{"id":679,"date":"2015-03-27T13:17:34","date_gmt":"2015-03-27T17:17:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chaoticblue.com\/blog\/?p=679"},"modified":"2015-03-27T13:17:34","modified_gmt":"2015-03-27T17:17:34","slug":"brofist-intimacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chaoticblue.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/brofist-intimacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Brofist Intimacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just this morning I said that I was pretty close to done when it came to talking about\u00a0Final Fantasy XV<\/em>, mostly because, quote: “It’s like shouting at an incoming meteor with a megaphone asking it to politely turn around.” That was maybe me being a little upset because I’ve had a trying morning in general, but to say that engaging the topic of\u00a0FF15<\/em> the past couple days has been exhausting is an understatement and a half.<\/p>\n

But because I am that weirdo who appears to have very contrary opinions to the rest of his social sphere, I am compelled to be a bit of an iconoclast and blog about it. Because the feeling I have most about\u00a0FF15<\/em> right now, from almost every angle, is\u00a0frustration<\/strong>. There’s so much that feels like it’s headed off the rails and I am worried and annoyed. Still anticipatory, still interested, but… frustrated.<\/p>\n

Let me say up front that this isn’t about proving that I’m “right” about the game, nor is it about telling people they shouldn’t be excited or interested. But I do think there’s things worth mentioning here as points of critique, especially after Thursday’s PR disaster interview with Hajime Tabata over at Gamespot. So without further ado, let’s get into it:<\/p>\n

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So let’s be real: as much as people like me have argued that\u00a0Final Fantasy<\/em> has featured some amazing, affecting women playable heroes, this is actually a relatively new development in the series. While women have been in the playable roster since the second game (FF2<\/em>‘s Maria), and there’s been at least one ever since (sort of — the original\u00a0NES version of\u00a0FF3<\/em> is hard to pin down even if the remakes are more clear re: Refia), the idea that the women playables are important and independent is fairly new.<\/p>\n

FF4<\/em>‘s Rosa basically exists as a plot driver for Cecil, and while\u00a0FF5<\/em>‘s Faris, Lenna, and Krile are interesting, they’re also pretty secondary to Bartz. Terra and Celes are the first real hints of this in\u00a0FF6<\/em>, as they are major plot movers and their narrative is central to the game’s narrative, but\u00a0FF6<\/em>‘s huge ensemble cast means the attention of the story (and player) is constantly split and refocused. Everyone loves Tifa, Aerith, and Yuffie, but let’s be real —\u00a0FF7<\/em> is about Cloud’s mangst, part of which is motivated by Aerith’s death. I’ll skip\u00a0FF8\u00a0<\/em>for a sec and hop to\u00a0FF9<\/em>: I like Garnet, Freya, and Eiko (kind of a lot, actually), but that game is fundamentally about Zidane.\u00a0FF8<\/em>, on the other hand, isn’t so much about Squall as it is about his relationships with others, primarily Rinoa (as love interest) and Edea (as mother figure). Quistis and Selphie are maybe less important, but they still feel like (to me) that they have a degree of narrative centrality that other women playables hadn’t, to that point.<\/p>\n

But the real stars of the show are the last three flagship titles: FF10<\/i>,\u00a0FF12<\/em>, and\u00a0FF13<\/em>. Yuna is absolutely the main character of her own story, the figure around which the entire game revolves. Ashe is basically the same in\u00a0FF12<\/em>; Tidus and Vaan are there more as viewpoint characters than being the center of the story.\u00a0FFX-2<\/em> was the first game in the series to feature\u00a0only<\/em> women playables in a story primarily about them. And\u00a0FF13<\/em> not only has a woman as its central figure (Lightning), it also has one of the series’ more overt queer couples in the form of Fang and Vanille.<\/p>\n

This is not to say that women in Final Fantasy were somehow unsatisfying before\u00a0FF10<\/em>; far from it. Most of the characters I mention two paragraphs up are some of my favorites, characters about whom I have good, affecting memories. But the idea that women playables are central to the story and progression of an\u00a0FF<\/em> flagship title is recent, given the age of the series.<\/p>\n

Why am I bringing this up? Because it points to a progression\u00a0away<\/em> from man-centric narratives in FF over the past 15 years. Their role in the stories and gameplay has gotten progressively bigger, more nuanced, more complicated.\u00a0So when I heard that\u00a0FF15<\/em>‘s cast would be a small, tight-knit group of all guys… well, I was concerned. Not necessarily about the small cast;\u00a0FFX-2<\/em> is my favorite\u00a0FF<\/em> by far, possibly my favorite video game of all time, and its small cast of 3 was what made that game work. In fact I think\u00a0X-2<\/em> is proof that the core concept of\u00a0FF15<\/em> can work out at all. But why all guys?<\/p>\n

Enter director Hajime Tabata and \u00a0an interview he gave Gamespot<\/a> that went up on Thursday. Gamespot asked Tabata to speak to the notion of the all-male cast and here is, verbatim from the story, what he said:<\/p>\n

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Main character Noctis is flanked by companions Gladiolus, Ignis, and Prompto to form an all-male party which Tabata felt was key to making it feel more accessible.<\/p>\n

“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,” Tabata said. The game certainly doesn’t shy away from the theme of male intimacy<\/a>, with the party sharing a tent, protecting each other in battles, and holding no qualms about showing open concern for one another.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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\u2026 we think, male or female player, that everyone will feel a certain connection and bond with the four characters.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Y’all, I’m just gonna skip the diplomatic decorum and head straight to the marrow: this is nonsense.<\/p>\n