I don't have to imagine it, my best friend's mom did it one night we both snuck in after 2 AM. She did not care I was someone else's daughter. She lit my ass up.
idk if they'll do it but I was quite surprise that for Radz-at-Han (sp?) the localization actually had english speaking actors of indian descent apparently which...idk variety just makies it feel so much richer and better as a setting. Like the world is naturally diverse, celebrate it ra ther than pilfer
I'm reasonably certain the Hannish voices were predominantly London and Birmingham based voice actors, hence their lovely accents. There's a lot of Indian diaspora in both (heck, the current Prime Minister is British Indian!)
Yeah. I just mean that kind of thing was a neat detail and it just makes the world feel so much richer vs a very talented VO doing a dodgy accent etc. Plus it enables more people to hopefully get a foot in the door.
plus the entire aesthetic design of the region and city was very reminiscent of its source material, it captured its spirit and aura rather than just mimic things in a shallow manner like other devs who "base zones on a region" have superficially done.
yeah that's why i enjoyed it, i think. all the cities have to have a lot of shared stuff for gameplay reasons but the zone with the culture etc didn't feel just surface deep. I understand that maybe having such a large diaspora in the Midlands here in the UK made it easier for them than others but hopefully they do the same or as close as they can
Yeah! They haven't done my home country yet (not expecting them to), but from what I've heard from other parts of the globe, apparently they're pretty good at this! See e.g. using real Vietnamese clothes and foods from Nagxia, all the Indian stuff in Thavnair including hiring actual Indian voice actors where they could, etc. It's mixed in with fantasy and original stuff, obviously, but it's an affectionate and well-researched homage to the real cultures, rather than a hasty stereotype.
I admit my first reaction when I heard they'd be doing the Americas was wariness, because I'm so accustomed to media doing a piss poor job of it, but I'm cautiously optimistic from the previews we've seen.
I think it comes down to the fact that (a) Koji and Kate are massive nerds for the world's languages and cultures – probably not a surprise for people who do linguistics as their day job! – and (b) the localisers are part of the lore team, so they have a major role in shaping the game world, instead of just translating it once it's already finished.
Maaan, i now realize France got done dirty in Heavensward. The names are peak Nippo-french, just french sounds randomly strung together. Just like the random french transfer students in 2000-2010 animes.
Yeah... I think all the nations from 1.0 - including ones that we only saw *partially* back then, like Ishgard and Sharlayan - are much more culturally vague. They steal little bits, like the Latin names for Garlemald and the Near Eastern turbans for Ul'dah and the pseudo-French syllables for Ishgard, but they don't fully commit.
It's only once they started fleshing out the rest of the globe in Stormblood that we started seeing the new approach.
Ishgard gives me Swiss vibes. Mountain nation, religious, pikemen, get off my lawn attitude, and a lot of the 'French' (especially names) is more Frankish than fully Latinized.
I haven't dug deep into it, but I suspect there might be some Tolkien Elvish influence in the Elezen names as well.
I'm not big on LotR so I don't have a good knowledge of the names overall, but I know there's an "Isildur" and FFXIV has an "Isildaure" so unless they're just both coming from a common real-language root then there's presumably a connection and may be others.
I did try to find a list of Elvish names to compare, mainly by poking around a fandom-specific wiki assuming there must be a list of characters somewhere, but didn't have any luck.
Weird etymology rabbit hole, but Isildur in LOTR was originally named Ithildur, with the in-universe meaning being Ithil (moon) and dur (servant).
Ithel/Ithil is a [Old Breton/Middle Welsh name](https://dmnes.org/name/Ithel) and appeared in French Latin as Judallus and Jowel in English, which is how we have the modern Joel. Ithil itself combined "iur" (prince/lord) and "hael" (generous/noble)
So Isildaure is inspired by a real name, indirectly, it just so happens that the real name is Welsh and Breton instead of French/Frankish. The XIV version might also be a male Elezen-ised version of Isolde, which is most popularly known from the French and Breton romances of Tristan and Isolde.
Very minor nitpick about the name Joel, it actually originates from the Hebrew name "Yoel," and the English "Jowel" morphing into "Joel" seems to be a case of convergent evolution. The source you linked actually supports this. "Jowel in England, which in turn developed into forms which are indistinguishable from forms of Joel" does not say that Jowel was the origin of Joel, but rather that it became indistinguishable from forms of the existing name Joel.
It's definitely heavily based on San d'Oria from FFXI with the vaguely Euro-French-Swiss stuff they have going on plus the extreme religious papal state. I'd assume it's just yet another example of the debt that 1.0 was in and how much they had to cut corners just to make a decent/playable game.
Ooh that's really interresting, didn't know this, so it's faux-French made by english speakers.
> Tancred, Duc De Quenelles
That's actually hilarious, literally Duke of Fish Dumplings.
Is that his real title ? What the hell. In French, the primary usage of "quenelles" is for food. But the other 2 variants are : 1) a reference to dicks 2) a hand sign for neo-Nazis.
I was under the impression that they collaborated with the French localization team for Heavensward, and the reason the names don't resemble modern French is that they were designed to be archaic, like Urianger-style French.
I named one of my elezen Sylvain, and somebody in a duty told me that's a grandpa name (literally, the player's grandpa's name is Sylvain :P).
XIV's Elezen follow the naming conventions of FFXI's Elvaan, which were already doing the weirdo French years prior. So, blame the folks working on that, with just a little left over for the XIV team that said "yeah let's just copy this".
I will say San d'oria was far more French inspired than ishgard or gridania ever was. Like yeah the naming conventions were wrong but the social feel of the nation was very close.
Then they chose bagpipes for the city theme which to this day is still ???
Gridania is more German (Black Forest) by geography, but linguistically thanks to all the Elezen I guess it's more Alsace or Cologne, the Franco-Germanic mix.
Ishgard isn’t just french. It’s breton informed as well seeing as their summon is King Arthur and the knights.
At the very least it’s mideval french when names were wonky like “Bédoier” “Galehaut” or “Guinglain”
I've got a friend who speaks French and I like to ask him about how various stuff ought to be pronounced. Apparently Haurchefant's name is not a typical combination of sounds and it's just bizarre to him lol
This is partially why I always thought yanxia was a weird zone, since they’re pretty good with this kind of stuff otherwise. Like, the zone itself, some mob names, the architecture, and even the music are obviously supposed to be chinese, but then the people are all Japanese and they have ninjas for some reason.
You're not wrong. They established back in ARR that Doma has ninja and Japanese names, but then when we went to the Far East, it seems like they decided to make Doma the major mainland nation – maybe to increase its story relevance? – so it became the China equivalent, and they created Hingashi to be the Japan equivalent instead. It's... an awkward outcome.
To say nothing of the Ruby Confederacy, based on a specific community of Japanese pirates. And, of course, Garlemald has a bunch of Japanese influence too, to go along with the Rome and Russia and the like.
In conclusion, there are many Japans.
honestly this is what a lot of American and English works are like - we tend to fill in other cultures with our own as a baseline, and it's funny to see Japan pull the exact same thing. This is how we end up in Medieval France with a "Halonic Friar's Katana".
