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[Ryoku]

If someone made something out of prejudicial motivations, culture becomes irrelevant.

Fair. I can agree with this.

Sex is a personal thing.The body is all we have.

This is an opinion. Some people (and some cultures) are very open about sex--at least relatively speaking.

You're technically right but when it comes to matters like the depection of said bodies, due to the nature of human want and how we express that want, it's something to always extensively gauge on. Saying something like that can be dangerous.

Yeah, I can see how it can be dangerous. If anything, my statements are referring to the topic at hand, and aren't meant to be generalizations. I should be clearer.

 

[DemWalls]

In what fucking universe does Pyra look 12

That's always the problem, in discussions such as this one. Given the extremely stylized nature of certain Japanese aesthetics, everyone sees what they want to see, but you cannot tell who is "right" and who isn't, because there's no answer. These conversations lead to nowhere.

 

[Maou]

In what fucking universe does Pyra look 12

Lots of people seem to think any anime girl who isn't clearly 30 years old is automatically a 12 year old

everyone sees what they want to see, but you cannot tell who is "right" and who isn't, because there's no answer. These conversations lead to nowhere.

Bingo. This conversation is going nowhere as long as there's no official age and as long as people continue to have different ideas on how women should dress. Puritans and traditionalists (and accidentally traditionalist modernists) will fret about objectification, and other people will wonder what they're talking about, all concerning characters who are not actually real and have no age even if the settei say so.

The biggest problem with these designs aren't that they're "too sexy" but that they're "not really very good." I'd love to see Tanaka working with Takahashi again, but I guess Monolith severed that team pretty early on in Xenosaga. Boo.

 

[Flopfan]

That being said, I do wonder if part of him wants to give that sort of thing one more go. This is from the Xenoblade X Iwata Asks (source):

I would actually love it if Takahashi put out his ambitious narratives in novel form. They seem more suited to that medium.

 

[Korigama]

Bingo. This conversation is going nowhere as long as there's no official age and as long as people continue to have different ideas on how women should dress. Puritans and traditionalists (and accidentally traditionalist modernists) will fret about objectification, and other people will wonder what they're talking about, all concerning characters who are not actually real and have no age even if the settei say so.

The biggest problem with these designs aren't that they're "too sexy" but that they're "not really very good." I'd love to see Tanaka working with Takahashi again, but I guess Monolith severed that team pretty early on in Xenosaga. Boo.

Tanaka already worked with Takahashi again with X, but as with Xenosaga Ep. I, his work didn't translate to 3D particularly well.

 

[Red Devil]

The main character's pants bother me, the rest I really have no problems with.

 

[ZeoVGM]

There's nothing wrong with creating a character that causes people to feel titillated by looking at short skirted female either. If you want equality and female empowerment stop trying to cover them up.

This is embarrassing and proof of someone who absolutely does not understand the problem.

 

[Mister Wolf]

The main character's pants bother me, the rest I really have no problems with.

At first I thought it was some kind of scuba gear. Guess I was wrong, robo-chaps it is then haha.

 

[Harpoon]

At first I thought it was some kind of scuba gear. Guess I was wrong, robo-chaps it is then haha.

Pretty sure it is part of a diving suit, actually. The bits of the script in the first trailer mentioned divers, and with Rex's helmet plus that "salvage point" passed by in the Treehouse demo...

 

[Red Devil]

At first I thought it was some kind of scuba gear. Guess I was wrong, robo-chaps it is then haha.

I can't wrap my mind about what they're exactly.

Regarding Pyra I guess it's the fault of being a product of the game being a JRPG, while I get it's bad and more likely would prefer it was different I don't really look too much into it because after all it's just a fictional character and that's where it ends for me, also

Spoiler

it seems the game will go with something like "1000 years old sword" or something

.

 

[ThatChairMan]

Pretty sure it is part of a diving suit, actually. The bits of the script in the first trailer mentioned divers, and with Rex's helmet plus that "salvage point" passed by in the Treehouse demo...

