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

[Reinha]

yikes. 2real2fast.

I guess I should've added /sarcasm. Only puritanical weirdos get triggered over teenagers showing skin. Like the people policing bra straps in American schools.

[Lauront]

Yet another form of entertainment? I'm sorry did politics destroy movies, art, books, and comics or any other numbers of mediums? Oh wait, they're all doing just fine.

But man, FFXIV really pushing politics on it's playerbase. You know? Saying imperialism is bad, that the rich should help the poor and so on. They should really just work to make their game say absolutely nothing to coddle people who don't want their beliefs ever challenged.

Also it's not fucking censorship. Or what did you consider the Yakuza dev's who took out a transphobic side quest out of their game of their own volition as censorship? Why is it that people always use "censorship" as a defense for gross shit. Just saw that recently with Persona 5 where the English translators removed a homophobic joke from the game and people were fuming.

But going back to Mobius FF... It's funny that people get so angry when a guy shows too much skin but then will defend female characters that do so the same with so much effort.

The game actually says nothing of the sort. It gives examples of some people reaching such conclusions (but also, for example, those in charge of the reconstruction effort rejecting the notion of redistributionist schemes), but the developers are very much of the view that it is for the player to decide whether how they will view such perspectives. Those presented are purely in-game perspectives of NPCs.

[EtherRose]

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.

No. I think you're forgetting this is a different world they are in. It's why Ramuh, Ifrit and Garuda look different. So hence, Shiva will as well even if they didn't use Ryne.

[AmeliaVerves]

I guess I should've added /sarcasm. Only puritanical weirdos get triggered over teenagers showing skin. Like the people policing bra straps in American schools.

dw, I took it with salt and sarcasm. Had a good laugh too.

[Alaeacus]

Sexuality wouldn't be such a taboo subject if we weren't so prudish as a society. It's always so strange to me the Western Civs went through entire eras of free-love and body expression only to have a weird reversion back into Puritanic pearl-clutching.

How can we be inundated every single day with articles screeching that "women aren't sexual objects", but at the merest hint of a low neckline, women claim an entire situation automatically becomes sexually charged? Seems a bit irrational to me.

Don't get me started on the utterly ridiculous idea that children are children and MUST be kept as children until that magical day they turn 18 years old and automatically they are expected to be an adult and understand complex mature topics like financial independence, social decorum, and sexuality. People don't make sense.

[QT_Melon]

I mean whether the devs intended it or not. I kinda feel they did since part of the ongoing storyline is Ryne becoming her own person. I find it ironic though that people are more worried about outfits than the fact if she's really that underage - who is going to take care of her when Thancred and Urianger are gone?

This is probably one of the more tasteful instances of exploring that as an underlying concept. I will try to use spoiler tags for the MSQ as well. Apologies if I come off redundant

Shiva's outfit in E8 is the princess type. Hydaelyn's second outfit is the Goddess type.

I feel Ryne is playing princess looking at Shiva's outfit, but ironically coinciding with the storyline

Where it's revealed Venat basically/essentially became Hydaelyn

so not only turning into Hydaelyn makes sense since she's essentially the Oracle. Why be a princess, when you can be a Goddess?

For that matter looking at the Ancient society (Aumorot is a CITY, Ascians are a by product of being tempered by Zodiark - so it's not their race names but I digress) everyone was conformists in that they all wore robes and masks in the storyline. It's kinda interesting that Venat becoming Hydaelyn I wouldn't be surprised if Ryne's version is actually quite close V-Neck plunge and all though it actually matches our primal's Shiva outfit with the plunge and semi transparent webbing. There's something freeing about being that form when you're confined to robes

Then you have the Savage form with Ryne being the actual Shiva and Hraesvelgr their story of union is probably romanticized in Ryne's eyes. This is real LOVE. In Heavensward lore she literally asked to be devoured so their souls would combine - (makes me wonder as an aside if Dragons can combine souls - what WAS Hydaelyn's pact with Midgarsormr about and not just protection of another area...but I digress again lol)

It's always interesting in folklore that princesses need to be saved from Dragons, dragons always guarding the princess. They're objects/blockades to "getting the girl". Also as parents we kinda "dread the day" of marriage or our girls having a union with another person. (male or female - though I can't say this about ALL types of sexuality). Shiva's union was pretty much on her own terms strange as it was to ask to be devoured for their souls to be entwined.

On other notes about the clothing thing. I am not gonna lie about being a bit bothered by the clothing in general but Ryne's also wearing a skirt fighting with daggers so lol. But on a societal level I'm also annoyed that we make women feel shame about our dimorphism which is a very confusing message about growing up. Granted there's reason for shame as we don't want our kids in puberty running around naked, however we have mammaries. Why are we made to feel so ashamed by their presence so much? That what we wear is our fault that it sends a sexual message?

