I may remember some details wrong, it's been a while, but i'm pretty sure she was at least anxious to show her face. And she's a ninja that does stealth and all that.
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Why women criticise sexualised character designs (READ OP)
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I may remember some details wrong, it's been a while, but i'm pretty sure she was at least anxious to show her face. And she's a ninja that does stealth and all that.
I've thought about getting into the Trails games but honestly it sounds like they'd piss me off too much and it just wouldn't be worth it :/ Are there even any JRPGs that don't fall into the same misogynistic tropes over and over again anymore? ;_;
I can't think of any modern ones with young adult characters that manage to avoid it.
What I did play and love last year was Monster Hunter Stories though, that was ace, probably because it's less about relationships between people and more about you and your squad of terrifying/insanely cute (delete as appropriate) wyverns. Heartwarming but it does bang on about 'power of friendship' a bit too much if you have a limited tolerance for that stuff too.
People really blow this stuff out of proportion. I mean, first off, Samus is not portrayed as shorter than the male characters when in her power suit, which is like 99% of the game. The only male taller than her is Anthony and he's almost 7 feet tall.
She's consistently portrayed as the most powerful being around and the men are impotent.
Describing Adam as abusive is very hyperbolic. Most of this comes from not authorizing the Varia suit, which isn't even treated as a plot point, and the fact that he shoots her, which ignores the fact that he knows that she thinks that he may be the enemy and his only chance of not getting murdered by her is to suckerpunch her. He tries to stay stoic but he can't help showing concern for her throughout.
Anthony just calls her princess because it riles her up a bit. They're good friends. It's raillery.
Samus doesn't cry when she sees Ridley. She has a panic attack caused by PTSD, which only lasts 1 minute. She says "What?! Ridley?! It CAN'T be!" and backs away slowly. People say that this doesn't make sense because she "got over it" but relapses can always happen and she makes it clear in the intro that she thinks he's dead for good this time (because she blew up an entire planet on him). Instead of being artsy with the PTSD flashback by having only Samus and nothing else flash back to when she was 3 years old they should have shown the flashback completely. As it stands the scene has only been shown in games in the form of a Japanese-only ending of Fusion:
And it was also shown in the TV commercial:
The bottle ship is a dumb concept, though, and "baby's cry". And baby sounds stupid, though she doesn't say it nearly as much as people let on. And her relationship with the baby isn't even different from how she felt about it in Super. She's a bit sad that it died and it makes her contemplate her life (because her life has been killing Metroids and one saved her), but the first baby she sees after that she pauses for a minute and then tries to murder it. Though most of the mother symbolism isn't meant for Samus; It's meant for MB. The closest Samus gets to being motherly is when she tries to protect MB, but there isn't much to that. They tried to parallel Newt in Aliens a bit. MB, on the other hand, thinks of the metroids as her children, and Madeline Bergman thinks of MB like a daughter because she created MB. And MB is an AI clone of Mother Brain based on Samus' appearance.
Great post. I enjoyed Other M a lot despite some flaws in gameplay.
It's not a rare setup nowadays but even for the standart within that genre it's bad. As someone that used to be in the target group for it, there are some that have good characters and story bits despite the caveats. Stella glow does not.
I've never played Cold steel but i'm a bit surprised that it's bad in that regard. What i've played of trails (with Estelle and co.) had generally good characters.
The pose in that video, ffs.As someone who loves SRPGS and will count Tactics Ogre LUCT as one of my favorite games ever, this game is purely servicable in a gameplay sense. It´s basic and everything has been done before, but way better elsewhere. It contains a tiny bit of B-tier charm, but it doesn´t in the slightest save it.
How it portrays women is bonkers in my opinion. It´s like they´ve taken the pervy stereotypes (everything in this game is a washed up trope. From characters to story), but felt that they had to one-up previous games. I´ll spoil some character/story stuff.
Early in the game you meet:This girl..
