Gamespot’s recent review of the English release of top moeblob RPG Atelier Meruru has proven controversial for spending an inordinate amount of time bashing the title for its “sexualised outfits on very young female protagonists,” whilst insinuating that anyone who plays it probably has an unhealthy interest in little girls.
Extracts from their scathing review:
While the addictive alchemy formulas that sit at the heart of the gameplay have been held over for a repeat performance, everything else has been hit hard by an obnoxious spoiled brat of a title character, a repetitive plot loaded with never-ending tedious dialogue, and so many creepy moments with the short-skirted kiddie characters that you feel like you’re committing a crime just looking at the TV screen.
[…]
The setting is overloaded with anime-style cutesiness. There are more pastel colors and glowing stars here than in the average 8-year-old girl’s dream bedroom. The entire game sparkles like a Twilight vampire.
[…]
This kid-friendly atmosphere sits uncomfortably alongside sexualized fetish outfits on too-young female characters.
Costumes are taken to extremes with super-short skirts and corsets that it makes playing the game somewhat cringe-worthy.
[…]
But it is impossible to enjoy the game as a complete experience because you see everything through the eyes of one of the most vapid gaming protagonists ever created, and do all of your adventuring in a world so sickeningly sweet that you should get screened for adult-onset diabetes the moment you put down the gamepad.
Whilst Gamespot’s reviews are already rather famous for having all the fairness of an AKB48 popularity contest, amongst anime-loving gamers they and various other US reviewers have rapidly garnering a reputation for treating any game boasting moe visuals as an tantamount to virtual child pornography – the most famous example being their views on Neptunia.
The game did rather better on Metacritic, the gamer’s moral guardians at Gamespot being in a distinct minority:
The English version of the game is in any case available now.
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Fuck gamespot, they're just anime haters. Haters gonna hate. This has nothing to do with child pornography. And ya know what gamestop, we don't care about your fuggly macho games with ultra muscular men with big guns that look like ex-gay porn stars trying to be in a military FPS game.
Well spoken, KingFisher...
*bows in respect*
A videogame reviewer should NEVER EVER treat and compare a videogame character and/or being to real-life humans...
Gamespot is becoming as worse as IGN...
Then again, if it ain't Master Chief getting face-f*cked by Kratos while Marcus and Dom double-dip their d*cks in his ass, it always gets a very low rating regardless of how it cathers to a different set of gamers not obsessed with Broke-back Mount-In Muscle War Gears of Halo...
Where's all this homophobic talk coming from? The situation you describe never happens, and it would be bizarre if it ever did.
That's why dom shot his wife!
Ya know @AzureXuchilbara It's just like what I always say to myself if I'm gonna spend hours or days playing a game watching someones back as I fight enemies that back might as well be female
X Blades tried this however but the gameplay sucked to so bad it made me realize that I(who play a lot of fan made games) also have standards
Which is why my next in game avatar for the revamped FF14 online (gonan demo first obviously, I dont trust SE anymore XD) is gonna be a cat :D
Gaming reviews aren't worth shit. If one can't do their job right , there's a whole bunch of other ones out there. IGN and gamespot are just 2 of the numerous game sites out there. Nothing of value will be lost if both are out of the picture.
I have lost respect for GameSpot and IGN. They are indeed anime haters.
Have they reviewed TERA yet? I'm sure they'll have a great time with that one too.
75% of what I play are Touhou doujin games and the only one I ever saw that had pantsu shots was TSA (Tenshi wears black Oh yeah!)
So true saltypenguin,if the they are so butthurt with Meruru,their annuses will explode with TERA.
GameSpot gave TERA a 7.5, and barely even mentioned the girls.
...I don't even know how their minds work.
Except TERA is yet another boring clone of those MMORPGS. Reviewers actually play that sort of games and they're blasé with the fact that you can make your characters sexy and look young, thus looking like a sexy picture when you take a screenshot, but completely uninteresting to look at in-game.
Most of US reviewers are the anime hater who allergy to the cute girl or sexy woman and love the macho man with muscle just like a gay.
It's not just limited to Gamespot or IGN unfortunately. If you listen to some of the various podcasts, any time an anime styled game comes up, invariably there may be one person excited about it, and the rest of the hosts will either show no interest or be against checking it out just because they "don't get" or "don't like" anime in general. And surprise, usually they site their reference point as either hentai or something batshit crazy like Evangelion from 15 years back.
The difference is those people usually have the decency to decline doing reviews for those games. If you're starting from a point of "this disturbs me" then you shouldn't be touching the game for review, because you're planning, subconsciously or not, to pan the game's score from the offset.
implying you read the review
you forgot to mention their transvestites
The strongest detractors always have something to hide.
Gamespot reviewer confirmed for closet pedophile.
Agreed about that. At least I'm honest about the fact that I am a pedosexual and therefore find young girls attractive. This guy is just in denial and is jumping on the "Pedosexuality is wrong!" bandwagon just like people jumped on the "Homosexuality is wrong!" wagon years ago.
