14th November 2007, 10:23 PM
Quote:So basically you are saying you want to know ALL the details on how this world is different from the one we know in history so you can understand how it can exist like it is? I see. Basically you are saying without certain details all you have are the storyline they provide plus the history you already know of in the real world, and without certain details there seem to be plot holes between them. I get you now, and actually to a point I agree. Yes, it is a little weird that anyone's still worshipping the greek gods. In these cases, I often take to just inventing my own fiction and inserting it. I try to do so to fix issues I find and so long as what I come up with is fairly parsimonious and reasonable in the terms of the story I'm fine with it. I tend not to get carried away and as I said I tend to go with the simplest explanation I can go with (just out of personal preference and because it's easier to work with). If I have to make too much of a stretch or there's no way I can reconcile it, well I consider it a plothole issue and then I get annoyed.
If you make something that isn't historical but can be believed by saying how this is a different place with different rules (see: magic) that's fine... but doing things simply because you like the design, with absolutely no thought to whether this creates a culture that could actually exist, as most Japanese and some Western fantasy game/anime designs seem to be done? Yes, I find that annoying.
Costumewise, some characters have lots of really stupid costumes, but some are worse than others... the worst offender is perhaps Taki's bodysuit. I cannot think of any possible explanation for how such a garment could exist without machine tools and synthetic fabrics, things which obviously didn't exist in the 1500s... unless someone's suggestion at NeoGAF is true and it's bodypaint. :D Voldo's costumes are all also really weird too, of course, as are... well, most all of the female character's costumes (with a very few exceptions) and a good half of the rest of the male ones. :)
Quote:As for those outfits... don't get me started there... It's gone way past "inefficient as armor" in many cases to "physically impossible for it to actually be worn or stay on the body". But, I know what's up there, and they are at least somewhat "fair" in it with all those no shirt guys. Voldo isn't really much of what I'd call a compromise though...
Oh, I'm not arguing that it's unfair. In both character designs and costumes the male characters are just as ridiculously designed as the female ones, certainly. That doesn't make either of them any more sane... and "wow those are insanely large breasts for a pre-plastic surgery civilization" is way more noticable than stuff like "are they too tall/heavy/muscular for people in the 1500s? Yes, probably." is. Both of those things are true, however. Some of those male characters definitely look like they have ... artificially enhanced... muscles... and this is even more common in Western games. The reasons for all of this make perfect sense, of course. Games, like everything else, are really a reflection of the culture making them, not of the culture being created. 'Sci-fi' stuff says more really about the time that it was made in than the future time being proposed, and 'fantasy' stuff says more about the present day than it does about either that real time period or some fantasy time period like the real one but with magic. Books do a much better job here than games, I definitely believe... some books create convincing fantasy worlds, but in games? Even in the best there are flaws... it's unfortunate, things could be better.
Anyway, because modern-day people expect things like large breasts, giant muscles, big characters, skimpy costumes, etc, games have them, even though they make no sense at all from a world design standpoint or from a "people from a place like this would actually look or act like this" standpoint. Taking some liberties is fine! I want magic in these games, female characters to have significant roles, etc. Some other things just need to be better justified...
Quote:Oh yes, as for the lack of certain country representatives, well seriously I mean they can't try to add everything and I don't expect them to really do that much there. I don't put much stock in any "hidden meaning" behind how they "handle" certain ethnic groups. Otherwise I'd have to demand an eskimo fighter or something.
The difference there would be that in the 1500s the Middle East was just as powerful and developed as Europe or Asia... now of course the Middle East is far from first-world status,but then? That was not the case.
Oh yes, and I would say, though, that black characters are even rarer in Japanese games than they are in Western ones...