Why women criticise sexualised character designs (READ OP)

StonedCrows said:

Then I couldn't bring myself to buy Xenoblade Chronicles 2 any more.

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Just dropping by to tell you that there's not only sexualized women in XC2, it's mostly or rather solely the Blades(the living "Weapons" in this universe) that are showing a lot of skin, while the drivers(humanoids that use the Blades as Weapons) remain dressed up rather normal. It's really sad that they chose to design Pyra(she's actually a pretty sweet character despite her Barbie-Design) this way though, they clearly could have toned down her outfit and measurements and there wouldn't have been an outcry, it really hurts this great game and I totally see why it would put people off.

When you look at Japanese games as a whole though, it seems like the designers love to create female characters that "stand out". As a male gamer I could do well with more realistic proportions and outfits that wouldn't be so cringe-worthy but I am at least in the lucky position to just "ignore" it if the game is as great as Xenoblade Chronicles 2 at least.

Ikaruga said:

Just dropping by to tell you that there's not only sexualized women in XC2, it's mostly or rather solely the Blades(the living "Weapons" in this universe) that are showing a lot of skin, while the drivers(humanoids that use the Blades as Weapons) remain dressed up rather normal. It's really sad that they chose to design Pyra(she's actually a pretty sweet character despite her Barbie-Design) this way though, they clearly could have toned down her outfit and measurements and there wouldn't have been an outcry, it really hurts this great game and I totally see why it would put people off.

When you look at Japanese games as a whole though, it seems like the designers love to create female characters that "stand out". As a male gamer I could do well with more realistic proportions and outfits that wouldn't be so cringe-worthy but I am at least in the lucky position to just "ignore" it if the game is as great as Xenoblade Chronicles 2 at least.

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She could have still been attractive and even somewhat sexualized and it wouldn't have been such a sore sticking point. Her design is so unnecessarily absurd though that it's unavoidable.

Her design is definitely a negative for me. It's way too much. Instead of wanting to show off a cool and beautiful game I have to try to enjoy it despite its flaws .

Well, in a way, maybe being constantly reminded of our societal shortcomings is good educational awareness. :/

Boiled Goose said:

She could have still been attractive and even somewhat sexualized and it wouldn't have been such a sore sticking point. Her design is so unnecessarily absurd though that it's unavoidable.

Her design is definitely a negative for me. It's way too much. Instead of wanting to show off a cool and beautiful game I have to try to enjoy it despite its flaws .

Well, in a way, maybe being constantly reminded of our societal shortcomings is good educational awareness. :/

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It definitely reduced the impact of the game for me too and it can be hard to overlook it since Pyra is your sidekick most of the game and even though you can equip other blades and run around with them she is in almost every ingame-sequence and reminds you that her design is just ridiculous. Then you see characters like Poppi(Hannah) or Pandoria and can't help but wonder why they couldn't make Pyra look more like them and less like plastic surgery.

Ikaruga said:

It definitely reduced the impact of the game for me too and it can be hard to overlook it since Pyra is your sidekick most of the game and even though you can equip other blades and run around with them she is in almost every ingame-sequence and reminds you that her design is just ridiculous. Then you see characters like Poppi(Hannah) or Pandoria and can't help but wonder why they couldn't make Pyra look more like them and less like plastic surgery.

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For all of the attention that Pyra/Mythra have received, it seems like she's at best 4th favorite of the female main cast, at least behind Nia, Morag, and Poppi, in no particular order. I don't really see many fans of Pandoria either, but that might be because of how long she takes to have a real role in the story, and that by then the main cast is so large that she's not given all that much time to prominent.

The (RNG) Rare Blades were a mistake. Most players that go into the game won't even see Dahlia unless they're putting in 100+ hours to see everything the game has to offer, but her presence has been enough to discourage people from buying the game. I guess that's good, because stuff like her design, and Pyra's design, and a bunch of the other blades that were drawn by hentai artists won't stop happening in JRPGs until people stop buying them in response to their poor handling of female characters.

