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[HeelPower]

Chatting with GameSpot, the release's director, Hajime Tabata, comments on the all-male party, and how the group's dynamic is only achievable without the presence of a female character. "Speaking honestly, an all-male party feels almost more approachable for players. Even the presence of one female in the group will change their behaviour, so that they'll act differently. So to give the most natural feeling, to make them feel sincere and honest, having them all the same gender made sense in that way," he said.

For Tabata, the journey will have the cast adopting what he dubs a "boys will be boys" type demeanor. "It was the story we wanted to tell and what we wanted to show players," he explained.

"The world might be ready to see the curtain lifted on what boys do when girls aren't around, when they come out of the tent all prim and proper. That's kind of the idea behind it… we think, male or female player, that everyone will feel a certain connection and bond with the four characters.

Rest of Gamespot Interview here.

 

[Ouren]

I think he's referring to gooey anime girls turning westerners away from japanese games, but it'll be read as meaning something else here.
Bit of an ol' gaff.

 

[FluxWaveZ]

This is going to turn into something but, before it does, I just want to say that this:

Even the presence of one female in the group will change their behaviour, so that they'll act differently.

Is true.

 

[Mitch]

Cid not playable confirmed?

 

[Hyrule Warrior]

More approachable in what way? It makes it less appealing, because you give me the option to play as a girl in a game, and 95% of the time I will pick the girl.

 

[cw_sasuke]

Even the presence of one female in the group will change their behaviour, so that they'll act differently.

Squall disagrees.

 

[Azure Dream]

"The world might be ready to see the curtain lifted on what boys do when girls aren't around, when they come out of the tent all prim and proper."

Kissing parties.

 

[Doctor_Thomas]

Yes, because Final Fantasy has truly had a problem with being "approachable" based on the ensemble cast....

 

[ActuallyHulk]

Is he saying that he wants to make the characters somewhat realistic and therefore is avoiding placing a beautiful teenage/young adult woman in with a group of teenage/young adult males to avoid all the grandstanding and bravado?

 

[Jarate]

I don't want to play as the Backstreet People, I wanna play as the Backstreet Boys

This game caters to my every boy band need

 

[DNAbro]

Is he saying that he wants to make the characters somewhat realistic and therefore is avoiding placing a beautiful teenage/young adult woman in with a group of teenage/young adult males to avoid all the grandstanding and bravado?

Somewhat

 

[badcrumble]

Makes some amount of sense. I enjoyed the group dynamic in FFX-2 and I expect to enjoy this as well. I don't want to see it as the standard going forward in FF, and I don't think they're disavowing the mixed-gender parties in previous games or anything silly like that, but the boys-on-a-road-trip party thing could be a story worth telling. Hopefully keeping Stella an NPC allows them to make her more interesting than the usual serious/demure/playful triad found in literally every single other FF game.

Also, hopefully you can power up your party with circle jerking around the campfire. All guys jack off together when there are no women present.

 

[Mushroomer25]

I think I get what they're trying to say (They want the dynamic of a group of guy friends, which is approachable for a lot of audiences) - but man that phrasing is poor.

 

[Ishida]

Squall disagrees.

Whatever.

 

[wmlk]

Makes complete sense. I would be accepting of an all-female cast as well if they had a similar sisterhood dynamic.

 

[Jarate]

I think I get what they're trying to say (They want the dynamic of a group of guy friends, which is approachable for a lot of audiences) - but man that phrasing is poor.

I mean, he is Japanese

 

[BaronMonstro]

Is he referring to people that have never played a game in the Final Fantasy series before?

In which case I'm not sure I get his reasoning for having an all-male cast making the game more approachable to them.

Edit: hate to break it to the guy but I don't believe boy band pretty guys with anime hair are exactly easy to market to western audiences if that's what he's getting at.

 

[KoopaTheCasual]

It's weird how these headlines are always so baited. Just a few months ago, IGN posted this:

Final Fantasy 15 Director: Gender Bias is ‘Not Healthy’

Final Fantasy XV’s main cast is all male, and it was a conscious decision made by both of the game’s directors. Despite this, Director Hajime Tabata admits that “it’s not healthy to have a bias in genders.”

 

[SerTapTap]

Even the presence of one female in the group will change their behaviour, so that they'll act differently.

This is sadly true in most real world situations...but you're not writing the real world. Why not have a group of "bros" that respect each other not to let stupid shit like gender color their interactions with each other? Why not write a world that's past that sort of bullshit? Also as a guy a "boys will be boys" story is actually pretty damn unappealing. My industry (programming) has enough problems with bros will be bros.

 

[djplaeskool]

Makes sense. Allows the characters to be a bit more unhinged and candid. Could make for more interesting character development.

If Girls going treasure-huntin' turned out alright, then I'm fine with the bro-trip.

 

[Geg]

Yeah I kind of get what he means but boy is that a poor choice of words

 

[Empty]

he's walking a rhetorical tightrope as obviously you can make an approachable story with women but i think he's talking about creating a particular atmosphere, that would be different and less friendly if you started adding teen relationship angst to the main group.

to me they've earned the benefit of the doubt. for years final fantasy has been incredibly progressive in representing gender and gender roles relative to the rest of the industry, which you can see in its larger appeal to women and lgbt gamers. yet for years it was mocked and derided for being girlish and stupid and icky, while horrible western games like gta were praised for their sophisticated writing. now it's trendy to be oh so enlightened and progressive on these things, which is cool, but instead of admitting their mistake people want to throw it to the dogs to generate outrage bucks/cred. so unfair.

talking about the all male stuff not the character design which is legit worth calling out btw

 

[DeSolos]

Disgunbegood

But seriously. I like the vibe. It's true that guys act differently around girls(see also: idiots). I like the idea of them having their guards down and being normal dude bros.

