How To Make Hojo Even More Evil In the Remake

[hian]

I hate to say this, Hian, but I disagree. Hojo always struck me as evil, especially his annoying voice and his laughing just makes things worse. It almost makes Kefka likeable!

On a side note - I don't believe in "evil" period. "Evil" is a nonsense concept that doesn't pass any semblance of intellectual consideration.

That being said, my point was simply that Hojo was a nuisance throughout the game. I never considered Hojo anything more than the light comedic relief villain playing through the game (along with Scarlet and Heidegger).
He did some bad stuff - so did everyone else in Shinra though.

What does his voice and laughter got to do with anything though?

Besides, he wanted Sephiroth to destroy the world to prove his theory and even ignored Reeve's orders to shut down the Mako Cannon/Sister Ray.

Can anyone back this up? I can't remember this being the case.

It's the Turks that were never evil. They are, as they have recently come to call antagonists who are somewhat good people just following the wrong path, "Side-Antagonists".

I don't see this.
Again, as I said - I think "evil" is a silly and childish label to begin with, but if we're going to apply it people all willy-nilly, I don't see how Hojo gets it, but the Turks don't despite the fact that the Turks show a completely botched moral compass when they murder people left and right (innocent people I might add) because "hey, it's our job, and it pays!".

 

[Octo]

Besides, he wanted Sephiroth to destroy the world to prove his theory and even ignored Reeve's orders to shut down the Mako Cannon/Sister Ray.

Can anyone back this up? I can't remember this being the case.

Theres this bit:

Reeve "What about the mainframe? Who!?" (He turns to Heidegger.)

Reeve "Hey, call the mainframe!"

(Heidegger picks up the phone for a moment, then puts it down and looks at Reeve.)

Heidegger "Huh? Why are you giving orders?"

Reeve "I don't give a damn about the details!!"

(He turns away and listens into his phone again. The scene fades to a small lab at the top of Shinra building. It is exposed to the open air; electric sparks jump along the metal walkway. Hojo is pressing buttons at a large control panel.)

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha...... Just you wait, Sephiroth." "I'll give you all the Mako you want." (The intercom comes on; Reeve called it from his portable phone.)

Reeve "Hojo, STOP! The cannon, no, Midgar itself is in danger!"

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha...... One or two Midgars? ...It's a small price to pay."

Reeve "Hojo! HOJO......!!" (Hojo doesn't answer. He continues to press buttons and pull levers for a few more moments.)

Hojo "Show me...... Sephiroth." "It should be near..." "Ha, ha, ha...... Go beyond the powers of science..." "Before your presence, science is powerless..." "I hate it, but I'll concede to it." "Just... let me see it." "Ha, ha, ha......"

*snip*

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha..." "Sephiroth seems to be counting on the energy." "So I'm going to lend him a hand."

Cloud "Why!? Why do that!?"

Hojo "Quit asking me why, you moron."

(He walks up to look Cloud in the eye.)

Hojo "Hmm... actually, you might be cut out to be a scientist." (He turns back to the panel.)

Hojo "Energy level is at...... 83%. It's taking too long."

(He resumes his button-pressing.)

Hojo "My son is in need of power and help. ...That's the only reason."

Cloud "...your son?"

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha... Although he doesn't know." (He begins to laugh so hard he has to stop working.)

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha... HA, HA, HA...!!" "What will Sephiroth think when he finds out that I'm his father?" "Always looking down on me like that." "HA, HA, HA...!!"

Cloud "Sephiroth is your son!?"

(Hojo resumes his work once more.)

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha..." "I offered the woman with my child to Professor Gast's Jenova Project." "When Sephiroth was still in the womb, we took the cells of Jenova..." "HA, HA, HA!!"

Cloud "I can't believe you're the one who did this..." "The illusionary crime against Sephiroth..."

(Hojo stops and calmly turns to face Cloud. They stare at each other for a long moment, then Hojo begins to laugh.)

Hojo "Heee, hee, hee, hee! No, you're wrong!" "It's my desire as a scientist! Heee, hee, hee, hee!" (He stops abruptly)

Hojo "I... was defeated by my desire to become a scientist." "I lost the last time as well."

(He begins to gleefully dance about.)

Hojo "I've injected Jenova's cells into my own body!" "Heee, hee, hee!" "Here are......" "Heee, hee, hee!" "...my results!!"

Obviously a trainwreck of translation there

He was willing to have the world destroyed to satisfy his own curiosity/ego.

