It came to pass, that FH is going to have yet another
update/season – its’ fourth so far. Yay?
Well, its’ problems haven’t gone away – but I’m not talking
about the technical issues or about the matters with its’ story line: I want to
talk some about the latest two new characters that will be appearing in the FH
universe – the Aramusha and the Shaman.
First, the Aramusha. It is a part of team Samurai, and…I
have no idea of what it means. No, actually, I do – it means ‘fierce warrior’
in Japanese, and is a more generic term than a ‘kensai’ or a ‘shinobi’ would
be. Ergo, this means that the Aramusha is designed (was designed?) with a more
generic, basic standard in mind than the Highlander or the Gladiator were; it
is a much more generic and fundamental stereotype, and that makes it had to
like him, because of that. Again, how you will be able to play him is another
matter, but so far, the Aramusha does come across less exciting than the
Highlander was, for example.
And as for the Shaman…look. A shaman is a religious figure,
not exactly a priest, or rather – yes, s/he is a holy person, but specifically
in a non-European tradition, which includes the Vikings – the European
traditions, I mean. A Viking Shaman…it can work, but not necessarily, and as J.
R.’s foray into Native American culture in order to further fuel her new works –
aka Newt Scamander and the pre-Harry Potter era – showed that Native North
Americans, at least, are on alert when it comes to their interests, however remotely,
and as such, if FH isn’t careful, it can be accused of being racist, or
racially insensitive, or something similar that it doesn’t need, either. And
moreover…
Moreover, this shows that FH continues to have issues with
creativity. Its’ storytelling mode was one of its’ weakest points from the
start, and ever since this issue did not get better, but probably worse. Even
the Centurion, ‘back when’, showed signs that the FH creative teams had issues
in expressing as to what the game sought to achieve initially; now we have yet another character in the Vikings, which,
historically, had nothing to do with the Vikings, and another character in the
Samurais that is so generic, that it is the same problem as the one with the
Vikings & the Shaman, just from the opposite side…
End rant for now, more on this when more details on the
Aramusha and the Shaman will become known… Until next time!
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