As much as P5 is about stopping corruption in politics and changing society on the basic level.
I do love his long blue hair though. Hopefully P6 will have a FeMC in a few years.
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Why women criticise sexualised character designs | OT3 | "make her look more...corpulent, more stuffed where the eyes can't escape."
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As much as P5 is about stopping corruption in politics and changing society on the basic level.
I do love his long blue hair though. Hopefully P6 will have a FeMC in a few years.
I like that you can see the pseudo organic bits from her Fusion Suit underneath this version of the Power Suit.Speaking of E3, what are your thoughts on Samus's new power suit in the upcoming Metroid Dread?
I honestly think it's a great update to her classic design, but I need to see more footage of what Samus looks like outside of the power armour before making a call on this one.
Took a clip from the Treehouse segment for Metroid, contains a boss if you don't want to watch it. (for some reason the embed isn't working)
Maybe it's because I'm playing a lot of FTL, but her helmet lights remind me of the Stealth Cruiser a bit:
This is the most badass Samus has ever looked with these cut-scene/interactive animations.
The Queen remains in charge
The game is looking great, and I'm happy that the development team are straying away from Samus's portrayal in Metroid: Other M. THIS is what she's supposed to be; a melancholic, heroic loner of few words that doesn't flinch at the sight of danger.
Now I'm curious to see what Samus non-armoured design looks like, but it will be ages before we will probably see it.
As much as I liked Persona 5: Royal, it definitely had it's share of questionable material (along other issues) that hampers the experience for me upon revisiting it. And as much as I want a FeMC to be the new face of Persona 6, I have my doubt's P-Studio/Atlus will be that daring to take a page out of SMT: IF to make another canonical Female Protagonist.
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I mean this is way after M and Fusion.
Adams dies in M and in Fusion a AI that a version of Adam helps Samus to come to terms of the lost and help her look to what her future will be in a mature way compare to M where she was a crappy teen.
Sure, but remember that M released after Fusion and I suspect that they were trying to alleviate concerns that it won't be like M with that phrasing.
This might be an obsolete impression formed back when gaming was really male dominated, and Final Fantasy had a relatively high percentage of female players. The only statistic I can find about FF's gender ratio was for FF14, which was about 30% female overall or 50% female in South Korea. That is much better than the 10% for Monster Hunter Frontier Online or the 20% from Phantasy Star Online, but it is pretty low compared to games that deliberately try to appeal to both male and female players [1]. Compare to the female player percentage in some other popular online games:
- Honor of Kings (MOBA): 54%
- Knives Out (battle royale FPS): 51%
- Onmyoji (hero collector JRPG): 59% China, 50% South Korea
- Jianxia Qingyuan (MMORPG): 50%
[1] Not necessarily a good thing. As the NetEase page suggests, some of these companies advertise the high percentage of women as a feature to get men to play. This is why I think comments like "just make husbandos to compete with the waifus" are better treated as genuine threats rather than deflections. That strategy has been deployed to great commercial success in parts of Asia (including India, it seems, where 45% of female mobile gamers named PUBG as their favorite game before it was banned), and this success significantly reduces the financial motivation for companies to adopt progressive female characters.
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Last year NHK had a FF popularity poll which also included gender ratios for some games:
I guess it could give a rough picture of what the Japanese demographics for the series look like but there's still the rest of the world.
結果発表｜全ファイナルファンタジー大投票｜NHK
ファイナルファンタジーの全てを網羅したデータベースから、人気作品を視聴者が選ぶ史上初の「全ファイナルファンタジー大投票」。
www.nhk.or.jp
I guess it could give a rough picture of what the Japanese demographics for the series look like but there's still the rest of the world.
The only element of Samus's new suit I'm iffy on is the boots but I imagine it's a hint at some new ability Samus will have. Otherwise I love the color scheme and the design, especially the techno-organic pieces.
Came across a Fire Emblem-like on Steam called Dark Deity. Immediately looking at the screenshots...