She looks super young, wears a absurdly revealing outfit. How is this okay? Oh well, you see, she´s actually a 1000+ years old witch, so it´s totally fine...Such a lazy excuse
Not that much later you meet this future companion:
When I was introduced to her, I literally had to put down my system and just think a bit. The outfit is just grotesque and there´s zero explaination as to why she´s wearing this. Of course as a character she´s embarassed about her body and at least half of her interactions with the other characters are them making constant references to her chest. Like they straight up call her a milk cow or something to that effect. It´s beyond ridiculous.
This is just a couple of examples. The game often portray a lot of the other female characters in similiar ways. This is coupled with the fact that:
Almost every female character has a enormous hard on for the main character, there´s that annoying, gross, but obligatory hot springs scene (I don´t even have to tell you what happens, you already know) and everytime you level up the female witch characters, it´s done through several on the nose sexual innuendos. Like the main character "penetrating" an amulet, the witch is wearing, with a sword while she gasps followed by imagery of MC stretching out his arm and grabbing a drop of liquid. Oh, and he does this in a specific building where the witches hang out in nightgowns. For whatever the fuck reason..
I just don´t understand why this has to be such a huge focus point for developers?
EDIT: Bonus:
Character specific ending cutscene with one of the playable characters. Meant to be 16 years old by the way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4-SQ7Mz4nQ
Disgusting.
Oh absolutely- I think there's loads to like about Trails in general, I love the combat system. It's more that there's a few elements that stood out more in the Cold Steel games, in that Estelle started out as a rookie Bracer learning from more experienced allies, whereas Rean is a teenage boy with a
motorbike, a katana, a giant robot, a demonic beast side and everyone,
Even then, it doesn't look anywhere near as bad as this Stella Glow fuckery.
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I was sort of looking forward to this but then I tried the demo and realised it was heading down this path with the harem and sex innuendo nonsense and gave up on the game. I forced myself to get through the demo and that was pretty awful already and a good indication that things were going to get worse. Looks like my judgement was right and I dodged a bullet in that one. Disgusting. I don't even want to watch that last video.As someone who loves SRPGS and will count Tactics Ogre LUCT as one of my favorite games ever, this game is purely servicable in a gameplay sense. It´s basic and everything has been done before, but way better elsewhere. It contains a tiny bit of B-tier charm, but it doesn´t in the slightest save it.
How it portrays women is bonkers in my opinion. It´s like they´ve taken the pervy stereotypes (everything in this game is a washed up trope. From characters to story), but felt that they had to one-up previous games. I´ll spoil some character/story stuff.
Early in the game you meet:This girl..
She looks super young, wears a absurdly revealing outfit. How is this okay? Oh well, you see, she´s actually a 1000+ years old witch, so it´s totally fine...Such a lazy excuse
Not that much later you meet this future companion:
When I was introduced to her, I literally had to put down my system and just think a bit. The outfit is just grotesque and there´s zero explaination as to why she´s wearing this. Of course as a character she´s embarassed about her body and at least half of her interactions with the other characters are them making constant references to her chest. Like they straight up call her a milk cow or something to that effect. It´s beyond ridiculous.
This is just a couple of examples. The game often portray a lot of the other female characters in similiar ways. This is coupled with the fact that:
Almost every female character has a enormous hard on for the main character, there´s that annoying, gross, but obligatory hot springs scene (I don´t even have to tell you what happens, you already know) and everytime you level up the female witch characters, it´s done through several on the nose sexual innuendos. Like the main character "penetrating" an amulet, the witch is wearing, with a sword while she gasps followed by imagery of MC stretching out his arm and grabbing a drop of liquid. Oh, and he does this in a specific building where the witches hang out in nightgowns. For whatever the fuck reason..
I just don´t understand why this has to be such a huge focus point for developers?
EDIT: Bonus:
Character specific ending cutscene with one of the playable characters. Meant to be 16 years old by the way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4-SQ7Mz4nQ
Disgusting.
As a SRPG fan and a Tactics Ogre fan. Expeditions Vikings is pretty good. Not all that similar other than the genre and the WRPG exploration and such might turn you off but it is pretty good.
