Topic: Add Black Character Creation in Games

I noticed that some games on the Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii, and Nintendo Wii U doesn't have character creation to let you played as Black people. For example, you can customize your characters to be Black in Pokken Tournament, and Splatoon 1, but there's hardly any RPGs with a few Black-only characters or a character creation option to let you played as Black people. That's why I think players should be allowed or have a choice to play as Black characters in RPGs.

RPGs that doesn't have a character creation to play as Black people:

Final Fantasy Spin-offs(Nintendo games)
Xenoblade Chronicles 1 and 2
Monster Racers
Digimon World games
Etrian Odyssey I,II, and III
Some Japanese games with white-locked character creation

Portal Knights has Option to customize your Hero as Black character.

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Elder Scroll games have redguards. Most of the games with character creation that I have tried have some black skin options anyway

@LinkxPeach It's an issue that's worth emailing/calling games companies about. It's not going to change much moaning about it on the forums of a fan based web site.

@LinkxPeach I fully support this, but I'm honestly not sure a lot of people do it when it is an option. Splatoon 2 lets you customize skin tone all the way to an almost ebony black, and in all the time I've been playing it I've NEVER seen another black squid. I must have played a few thousand matches by now, and not once have I seen a squid using any of the dark skin tones.

If you're looking for games that support this, I can think of a few. Fantasy Life does. Skyrim should, if its character creation is the same as the PC version. And South Park: Fractured But Whole does as well, but playing as black makes the game harder.

@JasmineDragon this is something ive payed attention to for several years now and for games that allow character creation, it is mostly improved to the point where every game can be expected to have varied brown skin tones.. the games that have a problem with this most is asian developed games, namely MMOs.
Also thats totally false that not a lot of people want this. White people arent the only ones who play video games.

This is probably going to be a controversial statement, but outside the US and Africa, black people aren't that important as an ethnic group. Look at what is considered an ethnically diverse group in Europe and Asia (from those stock photos). It has asians, white people, arabs, indians and so on, but hardly ever black people.

How ethnicity is viewed also differs greatly between countries. Just asking who is considered white you get very different answers depending where you are asking. Are Russians white? Are Greeks white? And no one is right, the US even has some weird quirks where it's enough to represent a "muslim" in a diverse group and it doesn't matter if it's an arab or a turk, despite them being completely different ethnicity.

So, it's weird to for example asking Japanese game companies why there are no black people, while at the same time there isn't any Indians, Turks, Arabs, Filipinos and so on. I understand black people have a much more important role in the history of the US, but you must understand that they have almost no history in Asia and most of Europe (especially eastern Europe).

Also, if you create a fantasy world, often you have an idea of who populates that world, a sort of fictional ethnic group. It would just hurt immersion if you threw in a few people who looked vastly different than the rest. Often these groups get accused of being "too white", but often that is projection on the accusers side. I can't remember who said it, but there was some anime animator that said that white people often asked "why do you make anime characters with round eyes", and he had to explain that in Asia they don't actually consider their own eyes to be narrow. All things are relative, and if some alien came down to earth with perfectly spherical eyes, then they would probably say white people have slanted eyes.

@Inertiacreep I didn't say anywhere that only white people play video games, because that would be a really strange thing for me to say. And if it sounds like sounds like I'm saying nobody wants to have the option, that's not my intent. I know some people want it. I want it myself. My kids want it. And I'm sure other people want it.

What I said before was just because I'm a little perplexed about my Spla2oon experience. I literally have not seen another black or even slightly dark squid in Spla2oon ever. It's just weird to me. The option is there, and squid kids look super fresh in darker shades. But no one ever seems to do it. I see plenty of black Miis in my friend list, so maybe it's just that it's not the same when you're playing as an Inkling, since they aren't human. And Spla2oon is really the only MP game I play with customizable characters, so I have no way of knowing for sure.

I would love to see games become more diverse in their avatar creation tools. I also don't buy the argument that Japanese studios can't be called out on this. Caucasians are not a significant group in their society and they star in most of their videogames. They just create what sells the most and if it is an avatar creation tool they can make it diverse without impacting sales.

I don't really think Skin Tone should matter much, but I can understand for other people wanting to have characters that look similar to them when designing their own MCs. Even more so when a game give the option to do so.

I don't struggle much with it since my race tends to be a little lighter than African Americans and I myself am a bit lighter on that spectrum as well.

I know it's possible in Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2, but as I don't often play games with a character creation feature, I'm not sure what else is out there.

Also, regarding DBX2, there's actually a sidequest where you have to fight a dark skinned Majin named Barack. Unfortunately I can't take a picture because he was only on the map while the quest was active.

Solid Snake is half Japanese and half white, and lots of anime characters that you think are supposed to be white are Asian. Japan has historically had a lot to do with, among other dutch people, with trading and such. Japan society itself has generally not accepted outsiders, not even from other Asian countries. Caucasians have virtually no representation in video games, the closest you get is Niko Bellic from GTA4, but he is supposed to be Serbian.

@Goatman what the hell is a matter with you? GTFO

@Agriculture I think your argument in your first post has a few problems. Character creation options in Japanese games already let you turn characters' hair blonde and give them blue or green eyes with light skin. Beyond that, you'll likely have options such as pink or green hair, red or purple eyes, etc. It shouldn't be too farfetched to have an option for brown skin when there are options for traits that don't even exist in the real world.

Furthermore, games that are released worldwide, outside of Japan, should add options for darker skin. Just because they're made in Japan doesn't mean they can't add darker skin choices for those outside of Japan. I think Nintendo has done well with this recently in Pokémon, Splatoon, and Animal Crossing, all are popular games that all kinds of people enjoy worldwide, so it makes sense for them to add more skin options to their character creators. There's nothing wrong with having the option for dark skin, even if it might be uncommon in Japan.

My point was that the slightly darker skin captures more of the audience than black skin. The biggest black population that can buy video games (Africa has developed a lot in recent decades, but isn't a big video game market yet) is the roughly 40 million black Americans. Contrast that with all South East Asians, Southern Europeans, North Africans and you'll see there is a lot greater demand for slightly darker skin character creation than black skin character creation.

And the other argument about changing hair color; the game can be set in a world with a somewhat ethnically homogeneous population that also like to color their hair. Sort of like how Japan is right now.

Is this worth a discussion? Most, if not all, character creation tools let you make black people. End of discussion.

@Gandalfthe_Black most western ones yes. The op is obviously asking about creation tools in Japanese games. Does this discussion harm you in any way?

@faint Not necessarily, until the OP says Jrpg's specifically. It should be assumed they are talking about rpg's in general.

But in regards to the OP most modern games that give the option of customization, will allow you to use a Black character. That being said if you're referring to non customizable characters mostly being White, the only real way that would change would be having more Black Devs make games. People more often than not come up with characters that are their race, that's just how it is.