OK, technically she is a “Cidney.”
To coincide with today’s Jump Festa 2015 in Chiba, Japan, Square Enix has released their latest trailer for Final Fantasy XV. In the past, some were unhappy by the lack of female playable characters in the game.
Though not playable, franchise staple Cid returns as the main cast’s mechanic. A technology-centric character, this is the first time the character has been female. Check out the trailer below to see Cidney in all her glory — along with the gigantic Titan summon.
Update: During Hajime Tabata’s Jump Festa 2015 panel, he showed of a bit more of Cidney. Here are some gifs of that.
Comments
54 responses to “Final Fantasy XV Features The First Female Cid”
I may be going out on a limb here, but don’t think that this is going to quite appease those who took exception to the lack of playable female characters.
Too bad. Now there’s pretty boys and girls in the game.
‘Oh? People complaining about the apparent lack of strong female characters in this game? Here’s Cid(ney) wearing stockings, showing midriff and her hella rack.”
To be fair, if I was a girl, I’d be wearing stocking, and showing midriff and hella rack.
Not if you were working under your car. You might get oil in your belly button.
Why do I have the feeling that making her a mechanic was a convenient excuse for a lot of panty shots as she slides out from under cars….
Not so much ‘making her a mechanic’. Cid’s always been mechanically-inclined.
It’s a ‘she’ this time. It happens to be a woman, who happens to be more under-dressed than the tropical beach universe Cid from FFX. I don’t think that’s a coincidence.
Sure, but it’s just the intention that’s around the other way.
“Why do I have the feeling that making the mechanic character into a woman was a convenient excuse for a lot of panty shots as she slides out from under cars…” would be more accurate. 🙂
Semantic bullshit, don’t mind me.
(Also, I doubt we’ll get panty shots since she’s wearing tiny denim short-shorts, but y’know. Good enough.)
You’d like that, wouldn’t ya’ stud 😉
’bout time. Would be awesome for her to be transgender.
could still be Cid after some surgery and HRT
Lol really. It is not cidney, it’s cindy. Lost in translation?
Oh come on. She’s a mechanic and yet they still sexualise her? Who the hell would be wearing stockings while they change their oil!?
She would. I’d hardly call what the male main characters wear suitable for battle.
The equivelant here would be to have the males dress in the Borat ‘mankini’ and send them into battle. In this case, the only thing showing on the guys is their shoulders. In this case, sorry but that’s some terrible design lol.
This is Japan we are talking about. They practically made the meme of oversized, impractical swords. Heck FFX had a character killing enemies with a ball.
Practicality or realism is NEVER on the cards in Final Fantasy. Heck I’m surprised they kept a tiny bit of grease on her and not have her with perfectly clean shiny skin. These characters are gonna be made into models later for sale you know.
(Not that I’m endorsing this getup)
It’s a fantasy game and sometimes this shit gets blown out of proportion, in this case I do agree, it’s Japan and they have a horrible history of getting this sort of stuff right or even remotely accurate lol. But, I guess a pair of overalls was too much to ask lol.
Way to take it overboard. She’s not wearing a swimsuit. Everybody here is dressed to impress, and unfortunately not for their profession.
How exactly is it ‘taking it overboard’ when you have a mechanic dressed in ‘come fuck me boots’, thigh high stockings, cut off shorts and a top so small you’re waiting for a wardrobe malfunction to happen lol. Sorry, but not all of us are looking to fap to a FF game… and you’re right, she’s not wearing a swimsuit, because a one piece covers more 😛
I was simply saying that comparing it to a mankini was overboard. While certainly not the kind of clothes a mechanic would typically been seen wearing, she’s not sporting any less than many a lady in say, the Australian summer.
The male characters are wearing suits. A female equivalent would maybe be a nice cocktail dress. There’s a reason she’s wearing daisy dukes and push-up bikini top.
And in the height of summer where I live some of my lady friends are just wearing bikinis and short shorts and similar while I’m still in jeans and jackets. Male clothing shouldn’t be an indication of female clothing. Hell my missus wears thick jumpers all the way up to 43c.
One thing that has always bothered me about this complaint is that in reality there are plenty of chicks that actually like to dress “slutty”. Hell, if you are young, pretty and with a wonderful bod working at job that involves lots of male customers, you sure as hell make sure to dress the part that will literally double your gains in tips and referrals for basically no additional work. You’d have to either be stupid or very, very high-principled not to.