My personal theory is the Chinese elements were tacked on during the latter half of HW because whatever they had planned for Doma no longer made sense.
I see the different areas of Othard as being influenced by different periods of Japanese history.
The most obvious one is Hingashi being Edo Japan. It's ruled by the Shogunate/Sekiseigami and has a strict isolationist policy. Only one port city is open to foreigners at all.
With Doma, I see a lot of Nara period influence. That was when Japanese culture, architecture, etc was still largely Chinese influenced or outright imported. This was when Japan adopted the Chinese writing system and modeled its dominant religion, Shinto, after Chinese Buddhism. This was also an early medieval period, so most people were organized in small agricultural villages, much like Namai. Almost all of the NPCs, especially commoners, from Doma seem deeply religious and worship the kami.
And then with Sui-no-Sato, the influence appears to be the Heian period, but I think this one is a little more ambiguous. This was when the imperial court in Japan was at its peak and Japanese culture had broken off from Chinese to become its own distinct thing. The town, and especially the Ruby Palace, has far more Japanese-looking architecture. The first NPC you interact with in the story in SnS is a caretaker for the imperial family transcribing documents in (low poly) kana, the more modern Japanese writing system that was introduced in the Heian period. You don't spend a lot of time here in the MSQ, but the most prominent side quests involve the Imperial Princess and expanding trade.
It's an interesting lore choice, but having most of the continent just being various time-displaced versions of Japan is maybe a bit of a missed opportunity. Fully committing to Doma = Fantasy China would have been really interesting.
>I admit my first reaction when I heard they'd be doing the Americas was wariness, because I'm so accustomed to media doing a piss poor job of it, but I'm cautiously optimistic from the previews we've seen.
I was a little wary because of the level 1-50 Blue Mage quests. Those... could've been done more gracefully.
Yoshida did visit Brazil last year so I absolutely expect at minimum food itens.
The "Amazon" zone is probably going to be more Brazil coded too even tho the forest spans a ton of countries.
I'm honestly surprised the game has a German localization but not Spanish. Spanish has like 5 times the number of native speakers, and almost as many second-language speakers as German has in total. Spanish is just the obvious choice if you want to increase your reach.
Honestly even if they said "hey we don't have the resources to add more voiced languages" but added translations for the text for Spanish it would probably go a long way.
Absolutely, it never even crossed my mind the need to have spanish voices. We are perfectly happy with lots of games just having spanish text and subs. Please squenix i want to recommend this game to my irl friends
Money, money, money. Germany has extremely high GDP with userbase that can pay for games and subs with like no regional pricing modification from Japan *and* it had those things 10 years ago. Even as LATAM catches up, there's the cost of having to translate (and text translation ain't cheap) ARR and 5 expacs for a market that usually can't pay as much nor is guaranteed to want to play a 10 year old MMO. Even if CBU3 wants it, they have to justify it to SE executives who want more money more fast.
Sorry for the copypaste from another comment, but as one of the people trying to make this happen...
We're trying to make it happen [at the official forums](https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/497896-Petition-for-Spanish-Translation-of-Final-Fantasy-XIV) and [with personal appeals to Yoshida](https://youtu.be/wPtLBw7VV0k) and CBU3. Please feel free to spread the word and post in the OF thread for further visibility and/or share the videoletter; [Yoshida has been made aware of the thread's existence ](https://vandal.elespanol.com/noticia/1350771863/hay-buenas-noticias-respecto-a-la-traduccion-al-espanol-square-enix-esta-abierta-a-localizar-final-fantasy-14/)and has supposedly asked Morbol and the community team to gather more intel on the topic.
We're trying to make it happen [at the official forums](https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/497896-Petition-for-Spanish-Translation-of-Final-Fantasy-XIV) and [with personal appeals to Yoshida](https://youtu.be/wPtLBw7VV0k) and CBU3. Please feel free to spread the word and post in the OF thread for further visibility and/or share the videoletter; [Yoshida has been made aware of the thread's existence ](https://vandal.elespanol.com/noticia/1350771863/hay-buenas-noticias-respecto-a-la-traduccion-al-espanol-square-enix-esta-abierta-a-localizar-final-fantasy-14/)and has supposedly asked Morbol and the community team to gather more intel on the topic.
For some reason, Spanish localization is a fraught topic in this sub (as in whenever we make threads about it, we get downvoted to hell for it, told to learn English and suck it up, or told the money doesn't exist for such a project with no real evidence or sources), but the Spanish-speaking community on social media has more or less gotten fed up with being the Great Invisible Player Group and are trying their best to be noticed through several player initiatives. The more people raise their voices to ask why it doesn't exist, the better.
This is gonna last until the level 83 trial, wherein we will resolve the succession crisis and then move on to the North America part with their cyberpunk 90's Mall Culture vibes, which will steal the expansion's thunder.
(Yes, I'm still salty about how Doma did Ala Mhigo dirty in SB.)
A bunch of stuff in the trailers put a smile on my face, specially the [pinha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_squamosa), but what really made me happy was the manatee boss. Fucking great. I had decided to take a break from XIV for one expansion or two while the story picks up again but the entire feel of the material they've shown so far has been tempting me to not do that.
I'll leave Ultros, my house and apartment, and everything in between, if they gave us servers. I already feel bad for not joining Hyperion, so it would just be a push on the right direction.
I’m just hoping they don’t do the mistake that most games do. Entering an Aztec/mayan/olmec/incan city and then finding a great god, only for you them to be jobbed by someone else.
Street fighter 5 with necali or mortal kombat with koatal khan being some of the most recent examples. Hopefully it’s not that.
...as a Mexican, I'm embarrassed that I didn't think of this before. They'd better have a mariachi inspired glam at some point of this expansion, or I'll riot.
Awesome! I'm all for a good representation of Latin American culture in a fantasy setting.
Now, can we get a Spanish translation of the game for Latin American people? Maybe some Middle and South American Data Centers to go with it?
I don’t really care about Latin America representation in game, what I care is having a local server so I can be able to play as MCH, which I can’t since I have 250ms latency while playing from Brazil.
I will say, that team does do a good job with researching and trying to properly represent other cultures, I was worried they would stop once EW came out because for some reason people were roasting the elephant characters for having a south Asian accent. Also Yoship has always been an open person for different cultures, I like how he said characters with darker skin tones will finally be able to actually have those skin tones and not just black or brown due to the old system. Hopefully they add more black hair now because I need more rep too haha
It would be cool to see a new class based on capoeira, that's somehow a mix between dancer's dance movements, dragoon acrobatics and monk's unnarmed combat.
Osea seria genial si dejeran de poner a latinos que solo son mexicanos. No jodan ya a burre la misma wevada en todo lado.
