Open Letter to the Devs Regarding Eden's Verse: Reflugence [Spoilers]

[VenKitsune]

At what point was Ryne's age stated? At what point was any characters specific age stated?
She may be "underdeveloped", but she could easily pass as 18 in asia, which just so happens to be where the game is developed, where the age of consent also happens to be on average, lower than countries in the west, not that its relevant. If she had the standard child model that made her look like 8 years old, you might have some basis for an argument, but as it is, she's just a fictional character with an unspecified age that just so happens to look "young"...If 1/3rd of her character model's volume was breasts, but she still otherwise looked the same, would we even be having this discussion?

[Penthea]

At what point was Ryne's age stated? At what point was any characters specific age stated?
She may be "underdeveloped", but she could easily pass as 18 in asia, which just so happens to be where the game is developed, where the age of consent also happens to be on average, lower than countries in the west, not that its relevant. If she had the standard child model that made her look like 8 years old, you might have some basis for an argument, but as it is, she's just a fictional character with an unspecified age that just so happens to look "young"...If 1/3rd of her character model's volume was breasts, but she still otherwise looked the same, would we even be having this discussion?

Well Ryne says at one point that Alisae and Alphinaud are around her age, so Ryne is 16 or 17. Though I doubt the twins haven't passed their birthday by now since ARR so maybe 17 - 18? Anyway point being, from that alone we know for a fact she is in her mid to late teens.

I think it would have been a bit strange to have Ysayle's face instead of Ryne given Ryne is the vessel for the summoning. Primal Shiva's face is quite similar to Ysayle's and possibly looks nothing like Shiva the elezen.

I suppose you could say the skimpy outfits are because that's what Ysayle's version of Shiva wore, but it wasn't really necessary to make them so skimpy in my opinion. SE could have opted to design outfits that covered more skin but still maintain the Shiva primal aesthetic. Especially the savage transformation. She doesn't need to be naked save for a dragon's body barely covering her to make a point about them being intertwined.

[heiligeharmonie]

Well Ryne says at one point that Alisae and Alphinaud are around her age, so Ryne is 16 or 17. Though I doubt the twins haven't passed their birthday by now since ARR so maybe 17 - 18? Anyway point being, from that alone we know for a fact she is in her mid to late teens.

I think it would have been a bit strange to have Ysayle's face instead of Ryne given Ryne is the vessel for the summoning. Primal Shiva's face is quite similar to Ysayle's and possibly looks nothing like Shiva the elezen.

I suppose you could say the skimpy outfits are because that's what Ysayle's version of Shiva wore, but it wasn't really necessary to make them so skimpy in my opinion. SE could have opted to design outfits that covered more skin but still maintain the Shiva primal aesthetic. Especially the savage transformation. She doesn't need to be naked save for a dragon's body barely covering her to make a point about them being intertwined.

I would have so been down with the outfit designs being more modest. Only reason I didn't request that was, I thought redesigning her bodies might have involved more work than swapping heads.

[Penthea]

I would have so been down with the outfit designs being more modest. Only reason I didn't request that was, I thought redesigning her bodies might have involved more work than swapping heads.

A head swap would probably look weird. Ryne does not have the proportions of any elezen, and certainly not an adult one. And I think some fans might be upset to see an elezen's head transplanted on to what is clearly a hyur body. The head would have to look closer to Hilda (half elezen) to make this work. And maybe look a bit more youthful too, to fit the body. Ysayle's face is unmistakably that of an adult well past her teens. And in doing so we'd be back to square one with the outfits not looking appropriate for someone her age.

It would also go against lore a bit. The point of Ryne being the vessel for the summoning was for her to have control over it, so it only makes sense for the primal to look more like Ryne than Ysayle. She did essentially try to do exactly what Ysayle did, it just happens that the addition of also needing to control so much light made this an impossible task.

I am curious as to how the japanese fans are reacting to this. I don't approve of how skimpy the outfits are but I was far from surprised. Outfits like that are very common in anime, even on teens. I would have been surprised to see this happen in a western game, but not a japanese one.

[heiligeharmonie]

At what point was Ryne's age stated? At what point was any characters specific age stated?
She may be "underdeveloped", but she could easily pass as 18 in asia, which just so happens to be where the game is developed, where the age of consent also happens to be on average, lower than countries in the west, not that its relevant. If she had the standard child model that made her look like 8 years old, you might have some basis for an argument, but as it is, she's just a fictional character with an unspecified age that just so happens to look "young"...If 1/3rd of her character model's volume was breasts, but she still otherwise looked the same, would we even be having this discussion?

I did say that I usually try to take potential cultural differences into account when I find something distasteful. And I am well aware that the general assumption is that the devs tend to care more about what the Japanese player base thinks than any others. My assumption here is that if this is something that's not viewed as inappropriate in Japan, then they likely didn't think about it being inappropriate elsewhere, which is probably why I'm not in here actually spewing fire and brimstone. But they actively market to a western audience , so they do actually need to be aware of what is and isn't acceptable. No, this isn't some game breaking conflict, but I don't see why that would mean I or anyone else shouldn't point it out.

Also, it's quite bold of you to assume no one would have thrown a fit about Ryne being 1/3rd breasts the minute she was introduced as a young character.