I spotted one woman in normal armour, but the character showcase video also shows more female characters with boob armour, tight corsets, zettai ryouki, etc. Meanwhile the guys all look normal of course. Sigh.
Oh, and their Kickstarter apparently had a stretch goal for... "Beach Mode"? (cringe)
I spotted one woman in normal armour, but the character showcase video also shows more female characters with boob armour, tight corsets, zettai ryouki, etc. Meanwhile the guys all look normal of course. Sigh.
Oh, and their Kickstarter apparently had a stretch goal for... "Beach Mode"? (cringe)
With Three Houses being a bit of a fluke, we can't be sure IntSys is learning the right lessons either. >_>
Last year NHK had a FF popularity poll which also included gender ratios for some games:
結果発表｜全ファイナルファンタジー大投票｜NHK
ファイナルファンタジーの全てを網羅したデータベースから、人気作品を視聴者が選ぶ史上初の「全ファイナルファンタジー大投票」。www.nhk.or.jp
I guess it could give a rough picture of what the Japanese demographics for the series look like but there's still the rest of the world.
Honestly I'm more surprised by the age differences.
To be honest probably not considering heroes and we'll still quite a few designs and questionable things in 3houses.
Looking through their Twitter, it is a bit disappointing that several of the female characters that do look better designed for combat did not get featured in the showcase video or did not get focused on.
Came across a Fire Emblem-like on Steam called Dark Deity. Immediately looking at the screenshots...
I spotted one woman in normal armour, but the character showcase video also shows more female characters with boob armour, tight corsets, zettai ryouki, etc. Meanwhile the guys all look normal of course. Sigh.
Oh, and their Kickstarter apparently had a stretch goal for... "Beach Mode"? (cringe)
Welp. I literally just added that to my wishlist 5 minutes ago, and now to remove it. I've got so much shit to play already, why bother?
What?
Most femslash is not by men. Plus I have no idea what you are trying to say
What do you people think about Sarah Kerrigan's design from Starcraft 2?
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Playing the game, I couldn't help but feel that one of the mandates in designing her was to make sure she kept some "hot woman" attributes. Large breast, slim figure, bones shaped like a g-string.... She has high heels! Armored high heels. Like, her feet is in the shape of high heels. That's zerg perfection.
Playing the game, I couldn't help but feel that one of the mandates in designing her was to make sure she kept some "hot woman" attributes. Large breast, slim figure, bones shaped like a g-string.... She has high heels! Armored high heels. Like, her feet is in the shape of high heels. That's zerg perfection.
What do you people think about Sarah Kerrigan's design from Starcraft 2?
Playing the game, I couldn't help but feel that one of the mandates in designing her was to make sure she kept some "hot woman" attributes. Large breast, slim figure, bones shaped like a g-string.... She has high heels! Armored high heels. Like, her feet is in the shape of high heels. That's zerg perfection.
It's sexed up in a really bizarre way. Her SC1/Broodwar design is also "the monster you want to screw" format, Blizzard is big on the "females must be desirable no matter what" ideals, but they really did go over the edge with SC2
It's weird that Kerrigan's most conservative outfit is her ghost outfit, which is basically a boob sock.
Cortana is an odd duck because her design hasn't really changed from 2001, but the increase in graphics rendering has made her original design look worse.
IMO the first isn't bad, but that's mainly because she mostly just a purple translucent silhouette. They don't go overboard on the 'naked lady' bits because they quite literally can't. But you can tell as they were able too they kept upping the 'naked lady' factor. Plus, when Cortana was the only AI we knew her being 'naked' wasn't a big deal, but as soon as we saw other AI, all of whom where clothed, then Cortana's who 'deal' becomes way more transparent.
I am curious, using the above picture, at what point does it become too much for you? I think I'm okay with the first two, because at that point it's still mainly just a semi-see through shape. By 3 they're doing a bit too much with defining her breasts that it starts to look creepy.
IMO the first isn't bad, but that's mainly because she mostly just a purple translucent silhouette. They don't go overboard on the 'naked lady' bits because they quite literally can't. But you can tell as they were able too they kept upping the 'naked lady' factor. Plus, when Cortana was the only AI we knew her being 'naked' wasn't a big deal, but as soon as we saw other AI, all of whom where clothed, then Cortana's who 'deal' becomes way more transparent.