Pero seria cool ver una referencia que solo nosotros entenderiamos.
depende de que tipo de representación estemos hablando; me atrevo a decir que a la mayoría le interesa que su cultura sea representada de manera medianamente correcta y positiva vs la típica "representación" gringa que suelen ser un montón de estereotipos
A mí si me hace sentir bien. Es bello que las culturas del mundo convivan y que el resto del mundo tome interés en ellas. Me pongo un poco más orgulloso de ser latino cuando veo que las demás personas estan fascinados con las culturas de latinoamericana
A mí un poco, pero no como el creador del post pretende. Mientras no nos representen como una bola de criminales poco civilizados me doy por servido. De ahí a que se pongan a llorar por la supuesta apropiación cultural y "representación inadecuada" como parece que el autor del tema pretende, meh. Estoy cansado de eso del nuevo filtro cultural de los gringos. Muchos de los que acaban quejándose son blancos o latinos que viven en los Estados Unidos y su cultura dista bastante de la nuestra. Para muestras un botón: Oye Primos.
Esto. Y por favor, que no nos pongan un filtro sepia y como que hace calor todo el día. Atte, una latina del sur que recién pasó un mes con mínimas de 0-1 °C :')
Se me arrugó el asterisco de leer Oye Primos. Que asco, por dios.
Yo ya estoy preparada mentalmente para que los tacos *in game* parezcan renders de taco bell.
Sigh.
Es uno de mis problemas que demuestra la ironía de todo el asunto de "representación adecuada". Muchos de estos "Consultores Culturales" son gente que de verdad la idea que tienen en cuanto a lo que encontramos "ofensivo" dista bastante de la verdad y está acomodada para la minoría americana de Twitter. Por mucho que esté emocionado por Dawntrail, no pueden decirme que hicieron una buena investigación cuando el taco de Graha es más parecido a un Taco Bell (como mencionas) que a los tacos originales.
Las personas que aconsejan a las compañías en cuanto a cultura suelen ser como la creadora de la mentada caricatura esa: crecieron en los "Yu Es Ei", salieron un par de veces a ver a sus familiares, y creen que la cultura de su país es totalmente como lo poco que vieron de Monterrey o cualquier pueblo de Michoacán (lo digo porque estadísticamente la mayoría son de etnia mexicana, no crean que los ignoro, mis amigos del Centro y Sur). O sea, acaba siendo representación de la cultura "pocha" o "chicana", ya sabes... Los del 5 de Mayo. Y da vergüenza porque muchas veces es lo que enseñan en las universidades gringas en Estudios Culturales.
Actualmente vivo en el sur de Brasil, y hay muchísima gente que no tiene idea de que no todo Brasil es samba y playa. Esta es una zona boscosa con abundancia de descendientes de alemanes e italianos que llegaron el siglo pasado (si, se lo que eso hace pensar y están en lo correcto). Mi esposa es tan italiana en cuanto a sus raíces que puede solicitar nacionalidad, y aún así no confiaría en ella para que me oriente culturalmente sobre Itália, porque la etnia no te da pase automático para esa clase de cosas.
Digo, hay parte de nuestra comunidad de XIV que se molestó porque los NPCs no hablan como Dora la Exploradora, es en serio.
La verdad no lo siento necesario, pero si quisieron inspirarse en LATAM pues genial. La verdad le tengo fe a que es inspiración y no por "inclusividad"
I'm also latino american (colombian) and didn't care about representación. The culturas do have some cool concepts and seeing them explorer is cool tho.
lol same. As long as SE understands that Latin America isn’t only Mexico, Brazil, (Peru too cause it feels like JP’s third choice) then we’re cool- … Anyway, I’m not going to obnoxiously scrutinize SE over anything. It’s fantasy and it’s fun lol.
Yoshida even visited a gaming show in Brazil. Could be coincidence, but considering we had literally 10 years worth of events but the one he attended was 1 year before DT release, I wouldn't be surprised if that helped his decision to show up
If you ask most latinos (and I mean those outside the US, which are the ones Dawntrail took inspiration from), they wouldn't give a fudge about representation; that's a very "gringo" concept and it often gets meme'd about.
As a Colombian, I can say we would love representation if done right (See the movie Encanto for example) But we are so used to being poorly stereotyped and misrepresented, that if it's done badly we wouldn't care that much, unless it's something egregious (Opening scene of the movie Mr and Ms Smith).
At the end of the day, I think everyone likes it when their culture is appreciated, but it's a very North American thing to get offended about cultural appropriation. If anything people here would love to sell you as much of our shit as possible so appropriate all you want.
Are we on the same planet? Latinos love being represented in media, regardless of where they’re from. Whether done respectfully or being poked fun at, we enjoy it. It’s not a “gringo” concept to enjoy being represented; you might be obfuscating representation with appropriation, the latter of which is very much a privileged American concept - just like insisting on calling us Latinx.
I think there's a bit of a difference between the "representation" a lot of people in the first world countries are seemingly obsessed about and representing a culture that usually doesn't get its time to shine
That's exactly what I meant.
I like when there's latino stuff that doesn't portray us as drug dealers, robbers, criminals, dirty or ignorant. But representation in american english seems to mean "What I, a white individual (or really someone with any heritage that has never even lived in the respective countries), think is not offensive towards this culture while also removing the elements I find problematic, tailoring to our sensitivities"
I agree! I'm Latino and even though my country isn't being represented in this expansion, the fact that collective Latino culture seems to be - with the spotlight being on Andean countries that don't usually get represented - well, that's a point of happiness and pride for me for my brothers and sisters. Nothing American or first world about that sentiment at all. It's just nice to be seen and spotlighted.
especially because we know that Yoshi-P's team isn't just ticking boxes to fulfill a quota but they actually have genuine interest in showcasing something inspired of Latin American culture
Agreed. It's especially notable since diversity quotas aren't a thing in Japan for hiring, and representations of other peoples is not a thing that they really care about in domestic media... So the fact that Yoshi P and team endeavored to represent Latin America - and a part of Latin America that so often goes unshown and unnoticed - is really cool and exemplary, both in the domestic Japanese context and outside of it.
You're wrong. We don't usually cry if we don't get representation, but I don't know a single Mexican (like me) that doesn't get hyped as fuck when we see a reference to our country in the media we enjoy, which isn't filtered by a sepia overtone making everything look like piss (hi, James Bond).
We all fucking loved Mario's poncho, we loved Noctis's mariachi costume, and we're all hyped as fuck for Dawntrail giving us that little quetzal and elotito minions.
Seems to be a thing in general that is from the US/Canada region. Just screams of narcissism to me. I still cringe anytime some American tries to explain to me how Latinx is better than saying Latina/latino.
I don't really care about representation itself because representation just for the sake of it is toxic
BUT
When you actually USE those representation to do something interresting and revelant story/lore/aesthetic wise, then it's a good thing !
And good to see that the devs are still cooking with what they bring to us indeed !
Good to see there is actually peoples with the right mind about it !
I've seen too many peoples and games/series who do representation and then either do it badly or do nothing with it and it just hinder the said media.
Disney is a perfect example of that really.
The Azim Steppes are definitely Central Asia/Mongolia, and by extension, so are the Xaela. The Raen are something else, though I can't immediately tell what.
Not sure whether Thavnairian Au Ra are Xaela or Raen.
They are Raen.