It kind of sucks that all of the best JRPGs or JRPG-adjacent games of the last few years have issues with designs or relationship portrayal. Cold Steel's harems and "she's not really your sister", Nier's design, Persona 5's design and relationships, designs in Xenoblade. Like, which recent JRPGs are actually consistently good with regards to their female designs and relationships? Even dungeon crawlers that really shouldn't even have enough focus on characters to even get close to the line manage to regularly cross it.

Ikaruga said:

Just dropping by to tell you that there's not only sexualized women in XC2, it's mostly or rather solely the Blades(the living "Weapons" in this universe) that are showing a lot of skin, while the drivers(humanoids that use the Blades as Weapons) remain dressed up rather normal. It's really sad that they chose to design Pyra(she's actually a pretty sweet character despite her Barbie-Design) this way though, they clearly could have toned down her outfit and measurements and there wouldn't have been an outcry, it really hurts this great game and I totally see why it would put people off.

When you look at Japanese games as a whole though, it seems like the designers love to create female characters that "stand out". As a male gamer I could do well with more realistic proportions and outfits that wouldn't be so cringe-worthy but I am at least in the lucky position to just "ignore" it if the game is as great as Xenoblade Chronicles 2 at least.

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I fucking hate it that they turned one of my favorite rpg series into a game for creeps. Design issues aside, its still a much worse game than the first one, these shitty designs just push it into trash territory for me.

Neoweee said:

It kind of sucks that all of the best JRPGs or JRPG-adjacent games of the last few years have issues with designs or relationship portrayal. Cold Steel's harems and "she's not really your sister", Nier's design, Persona 5's design and relationships, designs in Xenoblade. Like, which recent JRPGs are actually consistently good with regards to their female designs and relationships?

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I am not speaking in defense of what is in these games , but I want to talk about the Persona and Cold Steel in particular. These games serve a very specific purpose for people who may be introverted and isolated from other people for whatever reason. These games provide them with a community of friends that are appear supportive and caring to them . They further give them an opportunity to pursue that romance they may not have the courage / skills to do in real life. This kind of structure in these games, which are very immersive mind you , form a very comfortable safe zone/space for a person that basically gives them this alternate reality they can inhabit. Looking at it this way , it becomes really easy to understand why they would react extremely negatively to any criticism of their comfort zone.

Neoweee said:

It kind of sucks that all of the best JRPGs or JRPG-adjacent games of the last few years have issues with designs or relationship portrayal. Cold Steel's harems and "she's not really your sister", Nier's design, Persona 5's design and relationships, designs in Xenoblade. Like, which recent JRPGs are actually consistently good with regards to their female designs and relationships?

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I'd like to know this, too. Even Kiseki games are getting worse in that regard. Trails in the Sky had far, far superior female representation, and far more mature writing, compared to Trails of Cold Steel.

heman222 said:

I am not speaking in defense of what is in these games , but I want to talk about the Persona and Cold Steel in particular. These games serve a very specific purpose for people who may be introverted and isolated from other people for whatever reason. These games provide them with a community of friends that are appear supportive and caring to them . They further give them an opportunity to pursue that romance they may not have the courage / skills to do in real life. This kind of structure in these games, which are very immersive mind you , form a very comfortable safe zone/space for a person that basically gives them this alternate reality they can inhabit. Looking at it this way , it becomes really easy to understand why they would react extremely negatively to any criticism of their comfort zone.

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Wow, reading your post I kinda feel bad now for liking social links in the Persona games. Well I understand where you're coming from and why you're probably right. Japan has a huge problem thanks to their culture of not being very open, while that might not be a bad thing it's also true that many are living alone and might search for a remedy in games like these(or some more "hardcore" ones that are out there, mainly visual novels).

