@@KrazyKaiser it lacks any form of emotional catharsis. Go and watch the last scene of the true ending where they save Zion. Lily makes such a half hearted "hooray" that it made me cringe to my core. No emotional catharsis or story to be found anywhere
Daily reminder that Yoko Taro, the head behind Nier, in interview said 2B is sexy just because he likes sexy women, and has also made explicitely gay and intersex characters in his games. These losers would be calling Nier woke in any other context.
@@noahbossier1131 Emil is in love with the male mc nier in nier replicant, haven't played his other games cept the nier ones so i cant say if they have any.
@ChristopherSadlowski you absolutely should finish it. In fact, to get the full story you need to play through it multiple times. It's an incredible game with a fantastic story and an amazing soundtrack.
This really reminds of the controversy when Overwatch came out. Everyone was going crazy over the fact that a sexy Tracer pose was removed. They thought it was all woke SJW feminists trying to make the game less sexy. But when you actually looked into the source of the controversy, it was a conversation in a forum between a fan and the developers. The fan's complaint wasn't that the tracer pose was too sexy. It was that it didn't fit Tracer's bubbly character. The developer responded saying they agreed and that the pose was far mroe similar to something you'd expect from a character like Widowmaker and that they were actually working on a different pose that would fit Tracer's character more. Then when the new patch came out, the pose was even more sexy and expressive but it did fit Tracer's character. It really is a testament to the fact that these gamer dudes will make a story out of nothing and gaming youtubers who don't check their sources will just run with it.
Its because the people who cry woke all the time, don't actually go any deeper with whatever they are defending beyond just sex appeal. A fan actually came with receipts for their own argument. A lot of these gamerbros are just phonies. They care more about the ass shot any any change made, than a constructive one.
@@GeteMachineI could say the samething about game journalists and companies like sweet baby inc.... that are quite happy to sexualise men and write articles about everybody thirsting over semi naked dudes!!!
@@GeteMachine Yeah, they're posers and proud of it and think that makes them look cool. It's a fundamentally sad approach, thinking that being an empty-headed loudmouth makes you cool and caring is for lame nerds - but they care sooo much about being seen as cool they humiliate themselves, scream and piss themselves to try and draw as much attention as they can.
Interesting! Never knew the story behind it all. I guess the problem is that the crowd that would care about something like that are generally unempathetic and quite frankly, less intelligent. They want their sexy, and don't really care about if it makes sense. I wish they could just stick to porn...
21:37 That’s my only issue with games like these. I get frustrated with skimpy women next to realistically geared men because it’s SO OBVIOUS what the intent and double standard is.
Interesting, they missed the point on why Cloud Strife manages to be compelling. His emotionlessness is a mask and it breaks. That's the moment that makes him likeable. When it all becomes to much and he can't keep it in anymore. We don't like him because he's emotionless, we like him because he's struggling not to show his emotions and fails to do so at times. Part of the theming of the game is how unhealthy internalizing your emotions like Cloud does is.
Sadly, media literacy is a skill that needs to be trained and refined. And analyzing media often gets in the way of their personal fantasies. The anti woke crowd didn’t care to dig deeper to see Cloud’s more compassionate nature (the genuine characteristic of his that Tifa, Aerith, and Jesse like about him), they just see his badass exterior and think that’s what attracted those girls.
@BenjaminGlatt oh the name is very interesting. Around a week ago, I actually spent some time to consider just it (because someone was arguing that there was no meaning or thought behind it and I'm an autistic jerk who needed to counter that). I have several arguments for why it's, in fact, a good name despite sounding a little silly. Plenty of both thought and meaning went into it. I'm absolutely positive.
The culture war stuff is so exhausting. I remember looking into an upcoming soulslike called Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn which looks pretty cool. All the comments were about how the company worked with SBI and how the main character was "woke" Do people ever get tired of turning every media property into an online battle?
They're so insane. Literally the only "woke" thing the trailer showed was that the protagonist is a black woman. Racists and misogynists are far too comfortable in the modern day
It really is and all the while these idiots miss the actual bad stuff going on in the industry. Massive firings, workplace harassment, mandatory crunch etc. thats ok but a black woman or trans character that is the reason this game is bad...Kill the Justice league is a prime example of this, massive live service game by a studio that never worked on one shallow gameplay mechanics and insulting story no reason that it's bad is because SBI
There's no consistency with these folk. Modesty without prudishness, objectification without sexual liberty. It's no wonder they're obsessed with fictional women, they'd never talk to a real one
It's not because they care about modesty or immodesty, it's because they like controlling women. Hence why they like both "traditional/modest" women and woman who are sexualized in a way that feels forced by a male designer and not what the character would wear.
Honestly, if Eve's openly sexy anime design compared to Adam's realistic design was intentional, like she was originally an android who started in adult films, but was drafted to fight in a war or something, that could have been neat. But, no, she's just, kinda there.
@@deaddomain You can thank a friend of mine. She came up with a similar concept, I just figured I could tweak the concept for what Stellar Blade could have been.
@@deaddomainwasn’t that one of the ideas behind Hadee? IIRC the robot you control was originally made to be a literal sex doll based on an adult film star, and I believe the sequel had the player control that very same adult film star. I never actually beat Hadee, I’ll confess, but I swear I remember reading this in some plot synopsis elsewhere.
There's 100% room for a "Spec Ops: The Line" level of holding the mirror up to the player and it's a damn shame that this game didn't manage to take that opportunity.
@@shadowldrago Not to put you or your friend down as I completely forget these characters existed until I saw your second post, but Blader Runner already sung this song with the snake performer & Pris. This game made Sean Young the lead. =/
Honestly this discourse is really disappointing because it’s shrouded over the fact that the devs actually used some pretty cool mocap technology that is hopefully going to be used in more games in future. I wish the internet was focused on that, instead of whether or not the main character is sexy enough.
Not really, the new advancements were literally to catch jiggle. Not gonna be used by anyone interesting for anything interesting, and we already HAD jiggle.
This is actually the only place ive seen gameplay of Stellar Blade. Literally every other video Ive seen of it was guys going "LOOK JIGGLE PHYSICS! THIS'LL REALLY TRIGGER THOSE LIBS" lol
I think the reason I don’t vibe with Eve’s is because it feels like the “born sexy yesterday” trope. A young naive woman foisted with the sex symbol status that she doesn’t own. Like everyone is partaking of her sex appeal except for her because her personality is completely oblivious to it. That’s what makes it feel exploitive to me.
I don't understand why we can't have normal-looking female characters with an interesting personality and well-written story without having someone lose their absolute mind about it. and the whole West vs East argument is so silly because those are two completely different art styles !! Also, the extremities of either side are honestly silly and annoying. Women don't have to be modest, but they don't have to be sexy either. We've come to a point where apparently if a female character isn't sexy, she's a bad character. But if she's super sexy, she's also a bad character. Like ???? Anyways amazing video. I pretty much agree with everything.
The worst part of this whole "controversy" is that the people who are claiming EVE is an intentional attack against wokeness in videogames are the only people saying that. The game makers, the game itself, and most reviewers seem to agree that EVE's appearance is just how she looks. If anything, the game downplays her sexiness. No one comments on it at any point. The closest we get is one NPC who calls her hair (specifically just her hair) "dull" before you unlock the sidequest that unlocks the hair customization. That pisses me off, because the game is actually really fun. If you just want a basic sci-fi hack-and-slash that's fun to play, this game has you covered. But it's been tainted by the "controversy" now, and a lot of people are probably gonna write it off because of that.
Reminds me of how some weirdos, for some extremely strange reason, tried to turn Sydney Sweeney into some “anti woke” symbol all because she likes showing cleavage. Incredibly ironic as honestly I see far more sex negative attitudes from people on the right than I do people on the left. Now sure there are sex negative leftists who are obnoxious, but acting like they represent all left leaning people is ridiculous.
Ngl, I have because every single time this discourse surrounds media, the media turns out to be so mid that you'd think they generated the discourse just to justify their sunk costs.
Think about alllll the ones that heard about the game the first time because of the controversy and checked it out! otherwise there is a demo for everyone!
A lot of these people have said and do say that people shouldn't create games for "political" reasons. Seems this instant would be okay for them. Like how they complained about people fixing art yet praise the same thing
At the end of the day, they don't want sexy characters; they just want lifeless sex dolls. They're the same guys who unironically claim that sex robots will replace "real women".
@@racionador I feel sorry for them because this isn't like something you see in fantasy worlds where a great evil personified happened out of nowhere. There's always a reason for why people became who they are right now.
Eve is not a sex doll, in fact she had more agency than 2B to honest. You the character you guys called a sex doll for years then started to pretend that you never had a problem with her just to spite Stellar Blade in a stupid culture war. You'd know that if you of the OP of this video actually played Nier Automata.
Arguments from Hypocrisy are always the worst form of argument. If you think the person you're talking about hates Stellar Blade because it's "too sexy" but also likes Baldur's Gate 3 sex scenes and you don't understand that something in your narrative isn't really clicking... then that's just kind-of on you, buddy. It's genuinely bizarre how these people will be like "You hate sexy women, you want to remove all sex from games," and then they'll immediately turn around and go "WHY DO YOU WANT SEX SCENES IN VIDEO GAMES?!?!?"
@@TheMysteryDriver I'm unironically seeing people Dead Domain is responding to say "You're a hypocrite for hating Stellar Blade's protag but loving Baldur's Gate".
@@gillfreddie4100 It's someone who contradicts themself. That's the point. These people THINK there's a contradiction, they're just too stupid to understand what the other person actually believes. This is why it's the worst form of argument. Because most of the time you're just misunderstanding what other people are saying. Like here, where the comments in the video keep trying to imply some contradictory belief that just doesn't even remotely exist.
@@TheMysteryDriver One of the first twitter threads shown insinuates that Woke Sony™ only wants sex in games if it involves trans girls, because, they reason, Woke Sony™ hates conventionally attractive women.
Could you also cover the fabricated controversy over the character designs in Hades II? I still can’t get over how Gamergate wannabes are trying to claim * checks notes * a naked traditionally attractive Aphrodite is ‘woke’ or ‘mannish’
And of course the game's design for Hestia looking like a racist caricature vs. Japan's design for Hestia looking like a child. Both designs are bad, but the anti-woke crowd, in typical fashion, are defending the latter design.
I saw a comment that said "Aphrodite looks like a tranner" just because she had pronounced cheek bones (rather common with people with greek ancestry to have strong cheek bones), for having a "male jawline" and not having a button nose + makeup on... You cannot win with these people. I also checked their twitter and ofc they were holding every bigotry possible
@@Joomluh12 No. They've dedicated themselves to this culture war nonsense because it's the only community they have, and its one that only exists as long as everyone in it is angry enough to prevent them realizing they hate each other.
@@raphaelmarquez9650 In fairness to Supergiant I assume (or at least hope) any racial insensitivity that ended up in Hestia’s design was unintentional/accidental. The rest of the POC characters have more natural-looking skin tones so the team may have just committed to the ‘she’s the goddess of the hearth so let’s make her skin look dark as coal’ bit without realizing how bad it might look in isolation/out of context.
Eve has no emotion, no flirting, no innuendo nothing. It's a completely sexless game. Much more than the western ones. Also they didn't do anything with the biblical references
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS Yeah, the religious nod was just on the surface. I want to believe Adam was the second coming of Christ but they killed him off with no explanation as to why. Or had a convoluted explanation. She killed God, but we don't get that at the end or any kind of explanation as to what I think is the worst ending of the 3. I liked Adam's story.
They obsessed over this game without knowing the gameplay or story. They're not real gamers. They might as well look at 3d art works of the protagonist.
Or prom of those characters, they don't care about any other aspect of the game other than how fapable are the "femoid characters", might as well look at prom instead
90% of them never heard of the game before they saw a story about a neckline being raised 2", and 95% of them will never play it. They just like to whine about the things they're told to whine about. Performative anti-wokeness.
Most of the anti-woke dipshits aren't fans of the things they're criticizing in the first place. The content makers are following the money and the followers are following their rage addiction.
Climate change, a thing many right wing azzholes STILL don't believe in, is a part of the games plot. Just adding some fuel to this gamer gate failure : ) lololol
Eve dresses so outlandishly that you'd expect some kind of absolutely bombshell personality beneath those clothes, because that's how women comfortable with this fashion and skilled at pulling it off tend to be, so it would make sense for players to be disappointed her personality fails to bet fantastically compelling no matter what she's wearing.
@@guyg.8529 Nope, that's just your own prejudice and childishness you are universally applying to whole ass cultures. Sorry, but your ideal monoculture/ethnostate has never actually existed.
Despite 2B having a better personality, her outfit has no explanation behind it. If it has no purpose and is loved then it's no different to Eve. Hell, you people would still praise it if she had customizable options too lmao
2B is the perfect contrast for Eve. Even at the very beginning, 2B showed personality by being the straight guy to 9S and her stoicism wasn't just her being "I'm very serious and badass" and more of a "this is my customer service job and I'm doing what i was asked to do".
Tachy is the most underutilized character in the entire game, and has the best character design too, in my opinion. I live the black and yellow color scheme, it kinda has a hornet motif going on. I think Tachy should have been the protagonist instead of Eve, who is basically thrown away quite early on in the game. Eve is ok, but as i play the game, i am put off by the lsck of compelling characterization, only showing some emotion in the opening beach assault sequence. She isn't as interesting, personality wise, as 2B in my opinion
@@notaras1985 Lore wise, Tachy was the lead commander of the airborne squad, which clearly shows leadership qualities, which has ton of storytelling potential The plot itself is quite underwhelming until the 60% mark, it's basically just a mcguffin search until then, when the bigger plot revelations are presented. However, the plot itself wouldn't matter so much if we had a stronger protagonist with compelling characterisation, like we got in Nier Automata.
@@notaras1985 For example, what if Tachy, as a leading commender, had to deal with being guilt ridden and survivor's trauma from the events of the opening sequence, after seeing her entire squad killed before her eyes, and going into a deep depression due to failing to protect them which has ramifications for the first half of the game.
@@unicorntomboy9736 well they will come out and justify the total lack of writing and character development at (spoiler alert): "them being total cyborgs, with zero human DNA in them". That's why they don't emote and respond like us. They were designed to kill the ultimate human weakness(?)(often strength too).
I find the whole contrived discourse around this game to somehow be both morbidly fascinating and infuriatingly stupid at the same time. It is like it's an encapsulation of the current terminally online internet social media cesspool and the types of people who make it into a cesspool in the first place.