Re: The Turks. I have no idea what they're going to do about them they're obviously bad people doing bad things. Theres no real way around that unless you make them into idiots who despite being some sort of black ops/spying elite would find it impossible to escape Shinra. Which would suck.

 

[Tashasaurous]

Besides, he wanted Sephiroth to destroy the world to prove his theory and even ignored Reeve's orders to shut down the Mako Cannon/Sister Ray.

Can anyone back this up? I can't remember this being the case.

Theres this bit:

Reeve "What about the mainframe? Who!?" (He turns to Heidegger.)

Reeve "Hey, call the mainframe!"

(Heidegger picks up the phone for a moment, then puts it down and looks at Reeve.)

Heidegger "Huh? Why are you giving orders?"

Reeve "I don't give a damn about the details!!"

(He turns away and listens into his phone again. The scene fades to a small lab at the top of Shinra building. It is exposed to the open air; electric sparks jump along the metal walkway. Hojo is pressing buttons at a large control panel.)

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha...... Just you wait, Sephiroth." "I'll give you all the Mako you want." (The intercom comes on; Reeve called it from his portable phone.)

Reeve "Hojo, STOP! The cannon, no, Midgar itself is in danger!"

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha...... One or two Midgars? ...It's a small price to pay."

Reeve "Hojo! HOJO......!!" (Hojo doesn't answer. He continues to press buttons and pull levers for a few more moments.)

Hojo "Show me...... Sephiroth." "It should be near..." "Ha, ha, ha...... Go beyond the powers of science..." "Before your presence, science is powerless..." "I hate it, but I'll concede to it." "Just... let me see it." "Ha, ha, ha......"

*snip*

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha..." "Sephiroth seems to be counting on the energy." "So I'm going to lend him a hand."

Cloud "Why!? Why do that!?"

Hojo "Quit asking me why, you moron."

(He walks up to look Cloud in the eye.)

Hojo "Hmm... actually, you might be cut out to be a scientist." (He turns back to the panel.)

Hojo "Energy level is at...... 83%. It's taking too long."

(He resumes his button-pressing.)

Hojo "My son is in need of power and help. ...That's the only reason."

Cloud "...your son?"

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha... Although he doesn't know." (He begins to laugh so hard he has to stop working.)

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha... HA, HA, HA...!!" "What will Sephiroth think when he finds out that I'm his father?" "Always looking down on me like that." "HA, HA, HA...!!"

Cloud "Sephiroth is your son!?"

(Hojo resumes his work once more.)

Hojo "Ha, ha, ha..." "I offered the woman with my child to Professor Gast's Jenova Project." "When Sephiroth was still in the womb, we took the cells of Jenova..." "HA, HA, HA!!"

Cloud "I can't believe you're the one who did this..." "The illusionary crime against Sephiroth..."

(Hojo stops and calmly turns to face Cloud. They stare at each other for a long moment, then Hojo begins to laugh.)

Hojo "Heee, hee, hee, hee! No, you're wrong!" "It's my desire as a scientist! Heee, hee, hee, hee!" (He stops abruptly)

Hojo "I... was defeated by my desire to become a scientist." "I lost the last time as well."

(He begins to gleefully dance about.)

Hojo "I've injected Jenova's cells into my own body!" "Heee, hee, hee!" "Here are......" "Heee, hee, hee!" "...my results!!"

Obviously a trainwreck of translation there.

He was willing to have the world destroyed to satisfy his own curiosity/ego.

Well, the technology back in late 1990's was a trainwreck too. No doubt the translation will be heaps better in the remake, especially the voice acting.

And yes, no arguments about Hojo willing to have the world destroyed for his sastifaction, kinda like Xehanort wanting to bring about another Keyblade war in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

Re: The Turks. I have no idea what they're going to do about them they're obviously bad people doing bad things. Theres no real way around that unless you make them into idiots who despite being some sort of black ops/spying elite would find it impossible to escape Shinra. Which would suck.

So I take you're hoping they're scrap Before Crisis from canon then? Besides, by then, the Turks' real loyalties relied on Rufus since he saved them from his father's(and Scarlet and Heidegger who are both are the ones who are the bad evil people. Heck, Scarlet even killed one of her own troopers in North Corel by pushing him off a cliff!) decision to kill them after the BC Turks saved the world from Zinconiade.