I have to say, "people who like these are introverts and insecure" is not a defense for resorting to sexist and homophobic tropes. You could have this kind of popular dude/power fantasy story without resorting to that.

Morrigan said:

I'd like to know this, too. Even Kiseki games are getting worse in that regard. Trails in the Sky had far, far superior female representation, and far more mature writing, compared to Trails of Cold Steel.

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As someone who's played or at least looked into (usually played) more or less every JRPG released in english the last generation, I don't think there's been a single game in the JRPG genre that I could say has uniform good writing and designs among its female cast, is free of sexually provocative imagery, and could even remotely pass for a good game at the same time in a solid half-decade.

There are several that manage across multiple or even nearly all categories, but not a single one comes to mind that passes on them all. This is excluding JRPG style games made in the west and indie games, because those are always more diverse.

EDIT: My god. The last 15 minutes, digging through release schedules and my stacks of cases. "Definite no on that one. Oh hey how abo--nope, bathing scenes. I guess mayb--badly written, though. Oh, hey! ...no, nobody should have to suffer through actually playing that."

Neoweee said:

For all of the attention that Pyra/Mythra have received, it seems like she's at best 4th favorite of the female main cast, at least behind Nia, Morag, and Poppi, in no particular order.

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Morag is let down by all the side-stuff that keeps making humour out her "looking like a man". Because, you know, if you don't have thighs and cleavage on display, and you suck at cooking, you're obviously not much of a woman. I mean, Morag does tell people who bring this shit up to STFU, but the fact it's brought up in the first place is...well, predictable. Disappointing and predictable.

Same with Nia, who gets saddled with the "unrequited crush on oblivious hero" thing. It's like there's only a dozen character traits allowed in JRPGs these days. Can't let the otaku experience anything outside their comfort zone!

Maybe, just maybe, forcing them to experience something new might, you know, be beneficial to their mental wellbeing? That's why I'm opposed to the whole "let them have their power fantasies" idea. Wrapping people up in these warm, familiar blankets of homogenised fiction isn't going to change anything - they'll just spend their lives rotting away inside an illusion, unable to deal with the outside world because they've no concept of how it even works.

The story was pretty much boring old school trite in XC2.

The story of XC2 follows the usual fantasy shounen anime formula.

How do you guys feel about Bayonetta? I've seen a few people say in terms of sex positive feminism, she's empowering. However, I have no issues with two consensual adults engaging with each other, and normally with these people if you criticize her portrayal they label you as prude or some other term. As a matter of fact, I always considered myself sex positive in that I don't believe people need to wait for marriage or anything and should be free to express themselves as long as it isn't harming anyone.

As a character, Bayonetta does have pros going for her, but I think people undermine exactly how she is portrayed because they like certain attributes about her. Her personality is spot on, but I struggle to see how it's a positive portrayal of women for scenes like this to occur for an action based video game character.



Or how she has to strip naked just to use her stronger attacks. To me, I consider this objectification of her because she's female, not empowering. It feels like every other attempt in fiction where they have to throw something blatantly sexual in a way to appease male gamers on a female design because apparently women need to be fan serviced or it's not marketable. To me, being sex positive doesn't mean you need to flaunt your nether regions with the camera zoomed in in a video game.

heman222 said:

I am not speaking in defense of what is in these games , but I want to talk about the Persona and Cold Steel in particular. These games serve a very specific purpose for people who may be introverted and isolated from other people for whatever reason. These games provide them with a community of friends that are appear supportive and caring to them . They further give them an opportunity to pursue that romance they may not have the courage / skills to do in real life. This kind of structure in these games, which are very immersive mind you , form a very comfortable safe zone/space for a person that basically gives them this alternate reality they can inhabit. Looking at it this way , it becomes really easy to understand why they would react extremely negatively to any criticism of their comfort zone.

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It's juvenile though. It's like a kid throwing a tantrum when you ask them to share their toys.

