Final Fantasy 14manages to remain relevant over the years, in-part due to frequent updates and expansions by Square Enix including new races that become available. With the Shadowbringers expansion,Final Fantasy 14saw the addition of two new races in the form of the cat-like Hrothgar and bunny-like Viera. According to Naoki Yoshida, these will be the last races added to the game due to how demanding the process can be. However, the Hrothgar and the Viera have limitations due to them being gender-exclusive races, with the former only coming in a male variant and the latter in a female variant.
Many players have been asking for female Hrothgar andmale Vierafor a long time now, andFinal Fantasy 14developers took the time to bring these variants to life with the next big expansion, Endwalker, launching this November. Still, this is not something new for Square Enix, asFinal Fantasy 14had the same issue on launch with the Roegadyn and Miqo’te respectively lacking a female and male counterpart. As such, despite all the options that the character creator and the character customization process in the game have, there are still lingering issues that mainly have to do with inclusivity and gender.
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Sexual Dimorphism in Final Fantasy 14
Final Fantasy 14uses a concept called sexual dimorphism, which meanssexes of a specific species end up exhibiting very different traits. This happens in nature with many species, but inFinal Fantasy 14the sexual dimorphism for the Au Ra race is a bit over-the-top in the sense that male specimens are extremely tall and have distinctive cranial projections, whereas females are tiny and more human-like. This is also partly true for the Roegadyn females, and the phenomenon can result in a less inclusive experience for players who want to adopt different body types for their characters, even if it is explained in the game’s lore.
An example can be seen inThe Last of Us Part 2, where Abby is visibly buff, whereas Ellie is smaller and more agile. The example is useful to understand the context because it shows how different two characters of the same gender can look. This ties toFinal Fantasy 14’s sexual dimorphism, because while players can customize a female Au Ra to be buffer, the game basically makes the choice for them that there could only be so much improvement as opposed to males, who can be even taller than the Roegadyn and very muscular as well. Abby’s look shows that it should be possible forFinal Fantasy 14to reduce the impact of sexual dimorphism for the sake of better representation.
Character Customization and Inclusivity in Final Fantasy 14
One of the main selling points of thecharacter creator inFinal Fantasy 14is that it allows players to customize a lot of big and tiny details so characters can be their best selves. Still, the fact that the character creator comes with height and body size options poses the question why Square Enix didn’t allow players to select a preferred body type rather than a character’s gender. This would solve many issues, such as having to differentiate characters between male and female variants, and it would make the game more inclusive because it would minimize a traditional, binary view of gender.
This is something the game is no stranger to thanks to all theinclusive optionscoming with costumes and the transmogrification process, which allows players to make their own outfits and customize characters in a unique way. As such, it would make sense if the character creator did the same thing on a deeper level.
Despite these issues,Final Fantasy 14’s character creator does a good job at giving players enough freedom to customize their characters in a myriad of ways, including details like heterochromia and hair color highlights. Because of this, and because of how deep players can delve into the outfit customization process,Final Fantasy 14remains one of the best games to play for RPG loversand those who like to immerse themselves into a fantastical story.
Final Fantasy 14is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5.
