EA action adventure game Mirror’s Edge ignited much controversy when initially published due to the “Hollywood Oriental” character design, seen by many Japanese as being hard on the eyes. When 2channers redesigned her, they hurt the feelings of the sensitive Swedes who preferred the fanciful amazon look.
Here we see the end result: the game sits in one of Sofmap’s dreaded wagons (actually not a wagon in this case, but you get the point), a general sign of poor sales, for a rock bottom price of ¥2,000, and is still stacked high:
Relying on one retailer is a little unwise; the game’s performance (PS3) on Amazon.co.jp is similarly lacklustre, barely piercing the top 1,000 games a few months after release. It does quite a bit better on Amazon.com, though not hugely so.
The roles are reversed on the Xbox 360, with a much better ranking on the Japanese version, but this version may be a little hard to compare as the platform still has hardly any traction in Japan.
Even in less deeply discounted retailers than the obviously overstocked Sofmap, you can pick up the game for quite a reduction.
Since the game was actually well received gameplay wise, we have to wonder whether the scary amazon on the cover has anything to do with this somewhat disappointing performance, whether in Japan or elsewhere (it could hardly be called a complete failure though); perhaps they should have gone with the 2ch version after all…
Ha! Why am I not surprised that they enlarged Faith’s eyes and breast on the 2ch version? Typical, really.
The swimsuit looks so wrong too…
If they wanted it to sell in Japan they should’ve made her a 7 year old maid robot.
Japanese are disgusting freaks.
I still have no likings for Moe Faith, she does look like a 12 year old with a boob job, and the bathing suit isn’t helping.
I’m extremely disgusted at the article’s author for his interpretation of Faith’s looks. One stereotype is not better than the other, and to suggest that 2chan’s version is better is a misrepresentation. The Swede’s had some good points, and boiling it down to “hurt feeling” marginalizes their anger. The moefied Faith honestly does look like a “12-year-old with a boob job”, and I realize that is the taste of the people here, but defending the transformation of a strong heroine into a sex symbol is very disappointing.
I expected better from this site, but this article has really turned me away from visiting here.
Expected better? This is a lot better than the alternative you’ve posited, Anon. Artefact has been frank and unapologetic with his opinions since day one. It’s his “voice,” that which differentiates him from kinder, fuzzier, less interesting bloggers.
Trying to shame anyone by pretending that this isn’t what you’ve come to expect from him is just poor form.
“…defending the transformation of a strong heroine into a sex symbol is very disappointing.”
Nice try. But I bet the only reason you’re even here is because someone sent you a link to scantily clad ladies from the Sankaku Channel.
It’s his game, he’ll do what he wants with it. He isn’t required to cater to the customers’ whims, and I’ve found that doing so generally turns the end product into bland, mediocre horseshit. I work in market research and I’m the son of a focus group moderator, I have pretty extensive experience in this.
“Trying to shame anyone by pretending that this isn’t what you’ve come to expect from him is just poor form.”
I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here. Are you trying to say that because Artefact doesn’t listen to every last idiot, that Anonymous can’t criticize the people who criticize him for that because his behavior is par for the course? That’s ignoring 2ch’s involvement completely, and by ignoring it you’re implying that the backlash is both universal and inevitable. Maybe the folks at 2chan (and the author) should just cry less.
“Nice try. But I bet the only reason you’re even here is because someone sent you a link to scantily clad ladies from the Sankaku Channel.”
This is all kinds of unrelated and retarded. First, he could be here for the articles like I am. I don’t like the porn here, it’s either bland, way too moe, or airbrushed beyond belief. Second, the first and second halves of that sentence aren’t even related. I like the occasional Samus porn, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t get pissed off and dismissive if a whole chunk of the playerbase decided they liked Jiggly’s rendition more.
Either that sentence was a troll or you meant it and the concepts of sex and sexualizing someone are evidently tied together in your head, since you obviously can’t differentiate them.
And trust me, Faith’s look played just fine with the NA/EUR markets, while the final one in this (http://www.sankakucomplex.com/2008/12/03/mirrors-edge-moefication/) article would have had those markets disgusted with how she looked. Can’t please everyone, and if you’re going to please someone might as well not make it the small and historically picky one where your type of game has never really performed well anyway.
game is s♥♥t regardless of how faith looks. extremely frustrating and little reward for beating it.
the concept behind the game was good but so poorly executed that anything good it had to offer was forgotten in an instant.
I mean s♥♥t man, they really dropped the ball when it came to character design, all the characters concept art unlocked in the game is better than what they decided to go with.