My whole take on Samus in Other M goes like this...:
The whole Ridley thing with her PTSD triggering is completely normal. I mean, this is the same thing that annihilated her whole planet and Samus was that "00.01% germ" that survived from it. She then got "extracted" in a sense from the bird alien race called Chozo, to be both in care under their wings and to be raised as some sort of biological weapon against the Metroids and whatever else that poses as a threat. This poor lady of a Samus did not get to live her childhood as normally as it should have been. Her childhood was stripped right off of her when her parents and her whole home planet was wiped. Then to top it off, as the series progressed, Ridley seems to always come back even though Samus specifically thought that she rid of Ridley once and for all each time she defeated him. Just how many times must she get her properly needed revenge? So long as Ridley keeps coming back as if he is some "Bowser/Ganondorf" kind of character, he will always exist to be Samus' living nightmare. She can only keep her coolness for so long til she breaks from it, which is normal. Even Batman, who happens to have similar character story writing as Samus, was allowed a screen time to mourn about his childhood regarding his parents, which is again, normal. It is better to have empathy than to have apathy.
Now, for the whole authorization issue... I too see it as a form of an insult but there is also a compliment within the insult. That is the character cast telling Samus that she is just too powerful that she'd better not put anyone else at risk or jeopardize their safety thus potentially killing them, if let's say, Samus blew up an essential part of the Bottle Ship. Everyone knows Samus as someone who blows things up and this is what her team crew wanted to prevent. Remember, this is a team effort, after all and everyone must work cooperatively together. I am, however, in agreement with the whole situation of when Samus needed her Varia Suit, she was not authorized to go on ahead and equip it. It was only at that part where she should have broken away and just do things as she pleases and not what someone else or others pleases.
Edit: Oh and yeah her character design in Other M is just horrendous. Disgusting in fact. Start hitting the gym, Samus. Since she always claims to be "training for the next mission/getting ready for the next mission".
The whole Ridley thing with her PTSD triggering is completely normal. I mean, this is the same thing that annihilated her whole planet and Samus was that "00.01% germ" that survived from it. She then got "extracted" in a sense from the bird alien race called Chozo, to be both in care under their wings and to be raised as some sort of biological weapon against the Metroids and whatever else that poses as a threat. This poor lady of a Samus did not get to live her childhood as normally as it should have been. Her childhood was stripped right off of her when her parents and her whole home planet was wiped. Then to top it off, as the series progressed, Ridley seems to always come back even though Samus specifically thought that she rid of Ridley once and for all each time she defeated him. Just how many times must she get her properly needed revenge? So long as Ridley keeps coming back as if he is some "Bowser/Ganondorf" kind of character, he will always exist to be Samus' living nightmare. She can only keep her coolness for so long til she breaks from it, which is normal. Even Batman, who happens to have similar character story writing as Samus, was allowed a screen time to mourn about his childhood regarding his parents, which is again, normal. It is better to have empathy than to have apathy.
Now, for the whole authorization issue... I too see it as a form of an insult but there is also a compliment within the insult. That is the character cast telling Samus that she is just too powerful that she'd better not put anyone else at risk or jeopardize their safety thus potentially killing them, if let's say, Samus blew up an essential part of the Bottle Ship. Everyone knows Samus as someone who blows things up and this is what her team crew wanted to prevent. Remember, this is a team effort, after all and everyone must work cooperatively together. I am, however, in agreement with the whole situation of when Samus needed her Varia Suit, she was not authorized to go on ahead and equip it. It was only at that part where she should have broken away and just do things as she pleases and not what someone else or others pleases.
Edit: Oh and yeah her character design in Other M is just horrendous. Disgusting in fact. Start hitting the gym, Samus. Since she always claims to be "training for the next mission/getting ready for the next mission".
Mention of light novels reminds me of a story this thread brings to mind every so often. Sometime last year, a guy posted to a writing forum I frequent talking about the plot to a novel in a series he was working on.
The set-up is simple: beige protagonist (he has no flaws, is just a Nice Guy, according to the author) has a crush on his female bodyguard (the last of her race, whom the hero saved from genocide, hence her swearing loyalty to him). During a confrontation with a villain, she ends up drugged and wakes up desperately in love with the hero.
