1st September 2010, 10:37 PM
Okay my friend picked up the game and has been playing it. I've heard a lot about the start.
Firstly, the gameplay is actually done pretty well. The world hasn't "opened up" yet but it might. It's hard to say.
Secondly, ABF and the other reviewers are right, it's sexist. It's not even a little sexist, it's blatant. lazy, there's a lot of ways that Samus can be FORCED to work under this guy that wouldn't have been sexist. It could have easily been done in a way that shows just how oppressive it actually is, which would be a good message to get across. That's how Metroid 4 was done. Samus was working for the military, answered to Adam, but it was clear she HATED being forced into that position, and was only doing so out of necessity. Here she willingly turns over her autonomy right from the start for NO discernible reason except "she respects Adam" (the same Adam she'd have a lot more trouble working with in Fusion). I don't know how it goes on from there, and I don't really want to know. However, it's a terrible start and it's very sexist indeed. I blame team ninja. They've got a proven sexist track record, and whatever you may say about Yoshio Sakamoto being the director, he's never done this with Samus before. The track record points to Team Ninja. He may have directed it, but I doubt he wrote the script. Sure he's responsible for allowing it, but I put most of it right on Team Ninja for now.
Now MAYBE it'll turn itself around, but it'll be a hard act to pull off after starting out with Samus' "teen dream journal" as my friend put it, where she LITERALLY utters the line "confession time" before describing her respect for Adam. Ugh... Thanks for ruining a beloved character...
For the record lazy, when Kratos does something horribly sexist, it's acceptable because the entire game is, by design, one big testosterone shove. It flies because it knows what it is. More importantly, Kratos is NOT portrayed as acting like a good person. He's a self destructive enraged insane berserker who hurts everyone he comes across because he doesn't know anything except fighting. It's a tale of his internal chaos manifesting on the rest of the world by his own hands. To say his story is not heroic but "cautionary" is an understatement. He's a human trainwreck with a lot of victims, and he's a blast to play as. That's fine. Samus however is being portrayed in such a way that it suggests this is how she, and by extension ALL female hero types, SHOULD behave. I disagree with ABF on Zelda because she did the best she could given her situation, and she regretted being powerless rather than embrace it as her "role" (plus the moment she got the chance to take an active roll, she always did), and for that matter ALL potential heroes in all Zelda games are rendered nearly powerless by the plot. Darunia really was just as ineffective as Zelda in OOT for example (he did nothing but suck and get captured, Sheik did more than he did). It's a necessity to make Link the one and only heroic figure in the game, but in TW there are still plenty of strong females in it, from that cold hearted girl who escorts you up north to Midna herself (who's cursed, you can't blame her for not doing more when cursed). It's a matter of perspective though. I find Samus' dependence on military order in Metroid 4 acceptable because the story forces it on her, and that's my qualifications in these matters. Mario's different, in that it's a cartoon, so the eternal joke of "princess gets captured" actually becomes part of the charm. Sure I wish there were a few MORE games with something aside from that, but that's about it. I can accept an eternal return to form as part of the ongoing joke, just like I can accept Daffy Duck always ALWAYS getting the eternal shaft if Bugs makes an appearance in one of his cartoons.
Firstly, the gameplay is actually done pretty well. The world hasn't "opened up" yet but it might. It's hard to say.
Secondly, ABF and the other reviewers are right, it's sexist. It's not even a little sexist, it's blatant. lazy, there's a lot of ways that Samus can be FORCED to work under this guy that wouldn't have been sexist. It could have easily been done in a way that shows just how oppressive it actually is, which would be a good message to get across. That's how Metroid 4 was done. Samus was working for the military, answered to Adam, but it was clear she HATED being forced into that position, and was only doing so out of necessity. Here she willingly turns over her autonomy right from the start for NO discernible reason except "she respects Adam" (the same Adam she'd have a lot more trouble working with in Fusion). I don't know how it goes on from there, and I don't really want to know. However, it's a terrible start and it's very sexist indeed. I blame team ninja. They've got a proven sexist track record, and whatever you may say about Yoshio Sakamoto being the director, he's never done this with Samus before. The track record points to Team Ninja. He may have directed it, but I doubt he wrote the script. Sure he's responsible for allowing it, but I put most of it right on Team Ninja for now.
Now MAYBE it'll turn itself around, but it'll be a hard act to pull off after starting out with Samus' "teen dream journal" as my friend put it, where she LITERALLY utters the line "confession time" before describing her respect for Adam. Ugh... Thanks for ruining a beloved character...
For the record lazy, when Kratos does something horribly sexist, it's acceptable because the entire game is, by design, one big testosterone shove. It flies because it knows what it is. More importantly, Kratos is NOT portrayed as acting like a good person. He's a self destructive enraged insane berserker who hurts everyone he comes across because he doesn't know anything except fighting. It's a tale of his internal chaos manifesting on the rest of the world by his own hands. To say his story is not heroic but "cautionary" is an understatement. He's a human trainwreck with a lot of victims, and he's a blast to play as. That's fine. Samus however is being portrayed in such a way that it suggests this is how she, and by extension ALL female hero types, SHOULD behave. I disagree with ABF on Zelda because she did the best she could given her situation, and she regretted being powerless rather than embrace it as her "role" (plus the moment she got the chance to take an active roll, she always did), and for that matter ALL potential heroes in all Zelda games are rendered nearly powerless by the plot. Darunia really was just as ineffective as Zelda in OOT for example (he did nothing but suck and get captured, Sheik did more than he did). It's a necessity to make Link the one and only heroic figure in the game, but in TW there are still plenty of strong females in it, from that cold hearted girl who escorts you up north to Midna herself (who's cursed, you can't blame her for not doing more when cursed). It's a matter of perspective though. I find Samus' dependence on military order in Metroid 4 acceptable because the story forces it on her, and that's my qualifications in these matters. Mario's different, in that it's a cartoon, so the eternal joke of "princess gets captured" actually becomes part of the charm. Sure I wish there were a few MORE games with something aside from that, but that's about it. I can accept an eternal return to form as part of the ongoing joke, just like I can accept Daffy Duck always ALWAYS getting the eternal shaft if Bugs makes an appearance in one of his cartoons.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)