Fiore
Lucas submitted:
I think i saw Star Ocean 5 here before but i’m not sure. They finally released some in game screenshots and the art for the main characters.
As anyone can see, the green haired girl quite a “unoptimal attire”. Her name is Fiore and here is her art.
I’ve seen a lot of crazy outfits in games but this is reaches around the “i can’t even” tier. Everything looks so glued into her i have no idea how she managed to wear that in the first place.
But hey, i’m sure she must have a “good reason” to walk around like that right? According to one interview with the devs here:
F: I’d like to ask about a newly introduced character, Fiore. Is there a story behind her attire? (laugh)
K: In order to use spells in this world, mages must have a spellmark*** carved somewhere on their bodies. To show off the strength of her own spells, Fiore prefers to wear the kind of outfit that you’ve taken notice to. In Randock, the country that Fiore lives in, there are outfits used specially by Spellmark Mages, and you can customize these in any which way you want. I can ensure you they are far from being indecent (laugh).
Oh, so she needs to expose her skin to use her magic and “chose” to dress like that to show of her strenght!
At least she isnt breathing through her skin.(I wonder if these guys are laughing because even they can’t keep a serious face with this crap)But despite that, he isn’t wrong. I searched a bit and found out that this is “normal” in the Star Ocean universe. For example, this is Nel from Star Ocean: Till the end of time
As you can see, she “needs” to show off her thighs because the “magical marks”. But if that’s the case, then there are some problems here.
First is that, if Fiore really needs to show her marks, she doesnt need to show that much skin, only the necessary. And second is, Fiore doesnt have any marks. I keep looking the screenshots but cant find any.
This is even more disappointing. I mean, if you’re gonna invent a stupid excuse to make the character walk around semi-naked, at least go all the way and try to convince people, don’t lie about it and leave it that.
Yes, we featured that design before on BABD, and now that her special reasons for “choosing” to dress that way are revealed, it somehow got MUCH worse.
To be precise, Fiore does have a mark on her thigh, as seen in this pic of her on EscherGirls:
How does that explain wearing holes all over her body, not just that one spot on the leg? Hell if I know.
Dear Star Ocean crew: if you really want to excuse obvious sexualization with
a diegetic argument, then the least you could do is stay consistent within your own logic. It would still not be valid justification, but at least a less insulting one.
~Ozzie
Funcom’s “Mankini-Gate” double standard
pkudude99 submitted:
An interesting article over at Massively about the recent “Mankini” April Fool’s joke that Funcom put in, but then their upper management pulled: http://massively.joystiq.com/2014/04/10/chaos-theory-funcom-flubbed-it-with-the-secret-worlds-mankinig/
I think it was stupid of their management to do it, as does the article author. Why is this allowed for a woman:
But not this for a man:
There actually is a male version of that Egyptian outfit that shows quite a bit of skin too, but nothing like it does for the female version,but there are plenty of female-only outfits that are very scanty too. The worst of the lot is this one:
That’s why the April Fool’s joke worked so well — Funcom was poking fun at their own propensity for the double-standard. And that’s why I’m so upset with their management’s decision to pull the mankini outfit.
For grins, here’s a shot a blogger friend of mine took before they got yanked:
You’ll note the 3rd male in the shot is wearing a traditional speedo, and that’s been left in the game. I don’t see that it exposes any less skin than the mankini. I just don’t get it.
Well I suppose it was too much to hope that every executive in gaming would be as cool as Mark Long.
But really, after people have laughed and supported the joke is not the time to shut it down and try to pretend that it never happened.
Especially since the whole point of a mankini is that you can never unsee it.
– wincenworks
Apparently fans speculated it to be a copyright issue (but it’s highly unlikely)… Maybe Funcom wanted to be safe than sorry for not asking 20th Century Fox about official Borat licensing or something? ;P
~Ozzie
Bringing this back as a reminder of what happens when mainstream media actually sexualizes male characters.
– wincenworks
Tidy-Up Tuesday #7
This week’s points:
Please keep in mind this blog’s main concern are female warriors. If you see some other type of female character gratuitously sexualized in media, consider whether it’s a more appropriate submission to our related blogs, like eschergirls
When you see people trying to defend boob windows with claims that kunoichi (they mean female ninjas) flashed their boobs to dazzle opponents – these people are literally citing ridiculous anime and Japanese grindhouse films as historical documents. By the same logic, cars in America explode when they bump into any object.
As an expansion of this, if you see people citing the espionage technique known as the “honey trap” (or “honey pot”) as valid in combat – you can safely assume they have no clue how seduction works.
Things we covered before and got asked about recently:
- kylemistry, the empowered male Quiet cosplayer
- Sakura Clicker (also see Sakura Fantasy, to which it is a spinoff)
- Distraction bonus
– wincenworks & Ozzie
This was part of a much larger bit by Extra Credits on messages sent by games and how design decisions can (even unwittingly) transform games into propaganda. Games do have an interactive aspect, but the core principles remain true for any media product.
Overall it’s a very important aspect that creators should consider with any sort of system where appearance changes with progress – whether it’s part of item choice, character plot arc or just revising character appearances between chapters.
There’s a reason we have the “More Advanced Armor = Skimpier” box on the Female Armor Bingo.
– wincenworks
(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)