The new black guy in Final Fantasy XIII

ChromeAlchemist

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apsham said:
Really, there was no need to start this thread out of one picture.. that the user hadn't even seen yet. Come on, this is just going to be the Resident Evil 5 stuff all over again and we're going to have to start making games that have ALL WHITE PEOPLE in them just to make sure that no one gets upset.

well to my understanding Resident Evil 5 will be pretty much nothing but slaughtering black people
ZOMBIES. THEY ARE FRIGGIN' ZOMBIES.

All of the characters in Resident Evil 4 were ethnic as well, but NO ONE bitched about that.
Good God please let's not get into that for the love of god.

They are infected zombies. Spaniards were killed in the last game, and africans will be killed now. The fact that you have an african partner surely quells the bloody tension around that game? And do you think they added her in there because of that? because I don't remember seeing her then.

But for crap sake I digress.
 

cobra_ky

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so wait, japan is co-opting black culture, which has co-opted asian culture for decades.

my head hurts.
 

Akas

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Jamash said:
Akas said:
I knew that this was going to come up...

Japan suffers from the same exact societal syndrome that we do: we ADORE our celebrities, fawning over them no matter how badly they mess up or crash. Think about the number of Black celebrities people in the States have: we have a whole diverse range, from the "stereotypical angry black male" (Chris Rock, Chris Tucker, off the top of my head) to the "subtle, narrator, tired, intelligent black male" (Morgan Freeman, Bill Cosby for a while). We in the states might not have perfect racial equality, but at the very least blacks are portrayed a lot more accurate than 50 years ago.

Let me list the black celebrities that Japan has had in the past decade:

Bob "The Beast" Sapp

Bobby Ologun


That's all I can think of off the top of my head. A lot of Southern Japan (like around Yokohama) has a huge fascination with Hip-hop culture, and Blacks who act like ballers down there are the shit, with Japanese girls swarming over and Japanese guys trying to be like them. They love certain aspects of Black culture, but they don't necessarily understand them.

But even so, give S-E a chance. Don't get offended that they're parading it around: they do that with every new tidbit of info. They actually might surprise you and give the black guy an interesting and thought-provoking story, which even most western developers haven't done so far. The worst case scenario is that they just use him for comic relief, but if that happens, who cares? Don't most people here hate JRPGs anyways? Commend them for trying something instead of getting pissed.

Now back to the image: does anyone here thinks he looks a little like Richard Pryor?
Didn't Sakuraba and some Japanese Pride commentators affectionately refer to Kevin Randleman as Donkey Kong?

I remember that caused a lot of controversy in the west because people assumed that it was a Black People=Monkey slur, but he said it because of the way Randleman jumps up and down like Donkey Kong and because of his strength & physique, not because of his skin colour or race.
It was meant in a complementary way, comparing him to a popular video game character, but it seemed racist to outsiders.

So aren't the Japanese sometimes a little naive of certain (western) racial stereotypes in their adoration of black people?
Well that's because of association more than anything else. Japanese people don't associate monkeys with black people, probably because they've known about monkeys for longer than they've known about black people (I mean, probably all of Asia has via Journey to the West). In their culture, people that look like monkeys are more likely to look Asian than Black (The only examples I can think of are Monta from ES21 and the the monkey aspect of Dragon Ball).

But make no mistake: to the Japanese, Blacks have certain stereotypical facial features (like the big lips on the Bobby Ologun mask) and habits. The point I'm trying to make is that this guy doesn't look the black stereotype that the Japanese have (I already showed you the Bobby Ologun mask, the Bob Sapp one is below).



Even though they'll most likely play off an easy popular figure (like how Barret was Mr. T with a machine-gun arm), there's a chance that we'll actually see our first storyline-driving black character in a video game, not just in the new FF. And S-E, after seeing how Capcom halfway-botched their inclusion of Black people in a game, might actually make an effort to make this guy seem more than just a token black guy.
 

Sketchy

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What if he was a Mexican stereotype? What if he was a white stereotype? Does it really make a difference?
 

