Au Ra in which at some point in the past they came to recognize them as not (necessarily) a threat; an exception to the "dragons must die!" policy.

We're not talking acres of rework, here, just a few lines of dialogue specifically from cutscenes Yugiri appears in. Even THAT rework wouldn't be necessary if SE hadn't stubbornly stuck to the notion that Yugiri needed to hide her race for some reason.

[lilirulu]

snip

Or possibly Yugiri suffered prejudice in Doma from just being an Au Ra and tried to hide it the best she could (you aren't going to be able hide horns and tail but hiding her face would make her less obvious in a crowd atleast).

Most likely when Tataru saw her face and was like "You're so pretty!"/met an Au Ra PC* she realized she probably wasn't going to get treated poorly without it so she wasn't too worried about showing it to us. And also, she was wearing that mask because she is a ninja too.

I don't think the reveal was poor I think all our expectations were to high (especially considering she had to hide her face because she didn't have one when she was introduced).

*Couldn't think of a good way to write this in so Asterisk time! As for why it took her so long after meeting an Au Ra PC to remove her mask (if it isn't changed in 3.0) it's that a) like mentioned above it's apart of her uniform, she is a ninja, she might not have wanted to remove it at the time for tradition/work/ninja reasons. b) If you spent your whole life hiding your face in fear of prejudice removing it isn't going to be easy especially with Yugiri's cautious personality.

[LineageRazor]

EDIT: Another possibility is that Yugiri simply won't wear her mask in 2.x content once 3.0 hits. It's not a hard change to implement and with Au Ra PCs running around everywhere she shouldn't feel self-conscious.

This would be an acceptable solution to me. For players who are already past the content, it turns out that Yugiri's fears were unfounded; folks were a lot more tolerant than she was expecting.

For newbies playing through the first time, Yugiri never had the fears to begin with, as the dialogue is now different. She wouldn't even have to ditch the mask - it's part of her uniform, after all. Just the reason for wearing it would have changed. Newbies can still look forward to her unmasking with anticipation, just as we did.

There ARE solutions to the problem. An MMO's world can evolve without necessarily stomping all over established lore. The developers just need to... well... care. I hope that SE's do.

[Cilia]

There ARE solutions to the problem. An MMO's world can evolve without necessarily stomping all over established lore. The developers just need to... well... care. I hope that SE's do.

Considering the time and attention they put into minor details (e.g. NPCs commenting on certain things, such as Yugiri herself complimenting me for becoming an experienced ninja after we dealt with the Ivy in 2.4), as well as the storyline justification for Heavensward (compared to WoW's standard "repel an invading force, then take the fight to them!"), I'm fairly certain SE's devs care about the lore. There just doesn't need to be a lore justification or backup for every little detail; it takes more time and effort to rework that stuff than they're willing (or maybe even able) to allow, so some things have to slide (such as Yugiri maybe wearing her mask for new characters in 2.x content even though after 3.0 hits Au Ra will be more commonplace).

[LineageRazor]

I was once confident about SE's concern for established lore, for exactly the reasons you state - but the recent debacle with the CUL 50 quest has shaken my faith. Still, it's not like me to be all doom 'n gloom; it could well be that SE has a good plan in store. We'll see.