Is the damsel in distress trope hurting the gaming industry or is it just a lot of hot air by feminists?
Gary Green said: You’ll be forgiven if you haven’t heard of the Ar Tonelico trilogy. The previous two games arrived so late in the PS2’s life-cycle that they simply went unnoticed. While most were tinkering with their shiny new PS3s, Ar Tonelico: Melody of Elemia and Ar Tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica were being ‘returned to sender’ by your local Game stores. Luckily, you won’t need to have played them to understand and appreciate this third and final chapter, Qoga (pronounced k-yoga) tells the story of a racial war between humans and Reyvateils, a breed of biologically produced female cyborgs capable of reproduction, while still having a digital mind.
Oh my god. I kinda wish this would get a remaster on PS5, it would be awesome. One of my favorite games on PS3.
That and 3D Dot Game Heroes. It's a shame that some stuff is stuck on PS3.
Ar Tonelico 3 is good I still prefer the first AT game. The music is solid in all the games and Akiko Shikata is a very talented singer bringing life to the game. Only annoying part is well I find is Saki I always choose Finnel or Tyria. KOEI so needs to HD remaster the franchise along with Ar Nosurge and Ciel Nosurge since it never came to North America. I would day one the Ar Toneliceo games and Ar Nosurge if they were remastered.
I still have the limited edition of Qoga unopened. Unfortunately it never went up in value like I had hoped all these years.
GL compiles a list of some of the most mind-blowing video game narrative twists in recent memory, from The Last of Us to Outer Wilds
With articles like these cant you tag the games mentioned so that we can know ahead of time if there’s a spoiler to avoid?
Not clicking on your article otherwise.
Gary Green said: We have a juxtaposition of 2D and 3D visuals, flashy turn-based combat, quirky anime characters with cheeky dialogue with plenty of partial nudity; Yes, this is a Compile Heart JRPG. Whilst the engine is borrowed from Hyperdimension Neptunia mk2, Mugen Souls is more of a Disgaea spin-off. It’s not a strategy RPG as such, it merely sits within Disgaea’s ever-expanding universe (Multiverse? Netherverse? Your guess is as good as mine). You won’t find cameos though, since Mugen Souls is a franchise which aims to stand on its own two feet.
Oh my god not this crap again
In books (for 1000s of years), music (for 100s of years), and movies (for dozens of years) we have the recurring theme of someone saving someone else. Believe it or not, men aren't the only ones with the damsel in distress fantasy. There are a significant number of women who also enjoy the damsel in distress trope (go grab a dozen random chick flicks off the rental shelf and you'll find this theme in 75% or more of them). Statistically, several of the top bedroom fantasies for a woman are being saved (like a fireman), being dominated, being treated roughly, and being coerced/forced. Them's just the stats.
There are people who want to improve people's lives and bring positive change to the world. There are other people who have self-esteem issues and who want to shape other people's viewpoints to fit their own.
People who attack fictional videogame women fall into the latter camp.
Is it hurting the industry? Yes, to a degree, by alienating a huge segment of the demographic. Gamers aren't just prepubsecent white males any more. It's absurd that most game protagonists are still men, let alone white men, and even worse that so much of what laughably passes for character development for these white men is amateurishly created through the use of archaic chauvinistic narrative tropes.
It's not quite as "huge" a deal as some people make it out to be--I think the lack of female player-characters is a far more important issue--but it is a much, much bigger deal that the morons who insist it's all "feminist whining" believe with all the might of their pea-sized brains.
It's only an issue for femnazis and self loathing beta males.
It's a story telling mechanic. Maybe not a good one, but an easy one that gets the player invested in the character. Also, regardless of the gender of the character being rescued the storytelling mechanic works the same way. That's why it gets used so much. It's a little dishonest to call it a male power fantasy, when nothing changes about this storytelling mechanic if you switch the gender roles of the people being saved. For example, when Jade from Beyond Good and Evil was saving the Peter's character.
In general more women are being saved by male characters, but that's anecdotal because there are more straight, white male characters in games overall.
A perfect example of this mechanic working the same way, regardless of the gender of the person being saved is in the Mass Effect Series. If you play as female Shepard (who most people think of as the best Shepard) you are doing the same things as male Shepard. This includes recusing your crew be it a female or male member of the crew.