I find it hilarious personally lololol. Think about it. These nazi gamers also rallied behind elden ring and hogfarts legacy. Elden ring is at least a decent game and they used its popularity to rally. Calling folks maidenless if they ever judged the game in any shape or form. You had to say it was the perfect bestest game ever or else they would be huge azzholes to you. Then they rallied behind hogwarts legacy. A pretty mid game lol. But it was popular and these pos used that to help spread more hate. Just like Elden ring but it's a crappier game lol. Still sold just about as well. It was annoying because if you point out how flawed it actually is, they will point to the high sales and use that as a way to discredit you. Because sales equals how good a product is right? These incels have no brain lol. Then they chose this game to rally behind and it's not gunna sell anywhere near as many copies as those last two games did... Also every time nazi lovers pick a game to rally behind, it's one that celebrates the power of women sooo... That's hilarious. There really are no anti woke games that are popular/good lol. That's why I think this is so hilarious. All this effort put forth and for what? NOTHING lol.
Fr. There's no nuance or actual engagement with the topic at hand, just a focus on one hyper specific detail and why that is/isn't woke. Quite frustrating.
When it comes to Lily, I'm torn, because it is really uncomfortable when male designers create sexualized characters who look/act like teens, but also, I've always looked a lot like Lily in terms of build, even as an adult at 30 I get mistaken for a teen, so when I see Lily, I think "oh she's a lot like me!" I think the problem is mostly that there isn't a counterbalance to the fetishization of youthfulness. Also, the boob physics aren't just uncomfortable, they're flat-out wrong. I have the same cup size and build as Lily, and if I was wearing that much support, my chest would not just casually be swinging around. That shit only even beings to budge while jumping.
I've always been irritated at how some people seem to think that A cups and F cups behave the same way. Like boobs are just water balloons and not flesh and fat and muscle. Do they even touch boobs? I suspect not.
The robotic characters without emotion and any humanity is what is killing it. It's not a "wokeness killer" because it's way more prude than it's woke competition
I live in Switzerland and this is advertised to me constantly on YT. Unfortunately, the dialogue in the advert is the main character dramatically shouting, “This is my struggle!” The problem is that it’s in German…
The conflation alot of reactionaries have between the "existence of sex" vs "the sexualizing of a character" tells me just how uncomfortable they are with intimacy in general in videogames. If a female character can be a blank slate, with little to no agency in HOW her sexuality is projected, she is not deemed threatening or challenging for misogynistic viewers. If I were to Sex and the City analogize, they want a hot Charlotte, not a Samantha.
scientifically incorrect. in Elden Ring, Fia gives hugs/holding to the player. leftists and rainbows exposed themselves doing whyt supreamacy xenophobia colonization culture colonization fascismo sexism misogyny because leftists and rainbows hate Elden Ring which is provable with scientific court accepted evidence
@@Kingcrimson_1456 brainrot is when my message is about saying r-cism is bad while exposing scientific evidence that leftists and rainbows are the REAL r-cysts LOOL OKAY you just committed spreading dangerous misinformation anti science nassi bigotry
I think it’s funny that you mention Senran Kagura because I remember playing the remaster of the original at 16 (granted for different reasons, more of an ‘I want to be that’ than an ‘I want that’ from my closeted ass) and the reason I stuck around was because, no joke, I actually got hooked on the plot. It’s not going to be for everyone (the anime voices can get grating on the ears after a while) but the characters had arcs and personality, and I found them to be actually interesting for different reasons! It wasn’t just ninja titty game, it was a ninja titty game with heart and soul put into the characters.
I started playing Senran Kagura when I was 17. Even though I had a weird phase back then, I enjoyed some of the stories I've experienced despite its fanservice. The one thing I remember in Deep Crimson was that the first few sections of the game exploring Homura as a character (Don't take my word for it because I haven't played that game in years) When I finally got my hands on Estival Versus, I didn't expect it to have some character arcs because it took place in a beach/summer-like setting. Probably because I saw videos of the gameplay, and I didn't bother to look up any walkthrough.
Senren Kagura and Valkyrie Drive are written by people who actually know how the cliches they use work. They heavily rely on Gap Moe (she's a nutjob with a knife but the chillest girl in the group, she's a gyaru but a necromancer, they're a sadist and a masochist but have no BDSM visual cues etc) but there's more characterisation in every animated movement of the girls than in most game writing. They don't act like people and the boob size standardisation is dissapointing but its not shallow.
Yeah, I love how Senran Kagura has so much story for each character. It lures people in with over the top proportions and damagable clothing then slaps them with trauma of almost everyone grieving!
Hmmmm let's see. A character who has no distinct characterisation or development in the majority of the narrative other than to serve as a monolith which the reader/audience/player can project their own desires. Back in literature class we called those Objects.
Well, isnt every fictional character a object? they cant really fight or talk for themselves, they are made of pixels or paint, a character has no saying how they dress, move, act or talk, its all their creator choices after all.
@@paulojuniorlourenco4501 Red Dead Redemption 2 has probably one of the best NPC's in video game history because each of those pixelated characters shows emotions, have a daily routine and even enjoy a nice meal. Surely an object doesn't have a daily routine and a personality, right?
@@its_johnH its called immersion, but still they are not alive, if they where we would be discussing if killing npcs is a crime, those npcs mimic a daily routine, for the player immersion they made those npcs do animations such as eating, drinking and sleep, rockstar was always really good on making immersion, but dont forget that they are not alive, they are not sentient beings,l. Someone had to design them, 3D model, animate, Voice act and actually act their movements in a mocap suit. The naked truth is that in end all of them are pixelated objects made to sell the game and make profit.
honestly believe a lot of these gooners dont actually want Eve to be like Bayo or 2B. In the sense that they have more confident personalities or are self aware of their sex appeal. They want a character thats oblivious to her visual appeal because if she plays along or is "in on it" that makes her seem more in control of how she presents, instead of someone to be looked at while unaware of an audience which tilts the power dynamic to their side. Basically they wanna creep on her instead of y'know having her willingly present as a sexy character.
This is it. Chuds don't care about the character, they only care about her body and its features. I realized this fully during the Tifa sports bra controversy for FFVII Remake, where many suggested she was no longer even the same character because she now had proper support.
i have seen a video of a guy playing as eve climb up and down a ladder for 10 minutes straight with the camera angle looking up at her butt. i really really doubt these people care about her character.
@@megamillion5852 Accusing people of dehumanizing others whilst calling them "cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers". But you are totally the good guys. And I played Bayo and NieR Automata to death.
@@The_Mongoose This doesn't really say anything about the mentality I mentioned above, which would've been good to touch on if you wanted me to change my mind for having been wrong. I was also unaware "chud" could be seen as an acronym, but in looking for that usage, I only found a movie. I'm almost certain nobody uses it with the meaning presented in the movie, and can say for myself that I never have. I don't use chud to dehumanize; but I do use it to disparage, which I'd argue is fine in this context. If a chud is bothered by being recognized as a chud, then they could always change that by improving as a person. Equal treatment of women as people shouldn't be seen as some aggressive threat. One can love and enjoy female characters without objectifying them, and prioritizing a worldview that sees women as irrevocably bound to men's consumption.
The whole "sexy character with no personality" thing is such a big letdown from shift up here, especially with so many of the Nikke girls being genuinely appealing characters (some much more so than others). Basically every Nikke and a handful of npcs have more personality than Eve, and coming from the same studio, that kinda blows
"sexy character with no personality" There is so much hilarious irony in this complaint, because there are a lot of people who complain about her sexy appearance and assume she has no personality and accuse her of being "objectified". Even though she probably as an important role in the story and the relations in the characters, and she's probably incredibly powerful with a complex backstory. But nah, all that disappears just because she's put into a bikini. Loooool.
@@gillfreddie4100 have you actually watched the video? They explain in great detail, why eves character seems bland and there is not really any development till close to the finale of the game.
Might as well have a stick figure with giant melons draw into the side of a cave, who am I kidding they'll probably defend that too. (Caveman noises) must protect drawings (more Caveman noises and unintelligible yelling).
@@ToraSaid oh I am of sound mind, you're trying to get an easy win. And is currently failing at that, but hey continue flailing you might hit something that's not your body pillow for once.
It's very funny when people cry censorship and slippery slope on things like this because when has that ever led to literally anything? Tastes and media trends change over time, and today's AAA games aim for realism, which means scanned actors, normal body proportions, and diverse casts. Not to mention both teams and players are more diverse than ever, so it just makes sense that the cast reflects that (plus it's fucking boring to make all characters the same). It's just racism, racism and unhinged misogyny.
I hate this current trend of every new game being picked at by these grifters for their culture war bs, just crying and pissing at the sight of a black woman, it's pathetic.
@@chadgunner4403 Not even remotely, no. They're the sorts that will whinge endlessly about a game being delayed, or desired content missing from an initial release. They want everything handed to them, and don't give a shit about the people who have to actually do the work to provide it. They have all the emotional maturity of four-year-olds.
I feel like guys who were offended over Aloy having peach fuzz and whining about how that made her trans instead of accepting that all humans have facial hair shouldn't be allowed to talk about female characters. I'm all for attractive characters, I just want some realistic ones tossed in and for them to have personalities that fits. Bayonetta chooses to dress how she does because she's confident and comfortable in her body, Eve is just dressed like that because the devs find it hot.
Not gonna lie it took me forever to find out anything about Stellar Blade other than “protag SEXY bro! that makes the MODERN WESTERN JOURNOS so MAD” I’ve seen more people saying “BRO THE WOKIES ARE SO MAD” than people complaining about Eve being sexy or wearing skimpy outfits
Bro that says more about you since there was a demo and could watch many gameplay clips. Also game jurnos did cry like babies over Eve, IGN france even insulting the dev himself, yet same outlets will cream their pants over nude Leon mods.
@@bartvshomer “that says more about you” because I wasn’t interested in a game, so I didn’t bother checking it out? And boo hoo, some game journalist complained and sensationalized about something. The horror. All the “anti-woke” TH-camrs are literally just the opposite side of that same coin it’s all fearmongering and clickbait and sensationalism. If only these people would just, ya know, talk about the actual gameplay… Also IGN France? Who gives a fuck about IGN France?! These people will find a few shitty articles then cry about how society and the whole game industry are in an apocalyptic state and how “gamers are under attack” and some 3D model with big tits is a bastion of hope or something lmao. It’s just as annoying as some idiot whining about a fictional woman dressing skimpy
Sadly there is a lot of wild culture war stuff going on, there has been a recent callout of the puritanical sex-negative movement against all fandom right now and the rather brain-dead attempt at "moral consumption" along their complete lack of media literacy. The people that attached themselves to Stellar Blade and propped it up are just the opposite side of that portion of the culture war but those people are their own toxic. I am glad to see you include a criticism of Sarkeesian, I feel her work fed into the current divisiveness and much of her language has fed into that puritanical group.
"Anti-Woke" has no meaning... They used to hate female protagonists and bold sexuality, now they like it? Huh... Need some serious double-think to make any sense of it.
No, because in the need to get people to actually love the sex.They're born as we keep trying to turn men into women and women into men instead of Trying to get people to love the sex or the vessel that they were born with. We're pushing people to be animals. We're giving hormone blockers. To children, we are slowly not only going into societal collapse but we are killing off humanity and pretending it's love. It's just as bad as if we made androids.And then they decide to kill us all except it's being done by human hands
Don't make the mistake of thinking they have any coherent set of values. They have emotional reactions to things and then rationalise those emotions into a narrative. It doesn't matter if they contradict themselves along the way, because they aren't keeping track, the only thing that matters is the current narrative. The past didn't happen.
@@seth5472 I don't ascribe to that "two sides of the isle" view of things, I don't think it's helpful. Not every conservatively minded person is one of these culture war chuds, I am not against every person with a traditionalist mindset, I'm against the sort of person who makes it their life's mission to target and harass a perceived enemy for the sake of their own ego. Yes these types of people do manifest on "the left", but currently it seems to be a primarily right wing issue, largely due to a fairly influential group deliberately deciding these folks and using them as weapons in their political mission.
Looking at how people on twitter are getting mad over fictional characters getting "objectified" (as if the characters have any rights that can be violated), it seems like "libs are fighting for the rights of pixels lol" isn't that farfetched of an idea, as wrong as it is.
The only thing it applies to is just not making every character in the main cast white, and/or obligatorily straight. But they don't believe other people besides themselves play video games, and the only minorities that do, are the ones they can find who agree with them, on their narrative.
@@itachi65ful They are taking isolated factoids and spinning them into a conspiracy narrative that makes zero sense. Plenty of titles with conventionally attractive female characters are still coming out to this day, they just ignore them because they want to believe in this bizarre story where there's an immense conspiracy among billion dollar companies aimed at something that isn't profitable (according to them) or serves the interests of the CEOs and shareholders in any way. Like... even if all they say is true, what they're describing is little more than an industry trend they don't like: the kind of stuff they like is just not that popular anymore. If there's really all that much demand for it, they should get into game development themselves and make a fortune from that underserved niche, and they can leave the wokies their woke games, no? Or is their issue that they won't accept anything that isn't big triple A titles advertised at some company-controlled hype generating conferences?
7:40 that might be the point for them. Eve not having much in the way of personality compared to Shadowheart, Bayonetta, or even a Dead or Alive character makes her more of a sex object than a person with agency who chooses to revel in her sexuality. There is a small but vocal contingent of people (usually men, but not always) who prefer the idea of the former over the latter.
These kids don't know anything about Onichanbara. If they did, this controversy wouldn't exist. I 100 shotted Loli pop Chainsaw. Seeing the "stellar blade will save gaming!!" battle cry triggered me into a rage like nobody's business.
I also want to make the point that her hair looks just absolutely terrible. The animation on it is all procedural and it's so awful. It's constantly clipping with her outfits, often passing through her body herself. Hair that long is something real people need to account for in the way they move. She moves as if she has no hair at all, which was likely the case for when they were animating her. There's no interesting style to it either. Maybe one thing if it was a braided ponytail or something, but it's just one long continuous ponytail that never reacts like a real ponytail will. That much hair will not always go in the same direction and it has a lot of weight to it. It's not just a ribbon flowing in the wind. Honest to God I could make an entire video myself with everything wrong with her hair. How it could have and should have of been rigged and animated.
I laughed out loud when her hair made the conscious decision to flow over her shoulder like a curtain stapled to her head. And then again later when I noticed how it seemed to conform to the curvature of her back like it was an extension of the skin tight suit she was wearing. They really *fine tuned* those details you know. Just a *superb* level of polish on those character models and animations, I tell you what.
If it bothers you that much you can use the Short Ponytail option...which youd know if you actually played the game. Sure is a whole lotta talking about this game and not a whole lotta playing it.
"eve does not serve" A truly damning indictment 😔 I want to start a consultancy firm that people can hire to correctly yassify their characters, I think this would solve all our current issues to everyone's satisfaction
Excellent breakdown. I admit to be affected by the Anita slander on Bayonetta back in the day ( this is tongue in cheek, Anita Sarkeesian is fine, and I think her entry level feminist readings are useful to people but I don't agree with her all the time like most people) and when I did finally get to is as a femme who likes femmes I was SENT INTO ORBIT by what a sexy character she was and that it was part of her character. I think part of the issue is that a lot of the folks who think that having a hot avatar is tantamount to sexiness and anti-woke is that they are the sad results of purity culture focused on primarily straight men. When we tell the women in our real lives that they have to be modest and demure and cannot show any skin or any sexuality then the mere visual of a woman in a revealing outfit registers as inherently sexual to a lot of these folks. This, in my opinion, is also why there is so much shaming from these people towards women wearing the same kinds of items their Waifu would wear; there is a disconnect where they see the visual as all encompassing of sex and sexuality.
