6th Gen Is Game Freak starting to diversify its characters?

I'm liking the diversity I'm seeing in the character designs and it's also looking like they'll be bringing in more unique characters personality-wise as well. I mean just look at Tierno. He's a total cutie. He's heavyset but definitely athletic as well- his character descriptions say he's nimble and a dancer. And he's passionate about it! As far as I can tell, he's probably not really going to be on the traditional Pokémon journey. He knows what he wants to do- create a Pokémon dance team- and he's probably going to be working on that throughout the game. I like that. That kind of... expands the Pokémon world to me. The player is still relatively confined to the traditional journey, but there are other options for kids in that world. There's more to do and different routes to explore and it just gives the world a more fleshed-out feel. :3

When I saw Tieruno, I compared him to a big teddy bear in my head. He seems like a likable character, and I hope he has a moment to steal the show in the story (fighting a legendary or something, I dunno).

They're being more inclusive about race, but nothing has really changed about body types.

The ice cream on Tierno's shirt is the one thing I cannot take seriously about him. His passion is dancing, not eating. So why doesn't he have Meloetta, Ludicolo, Chingling, or anything else on his shirt?

Who says that a character has to be perfect? In the anime there are characters of all races and weight and age. lol

Pokemon has always had a wide variety of characters and body types and such. Brock's nationality is ambiguous, but his skin tone isn't "white." Agatha is an old woman, Misty's body type is perfect for a professional swimmer, and is different from Sabrina's, whose is different from Erika's...and that's just generation one.

As more gens pass, they become more and more inclusive, which is great. It's something I've always loved about the Pokemon games, and it makes me sad that so many people care more about the Pokemon than the humans, as if the human characters don't even matter. And video games in general should be more inclusive, like Pokemon has been.
But really, "less-than-perfect?" Is Lenora "less-than-perfect" because she isn't white?? That's...just wrong.

Did anyone mention the black basketball players (hoopsters), football players, and break dancers in BW? Those are the only black trainer types, everyone else is fair-skinned. Originally Lenora was designed to have a large apron to go along with her puffy afro and headband, practically referencing the mammy archetype in order to make a black female gym leader? Her title in Japan is "The Natural Born Mama"!!!! I think inclusiveness is a must, but really? Do they need to draw upon every possible stereotypes in order to be inclusive?!?!

Best remedy for trainer types is to vary skin tone. It seems pretty simple. For trainers and notable characters, simply treat them like other characters that just happen to have a darker skin tone.

BraveNewWorld said:

I don't think you intended to. But you just said that black people are less than perfect. lol

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Cackling right now because I'm glad that I wasn't the only one who picked up on that.

But yeah, it's really not a big deal and it's not like the visual designs for the characters add or take away from the story in any way. You could swap the sprites in all of the games and have the exact same experience because what they look like doesn't mean anything. Of course, that doesn't really apply to Team members because of the uniforms and stuff.

did nyone noticed tht in the new footage when we see the bike there is a really depressed man?

IMO, unique would be a better wording than less than perfect.

someone all of you have probably forgotten: Crasher Wake! He was ( i think because of the mask and all) a big, fat, floppy WRESTLER (luchador maybe?).......he was FAT.

idankingo said:

someone all of you have probably forgotten: Crasher Wake! He was ( i think because of the mask and all) a big, fat, floppy WRESTLER (luchador maybe?).......he was FAT.

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And even before him there was Wattson...a cheerful old guy based off the cheerful chubby person trope.

Team Fail said:

Pokémon Black and White started it with the inclusion of Lenora, a non-white character that is essentially a protagonist in a sense. This was sort of a big deal, as she was the first non-white character in the Pokémon series game.

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Um... No? There's Brock, Phoebe the Hoenn E4... And most others are just ambiguous except the likes of Lt. Surge.

Aside from that I've never really cared about diversity in Pokemon because these games were designed for children in the first place and most of them don't care if every character in their game is "white," but diversity is always nice.

