bloodstained – Bikini Armor Battle Damage

December 31, 2019February 19, 2022

Best and Worst of 2019

So a new year is upon us, it’s a good time to reflect on our best and worst of the past year. There’s always plenty of good stuff in our positive examples, and sexy male armor, tags of course.

The Best of 2019

Pretty good year for video games and other media in that more studios seem to be trending towards creating more equitable attire for characters to varying degrees. Even Games Workshop has released some new Sisters of Battle that look like formidable warriors (as opposed to well…), and have promised more. There are a few stand outs:

Captain Marvel by Marvel Entertainment

This movie was a great start to the year and addition to the dialogue regarding the Marvel movies. Representation of women and same-gender relationships were great discussions sparked by it, and it smashed a box office record in the process.

Control by Remedy Entertainment

Weird, compelling and a whole lot of destructive fun – the adventures for Jesse Faden warrant almost infinite exploration and interpretation – all without needing to engage in exploitation of women.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood by Arkane Studios & Machine Games

The iconic game of killing Nazis provided as with the new and exciting opportunity let the players co-operate as a pair sisters killing Nazis for themselves.

Apex Legends by Respawn Entertainment

Battle Royales are a big market right now, and it’s nice to see one that embraces diverse characters and provides the female characters with interesting roles and equipment (that is also practical looking)

And because I’m not too proud to admit to schadenfreude:

Sex Sells – Confirmed invalid, again

Amongst others we took great delight in that the attempts to use sex to sell by EM83R completely fall over, along with the release of the Kill la Kill video game going pretty much unnoticed.

The Worst of 2019

For simplicity I’ve limited this to major media and not the various groups of the worst people supporting the worst celebrities – because those people don’t need our platform and never change.

Mortal Kombat fanbase highlights general toxicity in gamer culture

So, Mortal Kombat 11 came out and it’s… well it’s a Mortal Kombat game, but a few changes to default designs and made a few female characters have less conventionally sexy outfits… and well, capital G gamers did not take it well:

(And of course, Final Fantasy had a small riot due to a portion of the cis male fan base having no idea of how boobs or bra sizes work)

League of Legends studio, Riot Games, confirmed as misogynistic cesspit

Throughout the year various details came out about the studio being a horrendous to female staff – to the point where a judge ruled they have to pay ten million dollars compensation to female employees. It’s good that they received some compensation, but it shows how the video game industry still has a long way and how if a studio’s products look like it doesn’t care about women… it probably doesn’t.

Media and platform capitulation to Nazis

If you’re wondering why you hadn’t seen more on Wolfenstein: Youngblood or Control, it’s because pretty much the vast majority of platforms such as Steam and rating services such as MetaCritic still want to take a hands-off approach to their communities because they just don’t care. Of course, there’s also the issue of how Kelly Marie Tran was all but written out of Rise of the Skywalker.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Well the game is out now and while it was celebrated for its nostalgic qualities, it sadly also carried along all the nostalgic ideas on how female character’s costumes should just be generically sexy without anything thought on… anything else at all… not even whether the clothes can even exist.

Of course, the comic industry remains a trash fire… for many years running now.

– wincenworks

June 23, 2019February 19, 2022

Okay so, when this got it’s first E3 announcement I expressed concern that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was:

Seems to be drifting away from being a gender-flipped love letter to the Castlevania and looking more and more like a cheap game hacked together with generic store-bought assets and all the creative focus on sexy outfits and sexy scenarios for the female characters.

Prior to that @gepwin bingo’d the concept art.

Apparently we were not alone in concerns about the appearance of this game, because Igarashi was so upset by the feedback on social media that he promised to prove people wrong:

So um… clearly this didn’t include fixing anything about the costume or general design. One interesting factor is the game now has items that change Miriam’s appearance, which implies that thing on her head is a headband, not horns…

Unfortunately the one item that doesn’t seem to change, is that hideous, unflattering dress which is sadly, far from the worst outfit on a female character in the game.

That um… those aren’t real clothes… nobody wear that. Shame that during the entire development process they couldn’t consult with someone who actually wears dresses and other feminine items – particularly if this is going to be the first boss in the game…

– wincenworks

July 5, 2017February 19, 2022

E3 Roundup

So, another E3 has come and gone and there’s been time for examination, follow up by developers, etc. As you may have guessed, there’s a lot going on and a lot to unpack.

For a general overview of gender and the theme of games, I recommend checking out the breakdown of this year’s E3 by @femfreq. The general gist, there’s a lot more gender incorporation than last year, but still more than three times with male protagonists as female.

For the representation of the female characters in the violent games, well as you’d expect there’s wild variation but way too much of it is still in the bikini armor or other worrying trope zone.