Mr. Squirrel

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Erana said:
Mr. Squirrel said:
Erana said:
I think I like him.
It takes a real man to fraternize with adorable baby birds.
Wait... I'm supposed to care that he's black?
You do know he's not real, do you?
You realise that I would have said, "he's hot" or "He is a sexy beast" or something to that effect if I was sexually attracted to him, right?
Or does "Like" mean sexually attracted nowadays?
I was kind of referring to the real man part. :p
Could have made that a bit more clear.
Sorry.
 

Low Frost

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I lol'd. I lol'd mightily. If his VA is Samuel Jackson, I will NEVER stop laughing. As long as they don't totally make him a joke character, I will be happy. And he actually looks like a black dude, minus the IMPOSSIBLE HAIR WHAT IN CHRIST, something that I forgot the Japanese can accomplish after RE5 and Sheva.
 

Low Frost

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Sketchy said:
What if he was a Mexican stereotype? What if he was a white stereotype? Does it really make a difference?
Yes, it does. They are all different, and all cause some sort of stir for different reasons. Considering Japan's track record, I want to see if they can FINALLY make a black character with minimal stereotypes.
 

falcontwin

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Does this thread get an award for 'most banned users on the first page of a topic?'

I don't really think the charecter is a stereotype as such,Maybe he's just a mishmash of what The japanese developers have seen of American popular culture or maybe he's just a cool new charecter and there is no racialism involved.

He looks cool regardless.
 

MyFiyaBePurged O_o

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im black and honestly the fact that he has a chocobo leaping from his hands....makes me smile lol. and yes there are black characters in a number of Final Fantasies. I can name 3 right now. FFVII FFVIII and FFXII. Barret(VII),Kiros(VIII) and the NPC Reddas (XII).
 

NC3

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Right on, I had forgotten about Kiros (mostly because Laguna's storyline sucked I suppose). I don't remember him being drenched in stereotype. A good design, too.
 

GloatingSwine

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Sion_Barzahd said:
But as a point, how come no one ever chimed in about how stereotypical Cole from Gears of War is?
Repeatedly, which I always find amusing, because Marcus Cole basically is just his voice actor. He's even pretty much that size. (They did a mock Gears of War breakfast cereal advert where he appears in costume as Cole)
 

ROFLross

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Is there any more pictures of this guy from FFXIII?
Any links to pictures or something?
 

Sejs Cube

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...I'm still trying to figure out how exactly it was that Barret was a stereotype. His character motivations are pretty well explored and none of them have to do with the fact that he's black.

Because, you know, being an adoptive single father and an ecoterrorist are just tongue in cheek jabs at black culture.
 

The Rusk

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Video games constantly utilise every stereotype imaginable; the perfect example of this being Gears of War. That game was far more stereotypical/racist in its portrayal of black people with its character Cole, than anything suggested by Final Fantasy XIII so far. Having a japanese developer will be no different than any other game developer. I mean I wouldn't exactly say Cliff Blezinski is anymore in touch with black culture than the people at Squaresoft. I don't know. I may be wrong...
 

Mr. Purple

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I think it will come out well. If they can integrate half-rabbit hybrid characters and giant yellow ostrich looking characters so successfully, then i don't think they will have a problem. Of course he had an afro. They needed traits that would differ him from the mainstream JRPG characters. And if it really conceals a chocobo, then its an excellent way to introduce an extra character. So its different than their usual concepts....i think they break that mold with each new installment of the series. I'm looking forward to FFXIII.
 

nathan-dts

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Aiden Rebirth said:
Mizaki said:
Hold up guys, before this thread goes any further, think about this:

If the sight of a black character with an afro automatically triggers a racially feuled response, who is the racist here?
is it wrong to expect a character that berates, and demeans a whole race? my race?
Is it wrong for a man who has seen so much ingnorance coming out of a culture to expect more of the same?
Is it wrong for me to try and anaylze one of my favorite series that has already sterotyped my people?
Sterotypes run rampant in the gaming world. You got to learn to live with it.