Good to know. You can have sexy attractive women on your games without going bonkers dumb. FE has long since jumped the shark on that regard.
I hadn't noticed the gold line but yes, 'arrow pointing to the crotch' is one that really should be on the bingo cards!
It's mainly used here when describing the combination of ninja-as-fetish combined with others (lingerie, maid, huge chest, zetta ryoki all seem popular choices), with that maid Kagero filling the bingo board.
I recognize it's used here in that way, I just thought it felt important to mention I've seen it used in other contexts a lot more that kinda feel like the antithesis to this topic. Like, continue using it by all means, I know y'all don't mean it like that. With that in mind maybe I was just really off topic. If so, I'm sorry. I just found I've been trying to be more conscious of word choice lately, so maybe I'm thinking too hard about the bad things it dredges up for me.
What the fuck is this design.Also crap like Nonaka from Stella Glow (below). It's used here as a mildly dismissive shorthand for a shifty design template, as 'sexualised fetish ninja' is a bit long to type out, but sure, if it's widely adopted elsewhere I'll stop using it.
That's ok, as you say it's good to think about word choice.
First, a character can be interesting while having a bad visual design, and vice versa. I don't think there's much more to be said about that. Fates ninjas are pretty uninteresting IMO (they're just your usual brand of cold blooded killers), but even if they weren't, a bad visual design is a bad visual design.
Fair points. I remember during Conquest that at some point the PC, Corrin, thinks that, despite their army invading and destroying Hoshido according to his possessed father's wishes, he can still be a good guy. As such, he suggests they don't kill anyone and 'just knock out' people when using arrows, lances, killer giant lizards, fireball magic, daggers etc against a band of typically FE heroic 'we'll fight to-the-death to defend our country!' heavily armed professionals that also see him as a traitor and the reason their beloved Queen is dead. Apparently if you're heroic enough you can make it to the throne room of a nation fighting for its very existence against the personification of evil without having to kill anyone in urban warfare between hundreds of people. It's just mind over matter, all this death-and-war stuff, isn't it!
It's a shame when, characters and story aside, there are a few (stay with me) good things in Fates mechanically as an SRPG. The Conquest and Revelations campaigns have far more interesting maps and objectives than Awakening's 'kill 'em all' flat grids, and I like the reworking of both pair-up and the rebalancing of the weapons to avoid them breaking. It's just a shame that all the development in mechanics is completely hidden by the bungled presentation of who and why these characters are fighting and why it matters. If you are laughing at them in dead-serious moments and don't give a shit about the fetishised tropefests screaming for help in awful situations, it's hard to make it to the good map design behind ten minutes of awful storytelling each time.
When it comes down to it every Fire Emblem game is afraid of you disliking the protagonist and his army as they slaughter an entire opposing nation's army. It's why every antagonist needs to be obviously and intentionally evil. They're not uneasy kingdoms brought to fighting over resources or power disputes, one side is being controlled by a dragon god of evil that wants to destroy the world just because and the other side is a plucky band of heroes who abhor killing but have to to save the world. It's also why every time Fire Emblem tries to be introspective about the nature of war or what it means to kill or any deeper theme it tends to fall flat and isn't really remembered or talked about. The stories are often just too simplistic and unrealistic to really communicate effective themes about actual war. It can only really communicate those shonen-esque themes and morals that are child-friendly and easy to write like "the power of friendship" or "never give up to achieve your dream" or that "some men are just naturally born as kings and everyone else isn't and there's nothing you can do to change that because absolute monarchies are a great idea". Y'know child friendly lessons like that.
I think that's part of the reason Nier Automata's 2B exploded in popularity. Big butt aside her design was badass and actually based on real life fashion. I saw some site where they interviewed real world fashion designers and asked to comment on 2B and she got praise all around. I can't for the life of me remember where I saw this.
