idk guys played quite a bit of Haruka's stuff in Y5 and...it's coming across as kind of gross. The handshake game makes me cringe every time I play it (sniffing fingers? /really/?), and Park's treatment of Haruka, using her brothers and sisters at the orphanage as leverage to exploit her labor, is pretty disgusting really. The contrast of Haruka both putting up and accepting this wheras Kiryu/Saejima before her would have crippled people over that kind of thing hurled at them (threatening the orphanage is a plot driver for Kiryu in 4, Saejima literally beats a man within half an inch of his life at the start of Part 2 in this very game for threatening his brother) makes the game's opinion of women seem rather retrograde, even if that wasn't intended it cant help but come across that way after the previous 30 hours of gameplay with the prior two male characters being mostly a glorious power fantasy. The makeup artist person who encourages her to go on a diet that she obviously doesn't need and to take pills to win is really just beyond the pale. Her climax action in the battles where she takes clothes off is...yeah. Her design is just unsettling all around. Serious uncanny valley vibe coming off her static, golfball sized eyes that seem on average about twice as big as any other character she does battle with or encounters. The interview with the dirty old man mag where haruka gets asked point blank if she'd fuck a middle aged man just floored me. Seriously, what in the /fuck/? The game then punishes you for not answering in the affirmative by a lower fanboost and thus lower stat growth, effectively sending the message to little girls everywhere that if you want to succeed in life make sure to assuage the sexual desires of creepy fucking old dirtbags.
I don't know maybe the game is going to swerve on me and condemn all of this for what it is or I'm just missing the satire, but yeah man this is just not good. I kind of am holding out hope though due to the opening of the game when Kiryu got pissed off at the guys in the ramen shop cracking jokes about all idol stars being abused and exploited, but thus far man this is really turning me off the game. This isn't the first time the series has rubbed me the wrong way with its treatment of women. The porn cards for completing quests in 0 were pretty bad, especially in nonsilly quests where for helping women characters you get a softcore striptease video. Club Cabaret, while I loved the hell out of it mechanically, effectively reduced women to stock animals to wheel out and shape to your own desires regardless of what they think. I'm not trying to be a debbie downer here or anything because I have loved every game in the series I've played, but it really needs to step its game up on how it treats women. The fact that the only playable female in the series is treated like Haruka is is pretty damning. I understand that this is a series for Japan and cultural norms are different, but that still doesn't mean they shouldn't get critique over it. Representation like this is just damaging, and I don't think hiding behind the shield of culture really flies when it's this blatant.
Anyways again sorry for the rant because I really do love these games, but this is something that's been eating at me for a while in this series and I just needed to get that off my chest.