He goes along with this - it's what he always wanted (and, according to the author, every man alive would do the same, no questions asked). After a while, however, the hero starts to realise something is wrong with her and forces her to see a doctor. The doctor finds about about the drug and sends the hero on a quest to retrieve the cure. Naturally, the hero is conflicted: if he cures her, she won't love him any more! In the end, he forces her to take the cure (she refuses it, of course), and she returns to normal. At novel's end, she decides she "needs time to think about things" and leaves the hero's side - though the author assured us this was only temporary and they be back together by the end of the next book (with insinuations they would end up a Proper Couple).
He didn't see anything wrong with any of this, and when some of us pointed them out, he grew increasingly irrate and defensive, using increasingly convoluted plot twists to explain everything away whilst refusing to engage with any of the moral questions his story posed. It was, eh, quite the ride...
But that's the sort of mindset at the core of this, right? They simply don't see the problem, nor are they willing to understand it. They're so wrapped up in (whilst simultaneously in denial of) their childish, wish-fulfillment power fantasies that they can't empathise with other people - not even imaginary ones! And I'm not sure if people like that will ever change, because they hate change. Instead, they'll simply retreat further and further into their bubble, surrounding themselves with people who agree with them whilst rejecting everyone else.
At times, it really does feel like fighting a losing battle.
The set-up is simple: beige protagonist (he has no flaws, is just a Nice Guy, according to the author) has a crush on his female bodyguard (the last of her race, whom the hero saved from genocide, hence her swearing loyalty to him). During a confrontation with a villain, she ends up drugged and wakes up desperately in love with the hero.
He goes along with this - it's what he always wanted (and, according to the author, every man alive would do the same, no questions asked). After a while, however, the hero starts to realise something is wrong with her and forces her to see a doctor. The doctor finds about about the drug and sends the hero on a quest to retrieve the cure. Naturally, the hero is conflicted: if he cures her, she won't love him any more! In the end, he forces her to take the cure (she refuses it, of course), and she returns to normal. At novel's end, she decides she "needs time to think about things" and leaves the hero's side - though the author assured us this was only temporary and they be back together by the end of the next book (with insinuations they would end up a Proper Couple).
He didn't see anything wrong with any of this, and when some of us pointed them out, he grew increasingly irrate and defensive, using increasingly convoluted plot twists to explain everything away whilst refusing to engage with any of the moral questions his story posed. It was, eh, quite the ride...
But that's the sort of mindset at the core of this, right? They simply don't see the problem, nor are they willing to understand it. They're so wrapped up in (whilst simultaneously in denial of) their childish, wish-fulfillment power fantasies that they can't empathise with other people - not even imaginary ones! And I'm not sure if people like that will ever change, because they hate change. Instead, they'll simply retreat further and further into their bubble, surrounding themselves with people who agree with them whilst rejecting everyone else.
At times, it really does feel like fighting a losing battle.
Does make me wonder what would happen if a female character of roughly the same age as the protagonist ever said, upon being 'romanced', 'I'm just not that into you', before her and another party member wandered off without the player every so often. I get the impression some players would go nuts at the idea that the rest of the cast aren't their personal pool of options to be slotted into the proto-girlfriend accessory slot on the character sheet. That's why I think Aveline is the best thing about Dragon Age 2, in that she's her own person, with her own career, her own background, her own initial trauma that you can't hope to fix, her own love life. Despite all that she's the most steady ally you could have whether you are male or female (if you've chosen to not be a total wanker), still calls you out on your bullshit yet backs you up when it comes to the crunch, while never even hinting that she considers you anything more than a slightly crazy, largely reliable ally and confidant. Which is a better portrait of a 'friend' than quest rewards and harems are of 'romance'.