I am curious, using the above picture, at what point does it become too much for you? I think I'm okay with the first two, because at that point it's still mainly just a semi-see through shape. By 3 they're doing a bit too much with defining her breasts that it starts to look creepy.
It's fine, but I was hoping for something with a more organic biological look.Speaking of E3, what are your thoughts on Samus's new power suit in the upcoming Metroid Dread?
I honestly think it's a great update to her classic design, but I need to see more footage of what Samus looks like outside of the power armour before making a call on this one.
What's odd is the pose is fundamentally different in 4 compared to the other three.Cortana is an odd duck because her design hasn't really changed from 2001, but the increase in graphics rendering has made her original design look worse.
IMO the first isn't bad, but that's mainly because she mostly just a purple translucent silhouette. They don't go overboard on the 'naked lady' bits because they quite literally can't. But you can tell as they were able too they kept upping the 'naked lady' factor. Plus, when Cortana was the only AI we knew her being 'naked' wasn't a big deal, but as soon as we saw other AI, all of whom where clothed, then Cortana's who 'deal' becomes way more transparent.
I am curious, using the above picture, at what point does it become too much for you? I think I'm okay with the first two, because at that point it's still mainly just a semi-see through shape. By 3 they're doing a bit too much with defining her breasts that it starts to look creepy.
Cortana is an odd duck because her design hasn't really changed from 2001, but the increase in graphics rendering has made her original design look worse.
IMO the first isn't bad, but that's mainly because she mostly just a purple translucent silhouette. They don't go overboard on the 'naked lady' bits because they quite literally can't. But you can tell as they were able too they kept upping the 'naked lady' factor. Plus, when Cortana was the only AI we knew her being 'naked' wasn't a big deal, but as soon as we saw other AI, all of whom where clothed, then Cortana's who 'deal' becomes way more transparent.
I am curious, using the above picture, at what point does it become too much for you? I think I'm okay with the first two, because at that point it's still mainly just a semi-see through shape. By 3 they're doing a bit too much with defining her breasts that it starts to look creepy.
Halo 4.
3 started the boob nonsense, but 4 went full "no, let's make the data stream look like skin and Cortana a sexy model." 343, stop.
For comparison, this is her SC1 look:What do you people think about Sarah Kerrigan's design from Starcraft 2?
They follow the same basic design philosophy of a sexy woman's shape with various inhuman modifications. You can say one model is better than the other in some ways, but overall they follow the same design template. As for what that template is, you described it pretty well, so nothing to add there.
Digital Devil Saga 2 had the MC and one of the female chars fuse into one gender ambiguous being. I feel like the spin-offs are allowed to be more off beat compared to mainline SMT, so I don't expect anything. SMT5 is probably just a fabulous dude. Which is fine. SMT leads are more or less consistently okay with me. Would be nice to have more women, tho.
Halo 4 really wanted people to know that Cortana is naked.
Wanted to talk about Samus a bit more, since folk here weren't into it.
Samus has been horribly sexualized since Metroid's origin, having her suit taken off of her as a reward for players who finish the game. Worse, she's been increasingly sexualized in the years since, with the Zero Suit Samus version of her giving her skin-tight suits, sexualized posing and camera gaze, high heels, and anime-objectification-caliber body proportions.
Despite that, Samus' power suit has been kept a statement in androgyny. Samus is a woman, but her identity doesn't need to be defined by femininity. This is her work suit, not a symbol of her sexuality. And, for the most part, Nintendo and its partners have maintained that idea across decades of games. Even through the Metroid Prime series and Other M.
That changed with Samus Returns, however. And is now being doubled down on in Metroid: Dread. Instead of androgynous armor, Samus' power suit is better equated to a formfitting superhero bodysuit from the underboob down. She's being given high heels. And her sexualized proportions are incomparable to the original bounty/hunter soldier Nintendo first concepted her as.
