A while back, I found the Female Armor Bingo Card by @bikiniarmorbattledamage and I remember seeing a particular candidate for that while binge watching Anime America. So I went ahead and did the bingo card with Dragon Half’s main character, Mink! Afterwards, I thought it would be fun to do a redesign of her, and even if it took me a while to finish, here she is! I love her color pallette, btw. ;D
Now this is a legit bingo contender! I think we could also mark “Boob window” and “Sharp ornamental pieces” too, scoring another row.
And just in case we get responses from people claiming that it’s ecchi comedy series, so any sort of non-porn sexualization goes… NOPE. Armor bikinis don’t start making more sense just because the series is made mostly of slapstic and fanservice.
I really enjoy the redesign, it’s cute and simple. Amazingly, giving her pants and a shirt doesn’t make this half-dragon heroine look any less like a fantasy character. And golden greaves, bracers, pauldrons and ornamentation still communicate both fantasy aesthetic and that she has a capacity to fight.
Thank you for the bingo contribution, @geistaku0719!
~Ozzie
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Elvenar continues to be the kind of game with very standard, unsexy strategy gameplay and completely unrelated marketing imagery that is basically Fantasy Porn™ (read: standard for web ads).
And this is the sort of design that amazes me. The kind that covers over half of the Female Armor Bingo card, but doesn’t manage to score a single row. All while not being a full body image. We can only assume whether it would score high heels and/or thigh-high boots if we saw more of this poor poor lady.
~Ozzie
That is very uncomfortable-looking bondage clothing
Thing I notice about Soul Calibur is that with every installment of the franchise new costume designs are introduced for established characters and they usually go the pretty straightforward path of de-evolution (see Sophitia as an example and keep in mind she’s far from the worst).
We already devoted a couple of bingos and stream redesigns to them, but with the SC’s momentum leading up to the prophecy, we will probably never catch up completely to every awful version of every female character in the games.
~Ozzie
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So… this latest version of Jeanne D’Arc (aka Joan of Arc) is apparently a dragon (hence the tail) but seems to also have incredibly ridiculous armor. Why does she look like a generic waifu? Um… honestly I have no idea, and I think I’m happiest not knowing – this is what the “main” dragons look like:
I’ve been trying to play the game since it came out, but the ridiculous outfits the ladies have are very distracting, and not in a “battle tactic” way; in a really off-putting way. And that’s without even talking about the game’s depiction of the protagonist’s sister.
So, on top of the other issues with SNK Heroines – it also has this odd quirk where one of the characters is Terry Brogard, who (if you’re ancient like me) you might remember from classic arcade side-scrolling beat-em-up Fatal Fury (first released in 1991).
Now, this design first appeared in SNK vs Capcom: Chaos as an effect that could be rendered by Dark Stalkers (ie Capcom) character Demitri Maximoff. Neither Demitri, nor any other Capcom influence appears in the game. Back in the original… Terry looked like this when changed:
It was 2003, which means this game is possibly older than some of you reading this blog (and probably older than anyone furiously typing a comment to defend this outfit). It was a one off gimmick for a game that was ultimately a transparent cash grab and generally agreed to be forgettable.
But, fast-forward to 2018 and it appears that SNK have decided that just because they don’t have a reason to, doesn’t mean they can’t explore the concept of gender-shifting in a serious, considered and mature… I can’t do this…
That’s right, putting a guy into a female body in a degrading outfit that makes fun of their origin is a “prank (?)”. The fuck did these people get up to in college? Are they considering the whole “abducted, put into a degrading costume and forced to fight your way out” part a prank to? Did anyone think about any aspect of this game before green lighting it?
Honestly if your best idea for a gender exploration/shift in a character is “a macho guy gets turned into a sexy woman, and is angry and humiliated… and just keeps checking their ass and boobs” (which is all Terry seems to care about when notified of the transformation… despite the suspicious lack of muscle tone, their old clothes, etc) you should just take that idea and burn it, then scatter the ashes and rethink your life.
Get this: the “plot” is that the villain kidnapped female characters from various SNK games, forcibly put them in fetishy costumes and makes them fight each other while he is watching as they feel completely humiliated.
Athena Asamiya’s default magical girl outfit is relatively tame in terms of showing skin (fetishization of girlish dresses is another issue entirely), but since there HAS to be at least one bikini-shaped look per character, the game makes up for it by giving her an alternative pre-existing costume of her namesake, Princess Athena from another game. As we all know, there can never be a single Athena in fiction >_>
Thong as a question mark because while the panties do not seem to be an actual g-string, those additional straps sure make it look more like stringy lingerie than comfortable underwear.
~Ozzie
Stay tuned, as one more SNK bingo is on its way… Now with extra trasphobia!
I’m surprised that neither version wears 5-inch heels, but I’d assume that is because with such botched anatomy and pose, balancing her on ridiculous stilettos would just make the figure physically impossible to make.
~Ozzie
Post marked as sensitive, because there’s no way this figure is safe for work.
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Bingo-ing her was a bit of a challenge. Not necessarily because Slash checks out too little or too many squares, but because a lot of elements, like the original’s crotch window and the new version’s crotch belt would require custom bingo to actually score.
~Ozzie
So, some of my friends started Quake Champions and I figured… this should be relatively safe game. I mean, the original Quake guy had a cube for a head and Quake 3 was… well for you kids who don’t remember the 20th century, it was what we killed our friends in before Fortnite and PUBG. The games industry has moved on in a lot of ways since then.
But apparently Slash’s outfit design (originally from Quake 3) has not moved on… just like, weirdly sideways and swapping out a garter-belt dress for a crotch belt. (and like… a leather garter belt under spandex shorts as well)
Please take a moment to consider how uncomfortable that would be to wear normally. Like, just standing around.
Now remember that Quake is the property that originally popularized (in first person shooters anyway) the gaming stunt we know as the “rocket jump” where one sets off an explosion underneath themselves mid-jump so the force of the explosion will launch them up.
For those of you typing comments frantically, yes it is true that Quake has never placed much emphasis on realism or even making sense – but I’m supposed to grimace in pain when I get gibbed with a rocket… not when I open up the character selection screen.
Hence it is now one of the few games/properties/products which I truly wish would return all the way back to it’s roots and the glory of 1996.
– wincenworks
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Ah, Gloria… What in the Nine Hells is even going on.
Gloria here is from Devil May Cry 4, where she is a high-ranking soldier. Yes, you read that right. She even demonstrates her “acrobatic and combat skills” in the game, to even the horror of VergilNero*, the main character. Watch the video at your own risk, not in public if possible.
For those who don’t want to scar their eyes and brains, here’s instead a picture of what the back of her “outfit” looks like:
In case you thought that the front of her could not be outdone.
-Icy
* The series really needs to consider in giving male leads distinct appearances or unique personalities… or maybe just personalities at all.