Pretty much had to drop XC2. It was that ridiculous.

I just wanted to enjoy a good JRPG, man.

Dary said:

Morag is let down by all the side-stuff that keeps making humour out her "looking like a man". Because, you know, if you don't have thighs and cleavage on display, and you suck at cooking, you're obviously not much of a woman. I mean, Morag does tell people who bring this shit up to STFU, but the fact it's brought up in the first place is...well, predictable. Disappointing and predictable.
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Are you freaking kidding me?

I actually find it kinda weird that we so often try to justify people reacting badly to any criticism of their games. Yes, it's understandable in some context and quite natural, but that doesn't make it justifiable, especially in a discussion forum where one would assume people sign up to have civil, adult discussions.

If someone reacts badly to this stuff then they're childish and have to mature, nobody should have to accommodate to them, especially when talking issues like this that affect the integrity of real people. It's basically the feelings of immature men vs the integrity of women who want to be respected by the medium they're invested in.

Enough people who's opinions I know and trust and value around sexualization and objectification of women in media have a...complicated reaction to Bayonetta in a way that other characters do not share that I've come to appreciate her. She has some very blatant problems, but something about that character in that game does work

I just wanna say shout out to Mirrors Edge and Horizon for giving their leads outfits that accentuate who they are and not what they are. :)

Mezentine said:

Are you freaking kidding me?

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I wish I was! Seen several optional dialogues between party members that bring this up now. One involved another female character lamenting about how Pyra was so much more of a woman than either of them. Because, you know, big tits maketh the lady, obviously.

Oh, and apparently Tora spends the game oblivious to the fact Morag is a woman, because, you know, cheap sexist otaku gags are more important that any sort of narrative consistency or logic.

I'm just thankful they kept this shit to optional cutscenes.

SevKnight said:

I just wanna say shout out to Mirrors Edge and Horizon for giving their leads outfits that accentuate who they are and not what they are. :)

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Their outfits do both. Good character design tends to dictate who AND what a character is at first glance in the context of their narrative.

Kokonoe said:

How do you guys feel about Bayonetta? I've seen a few people say in terms of sex positive feminism, she's empowering. However, I have no issues with two consensual adults engaging with each other, and normally with these people if you criticize her portrayal they label you as prude or some other term. As a matter of fact, I always considered myself sex positive in that I don't believe people need to wait for marriage or anything and should be free to express themselves as long as it isn't harming anyone.

As a character, Bayonetta does have pros going for her, but I think people undermine exactly how she is portrayed because they like certain attributes about her. Her personality is spot on, but I struggle to see how it's a positive portrayal of women for scenes like this to occur for an action based video game character.

Or how she has to strip naked just to use her stronger attacks. To me, I consider this objectification of her because she's female, not empowering. It feels like every other attempt in fiction where they have to throw something blatantly sexual in a way to appease male gamers on a female design because apparently women need to be fan serviced or it's not marketable. To me, being sex positive doesn't mean you need to flaunt your nether regions with the camera zoomed in in a video game.

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Personally I find bayonetta conflicting if only because I read a lot of conflicting opinions among women. At first glance, I would absolutely say does entirely problematic, but then I see otherwise from women and I'm like well okay... Sure!

I think it's probably just... Some of it's good, some of it's bad, and which parts matter more depends on the individual.

Why does XB2 sound worse in this regard the more I hear about it? lol it's like I find out something new everyday about that game.

Twig said:

Personally I find bayonetta conflicting if only because I read a lot of conflicting opinions among women. At first glance, I would absolutely say does entirely problematic, but then I see otherwise from women and I'm like well okay... Sure!

I think it's probably just... Some of it's good, some of it's bad, and which parts matter more depends on the individual.

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Pretty much how I feel to be honest. For me her negatives outweigh her positives, but that's just the side of the fence I am on her I suppose. Doesn't help her game cover is her butt being emphasized but meh lol.