Almost everything I've heard about this game is related to the controversy over the main character's sex appeal. I had to actually do a bit of investigation to actually understand what the game's even about, or what kind of game it is for that matter. That's how ridiculous all this culture war stuff is. That being said, my initial impression of the game was, and I doubt hardly anyone's going to get this when I say it, 'this game has some serious Ninja Blade coming out in the same era Ninja Gaiden did' kind of energy.
Stellar blade makes me think of Astral Chain. Probably one of Platinum Games most involved, intriguing battle systems but the story is just such rote anime tropes. None of the flash or style or weirdness of their best titles
I disagree. As my most favorite PG games, Astral Chain has a lot of flash and style imo, especially when you unlock all the legions. I wouldn't place it next to Bayonetta (very few PG game can) in terms of style but to say it has none, is doing the game a diservice.
You took the time to bash on Astral Chain...and I am fully onboard! That was my most anticipated title of 2019, because I for some reason really wanted to play a game where I could be a cop in an over-the-top setting. Aesthetically, it was everything I could've asked for! I loved the art style, the tech, and especially the vehicles. But storywise, it was a complete disaster. The game presents such an awesome setting, but barely wants you to care about it or feel like you're really a part of it. The story abandons its most compelling characters that you actually want to follow about midway through, and never allows their arcs to be complete. It had everything going for it, but fell flat. I'm genuinely baffled anyone could call it great.
Great video. The argument about attitude is really important for sexyness. As a guy, I find a girl being well and assure in her body way more sexy than a shy girl with a sexy lingerie.
Eh, sexy lingerie is sexy. I really don't need personality for sex appeal, which is very... what's the wor- shallow, I know. However, I agree that the charisma and sex appeal of someone comfortable in their own body is quite exhilarating. The character design and jiggle physics in this game is nothing special. We have mods for jiggle physics in Monster Hunter: World. I can literally run around butt naked with bouncy boobs if I wanted to while slicing giant creatures to bits. Personally, I don't like exaggerated physics. I'd rather run around butt naked with stationary boobs than to have them flapping all over the place 😹but to be fair, my female characters usually have smaller cup sizes than Eve.
There seems to be something similar in Korea to gamergate, with women getting regularly fired basically because they said feminist things in the past. Gacha Drama and the Korean Gender Way, by Moon Channel it's 2 parts and about 2.5 hours I just watched it and am still digesting how to think about his take. The part where they get fixated fighting imaginary feminism seems eerily similar.
Considering that the most popular and well known feminist group in Korea is actively pro-pedophilia, pro-rape, and pro-murder, is it really that outrageous?
Even as somebody who loves this kinda stuff normally, I'm a very sexual and sex positive person who is a sexual psychology and porn nerd who studies the history of porn for fun, I make no bones about that, sorry if that triggers you or offends you person reading this, but that indeed doesn't necessarily make for an attractive character or more importantly a good game. I reserve judgment until I get the game. Which honestly? Judging from it's pedigree and the gameplay I have seen? It's probably not too good so I'm ironically probably not even gonna bother lmao.
The fact that in lots of games (at least that I've played in my time) don't extend that sex appeal to men has bothered me. I remember installing sexy armor mods for Skyrim, and going to see if there were any sexy MALE armor mods, and they either didn't exist or were too hard to find.
They're basically just reflecting the real world fashion industry. Its pretty hard to find sexy clothes if you're a man or even just saturated colours without looking like you're obsessed with retro hip hop and or jogging.
@@AC-dk4fp YES this has been another sore point for me. I've resorted to making my own clothes. Typically I use the kind of fabrics you'd use for dresses and skirts to make shirts, long enough for my tall body, flower, floral, soft and comfortable. I don't want to say it's unfair, because it goes both ways. Women's fashion also sucks, lack of pockets. Even for toddler's shorts, boys vs girls shorts, the difference is staggering. We need to start fashion collectives based on the collaboration and combination of "men's" and "women's" fashion. A big fashion melting pot
I think that it's important to understand that Anita Sarkeesian can be right about certain things and that not actually being a problem. I've seen a few videos recently about Stellar Blade and Vindictus where the gamer bros are actually explicitly stating that the devs are catering to their predominantly male audience. When someone like Anita Sarkeesian points out the same thing, she's criticised for it. It would be easier to take her fiercest critics seriously if they actually said "yes, you're right, but that is not inherently a problem". I also think that, while lesbians may play these games and like seeing the sexy female characters, I think they're deluding themselves if they believe that the devs are thinking of them when creating them. Even female game devs will be majority straight and so, while they may like looking at sexy female characters themselves, it's not with the same perspective as lesbian gamers.
Gay artists and writers sneak gay content into stuff all the time and most feminine aesthetics are created by women not men. This idea that creative people are either gay or completely isolated from gay perspectives is nonsense. Bayonetta is into men (maybe not exclusively I only played the first game but her tension with the white haired lady feels underbaked there with none of the spark that makes Dante vs Vergil great) and heterosexual women like her as a power fantasy. If she's a fantasy for straight men its for bottoms which breaks heteronormative standards anyway.
Yeah. I think its a bit ridiculous for Anita to be accused of being queer erasure in her argument, when video game marketing was not as openly trying to appeal to queer people at the time of its release compared to now. She is right that it was initially made for a hetero male audience in mind, queer audiences are usually always peripheral, which is why gamerbros always just assume only they (straight, cis, center-right, white guys) and cry "pandering", or "DEI bad" when markets actually start to acknowledge that potential peripheral audience. Their biases are result of the marketing they think was the norm, which was the norm until mid 2010s.
@@deaddomain I also think a lot of Eve's lack of personality is tied up in the misogyny of South Korean idol culture. I don't know if you've seen much of the conversation surrounding in that or not but it really makes sense why they wouldn't build an actually strong female character but just a shell of a female character with jiggle physics. Kinda really makes me understand why the gamergaters like Eve so much tbh.
i think an interesting thing to look out for when judging how much this game and it's main character affect the gaming space over time is honestly to look at how much porn and r34 art gets made of it. i have a feeling there will be a good amount for a short stretch of time following all this discourse... and then as this game fades into the background and the dull characters and story leave our immediate memories, the classics like 2b and bayonetta will once again outshine stellar blade. these dont just get art made of their characters just because they're sexy, its because they are interesting.
Last I checked on rule34, it's all motherfucking AI "art" of her. Kinda checks out that AI bros would be all over her - their brains probably got fried to high hell by all the generic big tiddy anime girls they generated.
I currently have what might be known as “Culture War Fatigue” I’m so sick and tired of having to go on the internet and go no more than 2 tweets or comments down about “Wokeness destroying Gaming Culture” leaving little to no room for discussion about the game itself.
I remember i watched the IGN review for this game (they gave it a 7/10 noting the same stuff you did here, drab world design, boring characters but awesome gameplay) and they ultimately recommended the game but the people in the comments seemed to live in a different reality where their imagined "all the critics will hate Stellar Blade because Eve is sexy" thing had come true, there were lots of people saying "IGN didn't like it so i will buy it 3 times" and stuff like that. The rest of the comments were also completely bizarre. This game and the surrounging discourse has just broken some peoples brains it seems
This is definitely the weirdest grift over a game yet, and the devs weren't even behind it. It was what just the right wing on X conjured. None of them can actually see the game for what it is, literally beyond just the look of the character and their imaged oppression from the industry not praising it just for that. When they realize there are other things to judge it on that it falls short with, they think it confirms their conspiracy and want to then support it in spite. Incredible.
Frankly it reminds me a lot of the whole Snyder Cut nonsense... so much purple prose from NerdBros opining about respecting "artistic vision" only to harass and bully any artistic vision that didn’t adhere to their strict definition of "peak"
Not to mention, no one ACTUALLY wanted the cut. Snyder just astroturfed and botted the whole thing, as well as stealing the movie, to engage in a $100 million shakedown of WB. They should've just called in the US Marshals to get the film back and had him arrested for stealing the film.
I feel that these people don't actually want a "sexy badass female protagonist", they just want a personalityless doll. You look at Bayonetta and 2B and consider both their sexiness as well as their personalities, but these dudes only really look at the appearance, and nothing else. If anything, a bland character is BETTER since they can do whatever they want on Source Film Maker and not feel any dissonance with how the character normally behaves.
@@guyg.8529 then what makes you like her? what are the times in the game that truly pushed her emotionally, what are her fears? her proudest triumphs, and do you have any example of what those are? or are you just imprinting onto her something that doesnt really exist?
If she has personality, then they will say she is an emasculating, feminist, man-hating mary-sue to them. If she doesn't then, they can fap to her and feel like they own her.
tbh i like characters that look sexy but their personality isnt involved around their sexyness, like lets take as example a female character that has mystical necromantic powers, she is stoic, proud and is a kinda dark humour(ish) person, she has a kinda skimpy outfit but she isnt clearly a sexy person perse, i preffer this way, her sexy appearance is bonus, not the main package. i tried creating nsfw pinup art before and it required that i created OCs, i gave them cool personalities, clothes but when it came to putting her "sexyness" into action i felt weird and against the idea, because i "respected" her way too much because of all the lore i created for her even though they had kinda sexy/skimpy clothes. i played Apex legends about a month ago i hated that only 1 female character was sexy or had kinda "skimpy" clothes, if you played apex your probaly already know her, its Loba. all the skins where super tame and almost none of them tried to really go nuts with the characters appearances. i do like Bayonetta and when bayonetta 3 was announced i went nuts because i find her genuinely funny, firstly what drew me towards the game was the fanservice but with time i enjoyed way more how funny she is and the loew of umbra witches and lumen sages. i played baldurs gate 3 when it launched i was playing a female tiefling and i fell in love with her appearance that i created, my main party was Me, Gale, Astarion and shadowheart and i hated every second when gale was putting his sexuality in action whenver i helped him not to explode, i was like "dude, come on... move on with your life there is a world to save, there is no time to sexy sex action, get lost...." and at the end of the game he proposed to marry my character, i am still kinda mad to this day, at that day if there was more gameplay after he proposed to my character i would genuinelly kill him without thinking twice, since i was about to start another run i let him marry my female tiefling but i never let him join my active party again.
The same people who call diversity in video games "forced" and detracts from the story, absolutely love sexiness that is forced and takes away from the story. The sexiness these people seem to love is absolutely shallow and I don't get it. I'm extremely sex positive and Eve is... boring to the point that she becomes unattractive. But eve is an appeal to the 14 year old demographic. Sex without substance.
Because obviously you know exaclty how people dress themselves just by their personality. The concept of dressing in personality function is so ridiculous and we are in 2024... After that we wonder why so many people are afraid to express their style.
That’s such a weird change for them to get offended over as I’m pretty certain that situation was simply the result of really unfortunate texture placement by a designer that maybe doesn’t have the best grasp of English (the game was made in Korea after all). Like I’m sure it’s a simple matter of “oh whoops, this was a very unfortunate mistake that was simply the result of ignorance, we meant nothing by it but now realize it was still not good.” Yet you’ve got some folk acting like altering this minor texture is the equivalent of a book burning. Such odd priorities.
@@BloodRedFox2008 They have some weird conspiracy theory about how it's all Sony's fault for making them remove it and that Shift Up would totally leave it in to own the libs or something otherwise even though I really don't think they care. They're really just projecting their own weird racism and misogyny onto Shift Up.
wait wait wait, you think that "hard R" posesses any harm and that there is a moral obligation to remove it?! BAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAAHHAHAAAAAAA Oh man stellar blade is treasure that brought us some of the most deliciously hilarious manufactured moral panic in the past few years on the internet lmaooooo
@@gillfreddie4100 its also exposed a lot of people who show their whole ass, like you, about how they dont actually like video games, they just want stuff to get mad at online.
Honestly, I had feared that the character in Stellar Blade would be dull. I like 2B and A2 in Nier Automata because of their situations and backstory, not just their appearances. I liked the demo as the designs of the characters in a grungy apocalyptic world, with such dramatic cutscenes, were delightfully fresh for me. It's a good thing such an ultimately good game wasn't drained dry by annoying grifters trying to do a fake "culture war."
You can try Nier Replicant instead! It has such an amazing cast of characters. Kaine for example is sеxy woman and she has such a memorable personality and story arc.
Bro im over it. I fought this battle for months before the game released. Now that im playing and actually loving the game i see them whining over censorship instead of just playing the game. Almost as if they didn't really care about the game, just the controversy. If you’re not playing because of censorship then you’re basically saying the game is trash without all the sexy outfits, which is the furthest thing from the truth. Its surprisingly a solid game.
I remember looking forward to the Metroidvania game "ZAU: Tales of Kenzera". It was a middling-to-decent Metroidvania. Controls were a little wonky, but that was the worst of it. It was clearly made by a developer who put his heart and soul into it. There was no race-swapping of existing characters either; it was a game made by a black developer, starring an all-original black cast of characters, inspired by African mythology. But then it comes to light that it was subject to Sweet Baby consultation, and the long knives come out. This "culture war" is exhausting.
These idiots created an entire war in their heads, picked this game as their champion claiming it was a victory over their enemies and still managed to lose when a little bit of fabric was added to 1% of the optional costumes.
When I learned about this game and the controversy, I just didn't see the point or even the appeal of the game due to the main thing being boiled down to what you said here. Even the whole censorship thing was ridiculous, since I think the reworked outfit looks better and more appealing.
Honestly, I think it is that Eve is generic. They think anyone outside of a narrow band of anime girl is a man or woke somehow. Any personality or variation is too much for them. And that's just sad and boring.
I think Stellar Blade could have been very marginally improved if there was a guy or two who kept 'accidentally tripping through a stripper's wardrobe"
I played a bit of Senran Kagura on the Vita when I was younger, and I realized that I started gravitating a lot more towards playing as Haruka and especially Ryona the more I got into it. At the time, I thought I picked her as my main because she had the coolest weapon (her pistol things are silly and awesome) but I realized later on that her personality also plays a huge factor. I just liked that she liked being sexy. She was clearly having fun with all the depravity in a way that a lot of the other characters weren't and that made her way more appealing me as a teenager with roiling hormones to work through. Granted, it's all still very leery and weird as hell in hindsight, but still it made me realize that there should be more to sexy characters than just the outfit.
In Ryona's case, it also helps that while she usually acts like a standard blonde bimbo archetype, she does have her serious moments where she drops the act and instead serves as the voice of reason. Estival Versus did a LOT to flesh out the twins as characters.
