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

[Keddera_StormMoon]

I can't believe this is actually a thing people are upset about. FFS, my whole thought process throughout the fight was focused on keeping people standing and my own stupid lala ass out of the bad things being flung at me.

Frankly, I think the people who get upset about this type of thing are obsessing about human sexuality more than most normal people.

[Darkpaw]

I can't believe this is actually a thing people are upset about. FFS, my whole thought process throughout the fight was focused on keeping people standing and my own stupid lala ass out of the bad things being flung at me.

Frankly, I think the people who get upset about this type of thing are obsessing about human sexuality more than most normal people.

This. Exactly this. I agree completely.

[NessaWyvern]

Wouldn't this actually be Ryne doing this story wise? I mean this is about her becoming her own adult. What is she gonna do? When she channels a Primal probably put what she wants to be, strong sexy and powerful. It reminded me of a discussion about Disney's Rapunzel. Girls get tired of being the princess to be rescued, and a lot are looking to be powerful, good looking (sexy) and able to be a strong independent woman that won't need no Thancred in her life.

The thing is, it was only the first form’s outfit that she had control over, because it was at that point in which she lost control. The first form isn’t that bad at all, but after that it goes downhill. Like, the more control she loses, the less clothing she has. That has weird implications right there.

[Penthea]

I can't believe this is actually a thing people are upset about. FFS, my whole thought process throughout the fight was focused on keeping people standing and my own stupid lala ass out of the bad things being flung at me.

Frankly, I think the people who get upset about this type of thing are obsessing about human sexuality more than most normal people.

Well I'm one of those who think some of her outfits are too racy for someone her age. But I can't say it ruins my day or my fun in the game. I can still appreciate the aesthetic. The outfits on their own are wonderful works of art. The transformation sequences were also really well done.

Ryne is a fictional person so no one is being directly abused or coerced into wearing something they do not want or should not be wearing, so I do understand why some people think OP is overreacting. However there is something to be said about it being worrying to normalise such outfits for someone her age.

As for the argument as to how such outfits would influence, lets say, a certain type of fan art that is very NSFW...well that happens to all major characters anyway regardless of what they wear. I have come across some interesting art of many characters who wore nothing remotely sexy. Rule 34 always prevails no matter how the characters in question are presented in the official media they come from.

[Elladie]

But it's not consistent with lore. Even the original primal Shiva had more clothes than that.
And then there's the background lore of what a Moogle says about that statue in the quest "Respecting the Sheave", The journal something along the lines of that's how Shiva looked like when she fell in love with Hraesvelgr. Although, he's a moogle, they are not the most accurate of sources.

I personally am not sexualising Ryne, I am accusing the devs of doing that.

But you are personally sexualising Ryne. You've had person after person tell you that this isn't sexualisation, that nudity isn't sexual per se, that there is absolutely nothing sexual in this. But you still don't see that this is your problem, not the devs

[Darkpaw]

This would be entirely different if you were asking the dev team to denounce over-sexualizing Shiva-Ryne rather than requesting them to change the model.

That I could get behind, or to make clear that the design decisions made were not with the intent to sexualize the character but were made to fit into lore and artistic tastes.

Because many people do not see a sexualized version of Ryne we see a fantasy theme based character in a lore relevant battle, with a lot of lore references and creative design decisions. Trying to force outrage isn’t a solution it’s causing more problems than it’s worth.

[Astrapls]

All this crying and whining over nothing man has this community gone down hill....the littlest thing bugs someone and they have to make this giant ass rant on the forums like we all care.....

Considering all the replies, and even you replied, it would appear people DO care.
Amusing seeing people taking the time to post about how much they don't care.

If sexualised teenagers trigger you that much you should probably stay away from all forms of japanese media.

You do understand a person can enjoy a piece of media while still finding flaws in it?
Ignoring a problem is never going to encourage change. If people having morals triggers YOU so much, you should probably stay away from all forms of internet interaction.

But you are personally sexualising Ryne. You've had person after person tell you that this isn't sexualisation, that nudity isn't sexual per se, that there is absolutely nothing sexual in this. But you still don't see that this is your problem, not the devs

Ah, classic. "You have issue with something no one else sees, I guess you're the perv"
Yet there are plenty of people in this thread who also see the problem, and again, there's lots of Chris Hansen memes surrounding Shiva Ryne. So yeah.

[heiligeharmonie]

Long day at work, so I'm afraid I don't feel like going through the pages that have cropped up in the last 12 hours, so I've just kind of skimmed.

But I would like to clarify that my intent was not for stir up anything close to outrage. I simply pointed out something that could be considered a problem, that maybe the devs didn't realize would be a problem, explained why, and offered what I thought would be the best solution. Note my wording at the end of the original post: "I hope you will consider."

Considering something doesn't mean actually doing it. If they devs see this and decide they want to address it in a different way (if at all), then that's their prerogative.

I tried to convey my calmness about the whole situation in my wording, though I did initially want to include video so that my tone could defintely not be mistaken, but unfortunately I couldn't keep myself from looking at my notes every 2 seconds, which looked incredibly stupid, so I trashed it.

As far as I can tell, the posts in this thread that come closest to having an outraged tone have been in opposition to my position.

Also, whoever it was that brought up the religious imagery of the Mother of Sheve, that's an INCREDIBLY interesting point and if I weren't so butt tired, I'd love to discuss it more.

[QT_Melon]

The thing is, it was only the first form’s outfit that she had control over, because it was at that point in which she lost control. The first form isn’t that bad at all, but after that it goes downhill. Like, the more control she loses, the less clothing she has. That has weird implications right there.

I wouldn't say she had less clothing after the second form, just arranged differently. It DOES however follow the vneck plunge seen in Shiva's outfit. The third form seen in Savage is just really an Easter egg. Yes, she lost control...and? That doesn't refute my argument at all whether its conscious desire or subconscious.

[NessaWyvern]

Technically, I haven’t asked for a model change to Ryne, I started out just trying to give some context to people who don’t seem to get OP’s point if view.

If you guys can’t see how, a trial with involving a questionably aged girl, who has lost control of the situation, being forced by something with more power than her to love someone she has never met, whilst being almost nude, with mechanics around dressing and undressing, whilst trying to portray a character that is usually fully clothed, might be the tiniest bit problematic? And a weird design choice by the devs?
Then I don’t know what more to say, and won’t be responding anymore to this thread.

Have a good day people, and continue to enjoy the game, as will I, dark undertones and all