Dragon’s Crown “Grossly Sexualized Adolescent Fantasy”
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Aug 2, 2013 15:40 JST
- Tags: Atlus, Character Design, Dragon's Crown, Feminism, Muscle, Oppai, PS3, RPG
Dragon’s Crown’s controversial character designs have been earning it negative scores for sexism, with its “ultimate hardbody” Amazon and “excessively animated” sorceress not proving popular with some elements of the more sexually enlightened western gaming press, to say nothing of its “groping” mini-game.
The review at the centre of the controversy, by Polygon writer Danielle Riendeau, has been proving exceeding controversial and more than a little reminiscent of that surrounding another “disturbingly sexualised” classic:
Dragon’s Crown is a fantasy-obsessed teenaged boy’s dream: crazy, violent and full of impossibly large breasts.
Recalling developer Vanillaware’s previous work on Odin’s Sphere, Dragon’s Crown is a 2D brawler/RPG hybrid starring a cast of over-the-top adventurers in a land of generic fantasy tropes.
The combat and wide variety of enemies play to Vanillaware’s strengths. But the game’s repetitive structure and a troublesome presentation of women prevent Dragon’s Crown from transcending its juvenile influences.
[…]
Dragon’s Crown’s serious liberties with female anatomy are distracting. Two player characters — the Amazon and the Sorceress — are explicitly sexualized, with breasts literally bigger than their heads with rear ends to match, and plenty of the screen real estate is dedicated to their respective jiggles and sashays. But at least these characters are powerful women, with agency and a penchant for destroying rooms full of bad guys.
The same can’t be said for the female NPCs that fill Dragon’s Crown’s dungeons and other environments. Most of the women in the game are barely clothed, with heaving chests, backs twisted into suggestive positions, some with their legs spread almost as wide as the screen. They’re presented as helpless objects, usually in need of rescue. It’s obvious, one-sided and gross.
[…]
Dragon’s Crown makes a strong first impression. It’s a fun mix of RPG tropes and dynamic brawler action. But I found its over-exaggerated art style alienating and gross in its depiction of women even as it shines in building a world of fantastic monsters and environments, and the forced grind through the same stages dulled my excitement. Dragon’s Crown is a wild place to visit, but it doesn’t quite hold up in the light of day.
Dragon’s Crown is an unapologetic adolescent fantasy
Reviews less preoccupied with moral rectitude clothed as women’s rights have given the game a clean bill of health in spite of its obvious sexism, however:
The game’s “touching” mini-game has also come in for accusations of sexism too, notwithstanding the fact that players can freely fondle the gigantic slabs of muscle which form the male barbarian’s chest as well – this not counting as it is “not sexual”:
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As usual, feminism not using logic or facts to back her arguments. They labeled it as an "Adolescent Fantasy".
So I did my own scientific research on this subject: I'm 28 years old, I masturbated to the sorceress massive breasts, and the results were favourable. Age was not an impediment.
This comment = gold
Platinum!
Diamond
extraterrestrial material
Adamantium, Vibranium or just darn awesome
@01:47 - I'm seriously hoping you're a chick... either way, I can't help you since I have no idea but... uff, right in the childhood! >.<
Hello posters.
I wonder if you can help ?
A while ago on the net i happened across some wonderfully erotic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan art. All 4 boys are in bed with Shredder, who has taken his shoes and socks off. But not his mask. All for of the TMNT have taken out their gorgeous man-meats and are proceeding to urinate all over Shredder's bare feet. All 5 seem to be having a lot of fun. Even though you can't see Shredder's mouth, you can tell from his eyes, that pleasure is afoot ( no pun intended ). I checked both here and Rule34 but cannot find it ? Please can anyone link the said piece of art ? It's so sexy, maybe you'll keep a save of the file yourself ?
Diamondillium
Diamondildum
Diamondiddlium
What ever happened to plain old lavender blue dilly dilly dilly...
...silly.
more like gundanium
That comment should be any element with "-ium" in it!
All of you guys are queers.
Welp, it's an eunuch feminist.
budmad femist dedegt'ed
"Adolescent Fantasy" and? I want my adolescent fantasy and will like it, thank you very much.
But what kind of male adolescent fantasy would have have an impossibly-built shirtless guy with long flowing hair? So confused...
Because in the west it's wrong for a guy to be attracted to a female. But it's okay for two guys to stick their wangs down each others butts.
LOOKING AT FEMALES IS BAD. BEING ATTRACTED TO MALES IS GOOD AND ENCOURAGED. THE WEST IS TRYING TO FORCE EVERY MAN TO TURN INTO SOME GAY FAGGOT.
AND BY WHAT, WHINING ABOUT BOOBS AND MUSCLE-WOMEN IN A GAME.
Definite Unobtainium comment. PURE Unobtainium
As far as women are concerned, having a penis automatically makes a person "adolescent". Being attracted to feminine aesthetics is also dismissed as "fantasy".
