What Zero Could've Been

[Kazhar]

To be fair to aveyond, his takes about attractiveness are also applied to male characters.
So it's less about misogyny and more about him wanting hot characters in general.

[aveyond-dreams]

To be fair to aveyond, his takes about attractiveness are also applied to male characters.
So it's less about misogyny and more about him wanting hot characters in general.

Indeed. I don't buy video games or watch stuff that has characters that don't look appealing, and with character customization options so limited in this game the least they could do is spend some time making our party members look decent, while accounting for a variety of tastes. The women of FFXIV's main cast don't do this, and neither do the men.

Usually anyone can find at least one character that they're drawn to when it comes to narrative-heavy media like FFXIV is, but unless you like scholars with short white hair or whatever G'raha Tia is supposed to be it seems like I'm out of luck. Bar the exit of Y'shtola from the party and her replacement being the sort of heroine I've described in the past, I don't see how Zero or god forbid Krile will bring anything of substance to the table besides magic gizmos to instafix our problems.

[Ransu]

Indeed. I don't buy video games or watch stuff that has characters that don't look appealing, and with character customization options so limited in this game the least they could do is spend some time making our party members look decent, while accounting for a variety of tastes. The women of FFXIV's main cast don't do this, and neither do the men.

Usually anyone can find at least one character that they're drawn to when it comes to narrative-heavy media like FFXIV is, but unless you like scholars with short white hair or whatever G'raha Tia is supposed to be it seems like I'm out of luck. Bar the exit of Y'shtola from the party and her replacement being the sort of heroine I've described in the past, I don't see how Zero or god forbid Krile will bring anything of substance to the table besides magic gizmos to instafix our problems.

Your take is entirely subjective for everyone so the conversation about it is completely a moot point.

[Silverbane]

I ... the least they [CBU3] could do is spend some time making our party members look decent, while accounting for a variety of tastes.

I guess you haven't heard, but there's no accounting for taste. It's innumerable.

You have such weird views on women, man.

Do they? When it comes to a norm for female attractiveness, looked at historically, there isn't much of one.
Generally, it seems to come down to either "look like you're rich," "look built to bear children," or a combination thereof.
And that covers a lot of ground, from beyond Rubenesque to the flappers of the 1920's.*

*Thoroughly Modern Millie contains an amusing bit where Julie Andrew's character Millie is jealous of Mary Tylor Moore's character Dorothy because Dorothy's "beads" -- a long necklace -- "hang straight" on Dorothy's more modest chest.

[Padudu]

You have such weird views on women, man.

[aveyond-dreams]

I guess you haven't heard, but there's no accounting for taste. It's innumerable.

I think there are some pretty common ones like girls with long hair that go through dramatic, compelling emotional journeys/love stories along with sterner guys that carry heavy unseen burdens with facial hair and strong physiques that they could start with.

[Valkyrie_Lenneth]

I think there are some pretty common ones like girls with long hair that go through dramatic, compelling emotional journeys/love stories along with sterner guys that carry heavy unseen burdens with facial hair and strong physiques that they could start with.

Why do the men get the excuse of having unseen burdens lol. Why must the women have emotional journeys or love stories.

These just seem like very arbitrary requirements....

[Lunaxia]

I think there are some pretty common ones like girls with long hair that go through dramatic, compelling emotional journeys/love stories along with sterner guys that carry heavy unseen burdens with facial hair and strong physiques that they could start with.

I can't quite believe you're still going on with this.

Here's the honest to gods truth: your takes on this game are absolutely terrible. They're entirely self-centered, archaic, sexist, boring and predictible. They're George R. R. Martin rip-off male power fantasies obsessed with buxom women with flowing locks and five-feet-apart-because-they're-not-gay stoic manly man men with rippling muscles that became a tired trope several decades ago. Times have changed. Media has evolved, people have evolved, society's conceptions of men and women and how they should look and behave evolved, so I suggest either move on with the times, or cling to the plethora of material that already exists that caters to people like you and leave a game actually half-attempting to leave some of the hackneyed, beaten-to-death tropes rampant in JRPGs behind alone if you can't come to terms with it. You're not even offering constructive criticism at this point, you're just trying to justify why misogynistic archetypes and medieval fantasy tropes being stuck into a 2022 game would be good for anyone except you, and poorly at that. If you're so disturbed by women whose sole purpose for existence in a narrative isn't to cater to the male gaze or men who can't grill a steak with the force of their sheer manly ruggedness, FF has many titles that do have those characters, so I recommend starting your search there and allow SE to put a little much-needed progression into one of their games, at least.

[SannaR]

snips

I just wanted to say I love the gif in your signature. Two handsome men. Course they're not Vincent and I can't wait for them to introduce the poor guy in the remake. But you know we can't have them cause they're too pretty and one was fine with dressing drag.

[Lunaxia]

I just wanted to say I love the gif in your signature. Two handsome men. Course they're not Vincent and I can't wait for them to introduce the poor guy in the remake. But you know we can't have them cause they're too pretty and one was fine with dressing drag.

Thank you! I do love snippy Cloud.

It does make you wonder where they'd fall on the OP's acceptability meter. I mean Cloud does brood, and he has two (!) pretty, long-haired women interested in him, as well as a big sword. But he wore a dress, and is objectively pretty.

And Reno must be out, surely. Look at that long hair and slender, muscle-less build. Why, he's practically a woman!