Final Fantasy 14 director and producer Naoki 'Yoshi-P' Yoshida says that some of the abuse the English voice actor behind Dawntrail's lead gets "breaks his heart," calling on fans of the MMO and beyond to "refrain from personal attacks against our staff."
Speaking to Checkpoint Gaming through an interpreter, Yoshida tackles a question about fan reaction to the MMO's latest expansion, Dawntrail, and how happy he is with it. For Yoshida, starting a new saga by letting a character other than our Warrior of Light take the lead was always going to prove divisive, though feedback around things like pacing provides key learning to take forward.
Regarding Wuk Lamat, Yoshida accepts the team could have done more to tell her story better but wants to take those lessons and apply them to future updates so we can get to know her character better – rather than simply letting her fade away in the background.
"She's a very complex character, and she even has a bit of a complex about herself," he says. "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. We may have been able to make her more straightforward, so we're pushing her in the forefront as this character. But again, we're going to be reflecting that learning into [content patch 7.1] and onward, we're hoping that we can show more of what makes Wuk Lamat so great, and I'm hoping that we can regain from there."
While Yoshida admits Square Enix could have done better there, he says that some of the criticisms thrown at her voice actor "breaks his heart."
"One additional thing, there were comments about how we are too accepting of diversity – some people seem to be disapproving of that," he continues. "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."
Checkpoint Gaming notes that Yoshida is indeed talking about Wuk Lamat's voice actress Sena Bryer, a trans woman who suffered abuse following the expansion's release, such as "misgendering, death/rape threats, doxxing attempts, threats against my family, etc in every post and all across Twitch/YouTube/Reddit, all because I voiced a Final Fantasy character."
"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," Yoshida adds. "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."
Dawntrail has been a mixed bag for Final Fantasy 14 since it was released earlier this year. The MMO is at its best in dungeons and raids, though a story that takes a while to get going and the upcoming patch schedule have sparked debate among fans – debate that often includes Wuk Lamat herself. It's not always been in the best of faith, so it's heartening to see Yoshida separate the constructive from the non-constructive and crack on with decent intentions in tow.
We don't have long to see the fruits of that labor, either. Final Fantasy 14's 7.1 patch is due mid-November and teases plenty of Wuk Lamat and Zoraal Ja. I doubt it'll fix everyone's concerns right away – at least, those founded in good intentions – but I can't wait to see where it all goes.