Ryona is basically a walking consent violation sex offender mostly played for comedy so I wouldn't say that she 'just likes being sexy' but she's an evil character in a game so I don't have a problem with her the way I have with fetish themed seems in media that's not advertised in the same way. Its the defeat poses games like that and Dead or Alive that are creepier to me.
Knowing how terrible the PC port of ShiftUp's NIKKE is (Can you stop crashing during the literal intro cutscene and mission FOR FIVE MINUTES?!), and the fact that Stellar Blade is made on UE4 (with Unreal Engine being infamous for having THE WORST optimizarion in exchange for graphical fidelity)... Don't get your hopes up.
Yeah I aggre, its dumb that they censored clothes on a woman on a game made for adults when we can have bare breasts in Last of us 2 and Baulder's gate just fine.
@@bartvshomer Yeah it's so weird they chose 2 outfits seemingly at random, some blood/gore, and graffiti. It makes no sense to change some really insignificant things, and it's also weird people care so much about it.
I'm so glad someone actually is speaking about this. As a fan of sexy characters, I love bayonetta and 2B so so dearly but to see people entirely misunderstand what MADE them sexy was so saddening but not surprising. I watched a full gameplay for my redesign but there is absolutely NOTHING there. Tbh it would be interesting if Eve was a shy person who was naturally unashamed about showing off her body and doing sexual things. It's her freedom, happy to be on earth and just experience the beauty of it through her nudity but nahhh we just put her booty out and that's it.
Coming out of Horizon: Forbidden West, this is basically the polar opposite. Where Aloy is a sort-of mediocre-looking character who is very explicitly shaped in her personality by the circumstances of her life (not to spoil everything about the plot) and wears outfits that are maximally integrated into a cultural context and style, with her own talent for mechanics and science on top, on a journey that is all about the awkward, robot-wrangling disaster lesbian be grows into. And Eve is, uh. She's pretty and she fights. And she's pretty. Although, with how Korean gamers are, this could really be a necessary security measure for the team. They don't take kindly to women who have personalities and opinions.
@ExtremeMadnessX Yes. That's her whole point. She isn't idealized with perfect skin, but is sunburnt with blemishes and reddening. Also her facial structure is far from great. Which, again, is part of the design philosophy and storytelling. She has the genes of a research scientist, not a model. She lives the life of an adventurer, not a princess. The Gamers (tm) had a whole shitfit about her promotion material for the second game showing off skin imperfections and peach fuzz. If you didn't notice: Deeply woke game. Lots of gays, trans characters, non-banary, neurodivergent people. The player isn't even explicitly told any of that in terms of labels. It's just how things are. The disdain for tech billionaires, on the other hand, is very explicit.
Wonderful video! I always love your analysis on things! I play Nikke goddess of victory that shift up is in charge of, and yeah, the characters have sexy outfits, but they have way more personality than Eve. Like the main story for Nikke and side stories are so interesting, fun and have made me cry! I was honestly shocked shift up made stellar blade because Eve isn't quirky or silly or serious like other characters they make. Also, poor Adam should have been sexy and adorable, like 9s T^T
Does nikke have an explicitly male MC? I've been considering playing it but i was immediately turned off by a male mc in takt op symphony. (Lesbian that wants cute girl game that doesnt make them fawn over a man)
@@hyobroschae I think the mc is suppose to be a man but I don't really remember their gender being that important to the story. I could be remembering wrong though. There is Alice fiction which let's you be any gender, recommend that game too! Also think reverse 1999 and distyle both have woman as MCs. Hopefully that helps out!
One thing that hit me halfway through the video is that the people pushing the game as this anti-woke thing that it was clearly never meant to be don't like Eve in spite of her lack of personality, but precisely because of it. Bayonetta is incredibly sexy because of her personality, but because, as you said, she owns it, it's a form of empowerment for her. What I'm trying to say is that they don't want Eve to be have an actual characterization that justifies or even boosts her sex appeal, they just want a sex doll, and for some fucking reason they think pushing that as an afront to "wokeness" is actually gonna do something. Another thing I'm surprised the video didn't mention is that a big part of why younger conservatives push stuff like this to combat what they see as woke propaganda is that they believe Japan and South Korea to be these traditionalist havens where capitalism works, despite almost the entirety of those two countries' issues stemming from outdated worldviews, and how the vast majority of the art production in both nations pushes for left leaning ideologies.
This whole controversy is painfully manufactured and the revisionist history is just embarrassing. Bayonetta and Nier were always commercial and critical darlings. Characters with T&A have always existed in games and are not some new anti woke weapon. And this game if a fine first outing for a studio shifting up (pun intended) from mobile to console development. I would give it an 8 with Eve herself being one of the main things keeping it from greatness and say I look forward to what Shift Up does next in learning from what did or didnt work with it, personally
7 years after Nier automata is released and 2B is STILL a gaming icon talk about and brought on to this day. Meanwhile, outside of those few who are so desperate to put stellar blade in the spotlight, almost noone cares about Eve anymore.
You should look into Blade and Soul, it was a proto Stellar Blade in away. The current ceo of ShiftUp worked on that game as a character designer before splitting up and founding his current company. BnS also had sexy characters for no reason (at least the male characters get sexy costumes from time to time), great combat, and a universally panned storyline.
Imho the problem with the sexualization of the characters in this game is that it serves no purpose at all because the overall narative is really bad and because there is no gameplay element that can remotely justify nudity (other than the game "rewarding" you with sexy lingerie).
Is anything in games necessary? Games are art made for entertainment. None of it is necessarily. Does the fatalities in Mortal Kombat serve a purpose? No. It’s just fan service for the sake of fun. Why is sexual appeal any different from gore? Both are unnecessary fan service and neither serve a purpose and people like both but one (ironically the more immoral one) is accepted but the other is not. It doesn’t make sense.
@@notaras1985 There's nothing wrong with that, thought. Sure it would be better if it was less gratuitous and wrapped around interesting characters and story, but cool action gameplay and dressing up pretty women is always nice :D
@@GeteMachine It’s fun to see*. And that Applies to both because what would be the mechanical difference in doing the Fatality inputs only to get a cool cinematic that isn’t gorey? What about finishers in Doom? You’re still doing the same thing, it just looks different. Sex appeal is the same.
Unrelated, but Raiden has always been meant to be an effeminate male, and i dont see these people calling mgs2 and mgsrr woke, i mean he wears a skintight bodysuit and high heels in mgrr!
Interestingly seeing what I see about the game I honestly identify more with the sexiness in stellar blade than with bayonetta. It may be unintentional but it kind of feels like its just like "woman is allowed to exist as sexy and have that have no real bearing on who she is; she can just be sexy in a world and no one stops her or gives a shit"
Yeah I think it is equally problematic when women have to apparently have a certain personality or story reason to dress a certain way. Like I know plenty of women without bombastic personalities that dress sexy just to dress sexy Also despite claims of not having personality Eve does show bits of herself under her stoic and slightly naive persona. Like the whole reason you get the quest that opens up the hair salon is because despite trying not to show it EVE seems to have some concern and awareness about her appearance since she was clearly not happy someone said she looked dull. Also leads to a rare moment of Adam losing composure after you get her hair done the first time and EVE puts him on the spot
@@boredomkiller99 Part of it for me too is I'm an asexual SWer, and I just kinda like to look hot with friends and not care if I get leered at because I'm just with friends.
Eve's hair just endlessly clipping through her body is just endlessly frustrating to me. What good "realistic" hair animation if the clipping breaks the immersion immediately? Just give her a braid bobbing from one asscheak to the other or an updo or something short.
This game seems like it hilights quite neatly how Bayonetta is a celebration of feminine sexuality as opposed to Stellar Blade simply instrumentalizing feminine bodies as sites of titillation. Not that the first can't also titillate or it is wrong in of itself to produce entertainment focussed on pleasing certain eyes. But the difference seems stark and explains why Bayonetta was beloved and accepted even during a time when the abundance of shallow objectifying media probably had people sick of juvenile lol sexy woman games. And Stellar Blade just seems like a bit of a lazy throwback to that kind of entertainment that we should expect more from even when trying to be cheesy sexy fun.
I kind of feel seen by stella blade because for myself being sexy is kind of an afterthought of my life. Like i dress sexy and whatever just to exist, and seeing her just being allowed to exist like that, without it being relavent to anything else can be its own catharsis. Like with none of the charachters caring she dresses sexy and much of the game not focusing on it. Like it kind of feels like, perhaps inadvertantley, the message is sexy doesn’t have to be sexual.
@@NattiNekoMaid There's no right way to do things but that really doesn't sound that different to 2B. The whole thing just looks like a Nier Automata fan game barely saved from that status by having a different art director.
"instrumentalizing feminine bodies as sites of titillation" Lay off the word salad, bro. What you say really isn't as important as you'd like to think it is.
Glad you opened with it because Eve's lack of character is what gets me about the whole thing. Not once through marketing, demos, or let's plays did I find Eve anything other than just an emotionless void that plot pushes from a to b. I know how 2B feels while she's fighting Engels, Simone, Adam, or the Eve of her game. Raiden is just as baffled about all the wacky shit around him at all times. Bayo is heading to flavortown at MAX SPEED. But here, the blade just ain't as stellar as it should have been, and the biggest tragedy is now the devs are stained by weirdo losers who will overhype and undersell their next game too.
2 months later, not a soul cares about Stellar Blade. I hear more people still complaining about Bayonetta 3's ending than a single word on Stellar Blade.
Very sober take! Everything surrounding these make-up issues is just so tiresome, and there's so much irrationality and misinformation going on. Thanks for the video!
Man. I really think Lea in CrossCode is such a good silent protagonist. The line about how Eve uses her voice to say nothing reminded me of how much they get Lea to say with a sprite sheet and 5 words. Anyway, play Crosscode
I have literally be wracking my mind think about how to talk about this. This video is perfect for addressing the topic headone. Thank you for making it.
Can someone please make a character action game with like 5 female protagonists you can alternate between who fall in wildly different spots on the sexualization scale
"Everyone is hot and nobody is horny."
Describes it perfectly
WHAT IS EVEN THE POINT!!!
@@KrazyKaiser it lacks any form of emotional catharsis. Go and watch the last scene of the true ending where they save Zion. Lily makes such a half hearted "hooray" that it made me cringe to my core. No emotional catharsis or story to be found anywhere
More like "Everyone is hot, and we've no time to be horny"
@@notaras1985Zion? They called it ZION???
“Twink cyborg in high heels “ is such a fantastic way of describing MGR:R Raiden, love that game so much
That game definitely needs a current gen update/remaster! I'd play it again immediately
@@crabbyking6716it just needs a better pc port
Gods I miss him. Hes the ultimate unattainable transition goal to me.
Daily reminder that Yoko Taro, the head behind Nier, in interview said 2B is sexy just because he likes sexy women, and has also made explicitely gay and intersex characters in his games.
These losers would be calling Nier woke in any other context.
::looks at his untouched-in-years copy of Nier: Automata::
I should really play and finish this game already...I only ever hear praise for it.
What gay characters are in his games. I am asking because I am legit intrigued.
@@noahbossier1131 Emil is in love with the male mc nier in nier replicant, haven't played his other games cept the nier ones so i cant say if they have any.
@ChristopherSadlowski you absolutely should finish it. In fact, to get the full story you need to play through it multiple times. It's an incredible game with a fantastic story and an amazing soundtrack.
@@ChristopherSadlowskipier automata is peak. I study philosophy at university now because of it
This really reminds of the controversy when Overwatch came out. Everyone was going crazy over the fact that a sexy Tracer pose was removed. They thought it was all woke SJW feminists trying to make the game less sexy.
But when you actually looked into the source of the controversy, it was a conversation in a forum between a fan and the developers. The fan's complaint wasn't that the tracer pose was too sexy. It was that it didn't fit Tracer's bubbly character. The developer responded saying they agreed and that the pose was far mroe similar to something you'd expect from a character like Widowmaker and that they were actually working on a different pose that would fit Tracer's character more.
Then when the new patch came out, the pose was even more sexy and expressive but it did fit Tracer's character. It really is a testament to the fact that these gamer dudes will make a story out of nothing and gaming youtubers who don't check their sources will just run with it.
Its because the people who cry woke all the time, don't actually go any deeper with whatever they are defending beyond just sex appeal. A fan actually came with receipts for their own argument. A lot of these gamerbros are just phonies. They care more about the ass shot any any change made, than a constructive one.
@@GeteMachineI could say the samething about game journalists and companies like sweet baby inc.... that are quite happy to sexualise men and write articles about everybody thirsting over semi naked dudes!!!
Or they are just stirring up controversy for clicks. Most of these yaholes don't even play or watch the shit they're bitching about.
@@GeteMachine Yeah, they're posers and proud of it and think that makes them look cool. It's a fundamentally sad approach, thinking that being an empty-headed loudmouth makes you cool and caring is for lame nerds - but they care sooo much about being seen as cool they humiliate themselves, scream and piss themselves to try and draw as much attention as they can.
Interesting! Never knew the story behind it all.
I guess the problem is that the crowd that would care about something like that are generally unempathetic and quite frankly, less intelligent. They want their sexy, and don't really care about if it makes sense. I wish they could just stick to porn...
21:37 That’s my only issue with games like these. I get frustrated with skimpy women next to realistically geared men because it’s SO OBVIOUS what the intent and double standard is.
Yeah, like put both in skimpy clothes.
Interesting, they missed the point on why Cloud Strife manages to be compelling. His emotionlessness is a mask and it breaks. That's the moment that makes him likeable. When it all becomes to much and he can't keep it in anymore. We don't like him because he's emotionless, we like him because he's struggling not to show his emotions and fails to do so at times. Part of the theming of the game is how unhealthy internalizing your emotions like Cloud does is.
Sadly, media literacy is a skill that needs to be trained and refined. And analyzing media often gets in the way of their personal fantasies.
The anti woke crowd didn’t care to dig deeper to see Cloud’s more compassionate nature (the genuine characteristic of his that Tifa, Aerith, and Jesse like about him), they just see his badass exterior and think that’s what attracted those girls.
@J-manli don't I know it. I can honestly name so many charaters who people are utterly failing to analyze and act weird about.
The name says it all: he's interesting because of his strife.
@BenjaminGlatt oh the name is very interesting. Around a week ago, I actually spent some time to consider just it (because someone was arguing that there was no meaning or thought behind it and I'm an autistic jerk who needed to counter that). I have several arguments for why it's, in fact, a good name despite sounding a little silly. Plenty of both thought and meaning went into it. I'm absolutely positive.
@@hannahevertson8306 I mwan, he has a very 1997 name, but he's also the main character in a series whose unifying element is going to muder God.
The culture war stuff is so exhausting. I remember looking into an upcoming soulslike called Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn which looks pretty cool. All the comments were about how the company worked with SBI and how the main character was "woke"
Do people ever get tired of turning every media property into an online battle?
A "woke" Souls-like with black powder firearms? Hell yeah!