 

[Rymuth]

There is a 'harder to animate' joke in here somewhere...

 

[culafia]

That's a great idea.

 

[ItIsOkBro]

you could always add a female character to the party and then, ya know, not change anyone's behavior at all.

 

[Mihael Mello Keehl]

FFXIII handled the whole coed group fine

 

[JJDinomite]

I'm very disappointed that FF15 will have a male-only crew. I'm honestly considering boycotting the game at this point.

 

[Mesoian]

I think he's referring to gooey anime girls turning westerners away from japanese games, but it'll be read as meaning something else here.
Bit of an ol' gaff.

Even if that's true, is it really that difficult to have female characters who don't turn into sexual jokes after a certain amount of hours? No one is forcing you to have jiggle physics or dumb massage orgasm minigames.

I'm very disappointed that FF15 will have a male-only crew. I'm honestly considering boycotting the game at this point.

Keep in mind, this mindset is also very silly.

It's one thing to be uninterested because there's an all male cast, but to say "the reason I'm not going to play this game is because of the principle it has of having a frontloaded cast that consists of men" helps nothing.

It's the same as saying, "I'm not gonna see Jersey Boys because it has an all male headlining cast" or, "I'm not going to see Chicago because there are no leading males".

 

[ActuallyHulk]

Somewhat

Makes sense to me then. Situations like that emind me of high school.

Spoiler

;_;

 

[Jarate]

It's weird how these headlines are always so baited. Just a few months ago, IGN posted this:

Final Fantasy 15 Director: Gender Bias is ‘Not Healthy’

Gender dynamics in gamesis provocative right now and get an easy click by people who prolly won't read the article. Its basically clickbait they can hide behind the veil of "social justice" and diminishes the well made articles that sometimes pop up

 

[HeelPower]

I think he wants to create a specific kind of "traditional,platonic all male intimacy' that exists only when male characters are put together.


Anyway,if he means males and females can't have platonic relationships then that's a view I disagree with.

Anyway,Its a complex issue that's inadequately explained in the interview.But I think we got a hint of it in the demo.

 

[SerTapTap]

FFXIII handled the whole coed group fine

Coed group was handled extremely fine until they started cramming goddamn love stories in them every time.

 

[Rojo]

This is going to turn into something but, before it does, I just want to say that this:

Is true.

So..female guest character confirmed then right? I would love to see prompto just try his hardest and fail to hook up with some chick.

 

[Valkerionseven]

I don't want to play as the Backstreet People, I wanna play as the Backstreet Boys

This game caters to my every boy band need

Basically haha.

Even if the characterization and writing/dialogue delivery sells it, the visual certainly is not "more approachable" in the slightest. FF has a lot of bad designs but at least they are balanced out through the entire cast. Here I legit think they are all bad. Nothing about this cast appeals to me and is probably the source of my fairly tepid response towards news about it so far.

 

[Ushojax]

The hideously designed main characters put me off the game completely.

I cringe every time I see them, it's like One Direction x The Matrix. You'd think Nomura was parodying himself with the work he turned in.

 

[Chemical Rampancy]

Terrible explanation.

 

[GuardianE]

This is going to turn into something but, before it does, I just want to say that this:

Is true.

Pretty much. What he says is fairly accurate, and not really a slight against women in the least.

 

[DJIzana]

Disgunbegood

But seriously. I like the vibe. It's true that guys act differently around girls(see also: idiots). I like the idea of them having their guards down and being normal dude bros.

Yep... this is basically it. I share the same opinion as you.

 

[TheChillyAcademic]

It already has one of the hottest Final Fantasy characters in the entire series

Spoiler

GLADIOULOS

so why not keep it manly <3

+1 for Men!!

 

[Beelzebufo]

I think he's referring to gooey anime girls turning westerners away from japanese games, but it'll be read as meaning something else here.
Bit of an ol' gaff.

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking too.

But uhh, they could just make good female characters.

But I digress, it's nice to see men in the spotlight for once. Take that, Frozen!

 

[DNAbro]

Terrible explanation.

How?

 

[The Technomancer]

I sort of get what he's saying. If they have a vision for the internal dynamics of the group that would be effected by the presence of a female member, well, whatever, they can make what they want.

Cid's design is more annoying to me than this explanation.

 

[dugdug]

Those are all males?

Spoiler

Nailed it.

 

[Kagari]

I don't mind the cast but the way Tabata is trying to defend it just rubs me the wrong way.

 

[Escalario]

The moment I saw the characters designs and the "No girls playable" BS, I knew the game would be pure fujoshi bait.

 

[lewisgone]

If that's the story that they want to tell then that's fine I think.

I typically prefer to see even representation of gender/ethnicity when it isn't relevant, but when it is important I don't think compromises should be made necessarily.

Besides, you can only play as Noctis - in a way it might be more frustrating for people who want to play as a girl if there's a girl in the party they can't play as.

 

[injurai]

I quite like the idea of a stag quest jrpg. I think it's funny that people think because there are good coed games, that that somehow should influence how this game is handled.

 

[BobTheFork]

I thought they had always justifies the inclusion of half naked female characters as being accessible...or was it the ol' 'so the animators have something fun to look at' excuse.

Either way is fine. Just get the dialog and motivation, I don't care what the physical make-up of the party is.

 

[Jarate]

I think he wants to create a specific kind of "traditional,platonic all male intimacy' that exists only when male characters are put together.


Anyway,if he means males and females can't have platonic relationships then that's a view I disagree with.

Anyway,Its a complex issue that's inadequately explained in the interview.But I think we got a hint of it in the demo.

The bro-trip is an important part of a mans life though