Rex's design definitely does give off a fantasy diving vibe. His inner wetsuit, the helmet, a wrist-mounted harpoon, and even his outer wear which looks like it's meant to be zipped up and become airtight. It's a shame that the Treehouse completely skipped over all the salvage points they ran past. Would've been interesting to see how he actually dives.

 

[Mister Wolf]

I can't wrap my mind about what they're exactly.

Regarding Pyra I guess it's the fault of being a product of the game being a JRPG, while I get it's bad and more likely would prefer it was different I don't really look too much into it because after all it's just a fictional character and that's where it ends for me, also

Spoiler

it seems the game will go with something like "1000 years old sword" or something

.

The game wont try to justify it no more than KOS-MOS in Xenosaga, Nami and Robin in One Piece, specific female ninjas in Naruto, or any other shonen type manga/anime. Everything about this game screams shonen from boy with magic sword fighting enemies, making friends, growing stronger overcoming powerful enemies. The whole weapon people was already done by Soul Eater another shonen manga/anime.

 

[KingSnake]

I'm not even exaggerating when I say the character design alone is destroying all interest I could have in this game. I know it's supposed to be good, from a gameplay perspective, and the world screenshots look amazing, but I can't deal with these incredibly one-note, generic and fanservicy anime kid characters. And I actually do like a lot of anime.

It's just way, way too much.

Yes, this summarise it well. While both Xenoblade and Xenoblade X had their fair share of character design issues there are main characters that you can relate to, that are nice to follow their story. Take Xenoblade X for example, you can hate Lin and you still got Elma (not to mention that you can still make a cool custom character for yourself) driving the story and the game.

Here the main characters are awfully generic and then you find more of the same in the city they shown in the Treehouse stream. Only one character so far had a cool design.

I just can't see myself playing with these 2 characters. Or caring about the wonderful come of age story for this:

You know what I think looking at that and reading about boy-meets-girl being the idea driving this game? A novel about the first love of Ben 10.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

He's a guest designer on this project!

Tetsuya Nomura is a guest designer on Xenoblade Chronicles 2

No joke. Saw it in the trailer and had to double-take.

Nomura and Takahashi are huge friends. They worked together on Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, and Nomura was part of the Xenogears team in a very early stage of development. Nomura actually created Citan Uzuki.

 

[Mister Wolf]

Nomura and Takahashi are huge friends. They worked together on Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, and Nomura was part of the Xenogears team in a very early stage of development. Nomura actually created Citan Uzuki.

That's pretty cool. Citan was the man in Xenogears.

 

[TheGreatLugia]

Nomura and Takahashi are huge friends. They worked together on Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, and Nomura was part of the Xenogears team in a very early stage of development. Nomura actually created Citan Uzuki.

I knew they worked together on FFVI and Chrono Trigger, but I hadn't heard the bit about Citan before. I also didn't know if they kept in touch after Takahashi left Square.

 

[LizardKing]

This is embarrassing and proof of someone who absolutely does not understand the problem.

The feeling is mutual.

 

[hurricanes]

"Let me( Male) tell you what a design that female empowerment look like is: a young girl that wears a top mod around her ballon breast and a thong over her panties"

Look so familiar... Oh that's the type of post pop out every single time a sexualized female design was critized.

 

[Humdinger]

Strange how the whole thread is just a discussion of how a female character looks. It doesn't have anything to do with what the guy was saying.

 

[Puruzi]

Strange how the whole thread is just a discussion of how a female character looks. It doesn't have anything to do with what the guy was saying.

Yeah and it's always the people that complain that do the derailing

 

[foxuzamaki]

Oh God...its just like xenoblade x the year it released....nobody actually willing to talk about the game or the subject of the thread itself and it just got so.....tiring

 

[Golden_Pigeon]

The feeling is mutual.

