Letter from the Producer LIVE Part XLI discussion

[KaivaC]

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As if FF isn't littered with characters that already look androgynous...

Kuja, Sephiroth (I mean, that long hair though...), Caius, Ardyn with that pink hair...there are so many examples throughout the series.

[Rokke]

Honestly? I blame the people who complain about gender locked stuff. I'm all about gender equality, but making nothing gender specific just means they have to design it for both genders which means it doesnt really look great on either one, since its not "this is for females, and this is for males"

I think the problem lies with the devs wanting to only pump out kawaii shlock. The sideshaved hairstyle that derplander has in the opening cutscene clearly meant to be boy/tomboy hair. After that release, though, nearly everything has been cute and fluffy.

[Theodric]

As if FF isn't littered with characters that already look androgynous...

Kuja, Sephiroth (I mean, that long hair though...), Caius, Ardyn with that pink hair...there are so many examples throughout the series.

I wouldn't consider Sephiroth, Caius or Ardyn to be particularly feminine or androgynous. Kuja? Certainly.

There's plenty of characters who look masculine.

It's a matter of balance and there's been countless threads over the years where players have been asking for more options for masculine male customisation, including over on the Japanese boards which are notorious for loving the 'cute' and 'androgynous' aesthetics.

There have also been people outright stating that the only reason they play a female character is simply due to feeling like males receive less attention and options for customisation in comparison.

Honestly? I blame the people who complain about gender locked stuff. I'm all about gender equality, but making nothing gender specific just means they have to design it for both genders which means it doesnt really look great on either one, since its not "this is for females, and this is for males"

Yeah, I'm of the same mind. I'm not opposed to it but I want to see such things scaled back a bit and for there to be a bit more variety. I've been wanting to see more short hairstyles added to the game for a while now. I'm not opposed to longer hairstyles, though - I'm using one right now, in fact, as my avatar shows. Though it helps that the hairstyle is the same as Trey's hairstyle in Type-0 - so it was designed specifically with a male in mind. They managed to make it look pretty good on both genders, though the same cannot be said of a lot of the others.

[alimdia]

Honestly? I blame the people who complain about gender locked stuff. I'm all about gender equality, but making nothing gender specific just means they have to design it for both genders which means it doesnt really look great on either one, since its not "this is for females, and this is for males"

If that was true then they wouldn't be so feminine. This is just devs favoring females over males yet again.

Your point would be valid if they truly were trying to make neutral hairstyles, but that hasn't been a case yet.

[SokiYagami]

Honestly? I blame the people who complain about gender locked stuff. I'm all about gender equality, but making nothing gender specific just means they have to design it for both genders which means it doesnt really look great on either one, since its not "this is for females, and this is for males"

Or they could, you know, design feminine and masculine hairstyle but open it up for everyone. Just like the recent derplander hairstyle mentioned by Rokke.

I think it's more more the developer's choice than players feedback on this one.

[KaivaC]

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Indeed...and neither are the male PCs other players create using traditionally feminine hairstyles, unless the player decides otherwise

[Theodric]

Indeed...and neither are the male PCs other players create using traditionally feminine hairstyles, unless the player decides otherwise

Right. It's entirely optional.

Yet we saw an entire system developed for players to grow flowers, turn them into a special glamour and then put them in their character's hair. Both genders can do this but it is very clearly aimed at female characters first and foremost. Some male characters do use them, though.

Yet after years of people politely and constructively asking for things like more facial hair options for male characters it is becoming rather tiresome. If they can't add them into the character creation for some reason then they have already proven capable of creating 'facial hair' glamour items in the past. In the form of joke items, granted...but still - the route is there.

[Ghastly]

If the new hairstyles are what I think they are, then colour me disappointed. I'm really not liking the trend of designing the majority of new hairstyles to be unisex - it typically leads to most of them ending up as being very androgynous or overly feminine. I think they had the right idea when they implemented hairstyles based on many of the playable characters from Type-0. I'd love to see more hairstyles designed to mimic those used by other iconic Final Fantasy characters.

Me toooooooo, the type-0 hairstyles had a clear purpose to them. A lot of these new ones are all over the place and really don't appeal much besides trying to be gender neutral. Oh well maybe we get better hairstyles by May x_x so long away.

[VanilleFang]

We have made adjustments to the other two healers as well to increase their usability.

What does this mean exactly?

[MrSmiley]

I think its best if they use throwback characters (like exdeath and kefka) as scape bosses and don't try invest more into them. I really disliked when wow went all timeywimey and brought back characters then mischaracterized them for some new story that could have just had unique characters to not insult older fans.

I enjoy the throwbacks a lot, and am hyped to fight kefka and see XIV's take on a raid battle of him, but I don't feel it should be anymore than that.