Cindy Aurum

As introduced in the 2016 roleplaying video game Final Fantasy XV, Cindy Aurum is a minor character, and with her grandfather, Cid, runs the Hammerhead Service Station, where she will repair and offer upgrades for the protagonist's car, the Regalia. Prior to the game's events, when she was a young child, she witnessed her parents being attacked and killed by daemons, monsters in the game's universe.^[13][14] Cindy also appears in the multiplayer expansion Final Fantasy XV: Comrades.^[15] She is voiced in all appearances in Japanese by Yū Shimamura, while in English she is voiced by Erin Matthews,^[4] who portrayed the character with a thick Southern accent.^[16] Meanwhile, her motion capture was performed by Haruka Shibai.^[5]

She later appeared as a playable character in Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire and its sequel Final Fantasy XV: War for Eos, mobile game spinoff titles.^[17][18] Outside of the Final Fantasy XV series she appears as a playable unit in Final Fantasy Brave Exvius,^[19] and on cards for the Final Fantasy trading card game.^[20]

Despite being a minor character, Cindy has been heavily promoted. She was first unveiled in the "Episode Duscae" demo for Final Fantasy XV,^[3] and later at CEDEC 2016 she was showcased as part of a presentation discussing how the development team created the character models and textures for Final Fantasy XV.^[21] A cosplay reference guide illustrating the individual parts of her model was also released.^[22] In 2017, Play Arts produced a poseable 11 inch tall figurine of Cindy.^[23] Meanwhile, her outfit is available as in-game clothing to customize player characters of Minecraft,^[24] the character Kaori in Blue Reflection,^[25] and the character Nono in #Compass.^[26]

Since her initial reveal in the game's demo, her outfit and portrayal has the subject of heated debate, with sources such as GameRevolution comparing her to fellow controversial character Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V,^[27] and The Guardian calling her "laughable male fantasy" while further expressing disdain for her attire and how she posed while maintenancing the protagonists' vehicle.^[28] Chris Kohler in an article for Wired meanwhile argued that simply deleting the character would be an improvement for the game after playing the demo.^[29] Jon Bailes of GamesRadar+ on the other hand felt that Cindy set "the tone for a game of mismatches" down to the plain nature of her name compared to the playable cast. To him, while protagonist felt polished, characters like Cindy represented the rougher edges of a game he felt went through a troubled development.^[30]

The writers of Vice were particularly critical of her character. While Mike Diver had originally shared his wife's reaction to her design, stating "if the weather's good, and the work is messy, why wear too many clothes?"^[31] He later stated he felt she was the game's "biggest negative" further describing her as "a single loose thread away from indignity" and "totally out of whack" with the rest of the game. Patrick Klepek agreed, feeling that her design made him want to be aware of who in particular was watching him play the title. He felt that Cindy as a character wasn't the problem, and if she had some expressed reason for her appearance, he'd have less of an issue. Austin Walker meanwhile argued that while Cindy was a problem for him, she felt to him more like a symptom of how poorly gender was handled in the game overall.^[32]

Jérémie Kermarrec in the book La Légende Final Fantasy XV described her as one of the most sexualized characters in the franchise as a whole, and felt she represented a negative trope of "women as background decoration" in gaming. Acknowledging that other elements of sexualization were present amongst the male cast as well, he emphasized by comparison such was never done to "titillate" the viewer in their case as it was in Cindy's. While her role in the game was serious and her dialogue was never meant to paint her "as a bimbo supposed to tempt the main characters", he felt this only further illustrated the absurdity of her design, the disconnect between her character and appearance emphasizing that her visual design was created solely for seductive purposes. He closed with feeling that the development team's reaction to backlash regarding Cindy felt "straight out of another era" in the current climate of gaming at that time, when proper representation of women in gaming was a more widely discussed topic. At the same time, he added it was also important the recognize the role gender disparity in Japan had on such sentiments, and lamented the missed opportunity for the development team to demonstrate goodwill by acknowledging such issues.^[33]

However, not all reactions were entirely negative. Nadia Oxford of USGamer felt that while her outfit and window-washing cutscene was "obvious fanservice" and particularly inappropriate for the weather she was in, it was inoffensive to her due to the game not being centered around "male wish fulfillment".^[16] Inverse's Jessica Famularo felt that the character deserved more in the game's story than just fanservice, noting that while sexualized characters were not uncommon to the franchise, they often had their own agency and stories.^[34] Brittany Vincent of Shacknews on the other hand called her one of her favorite characters in the game and the title's "best girl". Describing Cindy as "a rugged, no-nonsense mechanic who's a cool drink of water for thirsty eyes and minds tired of the typical JRPG female character archetype", she emphasized that the character's presence was one aspect that gave Final Fantasy XV a more "Western" roleplaying game feel and set it apart from other entries in the Final Fantasy series.^[35][24]

Peter Swann of ComicsVerse praised Cindy in an examination of how Final Fantasy XV challenged gender roles and called her the most important female character in the title. He explained that by filling a role in a field often dominated by men, she was a "badass woman" who enabled the male party members' whole journey, who due to their own ineptitude in the field of car repair and mechanics "would have been captured, or killed, ages ago" without her. While he acknowledged that the character was dressed in revealing attire, he argued that it was no different than the character Gladiolus, and felt that if people could enjoy him being "practically shirtless while fighting monsters, we can suspend disbelief over a scantily clad mechanic for other gamers to enjoy." He went further to express his belief that game developers were often more open-minded in design options but were bound to their demographics, citing an example of a male character in revealing attire that went through similar backlash.^[36]

Game Rant's Ben Grindle meanwhile compared her to previous "Cid" characters, and shared much of Swann's sentiments in that she was significantly more important to the title due to the role she played for the protagonists, while also helping to modernize the concept. While often the characters were portrayed as older gruff men who tended to have military backgrounds, often also estranged from their families, Cindy's lack of these aspects along with her close relationship to her grandfather gave her in Grindle's eyes a warming presence. He felt this "radical departure" of her personality in comparison to her predecessors was a breath of fresh air that helped modernize the character's concept, while retaining the familiar aspects players had come to expect from the archetype. Additionally he emphasized while the character was never playable, her role in the game as a source of side quests and helping to maintain the party's means of transportation gave her presence, and all combined to help push "the character’s portrayal into new areas" and provided her "a sense of fulfillment to this Cid’s story and role that’s unlike most that have come before her."^[37]

Fan response to the character also differed from the media reaction. The feedback in player polls criticizing Cindy as "too sexy" incited backlash from certain quarters of the Final Fantasy fandom, who went on social media to defend the presentation of female characters like Cindy in the video game industry.^[38] Cindy has also been the subject of frequent cosplay, with Tabata noting in an interview in Vice that she appeared to be the fan favorite from the title due to seeing someone dressed as her at every event prior to the game's release.^[31] Kean Sullivan of Game Rant observed that of all the female characters in XV Cindy was the most common to see cosplayed, attributing it in part due to her frequent presence in the title by also "how memorable her character design is".^[39] Kermarrec also acknowledged the character's popularity in cosplay, feeling that she benefited not only from the low number of female characters in the game but also her expressive design with "very identifiable and easy-to-reproduce elements" despite his previous criticism.^[40]