Dragalia Lost Some Clothes, Part 2
While Icy took on a character with obviously exotified outfit, I picked one whose sexualization was prooobably not meant to relate to racial coding. Her name is Malora… and judging by her clothes, she’s cowgirl mage? ¯_(ツ)_/¯
She just looks bad.
Actually, the biggest thing to fix was her face. Dragalia Lost artstyle promotes some fucked up facial proportions, yo!
Not only was her kittyface mouth waay too small and placed on her right cheek, the highlight representing her nose was so teeny tiny and high up that all I could do was to use it as a guide to bridge of her new nose. Including human nostrils.
Costume fix was pretty unintrusive in comparison to facial changes. I just didn’t want her to look so drafty. While I appreciated reasonable shorts under the mini skirt, I decided that a longer skirt fits my plans better, as I reworked her thigh high… boots? stockings? Did she wear shoes inside shorter shoes, and greaves on top? I liked their decorative design, so I changed the ‘inner shoes’ to tights.
Reworking the top part was a bit more challenging, not because of some original idea (I literally just gave her a non-crop shirt), but because between her boobs and her spine there was some subtle @eschergirls anatomy going on and it took a couple takes to make that vest work according to laws of physics on her chest. Hopefully with success.
Not my best or most radical redesign, I still hoped it helped.
~Ozzie
Dragalia Lost Some Clothes, Part 1
It’s quite unfortunate that Dragalia Lost ended up being another waifu collector mobile game, cause the gameplay mechanics were fun and interesting (before I got bored, as usual). We picked some of these ladies to give them clothes more appropriate for their station/role.
I personally found this image of Nefaria, who’s described as “a beautiful woman clad in foreign garb.” Now, I’m not saying that I hate this because she’s a woman of color, but it certainly doesn’t help.
My work culminated in 3 significant changes: I changed her face slightly to be less generic, I gave her an actual logical top that connects to her little tabbard, and I gave her cool pants. This was another project where I was trying to make the point that you can have cool designs that aren’t too different from the “sexy” version. It wouldn’t have been too much effort for a higher-up to request the changes I made.
I stayed with the “subtle nose highlight” style but made it a larger highlight, implying a larger nose. Give girls noses! It’s 2019!
Also, some pants.
They’re still fun, they still got a cut down the side, but now they’re waist-high pants. You don’t notice how low the shorts are on her hips in the original until you focus on it, and then it’s just ridiculous.
I also took her heels away, just for good measure. I love ruining the fun, as you all know.
-Icy
So, Control has rightfully been nominated for and received many great awards.
The game has many, many great things going for it including being of the best pieces of New Weird (with the proper implications).
But I personally think we should be talking about how Jesse Faden’s wardrobe is utterly amazing not just within the themes of the game, but just in each outfit tells a story and is perfectly designed for its stated purpose.
Every one of them is a distinct outfit which maintains the dignity and practicality of the protagonist, they are consistent with her personality and circumstances. None of them sexual her, even when specifically depowering her to create the feelings of helplessness and vulnerability.
A lot of that can be boiled down to two factors:
- Commitment to creating an entire world and complete story that will be compelling to the audience and a foundation for further expansion
- Hiring women into positions of creative influence and letting them take the lead in conversations that are relevant to women *
This is fantastic costume design, and I cannot recommend this game enough. It’s currently available on PlayStation, X-Box and the Epic Games Store. It will become available on Steam in August next year.
– wincenworks
* For those rushing to type a response about creative freedom etc, I can assure you that this game is very much still a Sam Lake story (perhaps the most Sam Lake story every) and he considers it to be one moreso than Quantum Break. The enemy of creative freedom isn’t diversity and inclusion, its risk adverse executives who believe in simplistic but comforting myths.
A New Take on The Old Republic costumes
Star Wars: The Old Republic typically has pretty good gender equality in their armors, but rarely there pop up some designs that are just old-fashioned. Not cause they’re 18th century tuxedos, it’s the double standard that’s old-fashioned… let’s just get into it.
Darth Sion Armor Set
I completely forgot about this guy cause I played Knights of the Old Republic 2 162 years ago, but Darth Sion is a shirtless angry man with scars(?), and this is his SWTOR armor set. I wasn’t too mad about the bare midriff in this since the dude version is bare-chested.
I was, however, and will continue to be, petty about the default for “lady equivalent of a shirtless man” being a literal bikini top. They had it so good with the back, but then dipped the neckline so far down in the front that it lost all of its support. There’s a reason sports bras have more than just an underwire.
(On the other hand, just adding a top means the pauldron isn’t nailed into her shoulder blade, like it is for the dudes.)
So my main effort went into adding the support back in, as well as giving her some girth. That’s my main complaint about the ladies in SWTOR: They’re all sticks! Even the “thicc” body type is miles off from the dude version. Granted, I didn’t give her the buff woman build I’d usually go for, but that’s because I was trying to prove a point; that the initial model wouldn’t have to change much to make her look like a fighter.
I also gave her some Sick Veins, cause that’s what the Siths get in SWTOR. (Where are my cool crackled-rock-scars, BioWare??) But I only drew that on one of the closeups, cause it was One of Those Days.
-Icy
Bold Hellion’s Armor Set
How anything about this glorified biker costume, male or female, says “armor”, I do not comprehend.
Since the dude version is also shirtless, I took much more issue with the suspicious dimorphism in how their bodies are depicted and gendered double standard in the cut of the costume, rather than with protective value.
It was one of Those Days, so I limited the redesign to giving the lady version a non-stick-figure body, which included replacing her teeny crop jacket with his, that also covered a lot more of her mid-section.
Basically my lowest effort redo so far, yet still just making her buff made quite a difference, I’d say.
~Ozzie
Vayla and Joan for @nightpiercer
I do love me some ladies that are dressed and ready to kick ass. Destiny (and its sequel) is a game that’s been pretty good about their armors remaining functional when a woman wears them. The class distinction here is also very clear with the designs, even if Joan didn’t have a bow out. These women are clearly armored for different purposes.
When the game first came out, I personally found their armors functional but boring from a design standpoint, but it seems they’ve been coming out with some Fun Things lately. We might talk about those sometime. ?
-Icy