None of us have any idea what the Remake's new story content will be like other than that some pieces of the Compilation will be used.(Personally, I'd go for some of the scenes from BC and CC and use them as flash-backs for some of the characters, like Cloud, Tifa, Aerith and the Turks, ect, and kinda reuse Vincent's flashbacks from DOC, and then make a prologue-epilogue scene that connects to Advent Children, like maybe create scenes based on the Lateral Turks book that was never released outside Japan if I were in charge. Doubt that Nomura will realise this, though.).

But we do know that Hojo's still nasty and without a doubt, we'll have the same 'ole scene with Sephiroth walking into flames unharmed all over again, upgraded with a bit higher techonlogy.

 

[Octo]

Before Crisis was....well it could have been cool but it sucked. It did try to portray the Turks as goodies. And the whole loyalty to Rufus thing....well that to me is an example of fandom influencing canon. Rufus was a shit in the OG. And even in AC he was out for his own interests. So I don't see why the Turks should be loyal to him any more than they were loyal to Shinra pre-Rufus.

 

[Tashasaurous]

Before Crisis was....well it could have been cool but it sucked. It did try to portray the Turks as goodies. And the whole loyalty to Rufus thing....well that to me is an example of fandom influencing canon. Rufus was a shit in the OG. And even in AC he was out for his own interests. So I don't see why the Turks should be loyal to him any more than they were loyal to Shinra pre-Rufus.

When it came to Before Crisis, I understood how people change, and let's face it, the Turks are human too, and they had to change several times. Like how Sephiroth changed from being somewhat human into a super-crazy villian.

Yeah, Rufus still had his own interests, but at least in AC he went out of his way to even try and ask for Cloud's help since the latter handled Sephiroth/Jenova, and even threw the box with Jenova's head out from the building to try and prevent Kadaj from using it.

Plus at least he didn't go and hire anymore scientests, since he feared them, if you read up Case of ShinRa. He too is human. He and Turks just, don't like having the public see that.

BC would probably be better if they remade it and fixed it up a little(I loved the special episodes, and my favorite was Episode of Reno, Episode of Legend being okay too.). But the mobile services weren't as powerful in the rest of the world as they were in Japan.

But then again, I suppose I go for the lighter side of things...but I have no sympathy for Scarlet, Heidegger, the original President and especially not the scientests. Sure the Turks had done awful things, but in the newer scene in ACC, the Turks wondered how they can atone for what happened. Heck, Reno was worried about Tseng and Elena.

Reno wanted ShinRa rebuilt, not to return to doing bad things, but while he sided with Rufus, at the same time, it's kinda like he wanted to start over and make amends for his crimes.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

You know, it's interesting, but throughout the Compilation Reno is the Turk who gets the least development. Elena has her stellar school career and her sibling rivalry and her crush on Tseng, as well as being the most competent of the three whom we fight; Rude has his love story; Tseng has his mentor story; even Legend gets his own tragic backstory, but Reno gets.... the runaway elevator story, which gives us nothing but some throwaway comic lines. Reno never changes; he never grows as person; he never has any insights, and we are never given any reason for why he is the way he is. Even in "The Kids Are Alright", Reno is little more than an amoral thug who liked being part of Shinra because it gave him power and allowed him to do things "The Turks way" (i.e., through fear and violence) - and thus, he longs to rebuild Shinra and can't quite grasp that those glory days are gone forever. The fall of Shinra has made the world worse for him, and so he assumes it's worse for everybody. He doesn't seem to have any empathy or imagination. And yet, despite being the flattest of the Turk characters, and despite being the Turk who commits the worst atrocity, he is far and away the most popular, while Rude, possibly the most complex of all the Turks, is the least popular.

I'm as vulnerable to this as anyone else. I love Reno. But why do I love Reno? I try not to examine that too closely. In real life, I don't think I would like him at all.

 

[Tashasaurous]

You know, it's interesting, but throughout the Compilation Reno is the Turk who gets the least development. Elena has her stellar school career and her sibling rivalry and her crush on Tseng, as well as being the most competent of the three whom we fight; Rude has his love story; Tseng has his mentor story; even Legend gets his own tragic backstory, but Reno gets.... the runaway elevator story, which gives us nothing but some throwaway comic lines. Reno never changes; he never grows as person; he never has any insights, and we are never given any reason for why he is the way he is. Even in "The Kids Are Alright", Reno is little more than an amoral thug who liked being part of Shinra because it gave him power and allowed him to do things "The Turks way" (i.e., through fear and violence) - and thus, he longs to rebuild Shinra and can't quite grasp that those glory days are gone forever. The fall of Shinra has made the world worse for him, and so he assumes it's worse for everybody. He doesn't seem to have any empathy or imagination. And yet, despite being the flattest of the Turk characters, and despite being the Turk who commits the worst atrocity, he is far and away the most popular, while Rude, possibly the most complex of all the Turks, is the least popular.