Empowerment = titillation skill.
200 years of feminism ladies and gentleman.
I rather have women who shine by their personalities and intelects in my games.
For me those outfits just kill the world building,like the very specific hole in the dress of Minifilia in FFXIV. It just make our loved medium look creepy and immature.

 

[Fireblend]

Again:

This discussion leads nowhere. The character designs are out of our control, and whether we find them clashing with our principles or not is a matter of personal opinion. On the one hand the game is much more than it's character designs, so if you're willing to let it go or like the designs in the first place you'll probably find plenty more things to love in the game. If, on the other hand you can't possibly bear the thought of playing the game with those characters, complaining and belittling the opinions of others accomplishes nothing and stifles conversation about those other aspects of the game.

I believe most people in this thread already established whether they like the design or not, and for those that do plan on buying the game, it would probably be nice to be able to move past this discussion and talk about other elements of the game instead of continuing to see hostile posts from both sides that simply won't budge.

 

[Korigama]

Empowerment = titillation skill.
200 years of feminism ladies and gentleman.
I rather have women who shine by their personalities and intelects in my games.
For me those outfits just kill the world building,like the very specific hole in the dress of Minifilia in FFXIV. It just make our loved medium look creepy and immature.

We know pretty much nothing about how this character is written. And there are two l's in intellect.

 

[Tohsaka]

Strange how the whole thread is just a discussion of how a female character looks. It doesn't have anything to do with what the guy was saying.

It happens in every thread about Japanese games that have a "sexualized' character, even if they're an adult like Final Fantasy XV, Star Ocean 5 etc.

Empowerment = titillation skill.
200 years of feminism ladies and gentleman.
I rather have women who shine by their personalities and intelects in my games.
For me those outfits just kill the world building,like the very specific hole in the dress of Minifilia in FFXIV. It just make our loved medium look creepy and immature.

Yeah, because TV shows, movies, and comic books are much more mature and definitely don't have any sexualization at all.

 

[Golden_Pigeon]

We know pretty much nothing about how this character is written. And there are two l's in intellect.

Sorry english is not my main language.
Minifilia in FFXIV is a strong character with worldclass political responbility but her dress just mess that up. So those kind of design are more likely to be detrimental for the writting. So yeah, maybe she will be an amazing character but her dress at the service of male gaze would be detrimental, at least for me. It won't be so much an issue if it was not 95 % of women in videogames.

 

[Golden_Pigeon]

Yeah, because TV shows, movies, and comic books are much more mature and definitely don't have any sexualization at all.

I think the same when I see those kind of things in any other medias. I don't give a special pass to videogames.

 

[Wamb0wneD]

Seriously.....what in the world is going on with that pole dancer outfit, and that generic face that could be swapped with a different hairdo and immediately be dozens of other 12 to 13 year old anime characters?? Atrocious and offensive.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Boom.

Exactly. And therein lies one of the biggest problems. It's shameful and disgusting.

Yeah....same here.....same here. What happened to Takahashi (and many other Japanese creators)? It seems as though we'll never get a Xenogears-caliber game from him again.

Hey, you're free to defend the reprehensible practice of creating hypersexualized pre-teens all you want. Perhaps I've hit a soft spot with you?

Absolutely not. Why would I support such practices? More pointedly, why would you? Nice try though.

If taken out of context, it certainly could be, until they realized the character in discussion looks 12 to 13 years old.

Man you managed to write all of this and more in not even two pages, including a freaking triple post. Calm down for crying out loud. She's taller than the MC and has pretty large breasts, how in the world does she look like 12? Already looking forward to the mass derailings of any Xenoblade 2 related thread with this shit.

 

[Rmagnus]

Sorry english is not my main language.
Minifilia in FFXIV is a strong character with worldclass political responbility but her dress just mess that up. So those kind of design are more likely to be detrimental for the writting. So yeah, maybe she will be an amazing character but her dress at the service of male gaze would be detrimental, at least for me. It won't be so much an issue if it was not 95 % of women in videogames.