@KingFisher
It's IS all hate! their reviews anyway. Or maybe they suddenly realized they were all "predators" when they noticed after 5 mins of gameplay they couldn't stop touching themselves
Let's trolling and junk GameSpot begin.
I think I like this game info website, CheatCC (Cheat Code Central)
look at this review
http://www.cheatcc.com/ps3/rev/ateliermerurutheapprenticeofarlandreview2.html#.T9vzQrQtjnM
Anime haters?
Change that to: "Racists", and then maybe I can agree with you.
IGN and Gamespot has been caught getting "paid reviews" anyway. Their reviews are often shit and bias. Majority of their complaints are mostly the users inability to play a game rather than the games itself.
That's how reliable both of those sites are.
Haters gonna hate.
Lovers gonna love.
Always take review sites with a pinch of salt since there will always be a biased view.
FIRST SKYWARD SWORD NOW THIS SHIT!!
FUCK GAMESPOT!!!!
I NEVER LIKE THESE MOFOS
I JUST BOUGHT THIS FUCKING GAME!!!
Hmm... I'm wondering if the negative attention isn't a good thing? I mean I'm suddenly tempted to pick it up as well now even though I haven't finished Totori, just out of reviewer spite.
I will be buying it in a few months. I already like the other games in the series and spiting these guys is the cherry on the sundae.
Well that's cause Skyward Sword was an incomplete game in the first place. It was created for the sake of that shitty anniversary crap.
Cutesy fluffy frilly clothing now equals sexualized outfits?
Jesus fuck, I wonder what these people think about how real teenagers dress...
$50 says she has or has had a teenage daughter, and that they are not on friendly terms.
Was this reviewer a woman? The wording made it sound like a guy, since ironically it seems to always be 'men' who whine about sexualization of anything female. Meanwhile usually the girls tend to just say 'oh, that's a cute/ugly (insert aesthetic context here)' and be done with it, while guys end up being ridiculous and protesting vocally.
Reclaim your damn manhood and go ahead and get a damn erection if you feel like it for fuck's sake. Don't wrap a protest sign around you to cover it, just give in, fap a bit, clear your mind, and as Joe Rogan puts it, "Now you can invent things!"
Don't be misogynistic.
The reviewer's name was Brett Todd. Last time I checked that was a man's name.
Okay I've only ever been to their site 4 or 6 times and that was to look for cheats in GTA SA (cause bubble car is epic)
These idiots fail so hard at being reviewers, what the hell is wrong with a reviewer when instead of rating a game about it's actual pros and cons as a game they just insert their own biased views but personally I'd rather be looking at little girls and hanging posters of them in my wall then brandishing my walls with body builders
Never once have I ever needed a "reviewers" opinion on what I play! Heck I just go to you tube and add "gameplay" to whatever title and see for myself
@colachan That's a really really a man's name!
I think you mean misandristic.
I've recently begun suspecting that there are several women pretending to be men on the internet, for various purposes of influencing popular belief (eg. making men look like assholes). They can then go back to their own identity and whine about being victims to get special benfits or donations.
This may sound "paranoid" but I think it's definitely a possibility. People love playing the victim to get benefits. Not saying all women are like that, of course... but when things like money are at stake, it's logical to expect the worst in people.
"These idiots fail so hard at being reviewers"
this.
let's not get into stupid sexist crap. the reality is Gamespot is just a horrible horrible site for critical thought of any sort, and has been for a long time.
Kasavin was the last guy to actually run a good ship around there and that was over 5 years ago already.
once he left, the ship started to sink. it sucks how Gerstmann was treated but frankly the site was already going downhill with under his tenure.
and then after Gerstmann-gate, pretty much every remaining writer worth a damn left the sinking ship.
the current staff of writers is so second rate its actually sort of painful...
"kid-friendly atmosphere" Why are you so sure about that?
I don't know it kinda of double standards. That's how come I tend to ignore online reviews for this purpose.
Lets take an example Mortal Kombat 2011 version they have like about 10 women in there wearing skimpy outfits, oh no that's right they are all adults it's fair but no it's alright cause the game is American.
I take the review on merit if the game is banned but henceforth it's not so bashing the game on little girls is beating a dead horse with a stick. Not alright the game is Japanese.
Well ME3 is a pretty good game cause it's made in America same as Skyrim but those people who actually played these games will take their reviews with a grain of salt. It's like IGN rating MW3 10/10 yea pro site.
See another example is Lollipop chainsaw 1/5 on Quarter to 3? Really so you compared the game to Baynoetta!! Well Panademic is shit cause I compare it to Atom Zombie Smash!!!
Also Brett Todd is an American so that's how come the game is reviewed so shit.
Also I tell you my prediction.
When GTA V comes out it will get around 9-10 rating can you guess why?
YEP THE GAME IS MADE IN AMERICA.
Alright guys, let's read "The Good and The Bad" and fuck everything else.
Fucking RottenTomatoes.
"Also Brett Todd is an American so that's how come the game is reviewed so shit."
Thereby implying that all Americans are intolerant.
