So in terms of this topic as a whole I have always felt like I've been kind of a middle ground on this position. It always felt like everyone around me online either sees any instance of female sexualization as a failure or the people who are the opposite (who I haven't really seen much in my huge lurk of this thread) who just say that it's a video game and you shouldn't care about anything as the OP acknowledged. The position I've always taken is that video games are art, and designs should
artistically make sense. That includes sexy designs. As long as it suits the environment of the game and the character I think it's okay.
Since I am a huge HUGE Xenoblade fan and that was the focus here for a while I'll use that as my main example. I personally find a lot of the XC2 designs to be devoid of taste, especially that bear girl or whatever she is. Pyra I already barely liked but this blade actually made me... upset. It's just so unfitting and so stupid. Sure there's a very small chance that one may even see her in the game but Pyra is always there, and the bear girl is still in the game, and sooo many other blades seem like fetish bait and it feels wrong. I actually thought that Xenoblade X did the sexy aspect some of the best. Because of the idea of fashion slots, you can wear a huge amount of armor, sexy or non. And it felt to me like most of it was just cool sci fi shit and you had to actively try to wear the playboy costumes. In fact, a decent amount of the male costumes included showcasing their hindquarters in very tight clothes or even bare in the original Japanese release. Lots of ways to keep them shirtless, etc. And you could keep everyone fully clothed if you wish, and all the default outfits felt perfectly reasonable and just cool.
Something that often goes unmentioned with Xenoblade 1 is actually that I felt it was kind of subtly sexist in a couple ways. It's near a perfect game to me but it still has some questionable stuff in it that acts as an unavoidable stain that I think Xenoblade 2 brought back but worse. Sharla is the cardinal sin for sure of that game. EVERY costume of hers had to be slutty looking in some way it was so immersion breaking and tasteless. Sharla was such a motherly character and dressing her like a stripper no matter what you wear just because she has big boobs hurt to watch. The other thing I disliked was about the writing which isn't too relevant to this thread but I noticed most of the dialogue between the female characters in XC1 was just about who was gonna date Shulk first and that was kind of annoying. Xenoblade X I felt also fixed this.
Back to Xenoblade 2, I just think the art is ugly a lot of the time. Like I don't think as some people in this thread no offense to any of you that showing some thigh, wearing heels, or not wearing completely covering armor is even something to second glance it, but maybe I'm just numbed to it all. But not much of the Xenoblade 2 designs even make sense, just like Sharla but on a bigger scale. Even Pyra's Mythra form still looks stupid even if in a more elegant way. I basically have a couple flexible cardinal rules when it comes to sexualization, one is what I mentioned about about X which is equality of the sexes. Another would be realisticness to the character which was already mentioned with Bayonetta and even Twintelle. Another good example to this I think would be Charlotte from Fire Emblem Fates. Yes, I am defending Fates. Charlotte was basically wearing a bikini constantly and shoving her boobs in every character's face, but in reality she was actually just trying to be a gold digger to support her family and is a remorseless manipulative woman. I honestly thought she was one of the few well written characters in the game and her design was just so, her. Male gaze or whatever I don't really care sorry if it sounds dismissive, I think as long as a sexy design makes sense for a setting I accept it. Like Yakuza was mentioned earlier and it's just a grimey, silly game so I think putting literal porn in it combined well.
https://twitter.com/XenobladeJP/status/935314010668277760 Now take a look at this girl. She's also from Xenoblade 2 but by a specific artist, Nomura. He also did the art for the main villains which is really nice, I think his art actually fits the Xeno-theme a lot lot better than the standard tripe like Pyra or even Rex looking silly and ridiculous in a non-sexy way, and she actually looks cool which should be the goal. It's just such a messy game in terms of character design and someone mentioned above Takahashi had little say in what Otaku crap got put in which is a shame. I hope the game is good I truly do but I'll probably never get over these character models.
Since this post is already ridiculously long I'll kind of just explain my perspective and the basis to a lot of my opinions on the subject (which I should have done at the beginning tbh). I am actually a trans girl, and one that is into women at that. I appreciate good, tasteful, and fitting sexy designs for double the reason. I both obviously have the hots for a good body, but also, I envy their bodies in a way. Most of the time in a game with options for clothing or who you play as, I always try to play as a cute looking girl because it's just eye candy and it's actually a coping mechanism for me. I dislike myself in real life so gaming is actually a huge huge part of how I cope. Having feminine costumes gives me life and is just the way I play. I am also a giant Soulsborne fan and I love their system how every outfit is equal because it fits with one of my tenets, but actually a minor nitpick I have with it is I wish there was some more form fitting feminine stuff. I think the beefy completely covering Havel's armor or other Gundam looking power trip stuff should be in the game, but I also do enjoy being a badass sexy princess from time to time. In dark souls 1 as well as bloodborne as soon as I could get the dress I wore it.
So to end this, I'll just say what I want out of the industry. I don't want any super puritan standards introduced since as I said I do like how common cute designs are, but I think games should offer something for everyone to make everyone comfortable. Let people put a guy in a dress, or make him sexy as hell. I don't care sexuality isn't something to be afraid of even if it's not yours. Let people dress their girl in normal clothes or in full plate armor, or even lingerie. Having a range of options in games that allow it such as RPGs I think is key to a good experience. Make it equal, make it tasteful. Don't make any default designs too stupid without having a reason for it. Let people live their fantasies whatever it may be.