Ever heard of the phrase don't judge the book by its cover? Sometimes I just feel folks need all female to be cover up to make a good character. So if a girl in a sexy out fit appears it means it's fan service. How you guys function in real life I will never understand. Oh that girl is in a mini skirt some one must have forced her to wear it or some bcrap

 

[foxuzamaki]

She's not even in a mini skirt

 

[Golden_Pigeon]

Ever heard of the phrase don't judge the book by its cover? Sometimes I just feel folks need all female to be cover up to make a good character. So if a girl in a sexy out fit appears it means it's fan service. How you guys function in real life I will never understand. Oh that girl is in a mini skirt some one must have forced her to wear it or some bcrap

All right, let's just not compare a real woman decision and what a videogame designer (most likely male) decided for his female character to wear and for what reason. I don't ask for extra cover up but for some parity with the general male crowd in those games.

 

[Humdinger]

It happens in every thread about Japanese games that have a "sexualized' character, even if they're an adult like Final Fantasy XV, Star Ocean 5 etc.

Yeah, I guess it's just a mandatory discussion that GAF has to have, every time.

Oh well. I actually thought what he was saying was interesting. I was interested in the game, because I'd heard good things about the previous ones. But the trailer put me off, it seemed so juvenile and cheesy. But his explanation made sense to me. I liked that he was moving away from the "destroyed world" themes and toward something more innocent. It gave me some hope in the game. I also liked how he said the game is a good mix of story and exploration, which are two of my favorite things.

I think whether I like it or not will depend largely on whether he can craft a "boy meets girl" story that is good, not trite.

 

[encephalon]

I would actually love it if Takahashi put out his ambitious narratives in novel form. They seem more suited to that medium.

I would love to have seen follow ups to Xenogears and/or Xenosaga in the form of books. : (

 

[BBboy20]

Oh God...its just like xenoblade x the year it released....nobody actually willing to talk about the game or the subject of the thread itself and it just got so.....tiring

Has somebody made a thread about this very subject? Been like, what, 5 years since the Kotaku/Dragon's Crown situation? May as well create a virtual Colosseum at this point.

 

[Rmagnus]

All right, let's just not compare a real woman decision and what a videogame designer (most likely male) decided for his female character to wear and for what reason. I don't ask for extra cover up but for some parity with the general male crowd in those games.

Shulk is in swimming trunks in smash and xb1?
Basically you are just projecting what ever you think onto the game which is funny to me

 

[LizardKing]

This discussion leads nowhere. The character designs are out of our control, and whether we find them clashing with our principles or not is a matter of personal opinion. On the one hand the game is much more than it's character designs, so if you're willing to let it go or like the designs in the first place you'll probably find plenty more things to love in the game. If, on the other hand you can't possibly bear the thought of playing the game with those characters, complaining and belittling the opinions of others accomplishes nothing and stifles conversation about those other aspects of the game.

I believe most people in this thread already established whether they like the design or not, and for those that do plan on buying the game, it would probably be nice to be able to move past this discussion and talk about other elements of the game instead of continuing to see hostile posts from both sides that simply won't budge.

The problem is that there is a group of people who don't want to let that go and allow those who are ok with it to be ok with it. The very idea of how people are portrayed is an affront to their world view so it's very much not a case of live and let live.

 

[Shadow Broker]

Man you managed to write all of this and more in not even two pages, including a freaking triple post. Calm down for crying out loud. She's taller than the MC and has pretty large breasts, how in the world does she look like 12? Already looking forward to the mass derailings of any Xenoblade 2 related thread with this shit.

I really hope a Mod set some ground rules down for future topics on this game.

 

[Golden_Pigeon]

Shulk is in swimming trunks in smash and xb1?
Basically you are just projecting what ever you think onto the game which is funny to me

Yes, i am sure 95 % women in VG are more sexualized than men for empowerment.
I just have sick mind.

