‘Final Fantasy 14’ boss addresses transphobic abuse directed at voice actor
Final Fantasy 14 boss Naoki Yoshida has spoken about the backlash to the character of Wuk Lamat and the transphobic abuse their voice actor Sena Bryer received.
Wuk Lamat was introduced at the end of the Endwalker expansion and became a central figure in Dawntrail, but her expressive personality divided the fanbase. The character was voiced by Sena Bryer, who received abuse for her work. One popular Final Fantasy 14 subreddit had to ban any discussions about the character after “waves of hate comments” including “death threats, mainly directed at Sena Bryer and trans people in general” were flooding the sub.
In a new interview with Checkpoint Gaming, game director Naoki Yoshida addressed the hate. “There were comments about how we are too accepting of diversity – some people seem to be disapproving of that,” he explained.
wuk lamat is visible in the 7.1 screenshots, which means the most annoying people ever are going to make a resurgence to make sure you know how much they hate her
— Laura 'Estrogen' Worth (@Laura_Eworth) October 24, 2024
“I’m afraid one of our staff members received very negative comments and it almost felt like a personal attack, which breaks my heart, because she worked really hard and these criticisms were not constructive at all,” he continued.
“It doesn’t do anything except make the staff lose motivation, and in the end that could potentially damage the quality of our game and take away from what makes this game so interesting. So if there are any sort of criticisms, bring it to me because I’m the one approving this material. I wanted to reiterate that, please refrain from personal attacks against our staff.”
He went on to say that Final Fantasy 14 hadn’t explored Wuk Lamat‘s backstory enough, which is perhaps why the character “left a negative impression.” Yoshida then promised this would be addressed in a future update. “We’re hoping that we can show more of what makes Wuk Lamat so great.”
Final Fantasy 14 is getting a new ‘Crossroads’ update next month, which will introduce new story missions and the Final Fantasy 11-themed raid series Echoes Of Vana’diel to the game.
In other news, Call Of Duty: Black Ops 6 has confirmed the launch date for season one, which will bring a “colossal” amount of free content to the game.
The post ‘Final Fantasy 14’ boss addresses transphobic abuse directed at voice actor appeared first on NME.
Ali Shutler
NME
