Popular MMORPG Final Fantasy 14 is changing the icon of its newly revealed character class to better suit trypophobic players, which is a welcome step toward inclusivity in video games. Developer Square Enix recently showcased details for the upcoming expansion’s new classes, sage and reaper, on Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker website. While most reactions to the new information were positive, certain fans had strong, uncomfortable feelings regarding the icon for the sage class.
These players suffer from trypophobia, a phobia in which those affected feel fear or disgust when they see clusters of small, tightly packed holes or irregular patterns. While many people may not have heard of trypophobia, it may be more common than players would expect. A study published by the Association for Psychological Science (APS) journal Psychological Science in 2013 found 16 percent of the 286 participants experienced discomfort when presented with trypophobic imagery, like a picture of a lotus seed pod. Some other possible triggering imagery could include honeycombs, strawberries, or pomegranates.
Producer Naoki Yoshida recently published a blog post to the Final Fantasy 14 website where he revealed that the development team had received extensive feedback from trypophobic players about the sage icon. In light of this, the Final Fantasy 14 team redesigned the sage icon to remove the offending holes from the original design. Being that the job icons are visible during the majority of the game and appear on various pieces of merchandise, Yoshida said he strongly believes this was the correct call to make. While some players may prefer the original icon design for the sage job, Yoshida asks that players are understanding of other members of the community.
Why Final Fantasy 14's Decision is Big
With Final Fantasy 14: Endwalker set to release at the end of the year, it is perfectly understandable that Yoshida and the team at Square Enix are trying to avoid any bad publicity. Final Fantasy 14 is one of the premier MMORPGs available on the market, even recently surpassing the player count of genre behemoth World of Warcraft, and in order to maintain that popularity Square Enix needs to be transparent and inclusive with its community. Online games, and MMORPGs in particular, live and die by their fanbase. Few players participating leaves remaining fans with fewer people to play with, which defeats the point of a "Massively Multiplayer Online" game. It's commendable that Yoshida and Square Enix dealt with the trypohobia issue so quickly and professionally.
Of course, Final Fantasy 14 isn't the only game that is making an effort to improve accessibility, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart has been praised for its accessibility options, such as a HUD that allows players to set each individual element's color, improving the readability for color-blind gamers. Microsoft has also recently focused on inclusive features. It has announced the Xbox Accessibility Insider League, which gives players with disabilities a way to provide feedback to studios in regards to accessibility. The upcoming Psychonauts 2 comes with an invincibility toggle that allows gamers of any skill level to play through the game in its entirety.
Some gamers may argue that certain development decisions preventing certain players from enjoying games are based on an artistic vision or to deliver a particular experience, such as Dark Souls' notorious static difficulty. There is validity to those thoughts, but in the case of Final Fantasy 14, the redesign of the sage icon should help more people enjoy the game and share in the increasingly popular hobby.
Final Fantasy 14 is available now on PC, PS4, and PS5.