The Asians Represent team dove into the fantasy Asian worldbuilding of Final Fantasy XIV to discuss Asian fantasy worldbuilding, mistakes made by Square Enix, the joys of FFXIV’s world, and more! #finalfantasy #finalfantasyxiv
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As a person with an indigenous American background, the feelings towards the Steppe are 1000% my fears are what’s going to happen if we go to the”New World”. That and they’re gonna make everyone fucking white.
This was great. Please do Guild Wars 2 soon.
Thanks for this in-depth insight! As a person with no relationship to any of these cultures I have been very interested to hear about feedback from the people whose culture was referenced in the game, for personal interest but also for insight into what to do and what to avoid should in fan art/fan comics. And yes, can definitely agree playing the recruitment part of the Steppe feels very awkward and questionable when done with a non-Xaela. (Even more so if you are from a country with a long history of colonizing other countries like I am…) The Mol give their consent and all, and I doubt there is a rule in this world that could force Sadu to anything but whatever she wants to do, but it still feels so wrong.
That said, it's nice to see they learned a bit and did things better with Thavnair, making it a really great and authentic place. However, I still really hope it'll be one or two more expansions or so until they so much as vaguely touch the New World because I don't think the devs are at a point of understanding these matters that they could treat it in a respectful way. I have faith they are getting there one day, but if they would be there already, they would have redesigned or simply deleted this "New World" glamour gear set long ago.
1:03:35 I am a nissei and am deeply aware of the sexual violence and crimes committed by the Japanese against conquered nations. Having said that, please stop perpetuating the myth that Japan has never apologized for any of these crimes. In fact, there is an entire Wikipedia page listing all the apologies that Japan has issued over the years, including multiple ones on the topic of Korean comfort women by both the government and the emperor. Whether or not the victim nation accepts this apology is a different matter. Whether or not restitution was paid is a different matter.
Asians are not one monolithic culture. Discrimination and violence by Asians against other Asians have and still do exist. It's a deeply painful topic and extremely hard topic to discuss. We are all deeply flawed human beings with our own biases and blind spots. But we try to overcome that by using logic, facts, and empathy. It does not help the discussion and healing process when you make a false blanket statement.
Stormblood leaves Gyr Abania (Ala Mhigo) at level 61 and doesn't return from eastern Othard until level **68**. Around 7/10ths of the expansion is spent in Hingashi, the Ruby Sea, Doma, and the Azim Steppe, when just about the opposite proportion was spent in terms of what the story set up leading up to Stormblood. It's such a deflation of player expectations, even leaving aside the other negative aspects of the treatment brought up in this video.
Worse yet, the pattern of "things the narrative actually wants to put weight on" focusing mostly on Doma and only returning to Ala Mhigo to hastily wrap things up continues in the followup patches. A whole bunch of the Ala Mhigan characters get better focus and development (e.g., Fordola) in snatches of Endwalker (particularly the healer role quests) than they do in the entirety of Stormblood post-patch. Raubahn, who previously was a major and important characer through ARR and HW, essentially gets sidelined after getting "promoted" upstairs to help run a liberated Ala Mhigo.
Ala Mhigo deserved a lot more care and screen time that it got.
My completely unsubstantiated conspiracy theory why Lyse/Yda was written with a leadership role is as follows. Initially she was ment to be a princess, probably the only surviving heir of the mad king. What leads me to belive that is not only her being forced into being a leader but, Conrads bizarre faith in her and well as the dress she wears in the finale parts of the expansion. That version of the script got far enough in to were it started to be implemented in game. Then someone on the writing team (probably Banri Oda) noticed that both the POV NPCs for the expansion are exiled royalty and one of them is a retcon of Ala Mhigos lore. However they were too far in the production process to rewrite the whole story. So they had Kazutoyo Maehiro and Natsuko Ishikawa flip a coin who gets to keep their character unchanged. Ishikawa won and Hien got to stay as a prince, but Lyse was hastily turned into the daughter of a respected member of the resistance. But that's just a theory.
As a WHM main that started as a conjurer, can't really object to the comments about my city state.
For resolutions to Ul'dah/Ala Mhigo there are other yellow quests that I'd like to point to.
"The Legacies We Leave" is part of a chain of epilogue quests for Heavensward (level 60) that starts at the Fortemps Manor. Where you get to have a conversation with Nanamo, where she reveals that Teledji Adeledji gave all of his assets plus half his personal fortune to the crown.
"A Fortune in Salt" (level 70) is about the reopening and investment in the Saltery of Rhalgr's Reach.
"Dreaming of Home" (level 70) deals with Little Ala Mhigo and those who wish to return to their homeland.