FF14 director Yoshi P says that the abuse directed to Wuk Lamat’s English VA 'breaks me heart' and urges players to'refrain' from personal attacks.

The story of Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail didn't quite land with its players. I'm one. While I agree with many of the criticisms, and asked Naoki Yoshida, aka Yoshi-P, about them at Gamescom in this year, it seems that the discussion has been hijacked by those who want to spread hate.

Sena Bryer, the English voice actress for Wuk Lamat, a character at the heart of critical discussions about Dawntrail, is trans, and has said multiple times that she's been subjected to unacceptable transphobic abuse as a result of her role--strangers using her business email to sign her up for far-right newsletters, as well as "misgendering, death/rape threats, doxxing attempts, threats against my family, etc in every post and all across Twitch/YouTube/Reddit, all [because] I voiced a Final Fantasy character".

Yoshi-P, in a recent interview, commented on both Wuk Lamat, the character, and the abuse Byrer received. "There were comments that we are too accepting--some people appear to disapprove of that." I'm sorry to say that one of our staff received negative comments. It almost felt like an attack on her personal dignity. This breaks my heart because she worked so hard and the criticisms were not constructive.

The language is a bit ambiguous, but these interviews are usually conducted by an interpreter. This adds a layer of (unintentional ) obscurity to his remarks. The interviewer makes a note in the editor's section that Yoshida did, in fact, refer to Bryer and the transphobic abuses she received.

"It does nothing but make the staff lose their motivation," he continues, "and that could potentially damage our game's quality and take away what makes this game interesting." If you have any criticisms, please bring them to me because I am the one who approves this material. Please refrain from making personal attacks on our staff.

Yoshi-P is candid about Wuk Lamat, the character. I thought she was not so much the cause of the expansion's problems as it was a symptom. We didn't go into detail about why she felt that way, so it seemed as if her feelings were negative. We accept this feedback. I'm sorry we couldn't portray her properly."

Yoshi-P confirms that they will be developing Wuk lamat further in order to address some concerns. "We're hoping to show more of what makes Wuk lamat so great, I'm hoping we can recover from there."

I'm really looking forward to seeing how this plays out. I also hope that some structural changes have taken place in the team's writing and editing processes. No matter what happens, whether it's good or bad, the hatred Bryer has received will never be acceptable. Yoshi-P's support for Bryer may have been long overdue, but I am glad he finally said something.

"Whatever you like or dislike is up to you," he says, adding a characteristic diplomacy. "But it's sad to see people attacking other people who don't agree. Final Fantasy 14 is going to grow, and with that, more opinions will be flying around. It's fine. But I think we should continue to work on reducing the number of pointless attacks between each other. Hear hear.