If you want to complain about diversity and sexualisation, advocate the inclusion of non-traditionally beautiful women and of different kinds of body shapes. Getting hung up on a young and voluptuous girl choosing to dress in revealing clothes betrays, rather, a disconnect with reality.
I like to think I know a lot of girls, and a fair few of them like to dress ‘slutty’, but I can honestly say that not a single one has ever worn cut-offs, a push-up bra and fuck-me boots while working under a car.
I think the difference is, a character in a piece of media doesn’t choose to wear the clothes they wear or say the things they say, or act the way they act; they’re designed and written that way. And if they’re designed and written by straight dudes to wear skintight clothing and be hot babes who get pantyshots constantly you can bet it’s not for female empowerment.
A real person (i.e. the women you reckon dress slutty) has any number of reasons they could be wearing skimpy clothing; it’s hot out, they personally like the way it looks, attention, etc. but the thing is, you don’t know that intention because they are people.
I always see this “what if x character WANTS to do this thing though?” argument against criticism of crappy objectification in media and it’s just…so full of holes I guess?
Usually I’d be all like “calm down, think about this for a second, empathise with their position and the come to a concl…” NOPE. The ONE female we see and THAT’S her? If you had one way to represent women, just ONE, how would you do it?
Answer: Sexy mechanic.
P.s. It’s not even like she’s in the same world as them, they must have found a pretty amazing excuse to put someone in a push-up bra, daisy dukes and an open jacket in a world of overbearing black leather trenchcoats.
EDIT: Just curious; why do social issues make “someone” or “people” unhappy? I mean something always makes “someone” unhappy; are YOU unhappy? It seems like there’s a deflection of responsibility here in addressing the issue. Totally just curious, not having a go.
There is like totally another female in the game from trailers so far and she’s not a titty-bomb. So they’re deciding as they go.
But it sounds like she’s going to be a damsel, which isn’t the best either.
Does every game really need to adhere to the “everyone should have something” catering?
I mean, FF as a series (whilst having plenty of fanservice sure) has also been populated with strong female characters, in several cases, also as leads.
Not sure why it’s a problem for the PC’s all be male and one of the female cast (A non-story centric one at that) is dressed in what she is wearing.
I’m all for diversity in media, but do we really have to demand that every game represent every social, sexual and ethnic variant? At what point does this start to just become the “token” X character.
Not every story needs to cover all themes, I have no idea why we, as fans of games, are making such massive deals about this EVERY chance we get.
I think people are concerned BECAUSE it’s FF, because these games have almost always been pretty good about representing women (Tifa excepted), and we don’t want it to stop being a role model for other game series.
Re: your Edit question:
Well, since you ask in the spirit of curiosity and openness… For me, personally, I like the re-design and am looking forward to seeing it. This game is right up my alley, and its aesthetic is part of it. So my first reaction was, “Well that’s interesting and a little weird. Fun to see them changing it up a bit.”
And then I read a page full of comments bitching and moaning about a game I’m really super excited for and want to defend. So naturally my first reaction to the coments is: “Jesus hand-wringing Christ. How can anyone either a) be surprised, or b) give a shit?”
So that may be a factor for some people; I can’t be alone in that impulse.
Guest ‘Spruppet’ made a point below that previous FF games have been fairly female-friendly, what with their androgyne/pretty-boy male leads and women with strong, unique personalities beyond ‘damsel’ and no more token than the tag-along males who aren’t the protagonist, either.
So it must be the uncharacteristic outfits for the series which are enraging everyone, right? No-one likes when their expectations are subverted. Let’s fire up a quick image search and see if this is a radical deparutre from the norm, something out of character and thus outrage-worthy.
