A new story arc began with the June release of Dawntrail, the most recent expansion for the massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy 14. Dawntrail introduced players to a completely new world with new characters and a new graphical update, following ten years of increasing popularity across several expansions that told a single story.
Reactions to it were a little mixed. Although the music and images are stunning as ever, some have criticized the story for being rambling and having a shallow first half, and many of its well-known characters—the Scions—are given significantly less screen time. Another character, too, Wuk Lamat, didn’t get much opportunity to tell her story. However, this can never be the reason for the personal attacks the voice actor of that character is facing.
Yoshi-P Asks Final Fantasy Fans to Stop Personal Attacks Against His Staff
Naoki ‘Yoshi-P’ Yoshida, director and producer of Final Fantasy 14, says that some of the harsh criticism directed at the English voice actor who plays Dawntrail‘s lead “breaks his heart,” and he urges MMO and other fans to “refrain from personal attacks against our staff.”
Through an interpreter, Yoshida responds to a query regarding fan response to the MMO’s most recent expansion, Dawntrail, and his level of satisfaction with it in an interview with Checkpoint Gaming. However, he was clearly not happy with the personal attacks the Wuk Lamat voice actor had to face. This is what he stated:
I’m afraid one of our staff members received very negative comments and it almost felt like a personal attack, which breaks my heart, because she worked really hard and these criticisms were not constructive at all. It doesn’t do anything except make the staff lose motivation, and in the end that could potentially damage the quality of our game and take away from what makes this game so interesting. So if there are any sort of criticisms, bring it to me, because I’m the one approving this material. I wanted to reiterate that, please refrain from personal attacks against our staff.
This is more concerning as the voice behind Wuk Lamat is a trans woman named Sena Bryer, who received transphobic verbal abuse and even death threats and doxxing attempts in every post and across all of her socials like Twitch, YouTube, and Reddit, everywhere, just for the lack of transparency in her character.
Yoshida Accepts the Flaws in Wuk Lamat
It was always going to be controversial for Yoshida to begin a new saga by allowing a character other than our Warrior of Light to take the lead, but criticism regarding aspects like pacing offers important lessons to carry forward.
Yoshida acknowledges that the team could have done more to tell Wuk Lamat’s story, but she wants to use the lessons learned to improve future updates so that we can learn more about her character rather than just letting her disappear into the background. He stated:
She’s a very complex character, and she even has a bit of a complex about herself. Unfortunately, we didn’t delve very far into the background of why she had those feelings, so it appeared as if she left a negative impression. We accept that feedback. I feel a little sorry that we weren’t able to properly depict her.
Yoshida also accepts that the company might have made her more straightforward. The developers are pushing her to the forefront as this character and their learnings will be reflected in the upcoming patch.
No matter how bad a game or an in-game aspect performs, attacking the people behind the game personally can never be tolerated.
What’s your opinion on this heinous act? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section.
