Month: July 2016

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All The Racy Stuff Changed For Tokyo Mirage Sessions’ Western Release

All The Racy Stuff Changed For Tokyo Mirage Sessions’ Western Release

We talked about this when the game was fully announced around this time last year.  It seems that thankfully they decided to go the opposite direction to Valkyria and added shadows, costumes, etc to tone down the fan service.

Naturally brodudes are taking this well… I’m just kidding.

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They’ve also been on Twitter harassing translators who do localizations (like they make creative decisions) and insisting they just want “word for word translation no matter what”

Of course, people not intent on misunderstanding the concept of localization or attacking people for doing their jobs can formulate a pretty simple theory on why this release may be slightly different.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a combination of Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei but based off the sales figures available (looking at just Japan), it only sold about 10% of what Fire Emblem Fates did (special edition literally sold out on day one) and about 12% of what Shin Megami Tensei IV did.

They’re not terrible sales, but it’s got to be a disappointing result based off the two brands involved here. It’s almost like all this over emphasis on fan service and hyper-sexualization of female characters at the expense of the rest of the product doesn’t go down well with mainstream audiences in Japan either.

So now they’re trying make into a game people won’t avoid for fear having to have an awkward talk if someone walks in while they’re playing it.

– wincenworks

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All The Racy Stuff Changed For Tokyo Mirage Sessions’ Western Release

All The Racy Stuff Changed For Tokyo Mirage Sessions’ Western Release

We talked about this when the game was fully announced around this time last year.  It seems that thankfully they decided to go the opposite direction to Valkyria and added shadows, costumes, etc to tone down the fan service.

Naturally brodudes are taking this well… I’m just kidding.

image
image

They’ve also been on Twitter harassing translators who do localizations (like they make creative decisions) and insisting they just want “word for word translation no matter what”

Of course, people not intent on misunderstanding the concept of localization or attacking people for doing their jobs can formulate a pretty simple theory on why this release may be slightly different.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions is a combination of Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei but based off the sales figures available (looking at just Japan), it only sold about 10% of what Fire Emblem Fates did (special edition literally sold out on day one) and about 12% of what Shin Megami Tensei IV did.

They’re not terrible sales, but it’s got to be a disappointing result based off the two brands involved here. It’s almost like all this over emphasis on fan service and hyper-sexualization of female characters at the expense of the rest of the product doesn’t go down well with mainstream audiences in Japan either.

So now they’re trying make into a game people won’t avoid for fear having to have an awkward talk if someone walks in while they’re playing it.

– wincenworks

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…when one male character criticizes a woman for going into battle with her shirt hanging open, which is really the snake eating its own tail of video game sexism in a game where a significant portion of its speaking female characters are similarly and impractically exposed.

Arthur Gies, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review: Off the path

A relevant follow up the question of how does one satirize bikini armor, specifically that one does not do it by blaming a fictional character for the clothing chosen for her by the creator.

Particularly not if one is going to then normalize it within their media, which has normalized this excuse to the extent that it appears on the rhetoric bingo card.

– wincenworks

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…when one male character criticizes a woman for going into battle with her shirt hanging open, which is really the snake eating its own tail of video game sexism in a game where a significant portion of its speaking female characters are similarly and impractically exposed.

Arthur Gies, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Review: Off the path

A relevant follow up the question of how does one satirize bikini armor, specifically that one does not do it by blaming a fictional character for the clothing chosen for her by the creator.

Particularly not if one is going to then normalize it within their media, which has normalized this excuse to the extent that it appears on the rhetoric bingo card.

– wincenworks

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Tidy Up Tuesday #43

From time to time we receive questions relating to armor or battle in general, requests for feedback on designs or more in depth analysis of outfits that doesn’t really fit the focus of this blog.

So, wincenworks is now experimenting with a side blog that will focus on addressing those gaps – called, creatively enough: How do I armour and stuff? 

If you have sent any such requests or queries to BABD then please feel free to re-send them there (Tumblr really doesn’t facilitate cross blog submissions)

It has been brought to our attention that the recently featured US Avengers comic unfortunately greatly whitens Roberto da Costa – so while we love Toni’s armor we do not endorse the comic it’s unfortunately debuting in.

Things we addressed before:

~Ozzie & – wincenworks

Posted on

Tidy Up Tuesday #43

From time to time we receive questions relating to armor or battle in general, requests for feedback on designs or more in depth analysis of outfits that doesn’t really fit the focus of this blog.

So, wincenworks is now experimenting with a side blog that will focus on addressing those gaps – called, creatively enough: How do I armour and stuff? 

If you have sent any such requests or queries to BABD then please feel free to re-send them there (Tumblr really doesn’t facilitate cross blog submissions)

It has been brought to our attention that the recently featured US Avengers comic unfortunately greatly whitens Roberto da Costa – so while we love Toni’s armor we do not endorse the comic it’s unfortunately debuting in.

Things we addressed before:

~Ozzie & – wincenworks

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For Independence Day Marvel released an Avengers spinoff with Toni Ho in an “iron” outfit that looks a-m-a-z-i-n-g.  Sadly the other outfits for female characters aren’t up to scratch and I have my doubts about the overall concept  – but I’m really digging this sci-fi armor.

– wincenworks

(@philreplies has pointed out that this comic does have the unfortunate issue of rather drastically whitening Roberto da Costa – so it seems that perhaps Toni’s outfit is the only positive)

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The Impossibility of Satirizing Game Art [NSFW!]

The Impossibility of Satirizing Game Art [NSFW!]

A really good piece by @wundergeek​ on the topic we brought up before: the difficulty of making satire look like satire, instead of just straight-up reproducing whatever it’s supposed to comment on.

Because the important thing to remember about satire is this: what makes something successful satire is how it is viewed by the audience, not what the author or creator’s intentions behind the creation were. When you create art, you don’t get to tell people how they will respond to it. They bring their own feelings and experiences to the table, and the best intentions in the world won’t make offensive art any less offensive.

Indeed, there’s a delicate balance between recreating parts of the thing you’re parodying and adding the edge of self-awareness which communicates that your aim is humor and criticism. And there’s no edge in just wink-wink, nudge-nudge sleazy “ironic” tone. 

The key to good satire is a twist that distinguishes deliberate ridiculousness from clueless one. Otherwise, there is no difference between the two products and the audience won’t recognize the author’s intent.

Big thanks to nomotog for directing us at it.

~Ozzie

Posted on

The Impossibility of Satirizing Game Art [NSFW!]

The Impossibility of Satirizing Game Art [NSFW!]

A really good piece by @wundergeek​ on the topic we brought up before: the difficulty of making satire look like satire, instead of just straight-up reproducing whatever it’s supposed to comment on.

Because the important thing to remember about satire is this: what makes something successful satire is how it is viewed by the audience, not what the author or creator’s intentions behind the creation were. When you create art, you don’t get to tell people how they will respond to it. They bring their own feelings and experiences to the table, and the best intentions in the world won’t make offensive art any less offensive.

Indeed, there’s a delicate balance between recreating parts of the thing you’re parodying and adding the edge of self-awareness which communicates that your aim is humor and criticism. And there’s no edge in just wink-wink, nudge-nudge sleazy “ironic” tone. 

The key to good satire is a twist that distinguishes deliberate ridiculousness from clueless one. Otherwise, there is no difference between the two products and the audience won’t recognize the author’s intent.

Big thanks to nomotog for directing us at it.

~Ozzie