Yeah I agree that it is important to have characters that are non-romanceble, for the simple fact it doesn't always fit to have the characters romanceble. For example in Dragon Age Inquisition both Vivienne and Lelianna weren't romanceble and there's been quite a few complaints about that but in all honesty it wouldn't work to have them romanceble. Lelianna had just lost a close friend and was doubting her faith and role all of which is deeply important to her, adding a romance plot would feel like sorta manapulative? And if you'd be able to romance Vivienne they'd have had to remove her lover dying plot which is one of the few moments were you see her lose her mask and appear human - and that's ignoring the fact that she's angling for her own position of power (the role of Divine) throughout Inquisition anyway. If you'd made them romanceble you'd have to change an important part of the characters and it just wouldn't work. To be fair, it's not just female characters, a lot of people wanted Varric romanceble in both DA2 and DAI and it wouldn't work for similar reasons.
I'd like to see an RPG where the post game content is warmly and lovingly spending the rest of your days growing old with the main quests love interest. They were not some prize to be won. They were your soulmate on the battlefield and off. Your equal.
Maybe that's building the perfect home together.
Maybe that's bird watching together.
Maybe that's joyfully raising children together. Then you could port one of your children into the sequel to be the new protagonist.
Maybe that's building the perfect home together.
Maybe that's bird watching together.
Maybe that's joyfully raising children together. Then you could port one of your children into the sequel to be the new protagonist.
Yep, this problem is endemic in society as a whole, an utter lack of empathy and ability to view something they're invested in objectively. Straight on the defense as they feel personally attacked and the slightest encouragement from like minded people steels their cognitive dissonance and you're just a snowflake justice warrior.
Along with all the good things the internet has brought it's also bred a real disconnect.
Oh, I loved Varric too, particularly his retelling of a quest that has you playing him and everything is overblown due to him embellishing the tale- quality bard-work! Him and Aveline just reminded me of me and my mates swapping stories after work in dingy pubs in my twenties, they made a pretty average RPG in something better than the sum of its parts for me. That's also one of the things I liked about Trails in the Sky and good RPGs in general- I like to see a company of mismatched adventurers dragging each other through a campaign.
All you need to know about Samus vs Ridley
Trails isn't so bad. Especially Trails in the Sky. You'd be hard-pressed to find better today, at least. Of course, the original TitS is like 10+ years old now...
In all honesty though, I think that's why a lot of people have problems with DA2 cus it's not a wish fulfillment story - it's the oposite, everything will go wrong and there's nothing your character can do to change things. They are just one person that's trying to make it through all the craziness, them and their barrel of crazy friends. I'm not saying that "the big hero saving the day" can't be fun game - Dragon Age Inquisition on the surface pretty much does that (kinda, I don't know if you played Trespasser or not but it basically reveals you're not as powerful as you think you are and have been manipulated the whole time - really love that DLC), and I love that game! - but it's nice to change it up now and then, which makes me sad that it got so much backlash. If I'm honest I think Mass Effect Andromeda suffered from something similar as you aren't the badass Shepherd anymore but a youngster that's been put in a position they are not really ready for.
I haven't played DA:I or ME:A but am more inclined to if the opportunity arises now, thanks :-)
But Samus never had PTSD before, and she just happens to get PTSD in the very same game that constantly treats Samus like shit. And how often do male protagonists in video games suddenly get PTSD when fighting their lifelong enemy?
Also, the authorization thing is really dumb. Samus has proven herself time and time again. She's proven that she's capable of taking care of things on her own with minimal input from the Galactic Federation: they tell her to go somewhere and fulfill a task, and she does. She doesn't need some nobody to tell her when it's okay to use power bombs.
I did mention Batman being similar to Samus, however, you are right in the context of video games, a male protag isn't given the same treatment. When put that way, you stand correct. My views on this has been amended!
I have to say, the whole "authorization" thing isn't inherently a bad idea (it's better than "every planet has a copy of Samus's powerups, somehow", at least) and I think it could have actually been really cool if handled correctly. We know Samus hates taking orders, so what about a game where she has no choice but to follow them? Let me play as Samus in a game where she can't disobey the Federation and she's pissed off about it. Let me play a game where she begrudgingly follows their orders, but is always looking for the chance to do her own thing and get away with it (you know, like she does in Fusion!).