I'm as vulnerable to this as anyone else. I love Reno. But why do I love Reno? I try not to examine that too closely. In real life, I don't think I would like him at all.

Not every character has to have that sort of life to be explained. Yes, Reno's history is a mystery, and yes he's one of those street kind of guys, but he can be friendly. His personality kind of reminds me of my dad, but with a major difference since my dad works in an office.

I think the reason why you and I love Reno is because in ACC/CC era of technology, he's such a good looking guy. I hope they'll keep his hair bright red in the Remake. Plus, he is, by all means, not only Rude's partner, but also his best friend. Reno hangs out with him more than anything else, kinda in a bromance. Many people come up with different ideas on how Reno is who he is. Maybe someday Square will explain something about that if they decide to finish off the Compilation.

I said maybe. Heck, no one knows about much about Vincent other than his past as a Turk or his father. Nobody knocks about Lucrecia's past either.

But I think we'll talk about Reno in another thread. This is the thread about Hojo being a disgusting villian.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

It's the flat vs round character thing for fandoms. Characters like Hojo and Reno are flat characters so fan-fic authors can give them a lot of different motivations/backgrounds and it won't be contradicted by canon. Round characters are a lot more defined in canon so if a fan-fic author wants to give them a different background, they run the risk of losing people who want the canon character, not an OOC character.

I think this is why the Shin-Ra personnel are so hard to write. We don't know why they are the way they are, just how they are at the time of the game. On the one hand, this gives fan-fic authors a chance to come up with their own stuff, on the other, that's really easy to mess up on. It's a lot easier to leave Hojo, Scarlett, Palmer and Heidegger with their cliched backgrounds them come up with something interesting for them.

AVALANCHE is the complete opposite; they are the least flexible characters if an author wants to stay in character. The Turks though, are somewhere in the middle. Some of them we know pretty well, and some of the we don't. So the Turks have a nice balance of people who can have whatever background the author wants them to have and backgrounds canon says they have.

Which I kinda like. There's enough mystery in FFVII that each gamer has their own version of the FFVII world, but the main characters are defined enough that we know who they are.

 

[jazzflower92]

You know I think they should confirm Hojo as being Wutaiin, and the reason why he became part of Shinra was because he was banished from Wutai for his unlawful experiments. I don't know if that would make him more evil, but it would show that he always had been defying common decency since the beginning. And the fact if he was made Wutaiin, it would also show how nonchalant he is about facing his former home country in war. I have a feeling he would have done experiments on Wutaiin prisoners of war, which would have given him a reputation in Wutai for being a treacherous demon. And it would also make Sephiroth half Wutaiin on his paternal side as well.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Who in Wutai would have given him the wherewithal to do these unlawful experiments?

 

[jazzflower92]

Who in Wutai would have given him the wherewithal to do these unlawful experiments?

Well, they were unlawful and he probably did them in secret until Wutai authorities found out about them.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

But who would pay for the equipment and stuff and give him a lab?

 

[Obsidian Fire]

Not to mention... Wutai has their own traditions of non-human fighters... they don't need Hojo for that. Heck, they're probably where Shin-Ra got the idea from in the first place...

My personal headcannon for Hojo is that he was originally from Mideel, or someplace like it where the Lifestream is very close to the surface. He just took "what is this glowing water?" way to far when he found that no one knew what it actually was scientifically.

 

[Clement Rage]

We don't really have enough information on Hojo to know if he had a 'start of darkness or not.

But as for the cannon... he says this;

"My son is in need of power and help. ...That's the only reason."

Personally, I believe him, because Hojo strikes me as the kind of person that doesn't care enough about other people to lie.


In AC, Rufus intentionally paints a giant target on Cloud's back in order to force him to eliminate his enemies, I'm not sure that's evidence of redemption.

 

[Obsidian Fire]

^Rufus pretty much tells the one person who defeated Sephrioth that he's back and Cloud pretty much brushes him off and says he's not interested... I'm honestly more surprised at Cloud in that scene then I am Rufus.