Her design has more clearly stated with Zero Suit Samus and had the visually significant chest, shoulders, and helmet pieces fit on top of that. But it's not like those armor pieces have gone unaffected. The chestpiece is more pronounced to look like breasts, the shoulders are -significantly- smaller, and the head and neck specifically have changed. Specifically, Samus' power suit has never really had a neck. But in Samus Returns and now Dread, her neck is pronounced and -tiny.- Again, almost certainly done in part to feminize (and sexualize) her look while in the power suit.
If the design of Samus' new armor in Samus Returns and Dread wasn't persuasive enough, then Samus' posing, animations, and camera angles in Samus Returns and also in the new Dread should be persuasive. It's completely different, much more focused on her chest and butt, animates her to be lithe rather than a person in a powerful mechanical suit -- stomping around and hunched back.
Is Samus being grossly objectified? Only in her zero suit stuff. But it's still a frustrating and disappointing further sexualization of a character that's valued in part for not being that.
Samus has been horribly sexualized since Metroid's origin, having her suit taken off of her as a reward for players who finish the game. Worse, she's been increasingly sexualized in the years since, with the Zero Suit Samus version of her giving her skin-tight suits, sexualized posing and camera gaze, high heels, and anime-objectification-caliber body proportions.
Despite that, Samus' power suit has been kept a statement in androgyny. Samus is a woman, but her identity doesn't need to be defined by femininity. This is her work suit, not a symbol of her sexuality. And, for the most part, Nintendo and its partners have maintained that idea across decades of games. Even through the Metroid Prime series and Other M.
That changed with Samus Returns, however. And is now being doubled down on in Metroid: Dread. Instead of androgynous armor, Samus' power suit is better equated to a formfitting superhero bodysuit from the underboob down. She's being given high heels. And her sexualized proportions are incomparable to the original bounty/hunter soldier Nintendo first concepted her as.
Her design has more clearly stated with Zero Suit Samus and had the visually significant chest, shoulders, and helmet pieces fit on top of that. But it's not like those armor pieces have gone unaffected. The chestpiece is more pronounced to look like breasts, the shoulders are -significantly- smaller, and the head and neck specifically have changed. Specifically, Samus' power suit has never really had a neck. But in Samus Returns and now Dread, her neck is pronounced and -tiny.- Again, almost certainly done in part to feminize (and sexualize) her look while in the power suit.
If the design of Samus' new armor in Samus Returns and Dread wasn't persuasive enough, then Samus' posing, animations, and camera angles in Samus Returns and also in the new Dread should be persuasive. It's completely different, much more focused on her chest and butt, animates her to be lithe rather than a person in a powerful mechanical suit -- stomping around and hunched back.
Is Samus being grossly objectified? Only in her zero suit stuff. But it's still a frustrating and disappointing further sexualization of a character that's valued in part for not being that.
I don't remember if it's outright stated story-wise that she got de-fused from the Fusion Suit, but Fusion's fastest clear endings do show her unsuited like the other games. The Fusion unsuited design is also one of the alt costumes for ZSS in Smash.
Here's hoping she stays in the new suit throughout Dread and its endings (or gets a cooler one), but it doesn't seem terribly likely.
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The Dread suit has bits of organic parts on it around the shoulders and legs, so I think some amount of the Fusion suit remains, unless those parts tie into Dread's story in some way.
I really hope that Samus stays in her suit for a change, and that if she does, I hope it will stay like that for all future Metroid releases. I can't help but lose respect for her for all those games she comes out of the suit as a reward to consume for the presumed straight males Gamers/DudeBros out there. I honestly like her a lot better when she's in the suit. She's so much cooler in the suit than when she is outside of it.
The only one time I liked it when she was outside the suit was when she was leaving the Chozo Ruins in Metroid Prime, and she took off the helmet to mourn for the Chozos, whom were literally her family figure. That part felt so humanistic, realistic, and reasonable. Plus the way she looked tired and weary, from all the output she gives to make it through the planets was very realistic too. In that cutscene, I felt very empathetic towards her. Even though this was the only thing I liked, I still at the same time think and feel that moments like these can still be heartfelt, touching, connecting, relatable, personable, compassionate, humanized, and such without taking off the helmet.
