Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, a recent Nintendo title, is facing scrutiny over its character design, specifically concerning the depiction of dark skin tones. The game has been noted for featuring the most diverse cast of non-white characters in the series to date, yet some of these characters exhibit an ashy or unnaturally pale complexion, leading to player and critic concerns.
Among the prominent characters affected by this criticism is Queen Theodora, a ruler of a desert nation. Her appearance, along with that of her retainers Tobias and Bonaparte, has been described as having a skin tone that appears unnaturally light or ashy, despite their characters being depicted as people of color. Players can also customize the appearance of Eshmel, the game's protagonist, including skin tone and hairstyle.
This issue is particularly striking given that other characters within Fortune's Weave, and even in previous Fire Emblem titles, have been rendered with accurate and varied dark skin tones. For instance, the characters Cai and Leda, who are also people of color, are depicted with lighter but clearly brown skin. The existence of these more realistically rendered characters suggests that the inconsistent portrayals may not be an oversight but a deliberate choice that has drawn criticism.
The concern is that these particular dark-skinned characters are rendered with a pallor that does not reflect natural skin tones, drawing comparisons to a corpse-like appearance or suggesting a lack of proper skincare that would be expected for characters from warmer climates. The author notes that in a game with such a notable effort towards diversity, the specific rendering of these characters' skin is frustratingly inconsistent.
Despite these criticisms, the presence of a diverse cast in Fortune's Weave has been acknowledged as a positive step. The game's developers, Intelligent Systems, have previously demonstrated an understanding of how to render a spectrum of brown skin tones, making the inconsistencies in Fortune's Weave a point of discussion. The hope is that if these choices were intentional, they will be explained, and that the overall trend of increased inclusivity in video games will continue.