Kokonoe said:

Why does XB2 sound worse in this regard the more I hear about it? lol it's like I find out something new everyday about that game.

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The "accolades trailer" they put out the other day has a section that's basically "LOOK AT ALL THIS ANIME! FOR ANIME FANS! ANIME!!!"

Now, more than ever, I think I understand what Hideaki Anno must have been thinking when he made End of Evangelion.

Dary said:

I wish I was! Seen several optional dialogues between party members that bring this up now. One involved another female character lamenting about how Pyra was so much more of a woman than either of them. Because, you know, big tits maketh the lady, obviously.

Oh, and apparently Tora spends the game oblivious to the fact Morag is a woman, because, you know, cheap sexist otaku gags are more important that any sort of narrative consistency or logic.

I'm just thankful they kept this shit to optional cutscenes.

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Is there anything likable about Tora?

RedHoodedOwl said:

Is there anything likable about Tora?

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Short answer: No.

Long answer: He created Poppi who's pretty great and fun, but she has many terrible things about her outside of her personality and they're all Tora's fault so no.

RedHoodedOwl said:

Is there anything likable about Tora?

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I mean, he's no Tatsu...

Opa-Pa said:

Short answer: No.

Long answer: He created Poppi who's pretty great and fun, but she has many terrible things about her outside of her personality and they're all Tora's fault so no.

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Well, I already compared him to one of the worst characters in Boku No Hero Academia.

RedHoodedOwl said:

Is there anything likable about Tora?

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He is fun, charmful, made poppy

I was expecting Zeke to be the asshole of the group.

RedHoodedOwl said:

I was expecting Zeke to be the asshole of the group.

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Zeke is the "chunni"/ attention seeker

Kokonoe said:

Or how she has to strip naked just to use her stronger attacks. To me, I consider this objectification of her because she's female, not empowering.

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I feel like I remember hearing that its based on European folklore for witches, their hair would be used to cast spells and they were often sexualized. There are reasons for why the devs went in this direction

Imho I think bayonetta is less about being sexual for the sake of titillation and more for the sake of being over the top. I dont think the player is really thinking about how sexy it is as much as how little bayonetta really cares about the situation that she goes over the top on kills. I think its kind of a knee-jerk reaction to discredit anything just for having a sexualized aspect, if there is a well used aspect of it I dont see why it couldnt be empowering and taking a still of something out of context can make anything look bad. Thats just my two cents though, please dont hate me

Kokonoe said:

Why does XB2 sound worse in this regard the more I hear about it? lol it's like I find out something new everyday about that game.

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Right? I hated the first game so I was never interested in XB2, but holy hell does it look like my worst nightmare. xD

Dary said:

Morag is let down by all the side-stuff that keeps making humour out her "looking like a man". Because, you know, if you don't have thighs and cleavage on display, and you suck at cooking, you're obviously not much of a woman. I mean, Morag does tell people who bring this shit up to STFU, but the fact it's brought up in the first place is...well, predictable. Disappointing and predictable.

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Man, I'm pretty sure this was actually a problem when she was first revealed, in that there were posts here and at the old place questioning whether or not her design was actually that of a woman. Goes to show how fucked it is when your game is full of sexualized designs that a clothed woman can feel jarring to some people

Ikaruga said:

Wow, reading your post I kinda feel bad now for liking social links in the Persona games. Well I understand where you're coming from and why you're probably right. Japan has a huge problem thanks to their culture of not being very open, while that might not be a bad thing it's also true that many are living alone and might search for a remedy in games like these(or some more "hardcore" ones that are out there, mainly visual novels).

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You should not feel bad for liking the social links , its essentially you being happy that you are developing a deeper bond with your (imaginary) friends/girlfriends. Even though its fake , its something a normal person would take as good. I also feel this is one of the reasons why these games are popular, because even if you are socially competent, you still subconsciously appreciate those friendships and relationships. Hell, in persona , you even go the characters struggles with them and help them overcome it. It would be hard not to form attachments after that.