Everything that isn't that was straight up pandering, catering, and all that. I literally call her Space Barbie (and a Gamer DudeBros's Space Barbie too while at it) when she's outside of her suit, that's how much respect is lost for her. I mean, does she end up spending her hard earned bounty hunter money on barbie'ing herself up? Buying hair dyes, hair appointments, skin care routines, make up, high heels/stilettos, vacuum sealed skin tight body suits, plastic surgery, etc? When she could, I don't know, spend it on something better, like power ups that can actually stay with her for the next games? Or ship upgrades? I'd argue she can even buy herself a house! Somewhere to call home! Even though I understand she lives in her ship, essentially speaking, but still, that'd be a better option! Lol.
Also, conversely, if Halo/Master Chief & Doom/Doomguy can stay in his suit at all times, no matter how well (speedrunning, collecting everything) or not well (just playing casually) you play his games, so can Metroid/Samus Aran when you play her games. Forget this sexist/misogynistic rhetoric "bUt HoW wILl i KnOw It'S a GiRl???"... I mean, even her suit is super feminine, with the way her suit gives off the hourglass figure and hints at other assets such as the chest plate... which should change as well, hopefully somewhere down the line. I'd say work with Super/Prime/Samus Return 3DS suits, of that armored caliber, and then take away those feminized figures.
Anyway, Samus, just please... stay in your suit in Metroid Dread, the upcoming Metroid Prime 4, and all future new Metroid games and future remake Metroid games, PLEASE! I want to finally recognize you as a true female character that I can look up to, in terms of a power fantasy, and you as your character with everything you go through in your games! Be a "Strong Female Lead" for us women/girls, and not for Gamer DudeBros out there.
The only one time I liked it when she was outside the suit was when she was leaving the Chozo Ruins in Metroid Prime, and she took off the helmet to mourn for the Chozos, whom were literally her family figure. That part felt so humanistic, realistic, and reasonable. Plus the way she looked tired and weary, from all the output she gives to make it through the planets was very realistic too. In that cutscene, I felt very empathetic towards her. Even though this was the only thing I liked, I still at the same time think and feel that moments like these can still be heartfelt, touching, connecting, relatable, personable, compassionate, humanized, and such without taking off the helmet.
Everything that isn't that was straight up pandering, catering, and all that. I literally call her Space Barbie (and a Gamer DudeBros's Space Barbie too while at it) when she's outside of her suit, that's how much respect is lost for her. I mean, does she end up spending her hard earned bounty hunter money on barbie'ing herself up? Buying hair dyes, hair appointments, skin care routines, make up, high heels/stilettos, vacuum sealed skin tight body suits, plastic surgery, etc? When she could, I don't know, spend it on something better, like power ups that can actually stay with her for the next games? Or ship upgrades? I'd argue she can even buy herself a house! Somewhere to call home! Even though I understand she lives in her ship, essentially speaking, but still, that'd be a better option! Lol.
Also, conversely, if Halo/Master Chief & Doom/Doomguy can stay in his suit at all times, no matter how well (speedrunning, collecting everything) or not well (just playing casually) you play his games, so can Metroid/Samus Aran when you play her games. Forget this sexist/misogynistic rhetoric "bUt HoW wILl i KnOw It'S a GiRl???"... I mean, even her suit is super feminine, with the way her suit gives off the hourglass figure and hints at other assets such as the chest plate... which should change as well, hopefully somewhere down the line. I'd say work with Super/Prime/Samus Return 3DS suits, of that armored caliber, and then take away those feminized figures.
Anyway, Samus, just please... stay in your suit in Metroid Dread, the upcoming Metroid Prime 4, and all future new Metroid games and future remake Metroid games, PLEASE! I want to finally recognize you as a true female character that I can look up to, in terms of a power fantasy, and you as your character with everything you go through in your games! Be a "Strong Female Lead" for us women/girls, and not for Gamer DudeBros out there.