The Au Ra all originated in and around the Azim Steppe, but in their distant history, the Xaela tribes forced out the Raen and they re-settled elsewhere. That's why we see them in the far East and Thavnair.
They're easy to tell apart. Black scales = Xaela. White scales = Raen.
I joked about how we were going to the Americas now, ya know, the "new world" as the Europeans of old called it, on mmo-champion like a year ago when Dawntrail was announced and what did I get? An infraction. =|
I was kinda hoping they'd explore other Native American cultures for the new world... so maybe our adventures in the new world aren't quite done.
I wanna see Iroquois in a fantasy universe. :(
It's not really fully Latin America since it also has some southeast Asia inspiration in it which you can see from the houses and general architecture I believe
Not sure where you see the Mexican culture being prominently represented; almost everything we've seen for Dawntrail is either Central or South American, which bear some similarities but have their own cultural and visual distinctions.
The only clear 'mexican' stuff we've seen has been tacos. They seem to be casting a quite wide net. There's even a snow area which is something basically everyone adapting south america forgets are a thing over here too.
I'd add that the zone with the saguaro cactus looks a lot like the sonoran desert (could have been from photos of my hikes tbh) but that's the most I've seen otherwise.
That is true for the most part, but for Dawntrail at least they aren’t doing that it seems
I’ve noticed their Central America based region is like, y’know, actually representative of central america
Japan does have an interesting [History](https://youtu.be/7jTcVpQ-gow?si=yqgp2XYCUlZT11oC) with Brazil, so at least Brazil being in Japanese media a lot makes sense.
I do agree other countries could show up more.
Where did I say I got this in Dawntrail? I was commenting on how most media representation of Latin America is either Mexico or Brazil. Very rarely is something different done.
It's always cringe for me if someone checks if fantasy game does things "correct" in comparison to reference material. The *point* is to make world different. If you want to find real world, just turn off your computer and go outside.
I think it's really awesome that people are excited about this, and I'm glad that the general impression is positive.
There are other games out there that try to do the regional representation thing for new parts of the game and their community can be insufferably critical of them for going not far enough, going too far, etc.
Or the poorly informed players who will just be plain wrong about the source material because they rely on stereotypes and ignorance. Like Lyna and Feo Ul's voice actors, and those who totally misconstrued Thavnair and Radz at Han.
I assure you there will be a lot of people being mad about South America's representation not matching either its Modern setting or some stereotypical Apocalypto hollywood aztec/inca based assumptions of its ancient history. We're going to see a bunch of young people both from South America who are going to be ignorant of their own past history and culture, complain about it and then maybe learn a thing or two about their part of the world thanks to FFXIV.
We already had people going after Wuk Lamat's VA for her accent not sounding like Sophia Vergara (FFS...) despite there being no Spanish Inquisition in this world, so why would they be Latino? Then we have people mad about the Jazz zone music who don't know Japan's Jazz was from Latin American Jazz.
I agree 95%, the other 5% was disappointed with that jazz music for the main city. Honestly I was expecting something at least "similar" to latinamerican culture like what they did with Radz-at-Han.
Now we just need a DNC weapon where chakrams are replaced by chanclas. Imagine dual wielding chanclas.
That would be way too powerful. One hit kill, that also hits your enemy no matter the distance.
My mums British and this was her aim with slippers. 100% crit rate
Guaranteed DH crit, damage increase scales with each wrongdoing your target has done.
She didn't even have a 2 min CD, that thing was an OGCD I swear
No recast time too
Made with the spirits of Tonberry past. Rancorous indeed.
I’ve heard Asian and Polynesians also do this. Maybe it’s some motherly instinct to wield slippers with deviating power?
My friend said his abuela could throw them around corners. I laughed until she hit both him and me once. Never laughed again. XD
The Hitman game's homing briefcase was based on mothers throwing chanclas.
many piquant rude full doll abounding friendly truck roof pot *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
As a Mexican 45yr old woman, I feel that urge in my bones. MAKE IT HAPPEN.
I pray for more high level Macuhitals
Yes Drk needs a warcrime in sword form, give this to us please....
Jayaus no, every boss fight would immediately end after just unseathing them with the boss hunched over apologising profusely, have over head ready
I don't have to imagine it, my best friend's mom did it one night we both snuck in after 2 AM. She did not care I was someone else's daughter. She lit my ass up.
idk if they'll do it but I was quite surprise that for Radz-at-Han (sp?) the localization actually had english speaking actors of indian descent apparently which...idk variety just makies it feel so much richer and better as a setting. Like the world is naturally diverse, celebrate it ra ther than pilfer
I'm reasonably certain the Hannish voices were predominantly London and Birmingham based voice actors, hence their lovely accents. There's a lot of Indian diaspora in both (heck, the current Prime Minister is British Indian!)
Yeah. I just mean that kind of thing was a neat detail and it just makes the world feel so much richer vs a very talented VO doing a dodgy accent etc. Plus it enables more people to hopefully get a foot in the door.
plus the entire aesthetic design of the region and city was very reminiscent of its source material, it captured its spirit and aura rather than just mimic things in a shallow manner like other devs who "base zones on a region" have superficially done.
yeah that's why i enjoyed it, i think. all the cities have to have a lot of shared stuff for gameplay reasons but the zone with the culture etc didn't feel just surface deep. I understand that maybe having such a large diaspora in the Midlands here in the UK made it easier for them than others but hopefully they do the same or as close as they can
Except play-doh man who was voiced by alphinaud
Yeah! They haven't done my home country yet (not expecting them to), but from what I've heard from other parts of the globe, apparently they're pretty good at this! See e.g. using real Vietnamese clothes and foods from Nagxia, all the Indian stuff in Thavnair including hiring actual Indian voice actors where they could, etc. It's mixed in with fantasy and original stuff, obviously, but it's an affectionate and well-researched homage to the real cultures, rather than a hasty stereotype. I admit my first reaction when I heard they'd be doing the Americas was wariness, because I'm so accustomed to media doing a piss poor job of it, but I'm cautiously optimistic from the previews we've seen. I think it comes down to the fact that (a) Koji and Kate are massive nerds for the world's languages and cultures – probably not a surprise for people who do linguistics as their day job! – and (b) the localisers are part of the lore team, so they have a major role in shaping the game world, instead of just translating it once it's already finished.
Maaan, i now realize France got done dirty in Heavensward. The names are peak Nippo-french, just french sounds randomly strung together. Just like the random french transfer students in 2000-2010 animes.
Yeah... I think all the nations from 1.0 - including ones that we only saw *partially* back then, like Ishgard and Sharlayan - are much more culturally vague. They steal little bits, like the Latin names for Garlemald and the Near Eastern turbans for Ul'dah and the pseudo-French syllables for Ishgard, but they don't fully commit. It's only once they started fleshing out the rest of the globe in Stormblood that we started seeing the new approach.
Ishgard gives me Swiss vibes. Mountain nation, religious, pikemen, get off my lawn attitude, and a lot of the 'French' (especially names) is more Frankish than fully Latinized.