What kid-friendly? What is this teletubbies?
Anon 7:56
No, it implies that Americans are stupid in general.
69 bucks says I got the Limited Edition set with the cd, art booklet and t-shirt
I dunno about you guys but I wear my 'Barrel!' Shirt with Pride!
Next anime con in my area, here I come! :D
Lolicon and proud?
I know I am.
it's pretty sexualised and gross as heck, mate
No you.
It doesn't seem like he played the game.
About half of the areas are not happy pastel color and shiny happiness. They're ruins and dungeons crawling with ghosts and dragons.
Also Meruru wears shorts under that skirt. Last time I checked short shorts didn't make anyone cringe.
The reviewer was a true gentleman - he obviously didn't even look under her skirt.
I played the game. I had no fucking idea as to what I was doing. Gets a 5.5 from me because of graphics. Otherwise, I find it pretty bad.
Obviously it's a niche game, but that's not the question.
They're too busy drooling at the local high school girl crowd to make comments about the way they dress. Thus when they review games, their activities summon up a wealth of guilt that they take out on anime games. This way no one suspects that they're probably eyeing every girls of teen years that they see .
I think it's less about the outfits and more about the character. Kat must be one of those women who can only accept women being 'strong', 'independant' and all that new age, feminist bullshit like many other empowerment crazy Western women.
Even in real life, there are all kinds of women. Yet this game gets flak?
And why must so many women who are in videogames industry be so insecure of themselves? Same shit with Jessica Hepler not being able to take criticism for her thinking that games should allow people to skip gameplay for story and instantly branding the critics as 'sexist'. What part of 'videogame' doesn't she understand? Her being an idiot meant that she is literally walking the stereotype they wanna call bullshit. You want story, you read books or watch movies.
This is actually what makes me so surprised at the outright hate some people are giving to the new Tomb Raider reset. As soon as they suggested the Lara wasn't born as the indestructible back-flipping tiger killing monster that she's portrayed as in the previous games, and that she might just be weak enough for a violent much larger guy (I'm assuming soldier from a drug cartel or something since he doesn't seem to be an island savage) to potentially rape her, the internet suddenly went "What the fuck are you doing!" and did a 180 on opinion of the game.
The reality is though, that 99.9% of females graduating college probably would be in the exact same situation they're putting her in, if they even managed to overcome being stabbed in the abdomen by a metal spike. While yes, it's twisted and fucked up that rape is a possibility, I find it more realistic, and more "empowering" that she manages to escape, overcome her current helplessness, and END UP strong than than to be born as a tank and never encounter the issues that an actual women might encounter in the face of such an unfair and vicious scenario.
It's an unfortunate and unfair standard that everyone in games needs to be super soldiers these days or suddenly it's a political gender issue. Some people are weak with the potential to be strong, and some people just break under pressure. If you're aiming for a game more grounded in reality those archetypes should be present occasionally.
That thing about Tomb Raider...
To be honest, I never liked Lara Croft before. Her depiction as a badass packing boobs the same size as her head never really clicked to me.
The new Tomb Raider though really made me wanna play the game, simply because she seemed very human to me, as shown in the trailer. Sure she'd still be forced to pull a few flips every now and then, but her new personality is just... believable.
About claims of sexism and all that shit, those fuckers are more than a decade late to the party. Where were they during the first 3 TR games when Lara's body figure was still clearly made to sexually please with dat ghetto ass and balloon boobs?
Feminist are stupid in general. Let me just say first off i'm a chick and I view nothing wrong about the female body.
The problem with feminist is that their literally comparing the image of women themselves to pixels and pictures. Their actually insecure of their own selfs (either their fat, ugly, or just plain baggage rl) so they take their frustrations out on the gaming world.
To them, putting masculine-looking clothes on pixel chicks or putting everyone in muslim-wear attire is "conquering" the big, bad game industry world and creating "equality".
Doesn't do shit but force their view down on how games should be and THIS is how everyone should play because they say so.
Fuck the feminazi bitches.
Should come to Europe not strange for even 8 year old girls to wear thongs
I'll just note Tera's Elin race for the Western release.
Seriously, the only ones with "unhealthy" interests are the ones sexualizing whatever to begin with. I mean if you're seeing them in that way...You really aren't in any position to preach to others. People that strongly oppose something for moralistic values are usually the ones that are more inclined to have an interest in and actually act out. We call that denial. By gods if cute, puffy, frilly outfits that are designed well are called to be sexualized to these people....how on earth do they react at a fucking beach?
When a "game reviewer" is focusing more on the characters design....no a characters outfit make that, instead of the gameplay, mechanics, fluidity and so forth. You ain't no "game reviewer".
Honestly I wish that game never came out in NA because all the idiots here.
Funny thing the game is only a month old here and now those same people who complained about elin are now saying their "bored out their mind".
That's what en-masse gets for appealing for prudes and trying to turn an asian game western wow bullshit.
Could care less about Brian Knox and Chris Lee.
America is just on a concentrated attack on anything from Japan.