^ Just a distinction, "made for children". That is why diversity is important. It must be sort of disappointing playing a video game when all of the characters have a light skin tone for those who have a darker skin tone. It's not a matter of GF making a political statement on diversity as it is the young consumers feeling excluded.

Fenneking said:

^ Just a distinction, "made for children". That is why diversity is important. It must be sort of disappointing playing a video game when all of the characters have a light skin tone for those who have a darker skin tone. It's not a matter of GF making a political statement on diversity as it is the young consumers feeling excluded.

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I'm Asian and personally I've never felt disappointed when I played any of the Pokemon games. I guess it's more of other way around, if I happened to find someone of my own race then it felt satisfying but again, I've never felt "left out" when the characters in any game were predominantly white. If I ever happen to come across a Black friend who felt disappointed that a Black person wasn't in the Pokemon games until Lenora, then I'd probably change my mind.

I think everyone might be forgetting that the humans in this series are actually Japanese unless stated otherwise. And that this series is made in Japan, where racial diversity is less of a thing than it is in, say, America. And that the creators were not at all expecting it to be as ridiculously widespread as it was.

Regarding important trainers, girls and guys are a lot more equal in Pokémon than a lot of games. And the girls aren't too sexualized. There's diversity of personality and interests across the board. As for race, Brock's not white nor Japanese. Surge is a white American, probably. So that's diverse from the beginning, really.

Honestly they're diversifying as much as they are because of the incredible reach of the Pokémon franchise paired with the ever-shrinking world. 1996? A select few people outside of Japan caught wind of this weirdly popular new game being released. They were probably in the video game industry. 2013? Millions of kids from all bits of the globe know that X&Y come out in October, fairies ain't for girls anymore, Tierno's a big guy dancer, Shauna may fall under "ambiguously brown", and Zakuro's black. And they probably found this out without help.

What I'm saying is that Pokémon is hitting pretty much every demographic in the book, so it would be silly not to reflect that diversity.

Diversity of NPCs can be trace as early as the debut generation. Fishermen were fat, Hikers were fat. There was even an American Gym Leader. And there was Nicki Minaj from Gen I.
On Generation II Kimono Girls were introduced, they might not be consider as diverse in Japan, otherwise the opposite was true for all continents across the globe. In the their remake versions, Kimono Girls' role were much important. All generations have elder people as trainers as well, they can be as important as Elite Four or as minor Socialites and such...

What I'm expecting is the diversity of customising, we see Calem and Serena from trailers in different skin color or outfit. But how about the body shape of the lead protagonist? Are we able to change them as well? I look forward to it!

Romaov said:

I'm pretty sure all the characters in FFXV are asian more specifically Japanese. I'm pretty sure there aren't any "white" people in any of these games you play from different countries. It's just like anime different hair colors and eyes so you can diversify the more important characters. Everyone is asian unless they're skin tone is noticeably darker. I.E yoruichi and tousen, bleach lenora E4 guy Iris,BW BW2.

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FF character designers have kind of made up their own ethnicity for humans. It's not caucasian or Asian but it is certainly a mix between the two, and almost all of their characters are made to be attractive. Thin, white-skinned, light eyes, and their hair is very rarely black (which, last I checked, is the only hair colour 99.9% of Japanese people are born with). Oh and not one of the characters in XV has dark brown eyes. Again, that's the only eye colour that Japanese people have.

And no FF game has ever taken place in Japan or even a location inspired by Japan. It's a made up world so whether or not you want to argue their ethnicity, you can't say the characters are "Japanese".

I personally want more darker skinned characters. Not just African American based but hispanic, Jamacian, etc.

We need versatality. I get kind of annoyed when I see only light skinned girls and boys in a game. I was incredibly happy with Iris being champion. N doesn't deserve anything but hate if you ask me.

I don't tend to pay much attention to the ethnicity of the characters of games. I tend to think of Pokémon's character's as Japanese though except for Unova's (all of the cast not just Lenora). However it's nice to see some diversity. I wish they had made Unova more diverse to fit in with New York city but I guess a region based off of France is as good as any, having African French people and allowing us to customize.