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Thread: Ethnicity of Final Fantasy characters

  1. #1

    Default Ethnicity of Final Fantasy characters

    What ethnicity do you guys consider them? To me, I see them as Jpop/Malice Mizer/Kpop or Eurasian.

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    Eternally Lost Chibi Youkai's Avatar
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    Mostly, they seem Eurasian. Especially with all the Norse and Greek mythology that square-enix likes to draw inspiration from. It would be interesting to learn what the devs think about that, though.

  3. #3

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    Characters like Yuffie and Yuna are most likely fully Eastern. Rinoa looks Central Asian

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    Depression Moon's Avatar
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    Mostly white and Japanese like most Japanese video games with just a few black people sprinkled throughout.

  5. #5

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    Quote Originally Posted by Depression Moon View Post
    Mostly white and Japanese like most Japanese video games with just a few black people sprinkled throughout.
    Which characters do consider white/European and which Japanese?

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    Pinkasaurus Rex Pumpkin's Avatar
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    Ethnicity?

    Characters from IX are mostly Gaians, FFX are mostly Spirans, etc.

    Unless you mean race, in which case mostly white with some Asian like most have said

  7. #7

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    Quote Originally Posted by Chibi Youkai View Post
    Mostly, they seem Eurasian. Especially with all the Norse and Greek mythology that square-enix likes to draw inspiration from. It would be interesting to learn what the devs think about that, though.
    Well, I am going to guess they see FF characters as Mongoloid since they use Asian models and the like to use with designs. Capcom knows to make certain characters specifically European/white so they use white Actors. Plus Square brought Ferrari on board for the reason they never could make European characters before so having a westerner would help.

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    Nerf This~ Laddy's Avatar
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    Well in some games it's pretty clear that they're drawn on different cultures.

    FFX, for example, has cultures clearly drawn from real-world ones. Yuna and Bevelle are largely Japanese inspired, most of Bessid and Kilika draw on Polynesian culture, Zanarkand seems to be a futuristic Los Angeles, and the Al Bhed have Germanic features though their culture certainly doesn't resemble it. There's also a handful of characters with clear African features.

    FFVII and VIII seem to be more Modern North American, with casts possessing largely European features with notable minorities drawn on African American or Asian cultures.



  9. #9

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    Rinoa definitely doesn't look European unless you mean half European which I can get. She was modeled after a Japanese woman deliberately anyways.

    Then again, Persona characters also have light features and those games take place in Japan.

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    Feel the Bern Administrator Del Murder's Avatar
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    They're all white except for the one token Black character required per game.

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  11. #11

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    Quote Originally Posted by Del Murder View Post
    They're all white except for the one token Black character required per game.
    Never knew Yuffie, Rinoa, and Yuna were white.
    ღმერთის შვილი შეეხო და მითხრა, რომ ანგელოზთა ფეხები მომეხია.

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    Feel the Bern Administrator Del Murder's Avatar
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    *permanent smite* Spuuky's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Squall Leonhart Loire View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Del Murder View Post
    They're all white except for the one token Black character required per game.
    Never knew Yuffie, Rinoa, and Yuna were white.
    I mean, 99% of white people you asked would definitely say they are white. Probably due to their white skin color, mostly.

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    Depression Moon's Avatar
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    I see those three as Asian as well. Yuna I feel is supposed to be half Asian because her mother is Al-Bhed. The other ones I feel that are supposed to be Asian too are Edge (maybe), the guys from XV.
    Non-whites and Asians: Minwu, Nooj, Barret, Donna, Sazh, Reddas, and Kiros. Half of those are non-playable.

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    Radical Dreamer Fynn's Avatar
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    Honestly, though, pretty sure the vast majority of characters are coded Asian since it's a general trend in manga and anime to draw Japanese characters this way while people coded White are drawn differently with exaggerated features like large chins or noses or paler eyes. Same goes for dark-skinned characters - they're not really coded black until they are given any distinct features, in most cases they're supposed to be making people think of Okinawa or something. This is kind of supported by how in FFX all the pre-rendered cutscenes have all of the the characters with no exception looking much more Asian than in-game


    Also, keep in mind that the concept of race is a social construct and, as such, works differently from culture to culture, which is why it's really hard to pinpoint what we consider to be race in Japanese media.

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