Bro aint lying💀
They're so insane. Literally the only "woke" thing the trailer showed was that the protagonist is a black woman. Racists and misogynists are far too comfortable in the modern day
Oh this looks sick actually, and from the Ashen devs! wishlisted
It really is and all the while these idiots miss the actual bad stuff going on in the industry. Massive firings, workplace harassment, mandatory crunch etc. thats ok but a black woman or trans character that is the reason this game is bad...Kill the Justice league is a prime example of this, massive live service game by a studio that never worked on one shallow gameplay mechanics and insulting story no reason that it's bad is because SBI
Can we just enjoy the irony that the "women must be modest" people are the ones that demand more TnA.
There's no consistency with these folk. Modesty without prudishness, objectification without sexual liberty. It's no wonder they're obsessed with fictional women, they'd never talk to a real one
(Because they're either, A, lying to themselves, or B, they're hypocrites)
It's not because they care about modesty or immodesty, it's because they like controlling women. Hence why they like both "traditional/modest" women and woman who are sexualized in a way that feels forced by a male designer and not what the character would wear.
@@genericcatgirl Exactly, they're hypocrites
Its all about control
Honestly, if Eve's openly sexy anime design compared to Adam's realistic design was intentional, like she was originally an android who started in adult films, but was drafted to fight in a war or something, that could have been neat. But, no, she's just, kinda there.
An “adult film android” is such a fantastic character concept for a pulpy sci-fi action game and that’s how you know this team didn’t come up with it.
@@deaddomain You can thank a friend of mine. She came up with a similar concept, I just figured I could tweak the concept for what Stellar Blade could have been.
@@deaddomainwasn’t that one of the ideas behind Hadee? IIRC the robot you control was originally made to be a literal sex doll based on an adult film star, and I believe the sequel had the player control that very same adult film star. I never actually beat Hadee, I’ll confess, but I swear I remember reading this in some plot synopsis elsewhere.
There's 100% room for a "Spec Ops: The Line" level of holding the mirror up to the player and it's a damn shame that this game didn't manage to take that opportunity.
@@shadowldrago Not to put you or your friend down as I completely forget these characters existed until I saw your second post, but Blader Runner already sung this song with the snake performer & Pris. This game made Sean Young the lead. =/
Honestly this discourse is really disappointing because it’s shrouded over the fact that the devs actually used some pretty cool mocap technology that is hopefully going to be used in more games in future. I wish the internet was focused on that, instead of whether or not the main character is sexy enough.
Not really, the new advancements were literally to catch jiggle. Not gonna be used by anyone interesting for anything interesting, and we already HAD jiggle.
@@Charagrin"in my opinion"
This is actually the only place ive seen gameplay of Stellar Blade. Literally every other video Ive seen of it was guys going "LOOK JIGGLE PHYSICS! THIS'LL REALLY TRIGGER THOSE LIBS" lol
@@abhishekverma4029bro you really liking your own comments
@@abhishekverma4029 tf you liking your own shit for
Then you have not actually been searching hard you liar lol
I think the reason I don’t vibe with Eve’s is because it feels like the “born sexy yesterday” trope. A young naive woman foisted with the sex symbol status that she doesn’t own. Like everyone is partaking of her sex appeal except for her because her personality is completely oblivious to it. That’s what makes it feel exploitive to me.
I don't understand why we can't have normal-looking female characters with an interesting personality and well-written story without having someone lose their absolute mind about it. and the whole West vs East argument is so silly because those are two completely different art styles !! Also, the extremities of either side are honestly silly and annoying. Women don't have to be modest, but they don't have to be sexy either. We've come to a point where apparently if a female character isn't sexy, she's a bad character. But if she's super sexy, she's also a bad character. Like ???? Anyways amazing video. I pretty much agree with everything.
It's because nuance can't exist anymore when people have an absolute mentality. Only sith Lords deal in absolute.
The worst part of this whole "controversy" is that the people who are claiming EVE is an intentional attack against wokeness in videogames are the only people saying that. The game makers, the game itself, and most reviewers seem to agree that EVE's appearance is just how she looks. If anything, the game downplays her sexiness. No one comments on it at any point. The closest we get is one NPC who calls her hair (specifically just her hair) "dull" before you unlock the sidequest that unlocks the hair customization.
That pisses me off, because the game is actually really fun. If you just want a basic sci-fi hack-and-slash that's fun to play, this game has you covered. But it's been tainted by the "controversy" now, and a lot of people are probably gonna write it off because of that.
Reminds me of how some weirdos, for some extremely strange reason, tried to turn Sydney Sweeney into some “anti woke” symbol all because she likes showing cleavage. Incredibly ironic as honestly I see far more sex negative attitudes from people on the right than I do people on the left. Now sure there are sex negative leftists who are obnoxious, but acting like they represent all left leaning people is ridiculous.
Ngl, I have because every single time this discourse surrounds media, the media turns out to be so mid that you'd think they generated the discourse just to justify their sunk costs.
Think about alllll the ones that heard about the game the first time because of the controversy and checked it out! otherwise there is a demo for everyone!
A lot of these people have said and do say that people shouldn't create games for "political" reasons. Seems this instant would be okay for them. Like how they complained about people fixing art yet praise the same thing
Eve is the most antierotic character ever. Even the girl from last of us had more sexual tension moments
At the end of the day, they don't want sexy characters; they just want lifeless sex dolls. They're the same guys who unironically claim that sex robots will replace "real women".
I mean that claim seems pretty consistant with their apparant desires.
And probably the ones who will be the first and only people to get AI girlfriends
they want sex dolls because they know no women wants to be close to them part of me almost feels sad for them.
@@racionador I feel sorry for them because this isn't like something you see in fantasy worlds where a great evil personified happened out of nowhere. There's always a reason for why people became who they are right now.
Eve is not a sex doll, in fact she had more agency than 2B to honest. You the character you guys called a sex doll for years then started to pretend that you never had a problem with her just to spite Stellar Blade in a stupid culture war. You'd know that if you of the OP of this video actually played Nier Automata.
Arguments from Hypocrisy are always the worst form of argument. If you think the person you're talking about hates Stellar Blade because it's "too sexy" but also likes Baldur's Gate 3 sex scenes and you don't understand that something in your narrative isn't really clicking... then that's just kind-of on you, buddy.
It's genuinely bizarre how these people will be like "You hate sexy women, you want to remove all sex from games," and then they'll immediately turn around and go "WHY DO YOU WANT SEX SCENES IN VIDEO GAMES?!?!?"
I don't think I heard that argument in this video.
@@TheMysteryDriver I'm unironically seeing people Dead Domain is responding to say "You're a hypocrite for hating Stellar Blade's protag but loving Baldur's Gate".
@@dracocrusher You don't know what a hypocrite is lmaoooo
@@gillfreddie4100 It's someone who contradicts themself.
That's the point. These people THINK there's a contradiction, they're just too stupid to understand what the other person actually believes.
This is why it's the worst form of argument. Because most of the time you're just misunderstanding what other people are saying. Like here, where the comments in the video keep trying to imply some contradictory belief that just doesn't even remotely exist.
@@TheMysteryDriver One of the first twitter threads shown insinuates that Woke Sony™ only wants sex in games if it involves trans girls, because, they reason, Woke Sony™ hates conventionally attractive women.
Could you also cover the fabricated controversy over the character designs in Hades II? I still can’t get over how Gamergate wannabes are trying to claim * checks notes *
a naked traditionally attractive Aphrodite is ‘woke’ or ‘mannish’
And of course the game's design for Hestia looking like a racist caricature vs. Japan's design for Hestia looking like a child. Both designs are bad, but the anti-woke crowd, in typical fashion, are defending the latter design.
I saw a comment that said "Aphrodite looks like a tranner" just because she had pronounced cheek bones (rather common with people with greek ancestry to have strong cheek bones), for having a "male jawline" and not having a button nose + makeup on... You cannot win with these people. I also checked their twitter and ofc they were holding every bigotry possible
@@Joomluh12 No. They've dedicated themselves to this culture war nonsense because it's the only community they have, and its one that only exists as long as everyone in it is angry enough to prevent them realizing they hate each other.
@@raphaelmarquez9650 In fairness to Supergiant I assume (or at least hope) any racial insensitivity that ended up in Hestia’s design was unintentional/accidental.
The rest of the POC characters have more natural-looking skin tones so the team may have just committed to the ‘she’s the goddess of the hearth so let’s make her skin look dark as coal’ bit without realizing how bad it might look in isolation/out of context.
@@Joomluh12 Politely, why do you think they have this deep seated urge to make everyone else -as- miserable -as they are- ?
Eve has no emotion, no flirting, no innuendo nothing. It's a completely sexless game. Much more than the western ones. Also they didn't do anything with the biblical references
They didn't do anything with the biblical references?? For real?
@@alexoceanmeow yup. Even the Adam and eve union was more like an asexual blending where she absorbed him
Actually just a mid Nier Automata
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Yeah, the religious nod was just on the surface. I want to believe Adam was the second coming of Christ but they killed him off with no explanation as to why. Or had a convoluted explanation. She killed God, but we don't get that at the end or any kind of explanation as to what I think is the worst ending of the 3. I liked Adam's story.
@@alexoceanmeow Just wait until you watch Evangelion.
They obsessed over this game without knowing the gameplay or story. They're not real gamers.
They might as well look at 3d art works of the protagonist.
Or prom of those characters, they don't care about any other aspect of the game other than how fapable are the "femoid characters", might as well look at prom instead
90% of them never heard of the game before they saw a story about a neckline being raised 2", and 95% of them will never play it. They just like to whine about the things they're told to whine about. Performative anti-wokeness.
Or they just played the demo and were hooked😎
Most of the anti-woke dipshits aren't fans of the things they're criticizing in the first place. The content makers are following the money and the followers are following their rage addiction.
Climate change, a thing many right wing azzholes STILL don't believe in, is a part of the games plot. Just adding some fuel to this gamer gate failure : ) lololol
Eve dresses so outlandishly that you'd expect some kind of absolutely bombshell personality beneath those clothes, because that's how women comfortable with this fashion and skilled at pulling it off tend to be, so it would make sense for players to be disappointed her personality fails to bet fantastically compelling no matter what she's wearing.
@@guyg.8529 Nope, that's just your own prejudice and childishness you are universally applying to whole ass cultures.
Sorry, but your ideal monoculture/ethnostate has never actually existed.
@@guyg.8529no she just has a shitty personality
Despite 2B having a better personality, her outfit has no explanation behind it. If it has no purpose and is loved then it's no different to Eve. Hell, you people would still praise it if she had customizable options too lmao
@@GothamThotSlayer Correct. Bad writing is bad writing and good writing is good writing.
@@GothamThotSlayer "A good character is good and a bad character is bad"
Yes.
2B is the perfect contrast for Eve. Even at the very beginning, 2B showed personality by being the straight guy to 9S and her stoicism wasn't just her being "I'm very serious and badass" and more of a "this is my customer service job and I'm doing what i was asked to do".
Tachy is the most underutilized character in the entire game, and has the best character design too, in my opinion. I live the black and yellow color scheme, it kinda has a hornet motif going on. I think Tachy should have been the protagonist instead of Eve, who is basically thrown away quite early on in the game.
Eve is ok, but as i play the game, i am put off by the lsck of compelling characterization, only showing some emotion in the opening beach assault sequence. She isn't as interesting, personality wise, as 2B in my opinion
@@unicorntomboy9736killing Tachy so quick was ridiculous. Tachy was the real star that had some character potential
@@notaras1985 Lore wise, Tachy was the lead commander of the airborne squad, which clearly shows leadership qualities, which has ton of storytelling potential
The plot itself is quite underwhelming until the 60% mark, it's basically just a mcguffin search until then, when the bigger plot revelations are presented. However, the plot itself wouldn't matter so much if we had a stronger protagonist with compelling characterisation, like we got in Nier Automata.
@@notaras1985 For example, what if Tachy, as a leading commender, had to deal with being guilt ridden and survivor's trauma from the events of the opening sequence, after seeing her entire squad killed before her eyes, and going into a deep depression due to failing to protect them which has ramifications for the first half of the game.
@@unicorntomboy9736 well they will come out and justify the total lack of writing and character development at (spoiler alert): "them being total cyborgs, with zero human DNA in them". That's why they don't emote and respond like us. They were designed to kill the ultimate human weakness(?)(often strength too).
I find the whole contrived discourse around this game to somehow be both morbidly fascinating and infuriatingly stupid at the same time. It is like it's an encapsulation of the current terminally online internet social media cesspool and the types of people who make it into a cesspool in the first place.
I find it hilarious personally lololol. Think about it. These nazi gamers also rallied behind elden ring and hogfarts legacy. Elden ring is at least a decent game and they used its popularity to rally. Calling folks maidenless if they ever judged the game in any shape or form. You had to say it was the perfect bestest game ever or else they would be huge azzholes to you.
Then they rallied behind hogwarts legacy. A pretty mid game lol. But it was popular and these pos used that to help spread more hate. Just like Elden ring but it's a crappier game lol. Still sold just about as well. It was annoying because if you point out how flawed it actually is, they will point to the high sales and use that as a way to discredit you. Because sales equals how good a product is right? These incels have no brain lol.
Then they chose this game to rally behind and it's not gunna sell anywhere near as many copies as those last two games did...
Also every time nazi lovers pick a game to rally behind, it's one that celebrates the power of women sooo... That's hilarious. There really are no anti woke games that are popular/good lol. That's why I think this is so hilarious. All this effort put forth and for what? NOTHING lol.
Fr. There's no nuance or actual engagement with the topic at hand, just a focus on one hyper specific detail and why that is/isn't woke. Quite frustrating.
I seen people blaming this on DEI. Absolutely ridiculous, these people don’t even know what DEI is.
I used to work on ESG software and let me tell you that these dorks don't understand the first thing about ESG
It's just a another buzzword to get their followers riled up, like woke, SBI, CRT etc. the meaning is lost
It's when someone does something woken
Delicious Exquisite Icecream
Ironically if DEI actually worked the industry might be in a better state. They're just shadowboxing and smokescreening
When it comes to Lily, I'm torn, because it is really uncomfortable when male designers create sexualized characters who look/act like teens, but also, I've always looked a lot like Lily in terms of build, even as an adult at 30 I get mistaken for a teen, so when I see Lily, I think "oh she's a lot like me!" I think the problem is mostly that there isn't a counterbalance to the fetishization of youthfulness. Also, the boob physics aren't just uncomfortable, they're flat-out wrong. I have the same cup size and build as Lily, and if I was wearing that much support, my chest would not just casually be swinging around. That shit only even beings to budge while jumping.
I've always been irritated at how some people seem to think that A cups and F cups behave the same way. Like boobs are just water balloons and not flesh and fat and muscle. Do they even touch boobs? I suspect not.
The robotic characters without emotion and any humanity is what is killing it. It's not a "wokeness killer" because it's way more prude than it's woke competition
@@typeOwagner Way to entirely miss the point of what was said.
