If the last post hadn't made it entirely apparent, I've transitioned my time and effort towards learning the craft of voice acting, viewable in bite size fragments on places such as Instagram and Twitter.
Lately, however, I've fallen madly in love with Monster Hunter: World. The adventures of Vhequin and Bread Crumbs are epic and with dangers at every corner!
However... the game isn't without its problems, and I felt the need to mention said problems, in depth, on the Capcom official forums. There's a distinct lack of fuckwords because I couldn't be bothered to read their community guidelines and I didn't want my post deleted for a stupid reason like swears. Trust in your hearts that they were on my mind.
I thought I'd paste it here, as well, alongside Vhamtnof.Blogspot EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS. (Seriously, I'm super proud of a lot of these, and it's only just scratching the surface. Imgur collections of Kill Screens Here and Character Captures Here.)
Enjoy.
The game is fantastic and the combat is so compelling that I've literally never felt bored and have played the game to the point of dozing off in maybe 50% of my sessions. The locales are breathtaking and what’s lacking narrative is made up for in the broad array of activities.
To preface what comes next, I was a joyful purist in this game. I Googled nothing, never shot a flair for a quest I hadn't completed on my own (that’s the Bloodborne in me taking over) and sought help from no one, ever. That included finding out what future sets would look like. Here is a listhttps://monsterhunterworld.wiki.fextralife.com/Armor.
That said, I can't believe how egregious the armor design is for female avatars. Right at character creation, we're void of pants, replaced with belt straps on the leg and a short skirt (or is that a looooong jacket?). Penny Arcade should do a comic where a blacksmith forges a pair of leg armor and the customer comes to pick it up, the smith sees that it’s a woman and goes, “Hold on,” *runs back to the forge* *onomatopoeia of hammering and sawing*, then returns and holds up the pants, big smile, having altered them from one piece to three now complete with thigh gaps.
I'll start easy with helms - face vs no face:
Alloy, Anjanath, Barroth, Bazel, Damascus, Diablos, Dober, Girros, Hornetaur, High Metal, Ingot, Jyura, Laviosoth, Legiana, Nergigante, Odogaron, Pukei, All “Rath” sets, Teostra, Tzitzi, Uragaan, Vaal Hazak, Vespoid, Xeno'Jiiva, Zorah Magdaros. (Wow, that’s like, most sets right? Right you are, person with the exact same voice as me.)
My issue with the above is that in practically every instance where a closed-face helm is offered to the male, the female's face is revealed. There are a few problems with this, and High Metal is the best reference point.
1) It's unrealistic. What veritable plate-wearing warrior wouldn't put their mask down prior to running head first into a gauntlet of hostile, flesh eating, non-bathing beasts? I appreciate Uragaan, though, because it compares in bulkiness on each side.
2) Unused options. You have Alpha and Beta options. Why not utilize that and give each gender each option? Damascus almost succeeds here. Almost.
3) It's sexist. It makes the statement that women just have to have those oh so pretty faces viewable at all times. We can't have women concealing their faces and pretending to be strong like the men, that won’t do!
I'm a fair critic (or try to be); here’s a great counter example: Kushala, both genders have both styles; open and closed helm options. Why can't we get that every set?
Before I move on, I want to point out something that crushed my soul, and that’s the Nergigante set. Anjanath angered me, but Nergi is supposed to be the first big baddie and huge milestone in the game. And what’s the reward? A bra. And Deviljho is going the exact same direction! (I think seeing that they’re continuing the trajectory really sparked me to write this.) Isn't this armor is supposedly meant for battle?
Needlessly Fleshly:
Anjanath (ugh), Bazel, Bone (it wouldn’t make the list if it was the same amount as the males), Brigade, Chainmail, Death Stench (let’s see those tummies!), Jagras, Kirin, Leather, Legiana, Nergigante, Odogaron, Pukei, TziTzi.