Again , I am not defending these games , but the reason is more than juvenile ' they took my gaems' ( at least for some people).

PS. This is not a japan only thing from my anecdotal experience . These games are super popular with south east Asians and people from the middle east.

Twig said:

Personally I find bayonetta conflicting if only because I read a lot of conflicting opinions among women. At first glance, I would absolutely say does entirely problematic, but then I see otherwise from women and I'm like well okay... Sure!

I think it's probably just... Some of it's good, some of it's bad, and which parts matter more depends on the individual.

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Pretty much how I feel. Love the games, but I skip the cutscenes on replays.

I was going to dedicate my 1000th post to making this giant Xenoblade Chronicles 2 thread...but seeing that I'm still not done with that thread (like, jesus help me that's turning into a thesis), I'm gonna start posting again here. So, wooooo! 1000th post! But yeah, I'm still working on that.

Dary said:

Morag is let down by all the side-stuff that keeps making humour out her "looking like a man". Because, you know, if you don't have thighs and cleavage on display, and you suck at cooking, you're obviously not much of a woman. I mean, Morag does tell people who bring this shit up to STFU, but the fact it's brought up in the first place is...well, predictable. Disappointing and predictable.

Same with Nia, who gets saddled with the "unrequited crush on oblivious hero" thing. It's like there's only a dozen character traits allowed in JRPGs these days. Can't let the otaku experience anything outside their comfort zone!

Maybe, just maybe, forcing them to experience something new might, you know, be beneficial to their mental wellbeing? That's why I'm opposed to the whole "let them have their power fantasies" idea. Wrapping people up in these warm, familiar blankets of homogenised fiction isn't going to change anything - they'll just spend their lives rotting away inside an illusion, unable to deal with the outside world because they've no concept of how it even works.

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Yeah, Morag gets the shaft with Tora in the side heart to hearts, not helped by the fact that she keeps on being bared with them and Poppi for a good number of them. Though to be fair, it isn't Tora who makes the suggestion that she wears skirts and heels, it's Zeke. Tora gets like...2 (jesus how long is this OP going to be?) pages dedicated to how he ruins the whole message of the game. Nia also gets like 3 pages dedicated to how her entire character arc (which I find incredibly good and I do disagree with the unrequited crush being her only character trait but when I finish with my mammoth of an essay I'll go into why) is ruined by her costume change.

Besides, you didn't even go to the dumbest sidequest involving her. It involves her having to steal her brother's underwear because plot. Because of course they did that. GAH! This game's is like the most bipolar game out there in its final message (treat women with respect and equal standing and don't reduce them to objects of either worship or hate) vs EVERYTHING ELSE.

RedHoodedOwl said:

Is there anything likable about Tora?

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He created Poppi and the game is supposed to be mocking him constantly. It kind of fails at it. Really badly. So no, not really.

Morrigan said:

Right? I hated the first game so I was never interested in XB2, but holy hell does it look like my worst nightmare. xD

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It's...weird. It's really a game that wants to have its cake and eat it too. I definitely say I enjoyed playing through it (though if you don't enjoy any of the mechanics, don't bother, they're pretty much the same as XBC1) but the amount of times I had to stop myself and go "Why are you going against the very message you're spouting" occurred multiple times per chapter. This game is a mess from a directoral standpoint, with clashes from two parties: one who wanted to make a story about relationships...and actually is one of the better JRPGs that talk about relationships and don't reduce characters into bit stereotypes (or use them to point out the intricacies of relationship); and one who wants sexual fanservice and anime fanservice even if it is running in the opposite direction of the main game's plot.

Ok, that's out of my system. Back to this nightmare of an essay. I'll hopefully finish it tonight or tomorrow. MAN this game is eating my soul...

Just port it to PC and mod out the horrible outfits and out of place scenes.