@@typeOwagner What are you on about?
@@typeOwagner What in the all father's eye are you on about?
I live in Switzerland and this is advertised to me constantly on YT. Unfortunately, the dialogue in the advert is the main character dramatically shouting, “This is my struggle!” The problem is that it’s in German…
naaah thats so funny
Hahahaha
Please tell me they did not translate it *like that*...
The conflation alot of reactionaries have between the "existence of sex" vs "the sexualizing of a character" tells me just how uncomfortable they are with intimacy in general in videogames. If a female character can be a blank slate, with little to no agency in HOW her sexuality is projected, she is not deemed threatening or challenging for misogynistic viewers. If I were to Sex and the City analogize, they want a hot Charlotte, not a Samantha.
I mean its probably because theyve never had it to begin with
They literally dont understand the concept of intimacy
scientifically incorrect. in Elden Ring, Fia gives hugs/holding to the player. leftists and rainbows exposed themselves doing whyt supreamacy xenophobia colonization culture colonization fascismo sexism misogyny because leftists and rainbows hate Elden Ring which is provable with scientific court accepted evidence
@@henrylangham6428you wrote actual brain rot
@@Kingcrimson_1456 brainrot is when my message is about saying r-cism is bad while exposing scientific evidence that leftists and rainbows are the REAL r-cysts
LOOL OKAY you just committed spreading dangerous misinformation anti science nassi bigotry
Yeah, I've noticed this with reactionary types on both sides. It's like everyone hates characters having any actual intimacy with each other.
I think it’s funny that you mention Senran Kagura because I remember playing the remaster of the original at 16 (granted for different reasons, more of an ‘I want to be that’ than an ‘I want that’ from my closeted ass) and the reason I stuck around was because, no joke, I actually got hooked on the plot. It’s not going to be for everyone (the anime voices can get grating on the ears after a while) but the characters had arcs and personality, and I found them to be actually interesting for different reasons! It wasn’t just ninja titty game, it was a ninja titty game with heart and soul put into the characters.
I started playing Senran Kagura when I was 17. Even though I had a weird phase back then, I enjoyed some of the stories I've experienced despite its fanservice. The one thing I remember in Deep Crimson was that the first few sections of the game exploring Homura as a character (Don't take my word for it because I haven't played that game in years)
When I finally got my hands on Estival Versus, I didn't expect it to have some character arcs because it took place in a beach/summer-like setting. Probably because I saw videos of the gameplay, and I didn't bother to look up any walkthrough.
Senren Kagura and Valkyrie Drive are written by people who actually know how the cliches they use work. They heavily rely on Gap Moe (she's a nutjob with a knife but the chillest girl in the group, she's a gyaru but a necromancer, they're a sadist and a masochist but have no BDSM visual cues etc) but there's more characterisation in every animated movement of the girls than in most game writing. They don't act like people and the boob size standardisation is dissapointing but its not shallow.
Yeah, I love how Senran Kagura has so much story for each character. It lures people in with over the top proportions and damagable clothing then slaps them with trauma of almost everyone grieving!
its ninja tity game WITH THE MOST FUCKING AMAZING DESIGN FOR OROCHI EVER
@@sarafontanini7051 Its cool I guess but nothing is going to make me emotionally cheat on Showa Era King Ghidora's dopey gold tummy.
Hmmmm let's see. A character who has no distinct characterisation or development in the majority of the narrative other than to serve as a monolith which the reader/audience/player can project their own desires. Back in literature class we called those Objects.
She showed zero emotions throughout. You cannot relate with her at all. I don't see this becoming a franchise like tomb raider did
Well, isnt every fictional character a object? they cant really fight or talk for themselves, they are made of pixels or paint, a character has no saying how they dress, move, act or talk, its all their creator choices after all.
@@paulojuniorlourenco4501but must creators gives these characters personality to make them feel organic
@@paulojuniorlourenco4501 Red Dead Redemption 2 has probably one of the best NPC's in video game history because each of those pixelated characters shows emotions, have a daily routine and even enjoy a nice meal.
Surely an object doesn't have a daily routine and a personality, right?
@@its_johnH its called immersion, but still they are not alive, if they where we would be discussing if killing npcs is a crime, those npcs mimic a daily routine, for the player immersion they made those npcs do animations such as eating, drinking and sleep, rockstar was always really good on making immersion, but dont forget that they are not alive, they are not sentient beings,l.
Someone had to design them, 3D model, animate, Voice act and actually act their movements in a mocap suit.
The naked truth is that in end all of them are pixelated objects made to sell the game and make profit.
honestly believe a lot of these gooners dont actually want Eve to be like Bayo or 2B. In the sense that they have more confident personalities or are self aware of their sex appeal.
They want a character thats oblivious to her visual appeal because if she plays along or is "in on it" that makes her seem more in control of how she presents, instead of someone to be looked at while unaware of an audience which tilts the power dynamic to their side.
Basically they wanna creep on her instead of y'know having her willingly present as a sexy character.
This is it. Chuds don't care about the character, they only care about her body and its features. I realized this fully during the Tifa sports bra controversy for FFVII Remake, where many suggested she was no longer even the same character because she now had proper support.
i have seen a video of a guy playing as eve climb up and down a ladder for 10 minutes straight with the camera angle looking up at her butt. i really really doubt these people care about her character.
@@megamillion5852 Accusing people of dehumanizing others whilst calling them "cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers". But you are totally the good guys. And I played Bayo and NieR Automata to death.
@@MinecraftIsLoveMinecraftIsLife I've seen women do that to.
@@The_Mongoose This doesn't really say anything about the mentality I mentioned above, which would've been good to touch on if you wanted me to change my mind for having been wrong. I was also unaware "chud" could be seen as an acronym, but in looking for that usage, I only found a movie. I'm almost certain nobody uses it with the meaning presented in the movie, and can say for myself that I never have.
I don't use chud to dehumanize; but I do use it to disparage, which I'd argue is fine in this context. If a chud is bothered by being recognized as a chud, then they could always change that by improving as a person. Equal treatment of women as people shouldn't be seen as some aggressive threat. One can love and enjoy female characters without objectifying them, and prioritizing a worldview that sees women as irrevocably bound to men's consumption.
The whole "sexy character with no personality" thing is such a big letdown from shift up here, especially with so many of the Nikke girls being genuinely appealing characters (some much more so than others). Basically every Nikke and a handful of npcs have more personality than Eve, and coming from the same studio, that kinda blows
You cannot make a franchise from someone totally soulless
"sexy character with no personality"
There is so much hilarious irony in this complaint, because there are a lot of people who complain about her sexy appearance and assume she has no personality and accuse her of being "objectified".
Even though she probably as an important role in the story and the relations in the characters, and she's probably incredibly powerful with a complex backstory.
But nah, all that disappears just because she's put into a bikini. Loooool.
@@gillfreddie4100 have you actually watched the video? They explain in great detail, why eves character seems bland and there is not really any development till close to the finale of the game.
@@huk468 she's more Stoic than bland the fans would say
@@gillfreddie4100 She's not accused of having no personality because she wears a bikini, It's because she literally has no personality.
Might as well have a stick figure with giant melons draw into the side of a cave, who am I kidding they'll probably defend that too. (Caveman noises) must protect drawings (more Caveman noises and unintelligible yelling).
Your projection is very telling you underdeveloped disphoric projector.
@@ToraSaid are you here to protect the cave drawings.
@@iisbobby3523 are you here to project mental issues
@@ToraSaid oh I am of sound mind, you're trying to get an easy win. And is currently failing at that, but hey continue flailing you might hit something that's not your body pillow for once.
@@iisbobby3523 if saying that makes you feel better 🤷
It's very funny when people cry censorship and slippery slope on things like this because when has that ever led to literally anything? Tastes and media trends change over time, and today's AAA games aim for realism, which means scanned actors, normal body proportions, and diverse casts. Not to mention both teams and players are more diverse than ever, so it just makes sense that the cast reflects that (plus it's fucking boring to make all characters the same).
It's just racism, racism and unhinged misogyny.
I hate this current trend of every new game being picked at by these grifters for their culture war bs, just crying and pissing at the sight of a black woman, it's pathetic.
You know these same people don't give a fuck about developers and corporate oppression
@@chadgunner4403 Totally, well, unless it suits their "go woke go broke" narrative..
@@chadgunner4403 Not even remotely, no. They're the sorts that will whinge endlessly about a game being delayed, or desired content missing from an initial release. They want everything handed to them, and don't give a shit about the people who have to actually do the work to provide it. They have all the emotional maturity of four-year-olds.
Not realisim. They hire pretty models, and ruin their faces in the studio
I feel like guys who were offended over Aloy having peach fuzz and whining about how that made her trans instead of accepting that all humans have facial hair shouldn't be allowed to talk about female characters. I'm all for attractive characters, I just want some realistic ones tossed in and for them to have personalities that fits. Bayonetta chooses to dress how she does because she's confident and comfortable in her body, Eve is just dressed like that because the devs find it hot.
@@abhishekverma4029Such as...?
Not gonna lie it took me forever to find out anything about Stellar Blade other than “protag SEXY bro! that makes the MODERN WESTERN JOURNOS so MAD”
I’ve seen more people saying “BRO THE WOKIES ARE SO MAD” than people complaining about Eve being sexy or wearing skimpy outfits
Bro that says more about you since there was a demo and could watch many gameplay clips.
Also game jurnos did cry like babies over Eve, IGN france even insulting the dev himself, yet same outlets will cream their pants over nude Leon mods.
@@bartvshomer “that says more about you” because I wasn’t interested in a game, so I didn’t bother checking it out?
And boo hoo, some game journalist complained and sensationalized about something. The horror. All the “anti-woke” TH-camrs are literally just the opposite side of that same coin it’s all fearmongering and clickbait and sensationalism. If only these people would just, ya know, talk about the actual gameplay…
Also IGN France? Who gives a fuck about IGN France?!
These people will find a few shitty articles then cry about how society and the whole game industry are in an apocalyptic state and how “gamers are under attack” and some 3D model with big tits is a bastion of hope or something lmao. It’s just as annoying as some idiot whining about a fictional woman dressing skimpy
Sadly there is a lot of wild culture war stuff going on, there has been a recent callout of the puritanical sex-negative movement against all fandom right now and the rather brain-dead attempt at "moral consumption" along their complete lack of media literacy. The people that attached themselves to Stellar Blade and propped it up are just the opposite side of that portion of the culture war but those people are their own toxic.
I am glad to see you include a criticism of Sarkeesian, I feel her work fed into the current divisiveness and much of her language has fed into that puritanical group.
"Anti-Woke" has no meaning... They used to hate female protagonists and bold sexuality, now they like it? Huh... Need some serious double-think to make any sense of it.
Its about control over women
No, because in the need to get people to actually love the sex.They're born as we keep trying to turn men into women and women into men instead of Trying to get people to love the sex or the vessel that they were born with. We're pushing people to be animals. We're giving hormone blockers. To children, we are slowly not only going into societal collapse but we are killing off humanity and pretending it's love. It's just as bad as if we made androids.And then they decide to kill us all except it's being done by human hands
Don't make the mistake of thinking they have any coherent set of values.
They have emotional reactions to things and then rationalise those emotions into a narrative.
It doesn't matter if they contradict themselves along the way, because they aren't keeping track, the only thing that matters is the current narrative. The past didn't happen.
@@DisgruntledPeasant You could apply that to both sides of the aisle with that statement
@@seth5472 I don't ascribe to that "two sides of the isle" view of things, I don't think it's helpful.
Not every conservatively minded person is one of these culture war chuds, I am not against every person with a traditionalist mindset, I'm against the sort of person who makes it their life's mission to target and harass a perceived enemy for the sake of their own ego.
Yes these types of people do manifest on "the left", but currently it seems to be a primarily right wing issue, largely due to a fairly influential group deliberately deciding these folks and using them as weapons in their political mission.
Its so funny that these guys think DEI extends to video game characters, like the libs are fighting for the rights of pixels lol
Looking at how people on twitter are getting mad over fictional characters getting "objectified" (as if the characters have any rights that can be violated), it seems like "libs are fighting for the rights of pixels lol" isn't that farfetched of an idea, as wrong as it is.
The only thing it applies to is just not making every character in the main cast white, and/or obligatorily straight. But they don't believe other people besides themselves play video games, and the only minorities that do, are the ones they can find who agree with them, on their narrative.
They are going off years of similar situations. Even if you are right DEI isn't involved It's not hard to see why they would think that.
@@itachi65ful They are taking isolated factoids and spinning them into a conspiracy narrative that makes zero sense. Plenty of titles with conventionally attractive female characters are still coming out to this day, they just ignore them because they want to believe in this bizarre story where there's an immense conspiracy among billion dollar companies aimed at something that isn't profitable (according to them) or serves the interests of the CEOs and shareholders in any way.
Like... even if all they say is true, what they're describing is little more than an industry trend they don't like: the kind of stuff they like is just not that popular anymore. If there's really all that much demand for it, they should get into game development themselves and make a fortune from that underserved niche, and they can leave the wokies their woke games, no?
Or is their issue that they won't accept anything that isn't big triple A titles advertised at some company-controlled hype generating conferences?
The biggest let down was solid snake getting his big cake removed. That man had the best ass of all time fr fr
7:40 that might be the point for them. Eve not having much in the way of personality compared to Shadowheart, Bayonetta, or even a Dead or Alive character makes her more of a sex object than a person with agency who chooses to revel in her sexuality. There is a small but vocal contingent of people (usually men, but not always) who prefer the idea of the former over the latter.
These kids don't know anything about Onichanbara. If they did, this controversy wouldn't exist. I 100 shotted Loli pop Chainsaw. Seeing the "stellar blade will save gaming!!" battle cry triggered me into a rage like nobody's business.
I also want to make the point that her hair looks just absolutely terrible.
The animation on it is all procedural and it's so awful. It's constantly clipping with her outfits, often passing through her body herself.
Hair that long is something real people need to account for in the way they move. She moves as if she has no hair at all, which was likely the case for when they were animating her. There's no interesting style to it either. Maybe one thing if it was a braided ponytail or something, but it's just one long continuous ponytail that never reacts like a real ponytail will. That much hair will not always go in the same direction and it has a lot of weight to it. It's not just a ribbon flowing in the wind.
Honest to God I could make an entire video myself with everything wrong with her hair. How it could have and should have of been rigged and animated.
I laughed out loud when her hair made the conscious decision to flow over her shoulder like a curtain stapled to her head.
And then again later when I noticed how it seemed to conform to the curvature of her back like it was an extension of the skin tight suit she was wearing. They really *fine tuned* those details you know. Just a *superb* level of polish on those character models and animations, I tell you what.
And imagine they wasted an entire year fixing her hair physics. That's ridiculous
Its crazy because aloys hair did similar things... _in 2017!!_ they didn't learn anything over the last 7 years.