Odogaron - Oh man, was I surprised. And pissed. This is my worst offender. We all wield massive weapons that don't disappear at the smithy and I'm a charged blade player, myself, boasting that massive shield on my back. I was stunned when I took my new Odogaron set out for a spin, having only crafted it once I had enough mats to create the whole set, and saw that my back was completely uncovered with that bow on the small, and most of my legs were revealed. I couldn’t port back to camp sooner. Crafting it, I was willing to compromise on the legging bit, but wow.
Butterfly VS King Beetle
King Beetle is just objectively cooler. Now, if you made the butterfly really dope, that’d be a different story. The fact is, I shrugged with boredom when I first saw Butterfly. Cut to 70 or whatever hours later, I’m on a male avatar alt and shot out a very loud, very reactive “WOAH” when I saw King Beetle for the first time, thinking why have I never seen this?! I looked at the mats and realized it used the Great Hornfly from that kissy-creep who runs the botanical garden. If you’re going to have sets that are differing to huge degrees based on gender, why not fill in that potential and make the butterfly awesome! It could be way more colorful, maybe some wings or fluorescents, or exude fairy dust as you ran - something.
Commission: AKA Handler VS Commander
Depressingly enough, I was stoked at the fact I could dress like the handler when I first found this set. It wasn't until afterwards that I wondered how males would look as the handler, but was immediately filled with dread because I realized I haven't seen any male handlers. Coinciding with that, the thought of, "I wonder if I (as a woman avatar) can get the Commander's set" came upon me while on my third alt, during the cutscene where we first fight Zorah Magdaros. Icing on the cake, in the French version of the game, Handler is translated to Assistante. That truly underlines the comparison if there were still any questions regarding the gender-based power dynamic. The blow here would be lessened if there were any other set depicting a woman in power, but there isn’t one.
Brigade
I honestly didn’t even know this set existed until researching for this this post, because I’ve seriously neglected my arena quests. So option one, we have the Scoundrel from the SW:TOR trailer and option 2... a ...flight attendant? Do I really need to go on?
Kirin
Finally! Some sexy-themed males! Like Bone and Dober, though, way more skin is shown on the female side here.
Honorable Mentions:
Remember when I mentioned Bloodborne? Here's their armor:
- When I first saw Baan I LOST. MY. MIND. The nostalgia punched me square in the you-know-what because it looked like it was taken straight from Black Suit Zero from megaman. I love it so much, please give us transmog.
- Points to Kadachi/Lumu for being equally silly on both sides.
- Points to Diablos for being my arch nemesis in this game, but the set is groovy for all.
- Points Hunter/Ingot/Hornetaur/Kushala/Laviosoth/Teostra/Uragaan/High Metal/Vespoid for being decent.
- Zorah Magdaros - I imagine most of you here, like me remember 2004 Paladin Judgement tier 2 and how fantastic it is. Zorah Magdaros for a female avatar is awesome because it allows for a dress covering while maintaining full plated leg armor. If I didn't hate blast damage, I'd use it more, for sure.
Remember when I mentioned Bloodborne? Here's their armor:
Every set is nearly identical, even allowing a male avatar to wear the Noble Dress. The sets themselves offer huge variety in appearance, in both games, why isn't that enough?
I'll be the first to say that I've never played the other MH games, and along those lines, I realized in writing/researching this post, many of these sets are from previous games. You know, before people started thinking that maybe sexism in games is a problem. I don't believe tradition gives anyone a free pass. Society has evolved, and we should expect more from our games.
TL:DR
Capcom, you have blatant, sexist tones in your game and we should be striving to have a higher standard. Can we cover our backs, upper thighs and faces as if the armor is meant to actually provide a function? Can we have females wear commander armor and not dress like flight attendants? We're hunting monsters, after all. This is your fastest growing, most popular game. What if, on top of that, it was one of your most progressive games, too? Your players would thank you.
-Quinn Out
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