From Barbarians to Beauty Queens: The Androgyny of Modern Video Games
As you all probably know by now, Project Rygar had been officially announced for Wii. Exciting, I know. I can't wait either. Rygar is a classic franchise that was recently remade for the PS2. While I'm really looking forward to the project, I'm a little weirded out by the concept art. What looks to be the main character is half naked, filled with far too many muscles than the human body could possibly have and has extremely feminine features. It got me thinking about other remade games throughout the history of video games and the transformations the characters of those games have gone through. Perhaps it's Japan's quirky obsession with feminine looking men or perhaps my brash American stereotypical ideas of what a 'hero' should be. Regardless, let's take a look at some famous "Queer Eye" transitions.
Let's start off with the game in question: Rygar. As you can see on the left we have the original character art from the NES game box. On the right we have the new "Project Rygar" hero. While the original proudly wears a full body red jumpsuit, the new here is almost completely naked with an obscenely low riding kilt of some sort. Our new hero's hair is feathered and perfectly defying gravity while or old hero's is hastily kept in place by a manly headband. Personally if I was going to be tossing my Discarmor at someone, I wouldn't want to have to worry about my kilt blowing up.
Perhaps the series most known for it's almost transgendered characters (aside from Final Fantasy) is Castlevania. Here on the left is Simon Belmont in all his NES barbaric glory. Animal skin loincloth, bulging muscles and a massive whip. He's ready to kick some ass and take some names. On the right is Konami's current art of Belmont. Once again we see long feathery hair, girlish features, and are those fuzzy boots?! The only place this guy is headed is to a drag bar to lip sync to some crappy Donna Summer tune. If you needed Dracula killed, which one of these guys would you call? The guy who looks like he could rip off a bear's head with his bare hands? Or the guy who looks like he's afraid to chip a nail just HOLDING that whip?
And yes, even link has had a bit of a makeover. Sometimes he struts around half naked on the farm with the other cowboys. But to be fair, link is an elf of some sort. He's not human at all. I just included him to make you mad.
So you might be asking yourself: "Does the design of a character affect my connection with the game?" Well, that's a yes and no answer. Certanly if the game is well made and more importantly FUN, then no. For me it doesn't. Heck I love the Katamari series....And I'm not even gonna get into talking about the King of the Cosmos.
So what about you guys? Does character design affect the way you play/buy games? Leave some comments or sound off on the message boards.
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Sunday, May 13, 2007
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9:32 PM
That really depends. On one side it can suck to see your favorite video game char slowly turned into something else, or girly as your comparisons show. On the other hand sometimes changes are for the better for a series of games, such as the aging of solid snake. I guess it all depends on the char. mario as an example just wouldnt be Mario without his signature blue overalls and red shirt. While Samus is still recognised as Samus with or without the suit
Changes are one thing, trans-gendering is a whole different game. I really think it's a Japanese fetish or something. I agreed w/ the entire article, especially the part about how Americans, if not the Western world, views our heroes. Imagine Gladiator or 300 with Link or the new Rygar at the helm. The films would tank! LOTR had Legolas but we all know Aragorn carried the team. I think people have really begun to undervalue the importance of masculinity, thinking it represents ignorance or something. Maybe that's why we are going through this stupid emo fad.
character design does affect the decision making process in my mind. if a character model just doesnt work, its hard to get behind the game.
'Bishonens' as the Japanese call them (f*gs as we call them) are all the range... Legolas annoyed the Hell out of me. Both women and men seem smitten with the slender, efeminate male hero, as opposed to the beefy warrior (Gimli shoulda been able to kick that Elf's ass)... I don't think it's too important as to whether or not I'll play a game though... If the game's fun, it's fun.
As for Link by the way, I actually thought Twilight Princess was an improvement over Ocarina of Time... With the chainmail and lower pitched voice, they've made an effort to bring him back into the realms of the Y chromosome.
Joseph I'm not going to delete your comment this time but in the future try to refrain from using slurs.
That was the funniest article I have ever read. Yeah, I called it an article. I don't think girly men take away from a game. Esp. not when the girly man is Alucard. cause he is a vampire and whatnot. But I do see what you are saying about the transition into girlynessicity. But I suppose that is how the Japaneses like their hero's. If I were a developer, which maybe someday, I would just go all the way and make a strong female lead.
Ok, here's my problem with this article:
First, you bash Rygar for being half naked and covered in muscles, then in the very next paragraph you praise Simon Belmont for being even more naked, in a loin cloth and covered in muscles.
A little consistency would be nice here.
You may have a point, but the examples you used really didnt make any sense. I still love ya man, and the wiicast too!
btw...it looks like the original Rygar was wearing a tiara, not a "manly headband"...
I didn't really get the Rygar example either but hey, as a great fan of the final fantasy franchise, who am I to tell you you're wrong about this?
I wanted to use Kratos as an example of a modern, manly videogame hero (anti-hero, rather), but in a way, he's not wearing a whole lot of clothes either...
Still, I don't really think this change is a bad thing. It's not like I am constantly bothered by how videogame heroes act. Hell, I just played the Gears of War story mode co-op with a friend, talking about awesomeness. No, the only game I've played in which I really hated ALL of the characters was Kingdom Hearts. But you know, that doesn't really count.