But nah of course they had to go with "Adam is Samus's abusive dad/boyfriend and she desperately wants his approval".
They've gotta have a proper in-universe reason for why Samus loses her power-ups to keep all those continuity-obsessed wiki writers happy!
...video games that try to justify gameplay mechanics in-story are (mostly) terrible.
I could actually understand a military reason framed as 'no rockets/bombs/mini-nukes in an unstable environment until we've ascertained that it isn't going to ignite the atmosphere/kill life support/collapse the structure', but what they could have done is have Samus tell the fed troopers that, which would then also work in terms of defining her greater experience and lack of trust in a load of heavily armed rookies. It's a simple change that makes a lot more sense. Not that Samus is renowned for 'proportionate firepower' but I agree that as a fluff reason for unlocking weapons, having Samus being given a babysitter that allows them is rubbish. At the very least they could have had her unlock them when she decided they were warranted regardless, hacking through any laughable restrictions and authorisations required on her high-tech chozo gear.
That still wouldn't work for protective gear authorization. It would have been way better to not bother with an in-story excuse and just make Samus find all the cool toys again. It's just a terrible idea all around because having a good explanation isn't that much better than having no explanation, but having a bad explanation can wreck the game.
"Adam, I won't be able to make it any further without Power-up X. Disable the federation's ridiculous parental locks so I can get on with it."
Thanks for that. Better to say, then, that Ys VIII seems to sexualize little girls or sexualize young women by portraying them as little girls.
I know it might be a great game and all, but I had a hard enough time justifying my purchase of Xenoblade 2. This... just feels wrong on an entirely different level. Again, not sure that's really a fair thing to do (i.e., compare levels of sexualization), but I find it a lot harder to defend of look over the Ys design decisions than I do the XB2 decisions.
Can I also say, while we're on the topic of Other M,
man, fuck this game
that Adam beats the last level for you (continuing the game's trend of men doing things for you) because the metroids in the final area aren't weak to ice which is their main weakness so he says Samus won't be able to defeat them EVEN THOUGH METROIDS ARE AND ALWAYS HAVE BEEN WEAK TO POWER BOMBS TOO WHICH SHE ALSO HAS
man, fuck this game
Yeah, there are several better ways you could write it, but, eventually, you're going to run out of them. Super Metroid never cared to explain it and did anyone really care? Then we had Prime (battle damage) and Fusion (infection/evil clone) and the next thing you know every game has to open with some in-universe justification or another.
I mean, they could just go with some universal reason that applies to every game (upgrades are temporary, or they drain her life energy, or she needs new powers to adapt to a new environment etcetera), but instead we have these increasingly convoluted explanations. It's only a matter of time before it goes all Kingdom Hearts on us...
I mean, they could just go with some universal reason that applies to every game (upgrades are temporary, or they drain her life energy, or she needs new powers to adapt to a new environment etcetera), but instead we have these increasingly convoluted explanations. It's only a matter of time before it goes all Kingdom Hearts on us...
Yeah, Fair point.
Zelda: "The kingdom of Hyrule does not condone the use of red tunics until you are up to your knees in lava, nor are adventurers allowed to wear Pegasus boots until they apply to the Hyrule Joggers Association with three sponsorship signatures and a illustration of head and shoulders. Wearing silly green hats will invalidate your application. Failure to adhere to The Adventurer's Charter at all times, even when the Goddesses themselves rejoice at your birth, will result in you being hung from the highest yardarm at the castle docks."
Link: "Well excuse m..."
Zelda: "Guards! Take him away. He can be released after the upcoming cataclysm."
Honestly, what annoys me that there was such an easy way to do this, have the alien bug monster hack into her equipment and "lock" out all of her upgrades. There, she doesn't trust anyone but Adam to have access to her suit's inner workings and would justify that weird part in the game where Samus doesn't put on the Varia suit for whatever reason. Hell, given that there are traitors in the team, have Adam's actions look suspicious because he doesn't "unlock" the Varia suit on time, making him look like the traitor. Like, that would both remove the dumb "authorization" thing and give Adam an excuse to actually be in contact with you beyond "orders".