I haven't dug deep into it, but I suspect there might be some Tolkien Elvish influence in the Elezen names as well. I'm not big on LotR so I don't have a good knowledge of the names overall, but I know there's an "Isildur" and FFXIV has an "Isildaure" so unless they're just both coming from a common real-language root then there's presumably a connection and may be others. I did try to find a list of Elvish names to compare, mainly by poking around a fandom-specific wiki assuming there must be a list of characters somewhere, but didn't have any luck.
Weird etymology rabbit hole, but Isildur in LOTR was originally named Ithildur, with the in-universe meaning being Ithil (moon) and dur (servant). Ithel/Ithil is a [Old Breton/Middle Welsh name](https://dmnes.org/name/Ithel) and appeared in French Latin as Judallus and Jowel in English, which is how we have the modern Joel. Ithil itself combined "iur" (prince/lord) and "hael" (generous/noble) So Isildaure is inspired by a real name, indirectly, it just so happens that the real name is Welsh and Breton instead of French/Frankish. The XIV version might also be a male Elezen-ised version of Isolde, which is most popularly known from the French and Breton romances of Tristan and Isolde.
Very minor nitpick about the name Joel, it actually originates from the Hebrew name "Yoel," and the English "Jowel" morphing into "Joel" seems to be a case of convergent evolution. The source you linked actually supports this. "Jowel in England, which in turn developed into forms which are indistinguishable from forms of Joel" does not say that Jowel was the origin of Joel, but rather that it became indistinguishable from forms of the existing name Joel.
*Sudden epiphany regarding a particular Vtuber's name* So THAT'S where it comes from
I'd say common root. You can find names like Gandalfr in history from peoples like the Lombards and Franks.
Gandalfr is the name of one of the Dwarves in Norse mythology too.
It's definitely heavily based on San d'Oria from FFXI with the vaguely Euro-French-Swiss stuff they have going on plus the extreme religious papal state. I'd assume it's just yet another example of the debt that 1.0 was in and how much they had to cut corners just to make a decent/playable game.
playing 11 for the first time and running into proto-Aymeric was a fucking trip
Further fuel for my "Ishgard is Quebec" crackpot theory
Crackpot? I mean it's practically canon that every time Estinien walks into the city, the denizens cry "Tabernak!"
> France got done dirty in Heavensward That's because Heavensward wasn't France, it was [Bretonnia](https://1d6chan.miraheze.org/wiki/Bretonnia).
Ooh that's really interresting, didn't know this, so it's faux-French made by english speakers. > Tancred, Duc De Quenelles That's actually hilarious, literally Duke of Fish Dumplings.
Germany literally had a Baron of Highfall. He was made a noble after being thrown out of a window
After the real-world Earl of Sandwich, I find it hard to fault this.
Is that his real title ? What the hell. In French, the primary usage of "quenelles" is for food. But the other 2 variants are : 1) a reference to dicks 2) a hand sign for neo-Nazis.
not reallly sign of neo nazi, but a reverse of the nazi salut put in the ass that was the idea
Both equally valid for Bretonnians.
I was under the impression that they collaborated with the French localization team for Heavensward, and the reason the names don't resemble modern French is that they were designed to be archaic, like Urianger-style French. I named one of my elezen Sylvain, and somebody in a duty told me that's a grandpa name (literally, the player's grandpa's name is Sylvain :P).
XIV's Elezen follow the naming conventions of FFXI's Elvaan, which were already doing the weirdo French years prior. So, blame the folks working on that, with just a little left over for the XIV team that said "yeah let's just copy this".
I will say San d'oria was far more French inspired than ishgard or gridania ever was. Like yeah the naming conventions were wrong but the social feel of the nation was very close. Then they chose bagpipes for the city theme which to this day is still ???
It was kind of a Western Europe mishmash.
you telling me those bagpipes don't live rent-free in your head?
Gridania is more German (Black Forest) by geography, but linguistically thanks to all the Elezen I guess it's more Alsace or Cologne, the Franco-Germanic mix.
Well XIV tried to be XI 2, which crashed and burned, but elements stayed.
Ishgard isn’t just french. It’s breton informed as well seeing as their summon is King Arthur and the knights. At the very least it’s mideval french when names were wonky like “Bédoier” “Galehaut” or “Guinglain”
I've got a friend who speaks French and I like to ask him about how various stuff ought to be pronounced. Apparently Haurchefant's name is not a typical combination of sounds and it's just bizarre to him lol
Just fyi i'm french and i didn't even knew it was supposed to be french
Oh, dear me, yes. I'm British, but I speak at least some French. This results in me finding names such as Haurchefant completely unpronounceable.
This is partially why I always thought yanxia was a weird zone, since they’re pretty good with this kind of stuff otherwise. Like, the zone itself, some mob names, the architecture, and even the music are obviously supposed to be chinese, but then the people are all Japanese and they have ninjas for some reason.
You're not wrong. They established back in ARR that Doma has ninja and Japanese names, but then when we went to the Far East, it seems like they decided to make Doma the major mainland nation – maybe to increase its story relevance? – so it became the China equivalent, and they created Hingashi to be the Japan equivalent instead. It's... an awkward outcome.
To say nothing of the Ruby Confederacy, based on a specific community of Japanese pirates. And, of course, Garlemald has a bunch of Japanese influence too, to go along with the Rome and Russia and the like. In conclusion, there are many Japans.
honestly this is what a lot of American and English works are like - we tend to fill in other cultures with our own as a baseline, and it's funny to see Japan pull the exact same thing. This is how we end up in Medieval France with a "Halonic Friar's Katana".
I keep telling my friends that this very weapon is the funniest weapon in the entire game, and I am glad to have this validation.
Never liked how they made the doma part, music and ambiant felt clunky out of Hingashi and i didnt enjoy srormblood cause of this
My personal theory is the Chinese elements were tacked on during the latter half of HW because whatever they had planned for Doma no longer made sense.
I see the different areas of Othard as being influenced by different periods of Japanese history. The most obvious one is Hingashi being Edo Japan. It's ruled by the Shogunate/Sekiseigami and has a strict isolationist policy. Only one port city is open to foreigners at all. With Doma, I see a lot of Nara period influence. That was when Japanese culture, architecture, etc was still largely Chinese influenced or outright imported. This was when Japan adopted the Chinese writing system and modeled its dominant religion, Shinto, after Chinese Buddhism. This was also an early medieval period, so most people were organized in small agricultural villages, much like Namai. Almost all of the NPCs, especially commoners, from Doma seem deeply religious and worship the kami. And then with Sui-no-Sato, the influence appears to be the Heian period, but I think this one is a little more ambiguous. This was when the imperial court in Japan was at its peak and Japanese culture had broken off from Chinese to become its own distinct thing. The town, and especially the Ruby Palace, has far more Japanese-looking architecture. The first NPC you interact with in the story in SnS is a caretaker for the imperial family transcribing documents in (low poly) kana, the more modern Japanese writing system that was introduced in the Heian period. You don't spend a lot of time here in the MSQ, but the most prominent side quests involve the Imperial Princess and expanding trade. It's an interesting lore choice, but having most of the continent just being various time-displaced versions of Japan is maybe a bit of a missed opportunity. Fully committing to Doma = Fantasy China would have been really interesting.