RESULTS:
So, FF7 where the fidelity started… There’s a tastefully modest Aeris to off-set the far more fan-servicey Tifa & Yuffie, and a… hm, where do we stand on Rinoa/Selphie vs Quistus/Edea, going the other way? Flatter, but with shorter hem-lines? FF9 was too cutesy to be sexual, and FF10’s cast was pretty female-positive with the slightly-revealing version of a tasteful traditional yukata on Yuna… ignoring the skin-everywhere beach-version of FFX-2, along with Rikku and the leather fetish Paine stylings of a younger, less modest Lulu… who was already titilating plenty. FF12 I’m not particularly familiar with, but on the front cover there’s two women wearing what LOOKS like relatively viable combat armour… and one in a dominatrix outfit, so let’s call that a wash. FF13’s Lightning was certainly down to business not play with her outfit, and surely her main-character-status outweighed the skin-heavy looks of Fang and Vanille, right?
OK, so in summary, there’s a clear precedent of impractical-for-combat fantasy female outfits hitting the sexualization highlights of short hemlines, boots/stockings, and impeccably-presented cleavage. Together with more modestly-dressed characters.
Much like we’ve seen in FF15 so far. (Key words: so far.) The modestly-dressed Damsel, and the token side-character rockin’ the Daisy Duke look. (Who I suspect will be a strong and positive character despite dressing like a specialty-themed stripper.)
To answer your question more directly: My objection to discussion of the ‘social issue’ is that there isn’t one, here. There isn’t an issue. There’s simply catering to tastes. With a target audience. And some people want to make an issue out of the fact that all tastes aren’t catered to equally. You ask about deflection of responsibility in addressing an issue? I’m contending that there ISN’T an issue.
I’m not particularly hostile to people trying to wedge it into discussion anyway, other than a vague sense of, “You lot again, if you don’t want to be here then why don’t you fuck off?”
But I understand the impulse. It’s not fun not being the target audience, especially when it’s just so close, yet so far, and what you DO really want isn’t being made to any degree of quality.
For example: I loved Starcraft as an RTS, but I don’t like that the latest installments of Starcraft don’t let you turtle (my preference), and emphasize a gogogogo playstyle catering to the esports crowd. I also dislike that Diablo shifted its focus to multiplayer and social pressures, with Always Online bringing absolutely zero benefits to me as a player, but saddled me with a truckload of annoyances and inconveniences. When Blizzard announced that their latest releases were a mobile card game, a MOBA, and a class-based PVP shooter, I couldn’t have been less excited.
It sucks not being the target audience. I get that. But it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t expect resistance when trying to change something that the intended audience is perfectly happy with. Or that you will (or should) get your way. Established franchises come with extra baggage in that regard.
This guy, always this guy.
You almost always impress me with the things you say.
I’m the exact target audience for this game. I’ve played past entries, I’m a young, cis male and guess what? You don’t have to be a woman to find its depiction of women off-putting.
Whenever Patricia Hernandez shoe-horns in an agenda into a clearly inappropriate game, I roll my eyes as much as anyone but this one? There are two women in this game, one of whom is playing a damsel and the other is playing tits ‘n ass. You can brush this off as ‘dumb boys’ game’ but a franchise as big as this reaches and influences a new generation of players should aspire to more than puerile, out-of-touch depictions of women.
Wonderful.
Now, see, out-of-context quotes aside, I think you missed my point. If you have a problem with the costume design, then no – you aren’t the target audience, and you never were. Because this is nothing new.
Maybe I need to repeat the point about FF’s consistency, here. Google image search the following terms: Tifa, FFX-2 Yuna, Rikku, FFX-2 Paine, FF12 Fran, FF12 Ashe, Vanille, FF13 Fang.
Done? Good.
Now look at those pictures and try to tell me with a straight face that new-Cid isn’t thematically consistent. This is normal for Final Fantasy.
Because a mix of skimpy and modest outfits, and a mix of compliant and strong, independent personalities is the norm for all the Final Fantasy games from 7 onward (bar 9). The strength of female characters will be – as always – in their personalities instead of what they’re wearing, leading people to once again claim them as strong role models, while conveniently forgetting that they’re dressed to impress.
Excuse me?
Just because a franchise has a history of needlessly sexualising its female characters, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a tradition that should be continued or even excused. If National Lampoon attempted that date-rape gag from Animal House in 2014, we’d be shocked. The late 90s were the gaming industry’s awkward teen years. It was a world of John Romeros and ‘ATTITUDE.’ Even as a teen, it was incredibly puerile but now, it just looks tone-deaf.
