With the release of Season 9 for Apex Legends, a new character joined the fray. While Valkyrie is the first Japanese character in Apex Legends and marketed heavily as such, one content creator felt that Respawn fell short in its effort to properly represent Japanese culture.
Even as its servers struggled, yesterday, Respawn saw Apex Legends post its most concurrent players ever, at least partly borne by the introduction of its newest hero. Valkyrie is easily one of the most popular champions in the game's history, owing in part to the massive hype that surrounded the character's development. In the lead-up to her debut, Apex Legends continually drew attention to the character's Japanese heritage, even stating that they hoped the character would be liked by Japanese fans. However, as content creator Alinkochan points out, the character is conspicuously missing anything distinctly Japanese in her voice lines, base skins, and the like.
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In a brief video posted to Twitter, Alinkochan outlined the specific ways in which she felt Respawn fell short in representing Valkyrie's Japanese heritage. To start, she compared Valkyrie to Crypto, a Korean hacker and encryption specialist, who has a variety of quips in both Korean and English whereas Valkyrie only speaks in English. Further, after exploring the character's lore, Alinkochan states that "nothing in her origin story resembled anything about Japan."
Part of Alinkochan's frustration also stems from the fact that Season 9's Battle Pass in Apex Legends equips all Apex Legends characters in equipment that is unmistakably Japanese-inspired. There's the "Crafty Kitsune" skin for Rampart, the "Studied the Blade" frame for Revenant, and even the Demon's Whisper skin for Wraith—which features her wearing an Oni mask atop her head. There's certainly no dearth of Japanese-themed cosmetics and the like in the game, but Valkyrie, the first Japanese character, seems to be relatively lacking in customization options that represent her culture even when compared to the rest of the roster.
While Alinkochan does not specifically state the changes she would like to see made to Valkyrie, a little could certainly go a long way. Respawn could retcon Valkyrie's lore in a small manner to include nods to her Japanese heritage or at the very least release a few voice lines in Japanese. As it stands, Apex Legends still boasts one of the most diverse and inclusive character selections, but, as this video reminds fans, each character has to be treated correctly. If not, a potentially great character like Valkyrie can feel less like a genuine celebration of Japanese heritage and more like a way to further profit off the popularity of Japanese culture in the game.
Apex Legends is now available on PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One, with mobile ports coming in 2022.