Mechanically, Fates is an amazingly good SRPG. I'm still on a love/hate relationship with how FEs manage their calculations (basically how a small difference in stats can yield a wildly different outcome) but what they did in Fates was good, strategy wise. Of course there are still issues with enemy baiting and so forth, but it's a great strategy game.
Thanks for this! I googled around and found a couple of articles about 2B and fashion. Games could use more of this, IMO.
I dunno many people play RPGs where you can play a murderous psychopath, even if in the end you kill an evil world-destroying god.
Trails in the Sky was a great surprise to me. Despite having some anime elements, it still felt fresh with good character development and a world that felt alive.
Aren't the editors and publishers also part of the manga industry sector? I don't think when people say something like "the manga industry is messed up," they implicitly tack "except for those editors who have it easy" on it. It's just that manga artists are the most convenient example.
Reminds me of that DQXI thread blaming its unpopularity on the art design, and all the people doing their utmost to defend it. Like, yeah? It's a Saturday Morning Cartoon. You think Game of Thrones would be popular if it were animated with an Akira Toriyama aesthetic? This shit alienates people!
Because that would involve looking outside of their comfort zone, when all they want to do is regurgitate the same stuff they consumed as children. Hang around any geek creative circle long enough and you'll see it's a common trait. Lost track of the number of times someone has asked a writing group which authors inspire them, and the majority of replies always list the same half dozen names from the same half dozen genres.
I'm not sure how I should read this.
Absolutely. Personally I'm looking forward to eventually playing DQXI after a friend of mine spent a whole evening in the pub talking about how glorious a character Sylvando (?) is.
I found that a really hard habit to break. I write a little myself, and after a youth spent devouring detective, sci-fi, fantasy and horror fiction, with their story arcs often resolved through pitched battle in one form or another, I had to practically force myself to read in wider circles just to find my own style and takes on things that weren't someone else done badly. Even though I still like to write in those genres, you need to step outside the well-trod path to find a new (oh god this metaphor is boring even me, I'm going to drop it here) :D
Yeah Sky was pretty tame and controlled in the character designs. Cold Steel 1 immediately felt way more anime with its school uniforms and the girls wearing impossibly tiny skirts but then I saw IV and 1 was tame in comparison to how positively stupid IV's outfits are. I've said it before but you'd me forgiven if you thought that in CS4 it was illegal for women to not have exposed thighs. The infamous zettai ryouiki is out of control in that game. Goddamn otaku.
Not even Estelle is immune to this.
There was a time when zettai ryouiki were not that common and they felt somewhat special and you'd immediately notice when one girl had it. I think the first time I saw and noticed the thigh gap was with Valkyrie Profile 2 in 2006 and I kinda liked it! But now I notice which animu girl doesn't have a thigh gap. It's become so freaking common you actually expect them to have it. From the type of game I can tell you if it's going to have at least one girl sporting that. It's become boring when everyone does it. Everyone!
As if otaku media would ever feature a woman over 25, let alone a mother!
That's an excellent idea. It pays off, too. Look up Bayonetta's concept art and you'll find a wealth of great designs.
At this point it's like, a compulsion. like every time an artist draws an anime girl in a short skirt/shorts, he looks at bare legs and sees something missing. As if they can't conceive of a girl wearing shorts and shoes.
Damn. You have a point. They wouldn't even dare to put a girl that has a boyfriend that's not the main male protagonist, lol.
The mother figure is generally the most prominent figure in a Shonen Jump series. I don't think they are the problem here though.
There are some exceptions, but yeah, you are right. I still remember an anime in which the mother of the protagonist... yeah, better stop it. Shit was disgusting to say the least.
Edit: while checking TV Tropes, I recalled what Gust did to Rorona in Atelier Meruru. Instead of letting her appear in her 30s, she got turned into a kid. Japan is really fucked up.
That sounds vaguely familiar, but I can't remember anything about it except for a faint voice deep within my memory whispering "edgy..."
I'd assume all the 14 year old boys are reading Naruto or One Piece. I wonder how something like To Love Ru would compare in readership among that age group.