Cultural tastes change and people are increasingly sensitive to these issues; so roll your eyes all you want and think that it’s ‘political correctness gone mad!’ but it’s ultimately a good thing. Compare Lara Croft’s portrayal in the last big Tomb Raider to her shamelessly sexualised one in the PSX era, and realise how much characterisation was improved once women were included in the process and the franchise was refocused away from tits and ass.
Square has every right to make this game how they want, but it’s also our right to criticise them for their missteps. I understand that FF has always had an issue with its women, but times change. Just recently, a supposed ‘kid’s cartoon’ like Legend of Korra had the cojones to allude to a same-sex pairing, and story-telling has moved away from binary categorisation of women as virgins or whores. Square’s welcome to join us in the 21st century, or they can continue creating these kinds of female characters and look like Dead or Alive, another franchise that is seemingly stuck in its sweaty-palmed teen years.
Excellent points! The series has the potential to change and adapt to suit a changing audience! Apart from the bits where you decided how a woman dresses is more important than her personality. But y’know. Keep working on enlightenment, you’ll get there.
(Edit: Perhaps unwittingly, Tomb Raider is, in fact, an excellent example of hyper-reactionary bullshit gone mad in that the earliest criticisms of the writing lambasted the designers for New Lara being a prime example of what happens when you let men write women. Until everyone had to be quietly advised that actually the lead writer was a woman.)
Your error is in considering their costume design an ‘issue’. And in the most sweetly-scented of words, I offer that you should (as earlier intimated) take your issues (and no mistake, they are your issues, not mine or FF’s) elsewhere, and I and the rest of the actual target market will enjoy what’s shaping up to be a mind-blowingly good game with some welcome eye-candy.
I extend to you the same sympathies I wrote about earlier (last two paragraphs) for you not being the target audience. It’s disappointing, I know.
I never once claimed that revealing clothing precludes strong characterisation; but nor is it a good indicator. This franchise doesn’t just have a handful of strikes either, it’s a pattern in which men are portrayed one way and women are consistently something else. That this series has issues with women isn’t news and for every other example you use like Fang, there’s equally skimpy fetish fodder like Vanille who is anything but a strong, independent character. Also, whether this game should be judged upon the entire Square body of work is beside the point. They themselves have made it clear that they don’t want XV to be a slave to its legacy but from the looks of it, XV is taking two steps back in this regard, where XIII was celebrated for its female protagonist.
No, you comment is historical revisionism gone mad. The Tomb Raider controversy was a response to initial public comments by one guy (Ron Rosenberg) who said that the rapey tone of the preview was deliberate and that players would to want to ‘protect’ her.’ It was an incredibly stupid thing to say and the reaction was entirely appropriate. Whether Square course-corrected after those comments or not, the shipping product was entirely different from what was suggested. So no, it’s not ‘hyper-reactionary bullshit gone mad.’
It’s not just ‘my’ issue. Evidently, it’s many others’ too and our interests are no less valid than yours. I’ll hazard a guess that XV’s tone is because 1) Japan, 2) sausage party design team, 3) they want to corner a specific demographic. Again, they have the right to make a game, we have the right to call them out on it, but you don’t have the right to even suggest that we ‘fuck off.’ Sorry. Bitching and moaning? It’s a gaming site, I could say the same thing to you: go elsewhere.
Seems like you bitch and moan pretty well :p smoke a fucking joint and move on IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT. Are you going to bitch about the fucking dead or alive series now too? And who’s to say that Square aren’t basing her off of a typical 18-28 year old aussie/kiwi woman? mate just move on, Rofl.
Not reinforcing his point but I believe he was just giving an example of what his knee-jerk reaction to the discussion was in an attempt to acknowledge that we all have them at times.
Thanks for the fantastically respectful reply but I must clarify a few things; I was more in a state of shock and wouldn’t call my position “outrage”. Also, my edit question is a literal one aimed at a direct quote from the article:
My reasoning for asking is that I was curious as to why this particular phrasing is used so consistently in articles about contentious topics. I was getting at the fact that the writer appears to me (as a reader) to be passing the buck to a bunch of other people who complained and not chiming in on the issue themselves – for or against – which I would have appreciated.