And yeah, in the manga, and I checked, Adam isn't portrayed like this at all. Granted, he's as interesting as a paper bag but he's nothing like Other M. And that's the other thing, the Ridley infamous scene is taken wholesale from the climax from the manga. There are some big differences though that makes it work in the manga but not in Other M, in the manga, this is the first fight with Ridley in Zero Mission/Metroid I, not like the 5th time it is in Other M. The last time Samus truly encountered Ridley was when she was a child and had to watch Ridley rip apart her parents in front of her solely for cruelty's sake. So her getting flashbacks to that moment in the manga is far more justified. Granted, she kills Ridley in this version with a charge beam (which doesn't make any sense, this manga was comissioned for Zero Mission and only Missles can kill him but whatever).
Hmm, didn´t know, but know I see that the studio has a pedigree with this stuff. I´ve also been recommended this several times different places and it makes me hesitant asking strangers for game advice in the future. It seems that what I enjoy and value in JRPGs are different to what most other roleplaying fans want. Seeing as this game both has a decent metacritic score and a cult following online.
Yeah, like I mentioned I literally needed a break to catch up with my thoughts when that character got introduced. The character has a companion who calls her a "pair of walking breasts" and the like throughout the game. They really hammer home what role they intended for this character.
It´s absolutely insane. The sexualization throughout the game is just so blatant. Poses like this and situations like it just appear out of the blue, mostly without even attempting to contextualize it into the universe of the game.
Nice, thanks for the recommendation! I´ve heard about the predecessor Inquistador, but haven´t thought about it for years. I´ll be sure to check it out.
Same, I always take recommendations with a pinch of salt for that reason too. Having said that, if I hadn't listened to people in the old country I wouldn't have played SMT, Trails or Ys, nothing better than eyeballing a few videos yourself though.
I think they just ran out of time and reached the end of their budget.
All you need to know about Samus vs Ridley
I am now deceased.
"Vote with your wallet and play other games!!"
When looking up JRPGs these days I check to see if they convey the bulk of their cutscenes through static artwork. It's usually a good sign of bad intentions...
It also describes 95% of JRPGs...
I still find it incredibly interesting that the only FGC/esports pro scene that has a lot of women in it is DoA. You'd think anything but given a brickton of the costumes (let alone DoAX), but I guess the saturation and importance of the women in the game's world resonates with the audience enough to not treat real women like shit? Or something like that. Either that or the old guard just really stayed with the game. Also read an interesting Twitter thread about how Counterstrike used to have a lot of women players, but they seem to have been pushed out by teenage boys/young men (now going on grown-ass adults)... It's really a shame people can't see the damn forest for the trees.
"But there ARE NO TOP WOMEN PLAYERS" my ass... As if that isn't because of the toxic as shit environment no one tries to do anything about.
Like, obviously I wouldn't be lurking in this thread if I didn't care about how women are represented in games themselves, but the exclusion of women from gaming circles via silence against harassers pisses me off even more.
There's a very large percentage of men who define "sexy" or "attractive" by how much skin you show. It's a plague in the art world and the concept of "understanding fashion" seems to be a notion that just gets in the way, especially when it comes to creating for mass consumption.
People forgot about Cross Assault real fast.
Even I forgot about that, but I remember being pissed off about it when it happened. Now I'm pissed again. Fuckin' hell, esports...
ANECDOTE: I remember being at anime boston with my niece a few years back and she sat down to play a few rounds of Soul Calibur while I was off playing Marvel. After about 20 minutes, I hear some guy SCREAMING at the top of his lungs at my niece. "WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? ALL YOU DO IS BLOCK AND THROW? ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS? YOU ARE TERRIBLE AT THIS GAME! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!" So I get up and walk over to see what's going on, turns out she beat him 7-0 and, because in his mind girls don't play video games, something inside him broke and he lost his fucking shit. And I was cackling, it was the funniest thing I'd seen in a while. My niece still plays games when she can (she's usually too busy with school/work) but when people say "why don't girls play competitively" I remind them about the story of my niece being some rando scrub 7-0 in SC2, and the melt down he suffered, and then remind them how much worse that is when actual money is on the line.