 

[Tashasaurous]

You know I think they should confirm Hojo as being Wutaiin, and the reason why he became part of Shinra was because he was banished from Wutai for his unlawful experiments. I don't know if that would make him more evil, but it would show that he always had been defying common decency since the beginning. And the fact if he was made Wutaiin, it would also show how nonchalant he is about facing his former home country in war. I have a feeling he would have done experiments on Wutaiin prisoners of war, which would have given him a reputation in Wutai for being a treacherous demon. And it would also make Sephiroth half Wutaiin on his paternal side as well.

Just because he has black hair that doesn't mean he could be Wutaiian. That's just torturing Wutai even further than it already has been due to the War against ShinRa. I think it kind of makes more sense that Hojo came from Mideel, but I still lothe him.

Tseng looks more Wutaiian because of his features and his name.

Who in Wutai would have given him the wherewithal to do these unlawful experiments?

Not only that, Wutai doesn't have any labs, because they were focusing on worshiping Da Chao Mountain and Leviathan.

We don't really have enough information on Hojo to know if he had a 'start of darkness or not.

But as for the cannon... he says this;

"My son is in need of power and help. ...That's the only reason."

Personally, I believe him, because Hojo strikes me as the kind of person that doesn't care enough about other people to lie.


In AC, Rufus intentionally paints a giant target on Cloud's back in order to force him to eliminate his enemies, I'm not sure that's evidence of redemption.

Mainly because Hojo, as you said, doesn't care about other people, in general. All he cared about was Sephiroth winning and the world destroyed.

In Rufus's case in AC, he wanted Cloud's help because he didn't have any SOLDIERs to handle Kadaj's group, Tseng and Elena were kidnapped, thus, he only had Reno and Rude who both took a bad beating against Kadaj. Plus, he knew what would happen if the Remnants got their hands on Jenova's head, so he obviously didn't want history repeating itself.

^Rufus pretty much tells the one person who defeated Sephrioth that he's back and Cloud pretty much brushes him off and says he's not interested... I'm honestly more surprised at Cloud in that scene then I am Rufus.

Well, it's pretty obvious that Cloud was surprised that Rufus was still alive, but seeing Rufus in a wheelchair in the latter's fake fatal injuries didn't care about him living or not, since ShinRa was busted, and Cloud had gone from warrior to working a courier service to live a normal life.

 

[jazzflower92]

You know I think they should confirm Hojo as being Wutaiin, and the reason why he became part of Shinra was because he was banished from Wutai for his unlawful experiments. I don't know if that would make him more evil, but it would show that he always had been defying common decency since the beginning. And the fact if he was made Wutaiin, it would also show how nonchalant he is about facing his former home country in war. I have a feeling he would have done experiments on Wutaiin prisoners of war, which would have given him a reputation in Wutai for being a treacherous demon. And it would also make Sephiroth half Wutaiin on his paternal side as well.

Just because he has black hair that doesn't mean he could be Wutaiian. That's just torturing Wutai even further than it already has been due to the War against ShinRa. I think it kind of makes more sense that Hojo came from Mideel, but I still lothe him.

Tseng looks more Wutaiian because of his features and his name.

Who in Wutai would have given him the wherewithal to do these unlawful experiments?

Not only that, Wutai doesn't have any labs, because they were focusing on worshiping Da Chao Mountain and Leviathan.

We don't really have enough information on Hojo to know if he had a 'start of darkness or not.

But as for the cannon... he says this;

Personally, I believe him, because Hojo strikes me as the kind of person that doesn't care enough about other people to lie.


In AC, Rufus intentionally paints a giant target on Cloud's back in order to force him to eliminate his enemies, I'm not sure that's evidence of redemption.

Mainly because Hojo, as you said, doesn't care about other people, in general. All he cared about was Sephiroth winning and the world destroyed.

In Rufus's case in AC, he wanted Cloud's help because he didn't have any SOLDIERs to handle Kadaj's group, Tseng and Elena were kidnapped, thus, he only had Reno and Rude who both took a bad beating against Kadaj. Plus, he knew what would happen if the Remnants got their hands on Jenova's head, so he obviously didn't want history repeating itself.

^Rufus pretty much tells the one person who defeated Sephrioth that he's back and Cloud pretty much brushes him off and says he's not interested... I'm honestly more surprised at Cloud in that scene then I am Rufus.

Well, it's pretty obvious that Cloud was surprised that Rufus was still alive, but seeing Rufus in a wheelchair in the latter's fake fatal injuries didn't care about him living or not, since ShinRa was busted, and Cloud had gone from warrior to working a courier service to live a normal life.