@@princessjello i guess realistic hair physics are an impossibility
If it bothers you that much you can use the Short Ponytail option...which youd know if you actually played the game.
Sure is a whole lotta talking about this game and not a whole lotta playing it.
"eve does not serve" A truly damning indictment 😔 I want to start a consultancy firm that people can hire to correctly yassify their characters, I think this would solve all our current issues to everyone's satisfaction
Excellent breakdown. I admit to be affected by the Anita slander on Bayonetta back in the day ( this is tongue in cheek, Anita Sarkeesian is fine, and I think her entry level feminist readings are useful to people but I don't agree with her all the time like most people) and when I did finally get to is as a femme who likes femmes I was SENT INTO ORBIT by what a sexy character she was and that it was part of her character.
I think part of the issue is that a lot of the folks who think that having a hot avatar is tantamount to sexiness and anti-woke is that they are the sad results of purity culture focused on primarily straight men. When we tell the women in our real lives that they have to be modest and demure and cannot show any skin or any sexuality then the mere visual of a woman in a revealing outfit registers as inherently sexual to a lot of these folks. This, in my opinion, is also why there is so much shaming from these people towards women wearing the same kinds of items their Waifu would wear; there is a disconnect where they see the visual as all encompassing of sex and sexuality.
Almost everything I've heard about this game is related to the controversy over the main character's sex appeal. I had to actually do a bit of investigation to actually understand what the game's even about, or what kind of game it is for that matter. That's how ridiculous all this culture war stuff is.
That being said, my initial impression of the game was, and I doubt hardly anyone's going to get this when I say it, 'this game has some serious Ninja Blade coming out in the same era Ninja Gaiden did' kind of energy.
Stellar blade makes me think of Astral Chain. Probably one of Platinum Games most involved, intriguing battle systems but the story is just such rote anime tropes. None of the flash or style or weirdness of their best titles
Also you play as cops.
I disagree. As my most favorite PG games, Astral Chain has a lot of flash and style imo, especially when you unlock all the legions. I wouldn't place it next to Bayonetta (very few PG game can) in terms of style but to say it has none, is doing the game a diservice.
You took the time to bash on Astral Chain...and I am fully onboard! That was my most anticipated title of 2019, because I for some reason really wanted to play a game where I could be a cop in an over-the-top setting. Aesthetically, it was everything I could've asked for! I loved the art style, the tech, and especially the vehicles. But storywise, it was a complete disaster. The game presents such an awesome setting, but barely wants you to care about it or feel like you're really a part of it. The story abandons its most compelling characters that you actually want to follow about midway through, and never allows their arcs to be complete. It had everything going for it, but fell flat. I'm genuinely baffled anyone could call it great.
@@megamillion5852 astral chain's GOOD but not amazing, ceertanly doesn't have the bst final boss in comparison to say bayonetta 1 or Wonderful 101
Obsession blinded them to their blessings, and smothered them in a fever dream of dissatisfaction...
Great video. The argument about attitude is really important for sexyness. As a guy, I find a girl being well and assure in her body way more sexy than a shy girl with a sexy lingerie.
Eh, sexy lingerie is sexy. I really don't need personality for sex appeal, which is very... what's the wor- shallow, I know. However, I agree that the charisma and sex appeal of someone comfortable in their own body is quite exhilarating.
The character design and jiggle physics in this game is nothing special. We have mods for jiggle physics in Monster Hunter: World. I can literally run around butt naked with bouncy boobs if I wanted to while slicing giant creatures to bits. Personally, I don't like exaggerated physics. I'd rather run around butt naked with stationary boobs than to have them flapping all over the place 😹but to be fair, my female characters usually have smaller cup sizes than Eve.
There seems to be something similar in Korea to gamergate, with women getting regularly fired basically because they said feminist things in the past.
Gacha Drama and the Korean Gender Way, by Moon Channel
it's 2 parts and about 2.5 hours
I just watched it and am still digesting how to think about his take.
The part where they get fixated fighting imaginary feminism seems eerily similar.
Considering that the most popular and well known feminist group in Korea is actively pro-pedophilia, pro-rape, and pro-murder, is it really that outrageous?
Ah, the classic story of decent to okay product, terrible fanbase. I hate it when that happens. Great review and video as always.
@@abhishekverma4029 Is this supposed to be sarcastic? It reads as that to me, but I'm an idiot.
@@abhishekverma4029 Okay, sorry, just couldn't tell.
@@abhishekverma4029 Oh, never mind then.
Even as somebody who loves this kinda stuff normally, I'm a very sexual and sex positive person who is a sexual psychology and porn nerd who studies the history of porn for fun, I make no bones about that, sorry if that triggers you or offends you person reading this, but that indeed doesn't necessarily make for an attractive character or more importantly a good game. I reserve judgment until I get the game. Which honestly? Judging from it's pedigree and the gameplay I have seen? It's probably not too good so I'm ironically probably not even gonna bother lmao.
The fact that in lots of games (at least that I've played in my time) don't extend that sex appeal to men has bothered me. I remember installing sexy armor mods for Skyrim, and going to see if there were any sexy MALE armor mods, and they either didn't exist or were too hard to find.
They're basically just reflecting the real world fashion industry. Its pretty hard to find sexy clothes if you're a man or even just saturated colours without looking like you're obsessed with retro hip hop and or jogging.
@@AC-dk4fp YES this has been another sore point for me. I've resorted to making my own clothes. Typically I use the kind of fabrics you'd use for dresses and skirts to make shirts, long enough for my tall body, flower, floral, soft and comfortable.
I don't want to say it's unfair, because it goes both ways. Women's fashion also sucks, lack of pockets. Even for toddler's shorts, boys vs girls shorts, the difference is staggering.
We need to start fashion collectives based on the collaboration and combination of "men's" and "women's" fashion. A big fashion melting pot
I think that it's important to understand that Anita Sarkeesian can be right about certain things and that not actually being a problem. I've seen a few videos recently about Stellar Blade and Vindictus where the gamer bros are actually explicitly stating that the devs are catering to their predominantly male audience. When someone like Anita Sarkeesian points out the same thing, she's criticised for it. It would be easier to take her fiercest critics seriously if they actually said "yes, you're right, but that is not inherently a problem". I also think that, while lesbians may play these games and like seeing the sexy female characters, I think they're deluding themselves if they believe that the devs are thinking of them when creating them. Even female game devs will be majority straight and so, while they may like looking at sexy female characters themselves, it's not with the same perspective as lesbian gamers.
Gay artists and writers sneak gay content into stuff all the time and most feminine aesthetics are created by women not men. This idea that creative people are either gay or completely isolated from gay perspectives is nonsense.
Bayonetta is into men (maybe not exclusively I only played the first game but her tension with the white haired lady feels underbaked there with none of the spark that makes Dante vs Vergil great) and heterosexual women like her as a power fantasy. If she's a fantasy for straight men its for bottoms which breaks heteronormative standards anyway.
Yeah. I think its a bit ridiculous for Anita to be accused of being queer erasure in her argument, when video game marketing was not as openly trying to appeal to queer people at the time of its release compared to now. She is right that it was initially made for a hetero male audience in mind, queer audiences are usually always peripheral, which is why gamerbros always just assume only they (straight, cis, center-right, white guys) and cry "pandering", or "DEI bad" when markets actually start to acknowledge that potential peripheral audience. Their biases are result of the marketing they think was the norm, which was the norm until mid 2010s.
Stellar Blade tried so hard to be Nier Automata it never even got to be Stellar Blade
Oooh that’s a really good way to put it actually
@@deaddomain I also think a lot of Eve's lack of personality is tied up in the misogyny of South Korean idol culture. I don't know if you've seen much of the conversation surrounding in that or not but it really makes sense why they wouldn't build an actually strong female character but just a shell of a female character with jiggle physics. Kinda really makes me understand why the gamergaters like Eve so much tbh.
The only aspect it succeeded with was the music, tbh. It's very Nier Automata, and I mean that positively.
@@EdenNeedsATH-camHandle yeah I'm pretty sure that's because Okabe actually collaborated on the Stellar Blade music
i think an interesting thing to look out for when judging how much this game and it's main character affect the gaming space over time is honestly to look at how much porn and r34 art gets made of it. i have a feeling there will be a good amount for a short stretch of time following all this discourse... and then as this game fades into the background and the dull characters and story leave our immediate memories, the classics like 2b and bayonetta will once again outshine stellar blade. these dont just get art made of their characters just because they're sexy, its because they are interesting.
Last I checked on rule34, it's all motherfucking AI "art" of her. Kinda checks out that AI bros would be all over her - their brains probably got fried to high hell by all the generic big tiddy anime girls they generated.
I currently have what might be known as “Culture War Fatigue” I’m so sick and tired of having to go on the internet and go no more than 2 tweets or comments down about “Wokeness destroying Gaming Culture” leaving little to no room for discussion about the game itself.
I remember i watched the IGN review for this game (they gave it a 7/10 noting the same stuff you did here, drab world design, boring characters but awesome gameplay) and they ultimately recommended the game but the people in the comments seemed to live in a different reality where their imagined "all the critics will hate Stellar Blade because Eve is sexy" thing had come true, there were lots of people saying "IGN didn't like it so i will buy it 3 times" and stuff like that. The rest of the comments were also completely bizarre. This game and the surrounging discourse has just broken some peoples brains it seems
@@abhishekverma4029 Who gives a fuck about what IGN france says
This is definitely the weirdest grift over a game yet, and the devs weren't even behind it. It was what just the right wing on X conjured. None of them can actually see the game for what it is, literally beyond just the look of the character and their imaged oppression from the industry not praising it just for that. When they realize there are other things to judge it on that it falls short with, they think it confirms their conspiracy and want to then support it in spite. Incredible.
@@abhishekverma4029 They never said that. They just said the character design didn't look like what they thought realistic women looked like to them.
@@abhishekverma4029 They never said it would kill real women.. what the hell are you talking about?
Frankly it reminds me a lot of the whole Snyder Cut nonsense... so much purple prose from NerdBros opining about respecting "artistic vision" only to harass and bully any artistic vision that didn’t adhere to their strict definition of "peak"
Not to mention, no one ACTUALLY wanted the cut. Snyder just astroturfed and botted the whole thing, as well as stealing the movie, to engage in a $100 million shakedown of WB. They should've just called in the US Marshals to get the film back and had him arrested for stealing the film.
eve looks like those sexy armor fallout 4 mods
This describes everything I dislike about her character model perfectly lol
@@genericcatgirl baby inc employee??
(Immediately types nexus mods into browser)
OK but the sexy armored vaultsuit bodyslide armor mod is awesome 👌 literally serving
@@mineralwater6736people cannot talk bad to sex guys like think are pope
I feel that these people don't actually want a "sexy badass female protagonist", they just want a personalityless doll. You look at Bayonetta and 2B and consider both their sexiness as well as their personalities, but these dudes only really look at the appearance, and nothing else. If anything, a bland character is BETTER since they can do whatever they want on Source Film Maker and not feel any dissonance with how the character normally behaves.
@@guyg.8529 Compared to 2B, she ism in my opinion
@@guyg.8529 then what makes you like her? what are the times in the game that truly pushed her emotionally, what are her fears? her proudest triumphs, and do you have any example of what those are? or are you just imprinting onto her something that doesnt really exist?
If she has personality, then they will say she is an emasculating, feminist, man-hating mary-sue to them. If she doesn't then, they can fap to her and feel like they own her.
tbh i like characters that look sexy but their personality isnt involved around their sexyness, like lets take as example a female character that has mystical necromantic powers, she is stoic, proud and is a kinda dark humour(ish) person, she has a kinda skimpy outfit but she isnt clearly a sexy person perse, i preffer this way, her sexy appearance is bonus, not the main package.
i tried creating nsfw pinup art before and it required that i created OCs, i gave them cool personalities, clothes but when it came to putting her "sexyness" into action i felt weird and against the idea, because i "respected" her way too much because of all the lore i created for her even though they had kinda sexy/skimpy clothes.
i played Apex legends about a month ago i hated that only 1 female character was sexy or had kinda "skimpy" clothes, if you played apex your probaly already know her, its Loba.
all the skins where super tame and almost none of them tried to really go nuts with the characters appearances.
i do like Bayonetta and when bayonetta 3 was announced i went nuts because i find her genuinely funny, firstly what drew me towards the game was the fanservice but with time i enjoyed way more how funny she is and the loew of umbra witches and lumen sages.
i played baldurs gate 3 when it launched i was playing a female tiefling and i fell in love with her appearance that i created, my main party was Me, Gale, Astarion and shadowheart and i hated every second when gale was putting his sexuality in action whenver i helped him not to explode, i was like "dude, come on... move on with your life there is a world to save, there is no time to sexy sex action, get lost...." and at the end of the game he proposed to marry my character, i am still kinda mad to this day, at that day if there was more gameplay after he proposed to my character i would genuinelly kill him without thinking twice, since i was about to start another run i let him marry my female tiefling but i never let him join my active party again.
The same people who call diversity in video games "forced" and detracts from the story, absolutely love sexiness that is forced and takes away from the story. The sexiness these people seem to love is absolutely shallow and I don't get it. I'm extremely sex positive and Eve is... boring to the point that she becomes unattractive. But eve is an appeal to the 14 year old demographic. Sex without substance.
The ironic part is that Eve wouldn't look like that if she was allowed to dress herself, based on her personality.
Because obviously you know exaclty how people dress themselves just by their personality. The concept of dressing in personality function is so ridiculous and we are in 2024... After that we wonder why so many people are afraid to express their style.
Apparently there are also a lot of people throwing a fit over the "Hard R" removal and insisting they aren't racist for doing so.
That’s such a weird change for them to get offended over as I’m pretty certain that situation was simply the result of really unfortunate texture placement by a designer that maybe doesn’t have the best grasp of English (the game was made in Korea after all). Like I’m sure it’s a simple matter of “oh whoops, this was a very unfortunate mistake that was simply the result of ignorance, we meant nothing by it but now realize it was still not good.” Yet you’ve got some folk acting like altering this minor texture is the equivalent of a book burning. Such odd priorities.
@@BloodRedFox2008 They have some weird conspiracy theory about how it's all Sony's fault for making them remove it and that Shift Up would totally leave it in to own the libs or something otherwise even though I really don't think they care. They're really just projecting their own weird racism and misogyny onto Shift Up.
wait wait wait, you think that "hard R" posesses any harm and that there is a moral obligation to remove it?!
BAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAAHHAHAAAAAAA
Oh man stellar blade is treasure that brought us some of the most deliciously hilarious manufactured moral panic in the past few years on the internet lmaooooo
@@gillfreddie4100 its also exposed a lot of people who show their whole ass, like you, about how they dont actually like video games, they just want stuff to get mad at online.
@@gillfreddie4100 I mean, if you don't consider racism to be immoral then I guess there isn't.
Honestly, I had feared that the character in Stellar Blade would be dull.