 

[Super Stardust]

I love xeno threads

 

[patrickthehedgehog]

I definitely will play and enjoy this game once it's out. On the other hand I'm excited to see the meltdowns if NOA / NOE gives "the sword" a bit of a reduction or a wardrobe modification. Everyone goes so ballistic over this stuff. What if even the JP version gets modified leading to a complete change in all territories? Because then you can't really argue censorship if it's done by the developers adjusting to public reaction.

Best to keep the pervyness and masturbation limited to fan art for these games!

 

[Rmagnus]

Yes, i am sure 95 % women in VG are more sexualized than men for empowerment.
I just have sick mind.

So shifting your argument from xenoblade to all games now?

 

[Maou]

Already looking forward to the mass derailings of any Xenoblade 2 related thread with this shit.

I really hope a Mod set some ground rules down for future topics on this game.

GOD YES

The very idea of how people are portrayed is an affront to their world view so it's very much not a case of live and let live.

It happens in every thread about Japanese games that have a "sexualized' character, even if they're an adult like Final Fantasy XV, Star Ocean 5 etc.

It would all be a little less galling if every GAF thread also featured guaranteed running commentary about other types of social ills as we imagine them, maybe like how 90% of games are god-darned murder simulators.

 

[Golden_Pigeon]

So shifting your argument from xenoblade to all games now?

It's a general issue, nothing to do with xb especially. Not even VG actually. I just reacted because of some absurd line of defense of the outfit as empowerment.

 

[Mister Wolf]

It's a general issue, nothing to do with xb especially. Not even VG actually. I just reacted because of some absurd line of defense of the outfit as empowerment.

Nothing empowering about it. Its a sexually pandering outfit. If you don't like it then speak with your wallet and don't buy it, watch it, or read it. That goes for this game, Final Fantasy series(XV), and plenty of other games/manga/anime/comic/TV/movies/novel covers.

 

[Ennosuke]

Wow guys, congrats, amusing discussion.
Feel free to state your opinion, but some of you are putting way too much energy in it.

 

[MicH]

People are really losing their minds over Pyra's design. I'm not a huge fan of it either, but I really don't think it's that big of a deal. It's not even as if these skimpy outfits are new to the series - during the ending cutscenes in XCX Elma wears far less clothing than Pyra. Her butt isn't even covered by anything for God's sake.

Ridiculous that this has to derail every thread about the game.

 

[anaron]

I think the designs actually look fairly great in their in-game cell shaded design. Definitely superior to the 2D art.

 

[PKrockin]

How old are the characters supposed to be? The boy sounds older but his face is right out of a kids' anime. And who knows with female animes.

 

[hurricanes]

Nothing empowering about it. Its a sexually pandering outfit. If you don't like it then speak with your wallet and don't buy it, watch it, or read it. That goes for this game, Final Fantasy series(XV), and plenty of other games/manga/anime/comic/TV/movies/novel covers.

Oh, the "just don't buy it and shut up" defense force.

People are really losing their minds over Pyra's design. I'm not a huge fan of it either, but I really don't think it's that big of a deal. It's not even as if these skimpy outfits are new to the series - during the ending cutscenes in XCX Elma wears far less clothing than Pyra. Her butt isn't even covered by anything for God's sake.

Ridiculous that this has to derail every thread about the game.

And Elma's ED custom never got critized! Oh wait...
Since (main)character design is such a big part of the game, it's completely fair for people to voice their opinion/criticism. Especially when the creator say something like "leave the hot guy saving the world story to someone else" and then have a animu hot girl (even more common and tiring trope) in his game.

I say this as a fan since Xenogears.

 

[Foxy the Fox]

Oh, the "just don't buy it and shut up" defense force.

Everyone who was againt the girl already stated their opinion, there is no need for them to repeat the same stuff everytime.