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The reception in here has been on the positive side, with two people commenting on the legs. (With me being iffy on the boots but only for aesthetic reasons.)
Won't disagree with you there. Samus outside of the Power Suit has been a problem since Day 1, to differing degrees, and the Zero Suit compounded things terribly.
This is where I start disagreeing with you, the Power Suit started becoming more feminized with Super Metroid. That's when the Power Suit (technically the Varia Suit) started to have the distinct waistline along with an hourglass figure. There's more to the design to offset that but it set the standard for the Suit up until Other M.
Other M is when Power Suit was made sleeker/smoother and I guess you could say feminized a bit more. Also when the neck became more pronounced. (Looking at in-game models it really started with the Prime games.) This was the design used as the base for Samus Returns.
However the Varia Suit ended up being bulkier and less smooth in Samus Returns, putting it closer to the Super/Prime era standard.
I can partly see where you are coming from regarding Dread's Power Suit being more sexualized. I'd say it looks more like light Mass Effect human armor in terms of it emphasizing a traditionally feminine form (from the chest down). However, she doesn't have high heels, she has chunky boot heels. The design for the ankle and segmentation of the heel just makes it look different. I don't think it's nearly as incomparable to previous designs as you think, considering this is probably the new Power Suit with one Varia tier upgrade at most. Any suit upgrades past the Varia tier are almost never shown prior to release, so I expect her final suit's form to be less sleek and have more flourishes.
Even in the most unflattering shot I can find, it doesn't bother me.
When you start talking about her chest armor being pronounced to evoke breasts you lose me completely. Try as I might, I can't see whatever it is you are perceiving. Though with the above shot and one segment in the reveal trailer, I can see where you are coming from regarding male gaze in the cutscenes. I disagree about her being animated too lightly, there's still some stiffness to her slow walk. Samus is a warrior with the grace of a gymnast in power armor, some amount of lithe is to be expected.
At the end of the day, I really dig her design and she looks like a power fantasy to me.
Against my better judgment I'm playing P5 Royal
I unlocked the Showtime attack for Ann and Morgana
It's cool that Ann's boobs very visibly jiggle during it
I'm glad this game just sucks absolute shit regarding her as soon as Kamoshida's arc is over
I unlocked the Showtime attack for Ann and Morgana
It's cool that Ann's boobs very visibly jiggle during it
I'm glad this game just sucks absolute shit regarding her as soon as Kamoshida's arc is over
Hehe, I appreciate your post a lot, it's synonymous and similar to mine. I really relate to your post too!
The reception in here has been on the positive side, with two people commenting on the legs. (With me being iffy on the boots but only for aesthetic reasons.)
Won't disagree with you there. Samus outside of the Power Suit has been a problem since Day 1, to differing degrees, and the Zero Suit compounded things terribly.
This is where I start disagreeing with you, the Power Suit started becoming more feminized with Super Metroid. That's when the Power Suit (technically the Varia Suit) started to have the distinct waistline along with an hourglass figure. There's more to the design to offset that but it set the standard for the Suit up until Other M.
Other M is when Power Suit was made sleeker/smoother and I guess you could say feminized a bit more. Also when the neck became more pronounced. (Looking at in-game models it really started with the Prime games.) This was the design used as the base for Samus Returns.
However the Varia Suit ended up being bulkier and less smooth in Samus Returns, putting it closer to the Super/Prime era standard.
I can partly see where you are coming from regarding Dread's Power Suit being more sexualized. I'd say it looks more like light Mass Effect human armor in terms of it emphasizing a traditionally feminine form (from the chest down). However, she doesn't have high heels, she has chunky boot heels. The design for the ankle and segmentation of the heel just makes it look different. I don't think it's nearly as incomparable to previous designs as you think, considering this is probably the new Power Suit with one Varia tier upgrade at most. Any suit upgrades past the Varia tier are almost never shown prior to release, so I expect her final suit's form to be less sleek and have more flourishes.