Again, I’m not outraged. I just see the representation Square Enix is presenting and that matters. I can understand subversive expectations and I appreciate them. But when you say there isn’t a social issue here, I think you’re wrong and I’ll explain why. I’m a straight male with a female partner who works in media education and I’ve been playing FF since the very first instalment. (actually started at 2, missed a couple and went back through the series) You’re entirely correct, the style and values are entirely in line with what Final Fantasy has offered in the past but I think this is entirely my problem. FF seems to be entirely deaf to what has been happening outside its cocoon for what seems like an eternity. I don’t need to be represented, I already am and yeah, women were represented with Lightning last year (and in previous games) and now they’re going male-centric this year – I have no problem with that.
My problem is that there’s a massive juxtaposition in the representation of males and females in this game’s promo materials that don’t just show males being the main characters (no problem there), it shows them as wearing wearing actual clothes and it shows Cid half-undressed, all chirpy and cute amongst men in black who are scowling brooding. To me, it’s not so much offensive as it is boring. (the notion can be offensive in a way I don’t necessarily find FFXV) The visual representations of these characters tell me that men can wear black but women are defined by their appearance. I would also note that this not being out of the ordinary for FF is irrelevant, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for Harrison Ford to basically force himself on every woman he stars with (Blade Runner – I don’t hate BR, I love BR) but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t actually think about how that dichotomy is presented once in a while – which we did. I do think female character design here needs to change, it won’t stop me buying the game because ultimately I do acknowledge that there are many cultural differences between here and Japan and their values don’t always align with ours.
I don’t intend to start outrage but I do not agree at all that this is not a discussion worth having. Your point about this being a “surprise” is a little off but I can see how the way I wrote myself that it’d seem like that; I am not surprised at neither backlash or defense of the game, nor am I surprised or uneducated on the design and history of Final Fantasy as a series. Simply stating that this is in line with what came before actually highlights part of the point I’m making, that we are content with less and will collectively jump through hoops to justify and reaffirm our prejudices. I think it’s sad that people who say “hey that woman should wear clothes, huh?” are told to shut up whilst the ones whom none of this affects are claiming that people shouldn’t be annoyed because they aren’t the “target audience”. This is dismissal. If the target audience NEEDS women represented like this for whatever reason (as is inferred by the strong defense) in comparison to men and so vehemently oppose the ideas of women actually dressing comparably to men, then I worry. Women are represented as little more than a service or giver of optimism and support here whilst at the same time people are pretending that any FF script is capable of subverting this image as if Square is Kubrick or something. Thematic consistency is great but it’s irrelevant when it’s stupid and out of date.
The issue exists and it’s not just here to try and take away ALL of your daisy-dukes-clad women amongst tenchcoat-wearing men, it’s not even about everyone being included – which I agree is not necessary for every game – it’s about improving our ability to tell narrative in more sophisticated ways. I would simply like to play a game that has not necessarily changed but grown culturally, socially and artistically.
Don’t think I don’t get frustrated at this type of discussion too though, dude. I do see a host of what I believe to be misguided attacks at games and I do think that these emotional attacks hurt the clarity of the issue. I simply don’t think extra insight, depth and consideration into the design of a secondary female character in a game aimed at males hurts the audience’s experience in any way whatsoever.
Boobs and poorly lip-synced english audio track.
I’m so in.
Man you guys get butt hurt over some dumb poopies.
This is Final Fantasy we’re talking about
Since when was this game about outfits that make sense?
Regardless of this trailer.. I am, for the first time inexplicably pumped for a Final Fantasy game..
Sick of southern America accents for female merchants in ff
why limit it to games, it is a horrible stereotype used across all genres
I have been a FF fan ever since the first one on the NES, and while this game does look interesting, I don’t like where the series as gone in 12, or 13. I want my turn based RPGs back 🙁
HOLY SHIT this looks amazing!
Calling it: Winry Rockbell – but with sass instead of a proper personality.
Not a single character in this game looks at all interesting. Such generic cliche designs.
Never watched the other trailer, game looks pretty cool.
Cidney’s a bit of a cutey, though I’d like to have seen her with FF7 Cid’s personality. That’s be a laugh.
80% of the Kotaku AU Community = whiners, whingers, moaners & complainers / all of the previous.
Considering you’re complaining about complaining…..and I’m complaining about your complaints about the initial complaints, I guess your point is valid.
But also, complaints and whining aren’t a bad thing; they’re just discourse buddy.