In the interests of not ruining your feed, the positive examples will be on the front post and the rest below the cut.

– wincenworks

I also highly recommend checking out Tauriq Moosa’s article at @ineeddiversegames:

The Violent Banality of E3 & the Need for Better

Positive Examples

Anthem by Bioware

While some of the civilian costumes seem a little worrying, however the core gameplay uses slick gender neutral armors that are engineered for efficiency. (Gameplay trailer) (Official Site)

Star Wars: Battlefront 2 by EA DICE

Due to the history of the property and the nature of the game, there’s better odds of generally getting to play an adorkable robot with a gun than a woman in the multi-player. However, seeing Iden Versio as the single player lead was a very pleasant and welcome surprise. Also the multiplayer will allow opportunities to play as Rey.
(Gameplay Trailer) (Official Site)

Dishonored: Death of the Outsider by Arkane Studios

Badass black lady assassin with a mechanical eye, mechanical arm and excellent suit! And Harvey Smith talking with @femfreq about how criticism helped Dishonored come so far.
(Gameplay trailer) (Official site)

Absolver by Sloclap

Unsurprisingly Absolver still looks amazing both with character design and the concept of being a fighting game where players benefit most from mutual respect and
(Gameplay video) (Official Site)

Overland by Finji

Charming art style that provides great personality to the characters and treats the female characters with equal dignity.
(Overland @ E3 2017 on Cliqist) (Official Site)

Ni no Kuni 2 by Studio Gibli

Adorable production from Gibli Studios that demonstrates how much personality, actual creativity and expression you can fit into a production when you don’t handcuff yourself to tired tropes born of old myths.
(Developer interview and gameplay video) (Official Site)

Metroid: Samus Returns by Nintendo

A tentative status as a positive example. Samus’ armor is significantly more form fitting than it was in the original Metroid 2 – but it’s great to see her back in a game that’s about her kicking ass in her power armor, with a bunch of enhancements to the gameplay experience.
(Game Reveal Video) (Official Site)

Not bad, but not great

Far Cry 5 by Ubisoft

Announced it will use a character creator, but traditionally Far Cry games have shown you precious little of your player character since they take place entirely through first person perspective. But, it’s definitely worth mentioning Grace Armstrong, a woman of color who will aid you as a well clad sniper.

Monster Hunter by Capcom

The new game was announced but there’s not enough info to know how many of their costumes will be great and how many will be terrible. Particularly since they only showed gameplay with a male character.

Games that depicted amazing action with no female protagonists:

God of War: Be A Warrior
Spider-man
Assassin’s Creed: Origins,

Unfortunate Surprises

Beyond Good and Evil 2 by Ubisoft

The original Beyond Good and Evil starred Jade, a heroic, well dressed woman of color with a pig as her sidekick. The trailer for the sequel has no Jade, but rather a trend of women as the decorative sidekick to animals who seem to parody cultures. And well, this happens in it.

It’s kind of a shame since the game is amazing at depicting black hair.

Uncharted 4: The Lost Legacy

I was really hoping to be able to include this one as a positive example, but honestly it’s hard to given that the extended gameplay trailer features a nonsensical twist that results in a minute and a half sequence of an Indian man glorifying human sacrifice while, in the background, a pair of generic guards beat on Nadine and hold her down like she’s a generic civilian in the background. No gif because I very, very sincerely hope none of our followers want to watch a black woman beaten and humiliated for cheap dramatic effect.

The pants and t-shits combinations of the protagonists are uninspired at best and seem to be trying to hedge in on sex appeal. Overall though, I’m not in any way convinced this is going to give either character the same opportunities that Nate and Sully got in every previous Uncharted game.

Vampyr by Dontnod

The trailer looks so good for the first three minutes, Victorian vampires without any detours into the male gaze or manipulation of the setting to get more skin in… then this shows up on the screen:

No female combatants in the gameplay displayed. Given the female character that does appear and Dontnod’s history, I can only assume this was a concession to the publisher.

Predictable Usual Suspects

Bloodstained: Ritual of Night by Koji Igarashi

Seems to be drifting away from being a gender-flipped love letter to the Castlevania and looking more and more like a cheap game hacked together with generic store-bought assets and all the creative focus on sexy outfits and sexy scenarios for the female characters.

Agents of Mayhem by Violition

The standard issue fair of the guys get big coats, body armor, etc and the female playable characters get weird harnesses to frame their boobs. Combine that with your demo target is a male performer who incorporates his sex appeal and this is pretty generic nonsense in denial.

