With Apologies to Sena Bryer

[AddictedToWitches]

I actually like Smile a lot but I mainly like it because of AKINO
I don't know though why Sena is saying it's black gospel music because AKINO, the vocalist is literally Japanese. . .

[Thaciscokidd]

I actually like Smile a lot but I mainly like it because of AKINO
I don't know though why Sena is saying it's black gospel music because AKINO, the vocalist is literally Japanese.

Because it's inspired by it. Which makes no difference, people sample and are inspired by different cultural music all the time (just look at this games music in general). This, sadly, is just goalpost are being set and moved to try to make people look bad and try to rally more people to join Sena's side.

I mean The greatest Mazinger theme is inspired too and not once when someone said they preferred The Guardian did I immediately think they were racist (maybe they just like JAM Project). I grew up with this type of music in my church and do not even see what Sena is even getting on about. This is a truly horrible take.

[St0rmy]

They need to take her Twitter account away. It will save them (and us) headaches in the future.

[ZXN]

I hate smile. It's not an awful song as a whole, but it certainly doesn't really fit the times it's used in-game. I mean they play this song when WE'RE BUILDING A GIANT TRAIN BOMB. I'm not going to knock people who like it though, different strokes for different folks. But basic common sense tells me going "If you hate this specific song, you're just racist" is not a good idea, especially for a VA voicing a major character in a massive MMO like FFXIV. Although given it is FFXIV twitter, wouldn't be surprised if there are a bunch of people going "true and real" or something along those lines and reinforcing the view.

After seeing that tweet though, I am actually kind of curious what the Japanese players think about the song. Do they love it? Hate it? Is it somewhat split like it seems to be for us overseas players? While the Japanese side is sometimes really blunt with feedback and criticisms, like they were with Wuk Lamat, I assume it's not as easy to get clear answers that are not lost in translation.

[Papayatar]

I was having fun lurking and reading the thread but man I felt compelled to make a comment after seeing the “smile is black gospel” tweet like woow :’O. Like I took emotional/psychic damage or w/e cuz black gospel was what I grew up with, and “Smile” is nowhere near it.

Gospel inspired sure but black gospel specifically is such a stretch. It’s disappointing and unfortunate to what Sena is implying if you don’t like Smile.

But also, what black gospel is Sena listening to? Cuz if her only reference is, the Muses from Disney’s Hercules then I’d understand.

[Nebelheim]

Now I'm starting to think sena is unhinged and should be let go and her twitter taken away and not represent any company going forward. First she was calling for people to step down from roles because she thinks she can do a much better job at certain roles then more experienced cis woman who do a much better voice acting job. Now she is making claims if you don't like the Disney trash smile than apparently now she thinks your racist for not liking it.

[Batbrat]

Omg lmfao. Like how absurd-I cant. This is so stupid its funny omg. Now its RACIST if you dont like the stupid smile song. I'm sorry. Is final fantasy all people like this have??? Why on earth is it being defended this hard. What next. If you dislike the new country housing walls, it's actually because hobbit-phobic?! We're just gonna attach races and phobics to every single thing in XIV so that THAAT waay no one can eevvver say ANYYTHING criticizing our favorite game without them looking like a terrible person


-Except that's clearly deranged, and anyone who thinks like this literally needs all of their electronics destroyed right in front of them for the sake of their spiraling mental health. The song sucks. It has nothing to do with any race-they need to just fire wuk. I'm so sorry. Yoshi, are you reading?? Do us all a favor real quick

[Thayos]

What an odd and unfortunate situation. Sena is throwing away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and best of luck finding a different job in the gaming industry after this. There's no way she hangs onto her job.

I'm guessing there is a sizable segment of gamers who don't like Wuk Lumat simply because the VA is trans. That's just reality. But, no, Smile is not black gospel. This whole thing is just weird.

[lolnotacat]

What an odd and unfortunate situation. Sena is throwing away a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and best of luck finding a different job in the gaming industry after this. There's no way she hangs onto her job

See, that'd be the case in most industries, but I work in gaming and I can say it's filled with nutjobs who will read that and go "YAAAAAS SLAY QWEEN". The only upside is that studios and publishers that support this garbage are slowly dying. Unfortunately that means that by the time this is all said and done, some of our favorite studios and IPs will go with them. If you look at Squenix's financials, it's mostly XIV propping up a lot of their other projects which keep selling "under expectations". We'll see what happens now that Dawntrail scored so poorly.

[kyzy]

Can she stop... trying to be at war with everyone? It's crazy. I'm black, and my mind didn't jump to black gospel at all. The presence of chorus singers doesn't make something 'gospel'.

In my opinion, I may be wrong because I'm no expert... it sounds like a poor or loose imitation of it, but I would honestly call it a 'musical' piece, and yes, its very... Disney-esque. It lacks funk (slap bass, rythmic bass), and the singer is great in other places, but not here. Gospel has a lot more 'off base' singing, as in, the singer singing over the chorus at more random intervals. I think the singers pitch is too high as well. Shes not a soul singer, and thats not her fault at all. (I love Scream lol)

It's funny because Disney actually did REAL gospel way better. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0eCoI87PZs