Even in the most unflattering shot I can find, it doesn't bother me.
When you start talking about her chest armor being pronounced to evoke breasts you lose me completely. Try as I might, I can't see whatever it is you are perceiving. Though with the above shot and one segment in the reveal trailer, I can see where you are coming from regarding male gaze in the cutscenes. I disagree about her being animated too lightly, there's still some stiffness to her slow walk. Samus is a warrior with the grace of a gymnast in power armor, some amount of lithe is to be expected.
At the end of the day, I really dig her design and she looks like a power fantasy to me.
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if we disagree then we disagree. you seem agree with me on most of the important points that i'd say matter, only you come to a conclusion of approval instead of disappointment. which, at that point, there's nothing much left to say. I'll admit I'm surprised, though. the high heel boot suit alone should be a line for folk in a thread about sexualized character designs. but it isn't just the boots. it's every aspect of her design having degrees of sexualization -- including most of samus now effectively being in a zero suit nevermind her exaggerated unhealthy sexualized proportions.
The reception in here has been on the positive side, with two people commenting on the legs. (With me being iffy on the boots but only for aesthetic reasons.)
Won't disagree with you there. Samus outside of the Power Suit has been a problem since Day 1, to differing degrees, and the Zero Suit compounded things terribly.
This is where I start disagreeing with you, the Power Suit started becoming more feminized with Super Metroid. That's when the Power Suit (technically the Varia Suit) started to have the distinct waistline along with an hourglass figure. There's more to the design to offset that but it set the standard for the Suit up until Other M.
Other M is when Power Suit was made sleeker/smoother and I guess you could say feminized a bit more. Also when the neck became more pronounced. (Looking at in-game models it really started with the Prime games.) This was the design used as the base for Samus Returns.
However the Varia Suit ended up being bulkier and less smooth in Samus Returns, putting it closer to the Super/Prime era standard.
I can partly see where you are coming from regarding Dread's Power Suit being more sexualized. I'd say it looks more like light Mass Effect human armor in terms of it emphasizing a traditionally feminine form (from the chest down). However, she doesn't have high heels, she has chunky boot heels. The design for the ankle and segmentation of the heel just makes it look different. I don't think it's nearly as incomparable to previous designs as you think, considering this is probably the new Power Suit with one Varia tier upgrade at most. Any suit upgrades past the Varia tier are almost never shown prior to release, so I expect her final suit's form to be less sleek and have more flourishes.
Even in the most unflattering shot I can find, it doesn't bother me.
When you start talking about her chest armor being pronounced to evoke breasts you lose me completely. Try as I might, I can't see whatever it is you are perceiving. Though with the above shot and one segment in the reveal trailer, I can see where you are coming from regarding male gaze in the cutscenes. I disagree about her being animated too lightly, there's still some stiffness to her slow walk. Samus is a warrior with the grace of a gymnast in power armor, some amount of lithe is to be expected.
At the end of the day, I really dig her design and she looks like a power fantasy to me.
and that's before acknowledging how dramatically her animations have changed. if you aren't seeing it, then you're not paying attention. just at her most basic level, 2D metroid has been almost entirely animated facing forward and back. and now a significant amount of her animation has her front or back facing toward the camera.
the long and short of it is that this is a dramatic departure from traditional metroid art and animation for samus(less so obviously Other M and MercurySteam's other game, but that just substantiates my point). and the changes are largely driven by sexualization even if it doesn't meet your definition of extreme.
Kinda coming off as mansplaining tbh
Which is certainly.... a choice considering the thread's topic
Oh no her back and front.
And her shoulders are less gigantic, just huge lol. 🤔
I can say a BUNCH about her Zero Suit (a lot of it said before), but I really don't have any beef with her Power Suit forms.
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Bruh, stop. This is hardcore mansplaining and completely inappropriate in general, let alone in this thread
np. I'll exit. clearly came off as hostile/arrogant and i apologize for that, for what its worth.
if anyone wanted to talk further about what i wrote or wanted clarification, feel free to send a message. but I'll ☮ from the thread as folk have asked for.