Problem solved!!

Xaszatm said:

It's really a game that wants to have its cake and eat it too.

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The ending soured me. I mean, the final few couple of chapters in general are kinda awful, in that they're clearly rushed and squandered all the plot's build-up and potential, but the ending just...


Also, anyone who thought it couldn't get any worse than Pyra/Mythra...

Ikaruga said:

It definitely reduced the impact of the game for me too and it can be hard to overlook it since Pyra is your sidekick most of the game and even though you can equip other blades and run around with them she is in almost every ingame-sequence and reminds you that her design is just ridiculous. Then you see characters like Poppi(Hannah) or Pandoria and can't help but wonder why they couldn't make Pyra look more like them and less like plastic surgery.

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Poppi's final form isn't much better than Pyra, though.

SieteBlanco said:

This is Poppi's final form, though.

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Seriously? I'm playing through the game right now, can you please not post major spoilers out of nowhere in a thread that isn't even about X2 spoilers?

Dary said:

The ending soured me. I mean, the final few couple of chapters in general are kinda awful, in that they're clearly rushed and squandered all the plot's build-up and potential, but the ending just...

Spoiler

Big emotional scene with a message about respecting a person's choices, immediately negated two minutes later for the sake of a happy-ever-after? Seriously?

Also, anyone who thought it couldn't get any worse than Pyra/Mythra...

Spoiler

she has a third form, who is supposed to be her "true" self (why she split into two other selves is never adequately explained), who is introduced with a very clear close-up of her cleavage in an otherwise dramatic scene. Oh, and did I mention her name is written across her tits? Yeah. That too.

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I mean


Also, help me, I'm trapped in this hell of a thread OP.

Kokonoe said:

Why does XB2 sound worse in this regard the more I hear about it? lol it's like I find out something new everyday about that game.

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Because it's simply that bad.

Mezentine said:

Are you freaking kidding me?

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Not sure but so far all I have seen about that topic is 1 HtH about how Tora believed Morag was man, and tmits pointed out he is the only one on that bote, and morag is just calm about it: "you know, Im a woman"...

Morag dressing as a guy is explained in game as political agenda, The Empire is a Father to son passes down, but the previous king had no son. So his brother raised Morag as a guy so she could take the throne. Till Neil was born and locked the throne position
. Morag tho never resented, or wanted the Throne after that even when Neil admits he is not fit for the roll and is Morag who should be sitting on that golden chair

Kokonoe said:

Why does XB2 sound worse in this regard the more I hear about it? lol it's like I find out something new everyday about that game.

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Cause people seem to be focusing to much on how the character look rather their whole personalities imo.. yes some character have "conflicting" design based on the preferences of all different artist that worked on the game, but beyond their look I feel XC2 did and excellent job giving each of em proper personality, actitud etc etc etc

Alkaiser said:

Because it's simply that bad.

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Ehhhhhh, I'd hesitate to call it outright bad. But it is very...annoying in parts. I will say it has taken my GOTY even though I'm writing a thesis on its strengths and weaknesses.

Xaszatm said:

Ehhhhhh, I'd hesitate to call it outright bad. But it is very...annoying in parts. I will say it has taken my GOTY even though I'm writing a thesis on its strengths and weaknesses.

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I'm referring to those aspects of the game many of us take issue with. The overt, disgusting objectification and shameless hypersexualization indeed really are that bad.

Yeah, you'd have to pay me to play XB2. I honestly can't deal with that much cringe (especially for 60+ hours). It's honestly a blessing that I mostly don't care about JRPGs, I get to avoid really bad stuff, lol.

Alkaiser said:

I'm referring to those aspects of the game many of us take issue with. The overt, disgusting objectification and shameless hypersexualization indeed really are that bad.

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Oh, yeah, they're bad. It's why this game is so annoying. It's also why I'm writing a bloody thesis on this game.