My younger brother is like that in general. The amount their self-esteem is reliant on video games is embarrassing.
When it comes to digital/SF stuff, I've gotten to a point where I almost exclusively follow female artists. It's kinda unnerving how things have, if anything, gotten worse since Gamergate blew up - but, then again, there's a lot of money in T&A...
Even as this or psychowave suggests, I still think it goes against Samus as a character. While either is more viable than what Other M provides, I nevertheless don't understand why a bounty hunter who is known for being fiercely independent and basically a murder hobo, is going to be in on anything the Federation is doing. It seems like most Metroid games are actively trying to keep Samus from getting involved, excepting desperate situations which have no resolution except her.
In this generation? Not that I can think of.
Actually, the previous conversation reminded me that Tales of (from what I've played) actually treats its lady characters pretty nicely for a jrpg, even considering how otherwise tropey the games are in general. Even when they're meant to be attractive they're still treated as actual people.
My favorite character in the series, Sheena, is definitely designed to be attractive.
She's busty and curvy with ample cleavage, and her profile picture in-game accentuates that with the pose she's making.
Despite that, she's a fully fleshed out character with a sympathetic backstory, and once she overcomes her issues (cowardice and insecurity) she becomes one of the most badass characters in the party. Her sex appeal is never a focal point of her character and is only ever brought up when one of the other characters, a womanizer, hits on her or makes inappropriate passes. And even when that happens, the other characters are quick to chastise him for it. Otherwise it's never played up or made as a big part of her character. I didn't think much of it when I played the game years and years ago, but in retrospect it feels refreshingly tasteful compared to what we have today.
lol...people I played super smash bros with back at college used to be like that
So the Polygon podcast is an all female cast? Thoughts? I have yet to listen but I think I'll have to give it a try now.
Man. I got Gulty Gear Xrd -Revelator- on Steam due to Dragon Ball FighterZ hype. I've never been much into GG (mostly because none of my friends play it either), but man, it's a ridiculously beautiful, coloful and mechanically deep game. I love the crazy and varied character designs so much...
... except for the fact that, with a couple of exceptions (all from the original, nearly two decade old games), every other female character in the game has blimp-sized breasts bouncing around with less cloth covering them than an ant's g-string. I'm fine with one or two "sexy women" in a fighting game, it comes with the territory (in this game, I think I-No is perfect for the role), but why has every single fucking female character introduced in this game have to be like this? The result is that they all blur together, particularly the three Valentine sisters, which have completely different personalities, weapons and looks... except for the massive breasts and cleavages. It completely ruins many of these characters for me, especially ones where it doesn't fit like at all. In a game with such variety, this one common note is made even more dramatically jarring.
Needless to say, I'm thinking of this thread a lot while playing it. I never thought I'd say this, but perhaps it's good that Dragon Ball FighterZ is such a sausagefest.
... except for the fact that, with a couple of exceptions (all from the original, nearly two decade old games), every other female character in the game has blimp-sized breasts bouncing around with less cloth covering them than an ant's g-string. I'm fine with one or two "sexy women" in a fighting game, it comes with the territory (in this game, I think I-No is perfect for the role), but why has every single fucking female character introduced in this game have to be like this? The result is that they all blur together, particularly the three Valentine sisters, which have completely different personalities, weapons and looks... except for the massive breasts and cleavages. It completely ruins many of these characters for me, especially ones where it doesn't fit like at all. In a game with such variety, this one common note is made even more dramatically jarring.
Needless to say, I'm thinking of this thread a lot while playing it. I never thought I'd say this, but perhaps it's good that Dragon Ball FighterZ is such a sausagefest.
See now that would be cool, seeing a character overcome prejudice like that. Will definitely keep playing.
If they're handled as well as 18 then i don't see why there shouldn't be more females.
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