I seem to be getting some pushback in my replies for some reason despite agreeing with the premise of the thread. I dunno, I feel like there could be a bit more thought put into online discussions. Sometimes I'll read posts on political topics on here - either jokes, or a stance being taken or whatever - and whether intentional or not, or possibly a misreading by me, it comes off as the political discourse equivalent of tackling a math problem by looking up the answer in the back of the math book and saying "solved it" instead of showing your work in your responses. I'm far from being a competent thought leader on most things, but I always enjoy trying to take a more holistic approach in my replies (sometimes long winded and clumsily articulated at times) and productively challenge anyone I'm talking too so hopefully that comes through.
I think Ico's world view has become clearer over the years. On the surface, Yorda doesn't have a lot to her, other than the fact that she's excessively passive, quiet, and so white she glows. However the combination of that, Ueda's statements, and his other work, points to some old-school sexism. Shadow of the Colossus featured another lady who has no identity beyond "dead" and "mother". Shadow of the Colossus also had to change a male composer, because to Ueda men are better at exciting action music. The Last Guardian couldn't possibly feature a girl because girls don't have the strength to climb, and people would look under the skirt she would obviously need to have.
It's hard to play Ico without thinking about that stuff now. The fact that the game is about a much younger boy yelling at and dragging Yorda around fits the pattern perfectly. This is not what people typically think of when they hear "objectification of women", but these two are little more than companion cubes. The only woman with agency in his games is the villain from Ico, which plays directly into the whole "young girls good, older women bad" trope.
Did he fire the composer of Ico because she was a woman he's reasoning was he needed a musician with more experience doing sweeping orchestral stuff instead of the ambient music she was known for? This is the first I've heard about that if what you're saying is true. Do you have a link to your source?
That said you're probably not wrong about his outdated thoughts on sex and gender roles. Unless it was a mistranslation or something he definitely said those things during a presentation. It opens up a conversation on how gender role norms intersect with various cultures for sure. Portraying women as sex objects is still considered acceptable to many developers in Japan. Though to be fair Ueda avoided that and also seems to portrays women characters with genuine compassion, even if they aren't the strong heroines we're used to in a lot of popular art and entertainment, so there's that.
So I think there's truth to your critique, sure. But I also imo before presenting an analysis of an artwork as solid conclusions I think it's important to keep in mind everything being communicated by said work that might conflict with your judgements.
Like for example your comments of Yorda being super passive and quiet: does it take into account the part of the story indicating she essentially lived her entire life as a caged bird in a castle dungeon? Is it unreasonable that anyone who's experienced that amount of sensory deprivation would probably have stunted mental development and a childlike wonderment of the world around them when seeing a sunny day for the first time?
That's why for me, personally, my reaction to Yorda wasn't, "Oh look, these Japanese game designers don't know what real females are like" as much as "this poor girl in this story is incredibly sensory deprived and traumatized from her situation. Her mental condition is so stunted that her chance to
get to be a more complex and strong woman was taken from her." It adds more gravitas to how Ico, a boy who was afforded some freedom until one day it was taken away, resulting in him being locked in a sarcophagus for a longer than comfortable amount of time, immediately connects with her on an empathetic level, as does the player, and that's why he and you want to protect her why there's emotional power in how their relationship develops over the course of the game.
So I think even though some of Ueda's comments that show an outdated view on gender and sex roles can be upsetting, it's important to get a solid read of the art and what it's communicating and also take the good with the bad and all the shades of grey in between regarding both the art and artist.
Btw, if the early concept images are any indication, his next game features a woman protagonist. Assuming there wasn't a miscommunication and he really did have those attitudes, it's possible he's changed his views and grown as a person and I feel that should be taken into account as well.
Where is the line between the political statement and gameplay when every boss or enemy you fight, most the environments you visit and all the game characters serve that statement? That's a way more involved political themes than 90% of the games that get complaints for being political today.
It really comes down to how "okay" people are with the political statement, rather than how much the game is affected by it. Would you really call Sonic a game where "making escapism and fun gameplay for general audiences is heavily prioritized over making a political artistic statement" if it had the exact same gameplay and level designs, but all the game's themes and characters were based around current social politics issues?
Well for me I guess it depends on how much the game is actually saying about the politics informing some of the design choices and whether or not that is something the developers are trying to do. Whether or not a creative work becomes a political artistic statement vs entertainment for general audiences kinda depends on to what extent the audience's enjoyment of it aligns with the artists's politics, wouldn't you say? If you're a hardline objectivist or a far right religious zealot, you probably won't have much fun playing the Bioshock games. And that's the point, ultimately. That's an example of good art that's made with the intent to be a political statement.
With that in mind, how effective would you say Sonic the Hedgehog is as a work of environmentalist art? Will it evoke discussion among the audience the way a movie about animal cruelty or deforestation might? Did the designers even intend to make something that serves that purpose?
Does Sonic the Hedgehog have as much to say about its environmentalist messaging as a book like The Jungle or movies like Koyaanisqatsi, Okja and Princess Mononoke? Is the game intended to educate or change anyone's mind or further the causes of environmentalist activism, or is the goal of the dev team mostly to curate fun escapist entertainment for general audiences, regardless of political leanings? Does anyone play Sonic for the politics or is it mostly because of the pretty visuals, the tunes and the fun, fast-paced gameplay? Is the political messaging at all prioritized over that stuff?
Hopefully you see my point more clearly/I communicated it clearly enough. Otherwise, I dunno, I feel like you're making a weird argument that's almost like saying a rollercoaster at a theme park should be considered a work of political art just because of the politics of those who built it or something. Most game developers who are good at what they do will be aware enough of their own politics and how it effects their design choices in the games they make, sure, but whether or not what they make is intended as something ranging from more apolitical entertainment (I don't see how anyone could say a game like Pong isn't an example of this) to art that functions primarily as satire, political commentary, etc and to what degree...to a large extent that depends on the goals of the developers regarding what they want to make, doesn't it?
Any creative work isn't as simple as one or the other. Usually you want to achieve multiple things, in varying degrees. E.g. he clearly wanted to make a thrilling fun platformer. but to developing the context (hugely important to the experience) he also wanted to give voice to some of his beliefs and portray that in-game.
Without lateral thinking and combining multiple goals like this, I guarantee you'd get no game in existence like the ones we enjoy. Even coming up with the basic concept of something like Tetris requires you to sit with pen and paper and brainstorm a bunch of themes/concepts, which will range from very political to barely political. But then during development it will pivot and layer up even more.
Of course. I never argued that, being humans who exist in the real world, members on game dev teams themselves will have politics which will come into play at some point amongst each other during the development process.