Call of Duty: WWII by Sledgehammer Games

You may be surprised at this mention since there is quite a bit of buzz about how the Multiplayer will allow character customization that incorporates race and gender etc. Well that’s because the only way we know about this is 2nd hand reports from people who got to trial it and a tweet.

Blade Strangers by Studio Saizensen

Blade Strangers was already featured on BABD as perhaps the worst game, though perhaps we should have proposed an alternative title: “Did ANYONE ask for this?” Sadly it appears we were optimistic in this assessment.

Senran Kagura: Peach Beach Splash by Tamsoft

Okay so a game about young girls in bikinis running around shooting each other with water guns is kind of questionable to begin with, but when one of the bosses is defeated by blasting bubbles off her nude body and the trailer highlights a “soak their white bikini” mini-game you’ve gone past “I can’t believe it’s not porn” and into “disturbing and creepy” territory.

January 10, 2016

I was wondering if you have been following the Bloodstained Ritual of the Night game from kickstarter. The main character’s armor is ridiculous, she is in a weird looking short dress and boots but seems to be trying to protect one breast with a sort of over the shoulder front cape. To make matters worse, the new character designs have been getting closer to SoulCalibur’s Ivy proportions. I am still looking forward to the game but I hope the armor doesn’t continue to decline.

gepwin:

feministgamingmatters:

I hadn’t been following it, but I see what you mean.

(Source)

What I find somewhat confusing about this is that parts of the design aren’t terrible, like the boots and one of her gloves actually look armoured, I like her sword aesthetic, and they don’t seem to be emphasising cleavage (though in finding this I found many fanartists who do) but then the legs, and the back? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a weird armour where the back was completely exposed before.

It’s a shame to hear that they haven’t been doing well with the proportions of the newer characters. Hopefully they’ll be able to do better as the development goes on.

Now that you pointed out some of the better aspects I realized they are going for a more renaissance rapier armor style, but they still seem to be missing half the armor, and the rapier.

I didn’t know if the newer test shots have been around on the internet but the kickstarter updates seem like the design has changed a bit since the concept art (particularly in the chest department)

I know these are early shots, being used for shader tests but I personally feel they are starting to get into the realm of off-putting proportions.

Just for fun I did a @bikiniarmorbattledamage female armor bingo, just missing two squares.

We talked about Bloodstained back in May, and how Miriam looked more like she was going to a concert than on a gothic horror adventure… and it seems they’re moving less with the punk metal look and more at the “generic sexy female protagonist” look.

Well, generic sexy design inspired by goth and (presumably) Impa from Hyrule Warriors:

At least Impa got half-breastplate and some support underneath, and looked genuinely intimidating.

– wincenworks

January 10, 2016

gepwin:

I was wondering if you have been following the Bloodstained Ritual of the Night game from kickstarter. The main character’s armor is ridiculous, she is in a weird looking short dress and boots but seems to be trying to protect one breast with a sort of over the shoulder front cape. To make matters worse, the new character designs have been getting closer to SoulCalibur’s Ivy proportions. I am still looking forward to the game but I hope the armor doesn’t continue to decline.

gepwin:

feministgamingmatters:

I hadn’t been following it, but I see what you mean.

(Source)

What I find somewhat confusing about this is that parts of the design aren’t terrible, like the boots and one of her gloves actually look armoured, I like her sword aesthetic, and they don’t seem to be emphasising cleavage (though in finding this I found many fanartists who do) but then the legs, and the back? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a weird armour where the back was completely exposed before.

It’s a shame to hear that they haven’t been doing well with the proportions of the newer characters. Hopefully they’ll be able to do better as the development goes on.

Now that you pointed out some of the better aspects I realized they are going for a more renaissance rapier armor style, but they still seem to be missing half the armor, and the rapier.

I didn’t know if the newer test shots have been around on the internet but the kickstarter updates seem like the design has changed a bit since the concept art (particularly in the chest department)

I know these are early shots, being used for shader tests but I personally feel they are starting to get into the realm of off-putting proportions.

Just for fun I did a @bikiniarmorbattledamage female armor bingo, just missing two squares.

Well, generic sexy design inspired by goth and (presumably) Impa from Hyrule Warriors:

At least Impa got half-breastplate and some support underneath, and looked genuinely intimidating.

– wincenworks

May 23, 2015April 23, 2018

May 23, 2015April 12, 2019

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is the spiritual successor to Castlevania being put together by Koji Igarashi, the producer of many of the classic Castevania titles. It casts Miriam (top) as the Simon Belmont stand-in.

I mean it’s awesome that they’ve got a female protagonist but why is she going adventuring against monsters in a gothic horror land dressed like a punk goth lolita on her way to a Babymetal concert?

– wincenworks

So close, yet so far.

~Ozzie