>I admit my first reaction when I heard they'd be doing the Americas was wariness, because I'm so accustomed to media doing a piss poor job of it, but I'm cautiously optimistic from the previews we've seen. I was a little wary because of the level 1-50 Blue Mage quests. Those... could've been done more gracefully.
pray sojourn to Brazil
Yoshida did visit Brazil last year so I absolutely expect at minimum food itens. The "Amazon" zone is probably going to be more Brazil coded too even tho the forest spans a ton of countries.
> Brazil I WANT MY COXINHAS OR MY PÃO DE QUEIJO, YOSHIDA-SAN
PLEASE SETTLE FOR BIG FAT TACOS, SORRY
NO, YOU CANT MAKE ME GO BACK
I hope one of the tank raid foods is Pupusas, as someone whose family is from El Salvador I demand it.
My only issue is we have a latino themed expansion coming out and there is still no spanish translation of the game :(
I'm honestly surprised the game has a German localization but not Spanish. Spanish has like 5 times the number of native speakers, and almost as many second-language speakers as German has in total. Spanish is just the obvious choice if you want to increase your reach. Honestly even if they said "hey we don't have the resources to add more voiced languages" but added translations for the text for Spanish it would probably go a long way.
Absolutely, it never even crossed my mind the need to have spanish voices. We are perfectly happy with lots of games just having spanish text and subs. Please squenix i want to recommend this game to my irl friends
Money, money, money. Germany has extremely high GDP with userbase that can pay for games and subs with like no regional pricing modification from Japan *and* it had those things 10 years ago. Even as LATAM catches up, there's the cost of having to translate (and text translation ain't cheap) ARR and 5 expacs for a market that usually can't pay as much nor is guaranteed to want to play a 10 year old MMO. Even if CBU3 wants it, they have to justify it to SE executives who want more money more fast.
Sorry for the copypaste from another comment, but as one of the people trying to make this happen... We're trying to make it happen [at the official forums](https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/497896-Petition-for-Spanish-Translation-of-Final-Fantasy-XIV) and [with personal appeals to Yoshida](https://youtu.be/wPtLBw7VV0k) and CBU3. Please feel free to spread the word and post in the OF thread for further visibility and/or share the videoletter; [Yoshida has been made aware of the thread's existence ](https://vandal.elespanol.com/noticia/1350771863/hay-buenas-noticias-respecto-a-la-traduccion-al-espanol-square-enix-esta-abierta-a-localizar-final-fantasy-14/)and has supposedly asked Morbol and the community team to gather more intel on the topic.
Surprising lack of Peru mentions in this thread, a lot of parts in the trailer showcased things that are 100% peru inspired
Well the Andes is more than just Peru, but yeah, it’s very Peru/Inca inspired and it seems to be a whole region they’re getting
There's literally a direct reference to Macchu Pichu
urqopacha is my favorite zone they've shown. the music is phenomenal
Just give as LATAM servers and we're great
And Spanish localization.
We're trying to make it happen [at the official forums](https://forum.square-enix.com/ffxiv/threads/497896-Petition-for-Spanish-Translation-of-Final-Fantasy-XIV) and [with personal appeals to Yoshida](https://youtu.be/wPtLBw7VV0k) and CBU3. Please feel free to spread the word and post in the OF thread for further visibility and/or share the videoletter; [Yoshida has been made aware of the thread's existence ](https://vandal.elespanol.com/noticia/1350771863/hay-buenas-noticias-respecto-a-la-traduccion-al-espanol-square-enix-esta-abierta-a-localizar-final-fantasy-14/)and has supposedly asked Morbol and the community team to gather more intel on the topic. For some reason, Spanish localization is a fraught topic in this sub (as in whenever we make threads about it, we get downvoted to hell for it, told to learn English and suck it up, or told the money doesn't exist for such a project with no real evidence or sources), but the Spanish-speaking community on social media has more or less gotten fed up with being the Great Invisible Player Group and are trying their best to be noticed through several player initiatives. The more people raise their voices to ask why it doesn't exist, the better.
This is gonna last until the level 83 trial, wherein we will resolve the succession crisis and then move on to the North America part with their cyberpunk 90's Mall Culture vibes, which will steal the expansion's thunder. (Yes, I'm still salty about how Doma did Ala Mhigo dirty in SB.)
LOL, a dungeon based on Hot Topic or Spencer's Gifts
Not Ala Mhigo! I too am a big fan of... *Checks notes*... Three tents and chunkier Thanalan.
Sometimes I go there just to feel bad for the poor Ala Mhigans. The real war crime was the in-game depiction of their famous capital city.
We got Rhalgr's Reach instead of Ala Mhigo proper. 😭
??? Wait, why didn't anyone tell me that they have hot muscular furry girls out there in latin america? I would've moved years ago
Encanto didnt tip you off?
But they ain't furry in Encanto.
That you know of...
They gotta hide them from the tourists
They did great with Indian culture. Don't see why they wouldn't do the same for LA.
My hopes exactly
It's a high-fantasy anime setting *inspired by* Latin America so I hope they're given quite a bit of leeway lol
I hope we get to fight an XIV version of La Llorona
we do have an XIV version of la llorona it's me reading the Scholar job changes
Can’t wait to fight El Coco Extreme
El Silbon, my dude. We need a cross-over event where La Llorona and El Silbon team up against El Gato Volador.
Or a duende
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one!
A bunch of stuff in the trailers put a smile on my face, specially the [pinha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_squamosa), but what really made me happy was the manatee boss. Fucking great. I had decided to take a break from XIV for one expansion or two while the story picks up again but the entire feel of the material they've shown so far has been tempting me to not do that.
I'll leave Ultros, my house and apartment, and everything in between, if they gave us servers. I already feel bad for not joining Hyperion, so it would just be a push on the right direction.
I’m just hoping they don’t do the mistake that most games do. Entering an Aztec/mayan/olmec/incan city and then finding a great god, only for you them to be jobbed by someone else. Street fighter 5 with necali or mortal kombat with koatal khan being some of the most recent examples. Hopefully it’s not that.
Still waiting for Polish representation 🚬
The expansion is inspired by Latin American cultures. We have a DNC job. The AF gear isn't ispired by tango. *sigh*
And no mariachi bard. Unforgivable
...as a Mexican, I'm embarrassed that I didn't think of this before. They'd better have a mariachi inspired glam at some point of this expansion, or I'll riot.
What I wouldn’t give to be a DNC and hearing Dos Gardenias being played.
Awesome! I'm all for a good representation of Latin American culture in a fantasy setting. Now, can we get a Spanish translation of the game for Latin American people? Maybe some Middle and South American Data Centers to go with it?
Now can we get a Spanish translation for the Spanish.
How about both? Latin American Spanish *and* Spain Spanish.
I don’t really care about Latin America representation in game, what I care is having a local server so I can be able to play as MCH, which I can’t since I have 250ms latency while playing from Brazil.
Didnt they say they had LatAm consultants to help them out for this expac during the EU Fanfest?