If Ryne was going around trying to do alot of fanservice moves I'd get it. But for what I could see while I was trying to fend for my life - she wasn't.

[DJMau]

And here I went into the fight thinking "This is gonna backfire of Ryne SO badly".

[Korten]

The game actually says nothing of the sort. It gives examples of some people reaching such conclusions (but also, for example, those in charge of the reconstruction effort rejecting the notion of redistributionist schemes), but the developers are very much of the view that it is for the player to decide whether how they will view such perspectives. Those presented are purely in-game perspectives of NPCs.

Yeah no... Stormblood never paints Imperialism/Colonialism in ANY positive light. And the idea that it leaves it up to the player is completely ignoring the text. When your dealing with the refugee situation in Ul'dah it doesn't "both sides" the situation and clearly makes you sympathize with their plight and pushes the player in the story to find a solution that will benefit everyone. It paints anyone who tries to exploit them or remove them in a bad light.

Here's a good article going over how Stormblood treats the topic of colonialism.

https://medium.com/@urbanfriendden/f...e-a6e65549fe31

FFXIV has a lot to say. Even something as simple as allowing Men and Women to wear tuxes and dresses in marriage is making a statement.'

Edit: In regards to the Ishgard thing, I personally haven't done any of the reconstruction efforts but you need to look at how it presents it. It's all about context. A bad person saying want to do a bad thing isn't painting it in a way as to make it ambiguous whose right.

[Granyala]

To be fair, it was a rather baffling plot decision.

The whole thing felt rather forced just to create a thin excuse for Ryne to be Shiva. Thancred strongly objected but not really and their plan was vague at best. And of all the characters to stick in a Shiva outfit they chose Ryne.

They could have gone with a hundred different plot twists, even as far as something like unintentionally bringing Ysayle's spirit back with Edens power and having one last talk at the end ...but nope. Whatever floats their boat I guess.

It's probably a case of story following design idea and not the other way around, as it should be, aye.
They probably had the whole Idea of a Shiva return and Hraesvaelgr interaction and needed to make it fit somehow.
I too found it somewhat forced and Ifalna certainly didn't agree with what seemed a completely unnecessary risk on Rynes part.

As for the sexualization of the female... erm it's a game targeted at teenagers. Pretty much all mass media does it because humans are a gullible species.
Sex sells.

Would the encounter be less cool w/o a revealing outfit / half naked dress phase? Not at all.

[Lauront]

Yeah no... Stormblood never paints Imperialism/Colonialism in ANY positive light. And the idea that it leaves it up to the player is completely ignoring the text. When your dealing with the refugee situation in Ul'dah it doesn't "both sides" the situation and clearly makes you sympathize with their plight and pushes the player in the story to find a solution that will benefit everyone. It paints anyone who tries to exploit them or remove them in a bad light.

Here's a good article going over how Stormblood treats the topic of colonialism.

https://medium.com/@urbanfriendden/f...e-a6e65549fe31

FFXIV has a lot to say. Even something as simple as allowing Men and Women to wear tuxes and dresses in marriage is making a statement.'

Edit: In regards to the Ishgard thing, I personally haven't done any of the reconstruction efforts but you need to look at how it presents it. It's all about context. A bad person saying want to do a bad thing isn't painting it in a way as to make it ambiguous whose right.

Apologies but this is not from the developers. It is a merely a one-sided narrative account of colonialism, a highly complex topic, written from a particular perspective/ax to grind, which goes nowhere near the level of depth that would be required to tackle that topic in terms of its real world analogue, with the latter's ups and downs. Also, the story did not paint the Griffin's and some other insurgent groups in a particularly flattering light, nevermind the attitudes of some amongst the colonised groups, and also makes a point of the fact that the situation in Doma/Ala Mhigo (and Dalmasca, I guess) were not uniform across the empire's colonised regions.

Again, whenever the devs do comment on the topic of moral judgement (itself a complex philosophical topic with many perspectives), they leave that very much up to the players, especially where more complex characters are involved - I will grant that there are things players will by and large find negative, and definitely which certain characters do, but the game is not particularly preachy about it, nor is it written in stark black and white terms for the most part. You are confusing the main character for the player - a vessel for taking the story forward which has very little in the way of choice on the topic and who has their own views. I mentioned the Ishgard thing because it is an NPC weighing up the pros and cons of a certain course of action and taking an entirely sensible approach to it, even if some might disagree with it.

So I am afraid I am just going to have to agree to disagree.