Examples of Damage Control in Gaming: Final Fantasy XV is a Road Trip for the Fellas

Everyone should have known Final Fantasy XV wouldn’t have any playable female characters, even before Square Enix’s developers confirmed it.

Initial signs appeared when the game made its gameplay debut in 2011, an event that felt like it happened ages ago. It was still called Final Fantasy Versus XIII then, a title embittered Final Fantasy fans were immediately anticipating after Final Fantasy XIII let them down. Those feelings strengthened when Final Fantasy XIII-2, a sequel they felt no one wanted, was announced with the title’s emergence from the shadows. They felt Tetsuya Nomura was the only hope the franchise had left, since creator Hironobu Sakaguchi definitely wasn’t returning.

Even that early gameplay demonstration had no playable female characters present. Plenty noticed it, but far more gave it the benefit of the doubt, due to still looking so early — despite the game’s true form surfacing for the first time nearly five years after its announcement. It was our first legitimate hint as to what the playable cast would be like.

If anyone didn’t suspect the game’s playable cast would be all male during that trailer, they should have when it resurfaced again at E3 2013. Coming with the name change to FFXV was a new trailer and gameplay video, again showing only male characters in action. Additionally, CG art containing the main cast was released, showing a group of five resembling a Japanese boy band. With so much evidence, it’s surprising that a number of people still needed direct confirmation to react, regardless of where they stood on the issue.

To coincide with the game’s latest resurgence, co-director-turned-director Hajime Tabata has provided numerous interviews to the press in the past week. Though these, he’s given few details that previously couldn’t be discovered upon watching the trailers or gameplay videos, including confirmation of the game’s all-male cast. He explained that it’s a road trip in Japanese RPG form, the story of guys taking a ride around the game’s world. It’s why the newest trailer focused on them riding through numerous environments, exchanging banter with each other as they see the sights and participate in fights.

He also explained how it’s been this way since before he joined the project, when it was still Versus XIII. Square Enix certainly didn’t count on a meme being created from it, though.

Regardless of the prior strong hints, this news generated a strong reaction from numerous sides. Some feel there’s misogyny involved, with Square Enix’s target demographic being the ever-reliable male audience. Another group is fine with this being the third mainline game with all-male characters, following in the footsteps of Final Fantasy I and III (Refia was added to the DS version of FFIII, by the way). Lastly, a third group believes some people need to find something to be offended about. They could also be part of the contingent expecting this title to be the best thing since sliced bread, thanks to its prolonged development time. That’s always a recipe for disaster.

But no, it’s not aimed towards the “bro” audience that consumes shooters and sports titles by the bulk on an annual basis. That assumption came about because it’s part of an (understandably) heated topic in the gaming community lately. I’ve seen plenty of hatred for pretty guys (or “bishonen,” if you will) among the community that tends to favor characters from shooters. They were part of the same group repeatedly complaining about Ayami Kojima’s designs for the Castlevania franchise, claiming they were a far cry from the “macho” guys that graced the covers of the old games — despite them being “pretty,” too, in a way.

The Final Fantasy fanbase has a sizable fangirl contingent, the kind that enjoyed the appearances of characters like Cloud Strife, Sephiroth, Squall Leonhart, and to a lesser extent, Genesis Rhapsodos (to offer a recent example). Character designer Tetsuya Nomura is good at attracting this audience (the aforementioned characters were also designed by him), and the designs of FFXV fit the criteria (though it won’t exclusively attract them). Adding ladies to the party would disrupt the balance. The males are designed to be fanservice, essentially making this the anti-Final Fantasy X-2.

I would have said anyone hoping for female characters should wait for the sequel(s) they intend to make, but those were plans Nomura concocted. They might be off the table since he’s been removed from the project, but don’t be surprised if they’re green lit by Square Enix. This game’s been in development for so long that there’s no way they’ll profit on a single game, meaning making sequels that reuse assets and entire locations might be a necessity.