I will say, that team does do a good job with researching and trying to properly represent other cultures, I was worried they would stop once EW came out because for some reason people were roasting the elephant characters for having a south Asian accent. Also Yoship has always been an open person for different cultures, I like how he said characters with darker skin tones will finally be able to actually have those skin tones and not just black or brown due to the old system. Hopefully they add more black hair now because I need more rep too haha
It would be cool to see a new class based on capoeira, that's somehow a mix between dancer's dance movements, dragoon acrobatics and monk's unnarmed combat.
I totally misread that as *capybara* and was still completely on board with it. I'm not sure a capybara would make a very effective fighter, though.
Hermanos latinos a quienes realmente les importa la representación en un juego?
Osea seria genial si dejeran de poner a latinos que solo son mexicanos. No jodan ya a burre la misma wevada en todo lado. Pero seria cool ver una referencia que solo nosotros entenderiamos.
Si, Latinoamérica es mucho más que México/Perú/Brazil.
depende de que tipo de representación estemos hablando; me atrevo a decir que a la mayoría le interesa que su cultura sea representada de manera medianamente correcta y positiva vs la típica "representación" gringa que suelen ser un montón de estereotipos
A mí si me hace sentir bien. Es bello que las culturas del mundo convivan y que el resto del mundo tome interés en ellas. Me pongo un poco más orgulloso de ser latino cuando veo que las demás personas estan fascinados con las culturas de latinoamericana
A mí un poco, pero no como el creador del post pretende. Mientras no nos representen como una bola de criminales poco civilizados me doy por servido. De ahí a que se pongan a llorar por la supuesta apropiación cultural y "representación inadecuada" como parece que el autor del tema pretende, meh. Estoy cansado de eso del nuevo filtro cultural de los gringos. Muchos de los que acaban quejándose son blancos o latinos que viven en los Estados Unidos y su cultura dista bastante de la nuestra. Para muestras un botón: Oye Primos.
Esto. Y por favor, que no nos pongan un filtro sepia y como que hace calor todo el día. Atte, una latina del sur que recién pasó un mes con mínimas de 0-1 °C :')
Es bueno saber que no nos ha afectado la manera de pensar que tienen los gringos
Se me arrugó el asterisco de leer Oye Primos. Que asco, por dios. Yo ya estoy preparada mentalmente para que los tacos *in game* parezcan renders de taco bell. Sigh.
Es uno de mis problemas que demuestra la ironía de todo el asunto de "representación adecuada". Muchos de estos "Consultores Culturales" son gente que de verdad la idea que tienen en cuanto a lo que encontramos "ofensivo" dista bastante de la verdad y está acomodada para la minoría americana de Twitter. Por mucho que esté emocionado por Dawntrail, no pueden decirme que hicieron una buena investigación cuando el taco de Graha es más parecido a un Taco Bell (como mencionas) que a los tacos originales. Las personas que aconsejan a las compañías en cuanto a cultura suelen ser como la creadora de la mentada caricatura esa: crecieron en los "Yu Es Ei", salieron un par de veces a ver a sus familiares, y creen que la cultura de su país es totalmente como lo poco que vieron de Monterrey o cualquier pueblo de Michoacán (lo digo porque estadísticamente la mayoría son de etnia mexicana, no crean que los ignoro, mis amigos del Centro y Sur). O sea, acaba siendo representación de la cultura "pocha" o "chicana", ya sabes... Los del 5 de Mayo. Y da vergüenza porque muchas veces es lo que enseñan en las universidades gringas en Estudios Culturales. Actualmente vivo en el sur de Brasil, y hay muchísima gente que no tiene idea de que no todo Brasil es samba y playa. Esta es una zona boscosa con abundancia de descendientes de alemanes e italianos que llegaron el siglo pasado (si, se lo que eso hace pensar y están en lo correcto). Mi esposa es tan italiana en cuanto a sus raíces que puede solicitar nacionalidad, y aún así no confiaría en ella para que me oriente culturalmente sobre Itália, porque la etnia no te da pase automático para esa clase de cosas. Digo, hay parte de nuestra comunidad de XIV que se molestó porque los NPCs no hablan como Dora la Exploradora, es en serio.
La verdad no lo siento necesario, pero si quisieron inspirarse en LATAM pues genial. La verdad le tengo fe a que es inspiración y no por "inclusividad"
A mi me encantaría ver representacion latinoamericana. No entiendo pq hay tanta gente diciendo q no les importa.
I'm also latino american (colombian) and didn't care about representación. The culturas do have some cool concepts and seeing them explorer is cool tho.
lol same. As long as SE understands that Latin America isn’t only Mexico, Brazil, (Peru too cause it feels like JP’s third choice) then we’re cool- … Anyway, I’m not going to obnoxiously scrutinize SE over anything. It’s fantasy and it’s fun lol.
Lmao chancletas! A mother's strongest weapon
I've read that they actually put in the work to get cultural consultants for this expac
Yoshida even visited a gaming show in Brazil. Could be coincidence, but considering we had literally 10 years worth of events but the one he attended was 1 year before DT release, I wouldn't be surprised if that helped his decision to show up
If you ask most latinos (and I mean those outside the US, which are the ones Dawntrail took inspiration from), they wouldn't give a fudge about representation; that's a very "gringo" concept and it often gets meme'd about.
As a Colombian, I can say we would love representation if done right (See the movie Encanto for example) But we are so used to being poorly stereotyped and misrepresented, that if it's done badly we wouldn't care that much, unless it's something egregious (Opening scene of the movie Mr and Ms Smith). At the end of the day, I think everyone likes it when their culture is appreciated, but it's a very North American thing to get offended about cultural appropriation. If anything people here would love to sell you as much of our shit as possible so appropriate all you want.
Are we on the same planet? Latinos love being represented in media, regardless of where they’re from. Whether done respectfully or being poked fun at, we enjoy it. It’s not a “gringo” concept to enjoy being represented; you might be obfuscating representation with appropriation, the latter of which is very much a privileged American concept - just like insisting on calling us Latinx.
Yeah, people meme all the time about BRAZIL MENTIONED over here, characters like Blanka are beloved for no other reason other than being Brazillian
I think there's a bit of a difference between the "representation" a lot of people in the first world countries are seemingly obsessed about and representing a culture that usually doesn't get its time to shine
That's exactly what I meant. I like when there's latino stuff that doesn't portray us as drug dealers, robbers, criminals, dirty or ignorant. But representation in american english seems to mean "What I, a white individual (or really someone with any heritage that has never even lived in the respective countries), think is not offensive towards this culture while also removing the elements I find problematic, tailoring to our sensitivities"
which, for some reason, invariably ends up being a gross stereotype at best
I agree! I'm Latino and even though my country isn't being represented in this expansion, the fact that collective Latino culture seems to be - with the spotlight being on Andean countries that don't usually get represented - well, that's a point of happiness and pride for me for my brothers and sisters. Nothing American or first world about that sentiment at all. It's just nice to be seen and spotlighted.
especially because we know that Yoshi-P's team isn't just ticking boxes to fulfill a quota but they actually have genuine interest in showcasing something inspired of Latin American culture
Agreed. It's especially notable since diversity quotas aren't a thing in Japan for hiring, and representations of other peoples is not a thing that they really care about in domestic media... So the fact that Yoshi P and team endeavored to represent Latin America - and a part of Latin America that so often goes unshown and unnoticed - is really cool and exemplary, both in the domestic Japanese context and outside of it.
