Video Game Thread 2.0

[IanC]

Steam is having an anime themed sale (well sorta...). Hatoful Boyfriend is on sale. You know the pigeon dating sim/visual novel that i actually really good under the initial WTF layer? Yeah that one.

Couple of other visual novels are on sale too.

[Ultimate Paragon]

It's like I've been saying for years: let people choose how their characters are dressed.

[Second Coming of Madman]

Still works horribly for either gender in real life, gaiz.

[Svata]

Someone mentioned Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri so I was forced to reinstall it.

EDIT: The latest images from the next Final Fantasy game had a scantily clad male character and male fans all over the world are now furious. That "armour" has been built to be revealing rather than protective and is only fetish material which obviously has outraged people.



...No, this is not an april fools joke.



"This male sexualisation is wrong."

Also note the person saying [a costume like this] "...looked "fine" on a girl. Some costume just isn't meant to be worn by a male, no matter how pretty his face is."

[Insert sounds of exploding irony and/or hypocrisy detectors all over the world.]

Really, guys. Really. I... but... Owwww, my brain.

[Ironchew]

Someone mentioned Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri so I was forced to reinstall it.

EDIT: The latest images from the next Final Fantasy game had a scantily clad male character and male fans all over the world are now furious. That "armour" has been built to be revealing rather than protective and is only fetish material which obviously has outraged people.

-snip-

...No, this is not an april fools joke.

-snip-

"This male sexualisation is wrong."

Also note the person saying [a costume like this] "...looked "fine" on a girl. Some costume just isn't meant to be worn by a male, no matter how pretty his face is."

[Insert sounds of exploding irony and/or hypocrisy detectors all over the world.]

Well, I'm not sure what else FF fans were expecting. Square-* has been a one-trick pony with character design so bishonen protagonists are mandatory.

It sounds more like exasperation than outrage. JRPGs are completely overloaded with bishonens and it would have been a nice change of pace to introduce more gritty characters. Or, failing that, actually make a fun game.

[Cerim Treascair]

Speaking as someone that's stuck with the series since the original on the NES, it's nice that there's finally a bish with a skimpy outfit for a change, rather than just the girls.  About damn time.

That said, yeah, we're in dire need of some grittiness.

[Art Vandelay]

Well, I'm not sure what else FF fans were expecting. Square-* has been a one-trick pony with character design so bishonen protagonists are mandatory.

It sounds more like exasperation than outrage. JRPGs are completely overloaded with bishonens and it would have been a nice change of pace to introduce more gritty characters. Or, failing that, actually make a fun game.

It seems like even the very best JRPGs can't avoid stupid character design. I've been watching a Let's Play of Xenoblade: Chronicles and it's an absolutely perfect example of this stupidity. Story is well above average for a JRPG, environment design is fantastic (seriously, it looks amazing and it's a goddamn Wii game of all thing), the gameplay is also pretty good, since there's decent platforming involved as well as combat that's not menu-fu and the overall scale is absolutely massive (again, it's a Wii game. Let that sink in for a moment). The character design, though? Complete ass. All but one of the female party members dress like strippers (including one who's supposed to be a robot from the neck down), the main character is a typical bishonen and there's even a Jar Jar Binks clone of all things in the party. I can't imagine what the writers were smoking to make them think that was a good idea.

[Second Coming of Madman]

I wouldn't mind if all the female characters in a JRPG looked like the following:

(click to show/hide)

[Ironchew]

JRPGs are in serious need of protagonists with facial hair:

[RavynousHunter]

JRPGs need more men like Guan Yu.  In fact, every game could use more Guan Yu.

[Svata]

Yes. I'm also rather partial to Xiahou Dun, myself. Possibly because of actually managing to take out Lu Bu with him on Chaos difficulty once. Good times.

[Askold]

I have said this before and will say it again: As long as all the costumes/armour seem to be from the same world I am totally fine with them.

Everyone wearing realistic armour? Cool, that is my favourite. Men wearing "Conan the barbarian" loincloths and women in chainkinis? Silly, but I'm ok with it. Everyone dressed up in revealing weird anime fashion clothing? I can see why a lot of people don't like it but it is not a big deal. Mixing up these? Not cool. The standard MMORPG divide with men wrapped up in armour (that has weird, huge pauldrons) and women in revealing "armour" is inconsistent and that breaks my immersion.

I am disagreeing with Ironchew (again) about the FF games though. The earlier ones had armour that was more "covering" type than the modern ones (even if you only saw it properly in the artwork) when the theme was "medieval fantasy with a bit of steampunk." The later ones have had worlds with more technology and more modern or futuristic clothing (with less and less use of armour.)

There have even been grittier heroes with facial hair in the series. FFV is the first to come in my mind, having an old guy with much facial hair as one of the party members. Oh, and FFIV had this guy:

(click to show/hide)

[Svata]

That is possibly the worst-looking FFIV Cid I've ever seen.

[Askold]

That is possibly the worst-looking FFIV Cid I've ever seen.

I think it is from the manual.

[Art Vandelay]

Just finished Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. Damn good experience, I have to say. Story was great and the game was short enough that you don't get fed up with the controls. Would highly recommend to all.