I like 2B and A2 in Nier Automata because of their situations and backstory, not just their appearances. I liked the demo as the designs of the characters in a grungy apocalyptic world, with such dramatic cutscenes, were delightfully fresh for me. It's a good thing such an ultimately good game wasn't drained dry by annoying grifters trying to do a fake "culture war."
You can try Nier Replicant instead! It has such an amazing cast of characters. Kaine for example is sеxy woman and she has such a memorable personality and story arc.
Bro im over it. I fought this battle for months before the game released. Now that im playing and actually loving the game i see them whining over censorship instead of just playing the game. Almost as if they didn't really care about the game, just the controversy. If you’re not playing because of censorship then you’re basically saying the game is trash without all the sexy outfits, which is the furthest thing from the truth. Its surprisingly a solid game.
I remember looking forward to the Metroidvania game "ZAU: Tales of Kenzera". It was a middling-to-decent Metroidvania. Controls were a little wonky, but that was the worst of it. It was clearly made by a developer who put his heart and soul into it. There was no race-swapping of existing characters either; it was a game made by a black developer, starring an all-original black cast of characters, inspired by African mythology.
But then it comes to light that it was subject to Sweet Baby consultation, and the long knives come out. This "culture war" is exhausting.
These idiots created an entire war in their heads, picked this game as their champion claiming it was a victory over their enemies and still managed to lose when a little bit of fabric was added to 1% of the optional costumes.
When I learned about this game and the controversy, I just didn't see the point or even the appeal of the game due to the main thing being boiled down to what you said here. Even the whole censorship thing was ridiculous, since I think the reworked outfit looks better and more appealing.
Honestly, I think it is that Eve is generic. They think anyone outside of a narrow band of anime girl is a man or woke somehow. Any personality or variation is too much for them. And that's just sad and boring.
I think Stellar Blade could have been very marginally improved if there was a guy or two who kept 'accidentally tripping through a stripper's wardrobe"
I played a bit of Senran Kagura on the Vita when I was younger, and I realized that I started gravitating a lot more towards playing as Haruka and especially Ryona the more I got into it. At the time, I thought I picked her as my main because she had the coolest weapon (her pistol things are silly and awesome) but I realized later on that her personality also plays a huge factor. I just liked that she liked being sexy. She was clearly having fun with all the depravity in a way that a lot of the other characters weren't and that made her way more appealing me as a teenager with roiling hormones to work through.
Granted, it's all still very leery and weird as hell in hindsight, but still it made me realize that there should be more to sexy characters than just the outfit.
In Ryona's case, it also helps that while she usually acts like a standard blonde bimbo archetype, she does have her serious moments where she drops the act and instead serves as the voice of reason. Estival Versus did a LOT to flesh out the twins as characters.
Ryona is basically a walking consent violation sex offender mostly played for comedy so I wouldn't say that she 'just likes being sexy' but she's an evil character in a game so I don't have a problem with her the way I have with fetish themed seems in media that's not advertised in the same way.
Its the defeat poses games like that and Dead or Alive that are creepier to me.
Hoping for a PC port. Just hope the game doesn't "un-woke" me with all it's sexiness.
Knowing how terrible the PC port of ShiftUp's NIKKE is (Can you stop crashing during the literal intro cutscene and mission FOR FIVE MINUTES?!), and the fact that Stellar Blade is made on UE4 (with Unreal Engine being infamous for having THE WORST optimizarion in exchange for graphical fidelity)...
Don't get your hopes up.
I'm a straight male and, honestly, I remember Adam making more of an impression on me than Eve.
The "controversy" around the game's "censorship" is one of the dumbest I've seen in a while.
Yeah I aggre, its dumb that they censored clothes on a woman on a game made for adults when we can have bare breasts in Last of us 2 and Baulder's gate just fine.
@@bartvshomer Yeah it's so weird they chose 2 outfits seemingly at random, some blood/gore, and graffiti. It makes no sense to change some really insignificant things, and it's also weird people care so much about it.
@@bartvshomerImagine being subscribed to Nerdrotic and thinking your opinion matters.
I'm so glad someone actually is speaking about this. As a fan of sexy characters, I love bayonetta and 2B so so dearly but to see people entirely misunderstand what MADE them sexy was so saddening but not surprising. I watched a full gameplay for my redesign but there is absolutely NOTHING there.
Tbh it would be interesting if Eve was a shy person who was naturally unashamed about showing off her body and doing sexual things. It's her freedom, happy to be on earth and just experience the beauty of it through her nudity but nahhh we just put her booty out and that's it.
Coming out of Horizon: Forbidden West, this is basically the polar opposite.
Where Aloy is a sort-of mediocre-looking character who is very explicitly shaped in her personality by the circumstances of her life (not to spoil everything about the plot) and wears outfits that are maximally integrated into a cultural context and style, with her own talent for mechanics and science on top, on a journey that is all about the awkward, robot-wrangling disaster lesbian be grows into.
And Eve is, uh. She's pretty and she fights. And she's pretty. Although, with how Korean gamers are, this could really be a necessary security measure for the team. They don't take kindly to women who have personalities and opinions.
Aloy mediocre?!
@ExtremeMadnessX
Yes. That's her whole point. She isn't idealized with perfect skin, but is sunburnt with blemishes and reddening.
Also her facial structure is far from great.
Which, again, is part of the design philosophy and storytelling. She has the genes of a research scientist, not a model. She lives the life of an adventurer, not a princess.
The Gamers (tm) had a whole shitfit about her promotion material for the second game showing off skin imperfections and peach fuzz.
If you didn't notice: Deeply woke game. Lots of gays, trans characters, non-banary, neurodivergent people. The player isn't even explicitly told any of that in terms of labels. It's just how things are. The disdain for tech billionaires, on the other hand, is very explicit.
@@MrHodoAstartes I agree. But calling Aloy mediocre is ridiculous.
Wonderful video! I always love your analysis on things! I play Nikke goddess of victory that shift up is in charge of, and yeah, the characters have sexy outfits, but they have way more personality than Eve. Like the main story for Nikke and side stories are so interesting, fun and have made me cry! I was honestly shocked shift up made stellar blade because Eve isn't quirky or silly or serious like other characters they make. Also, poor Adam should have been sexy and adorable, like 9s T^T
Does nikke have an explicitly male MC? I've been considering playing it but i was immediately turned off by a male mc in takt op symphony. (Lesbian that wants cute girl game that doesnt make them fawn over a man)
@@hyobroschae I think the mc is suppose to be a man but I don't really remember their gender being that important to the story. I could be remembering wrong though. There is Alice fiction which let's you be any gender, recommend that game too! Also think reverse 1999 and distyle both have woman as MCs. Hopefully that helps out!
Ah, a fellow commander, nice to see a comment from ya, also agree 100% with the points you stated here.
@@hyobroschae Yo, you should try playing Path to Nowhere. There’s a lot of pretty women and you can choose your gender.
One thing that hit me halfway through the video is that the people pushing the game as this anti-woke thing that it was clearly never meant to be don't like Eve in spite of her lack of personality, but precisely because of it. Bayonetta is incredibly sexy because of her personality, but because, as you said, she owns it, it's a form of empowerment for her. What I'm trying to say is that they don't want Eve to be have an actual characterization that justifies or even boosts her sex appeal, they just want a sex doll, and for some fucking reason they think pushing that as an afront to "wokeness" is actually gonna do something.
Another thing I'm surprised the video didn't mention is that a big part of why younger conservatives push stuff like this to combat what they see as woke propaganda is that they believe Japan and South Korea to be these traditionalist havens where capitalism works, despite almost the entirety of those two countries' issues stemming from outdated worldviews, and how the vast majority of the art production in both nations pushes for left leaning ideologies.
This whole controversy is painfully manufactured and the revisionist history is just embarrassing. Bayonetta and Nier were always commercial and critical darlings. Characters with T&A have always existed in games and are not some new anti woke weapon. And this game if a fine first outing for a studio shifting up (pun intended) from mobile to console development. I would give it an 8 with Eve herself being one of the main things keeping it from greatness and say I look forward to what Shift Up does next in learning from what did or didnt work with it, personally
7 years after Nier automata is released and 2B is STILL a gaming icon talk about and brought on to this day.
Meanwhile, outside of those few who are so desperate to put stellar blade in the spotlight, almost noone cares about Eve anymore.
that's the whole thing tho, "they" don't want characters with Personalities "they" want what amounts to sexy dolls.
Making stuff up
@@mysmallnomanthe curtains are just blue
@@DarkyLonewolf k
Source: I made it the f*ck up.
You should look into Blade and Soul, it was a proto Stellar Blade in away. The current ceo of ShiftUp worked on that game as a character designer before splitting up and founding his current company. BnS also had sexy characters for no reason (at least the male characters get sexy costumes from time to time), great combat, and a universally panned storyline.
i get goosebumps EVERY time bayonetta is talked about. i first played when i was 6 lmwo and i always wanted to grow up to be like her
also the outfit designs of stellar blade are really beautiful i’ve used them for art references but i’ve not played myself
Imho the problem with the sexualization of the characters in this game is that it serves no purpose at all because the overall narative is really bad and because there is no gameplay element that can remotely justify nudity (other than the game "rewarding" you with sexy lingerie).
Exactly. it's a dress up game with senseless action
Is anything in games necessary? Games are art made for entertainment. None of it is necessarily. Does the fatalities in Mortal Kombat serve a purpose? No. It’s just fan service for the sake of fun. Why is sexual appeal any different from gore? Both are unnecessary fan service and neither serve a purpose and people like both but one (ironically the more immoral one) is accepted but the other is not. It doesn’t make sense.
@@notaras1985 There's nothing wrong with that, thought. Sure it would be better if it was less gratuitous and wrapped around interesting characters and story, but cool action gameplay and dressing up pretty women is always nice :D
@@squirrelthegamer8483 Gore mechanics are actually fun to do in games. Sex appeal doesnt add anything to the gameplay.
@@GeteMachine It’s fun to see*. And that Applies to both because what would be the mechanical difference in doing the Fatality inputs only to get a cool cinematic that isn’t gorey? What about finishers in Doom? You’re still doing the same thing, it just looks different. Sex appeal is the same.
Unrelated, but Raiden has always been meant to be an effeminate male, and i dont see these people calling mgs2 and mgsrr woke, i mean he wears a skintight bodysuit and high heels in mgrr!
Interestingly seeing what I see about the game I honestly identify more with the sexiness in stellar blade than with bayonetta. It may be unintentional but it kind of feels like its just like "woman is allowed to exist as sexy and have that have no real bearing on who she is; she can just be sexy in a world and no one stops her or gives a shit"
Yeah I think it is equally problematic when women have to apparently have a certain personality or story reason to dress a certain way.
Like I know plenty of women without bombastic personalities that dress sexy just to dress sexy
Also despite claims of not having personality Eve does show bits of herself under her stoic and slightly naive persona.
Like the whole reason you get the quest that opens up the hair salon is because despite trying not to show it EVE seems to have some concern and awareness about her appearance since she was clearly not happy someone said she looked dull.
Also leads to a rare moment of Adam losing composure after you get her hair done the first time and EVE puts him on the spot
@@boredomkiller99 Part of it for me too is I'm an asexual SWer, and I just kinda like to look hot with friends and not care if I get leered at because I'm just with friends.
Maybe the studio of stellar blade will take this learning experience and develop their characters in the sequel. Or maybe even DLC.
Oh my god, THANK YOU FOR THIS VIDEO. I’ve been explaining this to weirdos online but they seem to be unable to understand any of this.
youre a real one for trying seriously
It ignores all the problems people actually have. It's pretty impressive rhetorically.
Eve's hair just endlessly clipping through her body is just endlessly frustrating to me. What good "realistic" hair animation if the clipping breaks the immersion immediately? Just give her a braid bobbing from one asscheak to the other or an updo or something short.
This game seems like it hilights quite neatly how Bayonetta is a celebration of feminine sexuality as opposed to Stellar Blade simply instrumentalizing feminine bodies as sites of titillation. Not that the first can't also titillate or it is wrong in of itself to produce entertainment focussed on pleasing certain eyes. But the difference seems stark and explains why Bayonetta was beloved and accepted even during a time when the abundance of shallow objectifying media probably had people sick of juvenile lol sexy woman games. And Stellar Blade just seems like a bit of a lazy throwback to that kind of entertainment that we should expect more from even when trying to be cheesy sexy fun.
I kind of feel seen by stella blade because for myself being sexy is kind of an afterthought of my life. Like i dress sexy and whatever just to exist, and seeing her just being allowed to exist like that, without it being relavent to anything else can be its own catharsis. Like with none of the charachters caring she dresses sexy and much of the game not focusing on it. Like it kind of feels like, perhaps inadvertantley, the message is sexy doesn’t have to be sexual.
@@NattiNekoMaid That's an interesting angle and I do love that the design and integration make you feel seen.
@@NattiNekoMaid There's no right way to do things but that really doesn't sound that different to 2B. The whole thing just looks like a Nier Automata fan game barely saved from that status by having a different art director.
"instrumentalizing feminine bodies as sites of titillation"
Lay off the word salad, bro. What you say really isn't as important as you'd like to think it is.
You know those franchises that are great, but have a toxic fanbase?
Stellar Blade is an example of that.
This whole game has the vibe of when you install a "sexy model" mod that completely clashes with its aesthetic
I forgot Raiden had heels😂 slay queen
Glad you opened with it because Eve's lack of character is what gets me about the whole thing. Not once through marketing, demos, or let's plays did I find Eve anything other than just an emotionless void that plot pushes from a to b. I know how 2B feels while she's fighting Engels, Simone, Adam, or the Eve of her game. Raiden is just as baffled about all the wacky shit around him at all times. Bayo is heading to flavortown at MAX SPEED. But here, the blade just ain't as stellar as it should have been, and the biggest tragedy is now the devs are stained by weirdo losers who will overhype and undersell their next game too.
2 months later, not a soul cares about Stellar Blade. I hear more people still complaining about Bayonetta 3's ending than a single word on Stellar Blade.
Very sober take! Everything surrounding these make-up issues is just so tiresome, and there's so much irrationality and misinformation going on. Thanks for the video!
Oh my gooood! Darksiders! I've been wondering why this felt so familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. Such a good analogy!
This is just a really solid video. I definitely had a good time watching. I always appreciate hearing your analysis🙂
I appreciate that!
I'm sensing a little "thank god for me" Stephanie Sterling energy from this review and I'm loving it. Lean into it. This was great!
Man. I really think Lea in CrossCode is such a good silent protagonist. The line about how Eve uses her voice to say nothing reminded me of how much they get Lea to say with a sprite sheet and 5 words. Anyway, play Crosscode
I have literally be wracking my mind think about how to talk about this. This video is perfect for addressing the topic headone. Thank you for making it.
Can someone please make a character action game with like 5 female protagonists you can alternate between who fall in wildly different spots on the sexualization scale
Who cares . too many sexualized things in the media