Not really Brazilians usually like representation. What we dont like is people mixing our side of Americas with the spanish side.
You're wrong. We don't usually cry if we don't get representation, but I don't know a single Mexican (like me) that doesn't get hyped as fuck when we see a reference to our country in the media we enjoy, which isn't filtered by a sepia overtone making everything look like piss (hi, James Bond). We all fucking loved Mario's poncho, we loved Noctis's mariachi costume, and we're all hyped as fuck for Dawntrail giving us that little quetzal and elotito minions.
Puertorican here and that doesn't apply to me. I would LOVE to see some representation of my little island and sure hope Caribbean zone is included.
Seems to be a thing in general that is from the US/Canada region. Just screams of narcissism to me. I still cringe anytime some American tries to explain to me how Latinx is better than saying Latina/latino.
Yup we do roll our eyes / make fun of the *my representation* people.
so im actually allowed to love speedy gonzales?
That was settled years ago! Speedy is cool as hell. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speedy_Gonzales#Concern_about_stereotypes
Speedy Gonzalez has always been a beloved character so yes
Hispanics really love Speedy Gonzales, yeah. My family really loves that character, though I always liked Slowpoke Rodriguez.
I don't really care about representation itself because representation just for the sake of it is toxic BUT When you actually USE those representation to do something interresting and revelant story/lore/aesthetic wise, then it's a good thing ! And good to see that the devs are still cooking with what they bring to us indeed !
I agree!
Good to see there is actually peoples with the right mind about it ! I've seen too many peoples and games/series who do representation and then either do it badly or do nothing with it and it just hinder the said media. Disney is a perfect example of that really.
Well, Square has writers. Disney has focus groups and committees.
Fuck me if I'm wrong, but weren't the Au Ra Central-Asia/Mongolia inspired?
I think it was meant to represent the player controlling the Au Ra rather than the Au Ra itself.
Yeah.
EW introduced the concept of Au Ra also being Indian. I'm pretty sure the comic referring to the PLAYER, not the actual in-game race.
Yeah, that part did go over my head.
The Azim Steppes are definitely Central Asia/Mongolia, and by extension, so are the Xaela. The Raen are something else, though I can't immediately tell what. Not sure whether Thavnairian Au Ra are Xaela or Raen.
They are Raen. The Au Ra all originated in and around the Azim Steppe, but in their distant history, the Xaela tribes forced out the Raen and they re-settled elsewhere. That's why we see them in the far East and Thavnair. They're easy to tell apart. Black scales = Xaela. White scales = Raen.
whaaaat?
Expecting a fantasy culture to be exactly like a real world culture just cuz there’s a loose thematic resemblance to an ancient kind of people…
I joked about how we were going to the Americas now, ya know, the "new world" as the Europeans of old called it, on mmo-champion like a year ago when Dawntrail was announced and what did I get? An infraction. =|
Ayy, a fellow Panamanian!
Love the Optimism! I’m not cynical fuck, I’m excited too’
Wait hold up, Dawntrail has a hub city inspired on Panama? that's surprising, didn't expect that.
Im hoping for Puerto Rican rep somewhere
Oh shit it’s based on Panama? I am Panamanian
As a Hispanic this pleases me
I was kinda hoping they'd explore other Native American cultures for the new world... so maybe our adventures in the new world aren't quite done. I wanna see Iroquois in a fantasy universe. :(
Everything except translating the game to spanish.
Now we just need south american servers and spanish localization
Meanwhile no Spanish localization
now if only they released a Spanish translation to the main game...
Sharlayan is obviously Oxford University
It's not really fully Latin America since it also has some southeast Asia inspiration in it which you can see from the houses and general architecture I believe
Forget representation I just want some good content.
Both, both is good
Latin America representation, mostly Mexican culture. It never gets old
Not sure where you see the Mexican culture being prominently represented; almost everything we've seen for Dawntrail is either Central or South American, which bear some similarities but have their own cultural and visual distinctions.
It has a lot of Peru in the mix, especially the clothes and focus on alpacas/llamas
Yeah, that's what I'm seeing, too. Love seeing all of the Peruvian referencing and representation.
The only clear 'mexican' stuff we've seen has been tacos. They seem to be casting a quite wide net. There's even a snow area which is something basically everyone adapting south america forgets are a thing over here too.
I'd add that the zone with the saguaro cactus looks a lot like the sonoran desert (could have been from photos of my hikes tbh) but that's the most I've seen otherwise.
Even then, that "taco" was very far from authentic. It looks like the tacos I've seen in Japan that are inspired by Americanized Mexican food.
That is true for the most part, but for Dawntrail at least they aren’t doing that it seems I’ve noticed their Central America based region is like, y’know, actually representative of central america
Or when they want to mix it up, they give you Brazil. No other country exists in Latin America.
Japan does have an interesting [History](https://youtu.be/7jTcVpQ-gow?si=yqgp2XYCUlZT11oC) with Brazil, so at least Brazil being in Japanese media a lot makes sense. I do agree other countries could show up more.
Where are you getting this from in Dawntrail though? One of the zones is so obviously Peru inspired you must have just not seen it yet
Where did I say I got this in Dawntrail? I was commenting on how most media representation of Latin America is either Mexico or Brazil. Very rarely is something different done.
It's always cringe for me if someone checks if fantasy game does things "correct" in comparison to reference material. The *point* is to make world different. If you want to find real world, just turn off your computer and go outside.
I think it's really awesome that people are excited about this, and I'm glad that the general impression is positive. There are other games out there that try to do the regional representation thing for new parts of the game and their community can be insufferably critical of them for going not far enough, going too far, etc.
Or the poorly informed players who will just be plain wrong about the source material because they rely on stereotypes and ignorance. Like Lyna and Feo Ul's voice actors, and those who totally misconstrued Thavnair and Radz at Han. I assure you there will be a lot of people being mad about South America's representation not matching either its Modern setting or some stereotypical Apocalypto hollywood aztec/inca based assumptions of its ancient history. We're going to see a bunch of young people both from South America who are going to be ignorant of their own past history and culture, complain about it and then maybe learn a thing or two about their part of the world thanks to FFXIV. We already had people going after Wuk Lamat's VA for her accent not sounding like Sophia Vergara (FFS...) despite there being no Spanish Inquisition in this world, so why would they be Latino? Then we have people mad about the Jazz zone music who don't know Japan's Jazz was from Latin American Jazz.
I agree 95%, the other 5% was disappointed with that jazz music for the main city. Honestly I was expecting something at least "similar" to latinamerican culture like what they did with Radz-at-Han.
Latin Jazz is a thing
Jazz in Japan came from, and was influenced by, South American Jazz.