Of course, maybe instead of him being kicked out of Wutai for his experiments that he actually just went to work for Shinra due to his budding interest in science due to his country not having a strong science department. Of course, it would be interesting to run into people who knew Hojo before he left and say that he was always a peculiar man who kept to himself and they would always refer to him as a traitor to the country due to his reputation on experimenting on his former country men during the war.

 

[Clement Rage]

^Rufus pretty much tells the one person who defeated Sephrioth that he's back and Cloud pretty much brushes him off and says he's not interested... I'm honestly more surprised at Cloud in that scene then I am Rufus.

Not really. Cloud obviously suspects, hence asking 'What's this stuff about 'Mother', but then Rufus tries to brush off the remnants as random orphans, and nearly succeeds in guilt tripping Cloud into working for him. Cloud knows something's up, he just has no faith that Rufus will actually tell him the truth about what's going on.

 

[Tashasaurous]

^Rufus pretty much tells the one person who defeated Sephrioth that he's back and Cloud pretty much brushes him off and says he's not interested... I'm honestly more surprised at Cloud in that scene then I am Rufus.

Not really. Cloud obviously suspects, hence asking 'What's this stuff about 'Mother', but then Rufus tries to brush off the remnants as random orphans, and nearly succeeds in guilt tripping Cloud into working for him. Cloud knows something's up, he just has no faith that Rufus will actually tell him the truth about what's going on.

That too. Too bad Reno had to open his big mouth about "Rebuild ShinRa". But by the quick expression before the door closed on him again, I can see that he realised his mistake, and if I didn't know any better, I think I can hear his thoughts either an "Oops" or "Aw hell.".

 

[AerithLives]

He was so so evil already, why...how can they make him more?

 

[hian]

It would make a lot of sense of Hojo was from Wutai.
His name surname (Hojo) is Japanese, and the only other character I can think of with a Japanese surname is Yuffie (Kisaragi) and she's from Wutai as well.
Since Wutai is the symbolic version of Asia in the world of FFVII, it would make sense for a guy with an Asian name to be from the region.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

With the little blocky sprites it wasn't possible to show a lot of racial differences (except for skin colour) so it will be interesting to see what happens with the remake and whether they make Yuffie, Tseng and Hojo "look Asian", or at least look like each other, like they all come from the same ethnic group. From what we saw of Tseng and Yuffie in ACC, they didn't "look Wutaian" any more than a lot of characters did (eg Reno, Tifa, Vincent). We'll just have to wait and see.

 

[Octo]

People say that the FFVII cast, since AC anyway, look Japanese. Except they don't, I mean I suppose they look like Japanese people who have had shitloads of cosmetic surgery to look Western. The whole thing is weird.

I'm not expecting them to look much different than they did in AC anyway.

Though I'd kind of love it if they went 'fuck this realisim' and went with cel shaded anime style

 

[Tashasaurous]

People say that the FFVII cast, since AC anyway, look Japanese. Except they don't, I mean I suppose they look like Japanese people who have had shitloads of cosmetic surgery to look Western. The whole thing is weird.

I guess some Japanese people just don't know how to imagine Japanese characters in certain games. Plus, I think Square's really aiming for other country people to fit in with Final Fantasy to give players around the world to show them that, no matter where you come from, or what background you have, or what you look like or what language you speak, in the end, you're human just like everybody else.(or in same games like FFVII with Nanaki, FFIX with Quina and Vivi, with FFX with Kimhari and FFXI with optional avatars, that all life, humans and animals, all have three things in comman-minds, hearts and souls).

So it doesn't matter what you look like-it's what you do that counts. I think so, at least. Everyone sees things differently.

I'm not expecting them to look much different than they did in AC anyway.

Though I'd kind of love it if they went 'fuck this realisim' and went with cel shaded anime style

If wasn't the fact that Square Enix were fussy over not using stuff after ten years, I'd be more than happy if they kept the styles from AC era for the Remake. Or like Cloud's features to be similiar from that of the Arcade Dissidia Final Fantasy game.

But that's just me.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

You know, I've been thinking about this while replaying the OG, and it occurred to me that the only racially-aware comment made by any character in the entire game happens when Barret refers to Cloud's "spikey white ass" and for all I know that was the result of the translator taking a liberty. I think FF is trying to eschew all Earth-bound racial issues, but fans will insist on reading the games through a racial filter.