Jealousy is the answer, sir.
The great figure of the sorceress made them look at their bear-like body, and that irritate them greatly. Rather than working out, they spent their lazy asses complain in gaming website.
Honestly, a pretend-feminist sexist idiot will probably chalk you up as a manchild who is still mentally adolescent. Never underestimate the power of cognitive dissonance.
AHHAHAHA BRILLIANT
yeah who cares about age anyway.. as long as i can fap
this... true story bro.
... and sticky.
I am feminist… and I agree with this comment.
Legendary comment!
LOL! You win over 9000 Internets!
Kill yourself
She doesnt need to back "adolescent fantasy" with facts because that is not meant to be interpreted as a fact. That is an opinion and at the end of the day that is what a review is. We shouldnt be angry at her for not joining in on a circle jerk.
Over sexualization of women is definitely something that can be interpreted from this game and to some people that is definitely relevant. For those people, its helpful to get a perspective from that point of view. Everyone is entitled to an informed decision and diverse perspectives is necessary for that.
It's a stupid opinion, which makes it stupid review. Low quality, no standards, no objectibity shit.
Stupid reviews should come with a label.
Warning: This review is bullshit, please ignore it.
What's wrong with sexualization to begin with, especially when it's being done to both males and females? And at what point does it become "over" and who deems it so?
I can't see people complaining about this stuff as anything less than unreasonably uptight nagging ninnies who can't seem to have any fun and don't want others to either.
You don't seem to know what sexualization is or how it works.
When you sexualize a character, you don't simply make their genitals huge. You highlight or even exaggerate what makes them sexy.
Men with giant balls and penises is not going to look sexy to a woman. A man's genitals aren't that appealing to women, especially when put on display. This is why most women don't like thongs and even find them disgusting.
Women like men with muscles and abs and lots of masculinity, so that's how men are sexualized.
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/04/24
@12:55 - The guys' chests are "just out there"? When Chris Hemsworth went shirtless in Thor I don't remember any female saying "oh he's just shirtless", I remember many females going "WOOOOoooooo! So hot!". Are you sure you're female? And yes, I'm generalizing all females here just like feminists generalize all men as liking the big boobs that the sorceress hDuplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!as.
@12:55 - can you please be logical before you suggest that? That would mean we should be able to see constant, huge camel toe on on the ladies or even bare pussy.
secondary sexual trait =/= primary sexual trait
But I have no problem with what you said existing. Go make it, ladies. Seriously, I for one would not complain.
@12:55 - The guys' chests are "just out there"? When Chris Hemsworth went shirtless in Thor I don't remember any female saying "oh he's just shirtless", I remember many females going "WOOOOoooooo! So hot!". Are you sure you're female? And yes, I'm generalizing all females here just like feminists generalize all men as liking the big boobs that the sorceress has.
@12:55 - can you please be logical before you suggest that? That would mean we should be able to see constant, huge camel toe on on the ladies or even bare pussy.
secondary sexual trait =/= primary sexual trait
But I have no problem with what you said existing. Go make it, ladies. Seriously, I for one would not complain.
Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!
@12:55 - The guys' chests are "just out there"? When Chris Hemsworth went shirtless in Thor I don't remember any female saying "oh he's just shirtless", I remember many females going "WOOOOoooooo! So hot!". Are you sure you're female? And yes, I'm generalizing all females here just like feminists generalize all men as liking the big boobs that the sorceress h
Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though you’ve already said that!as.
Being done with both males and females? Really? Just because the guys chest is all out there? No, for it to be fair to both genders the men would have to have monstrous, broadsword sized penis' and watermelon sized testicles that half dangled out of their loincloths as they walked and when they stood still, their animations would have then bouncing and flopping around.
Do that and you can say they're both being oversexualized. Making men over macho is NOT sexualizing them.
*Looks at title of this article*
*Looks at article before this*
I think using To Love Ru, and probably several other franchises that are frequently on this site would have been more suitable. Those articles by themselves depict the over-sexulaization of women, and that's not even including the source material.
Hold on, honey. If an opinion is not based on facts and infact disregards them, how can it be the basis for an "informed" decision?
All those other sites seemed to give it a pretty positive score overall. XD
With that being said, if they want to include that kind of 'user-friendly interface', then that's the designer's business. But did we really have to see the big malformed lunch lady getting felt up too?
If it's 90% positive, then why they the hell it got a 65/100 review.
@05:12: because she couldnt express her true hatred by going even lower because her lower score next to all the expected rave reviews of an obviously well made game would have been suspect? extreme bias... makes reviewing so much easier "I dont like how the characters look so i give it a 0", done for the day and gonna get payed..
@05:12: because she couldnt express her true hatred by going even lower because her lower score next to all the expected rave reviews of an obviously well made game would have been suspect?
extreme bias... makes reviewing so much easier "I dont like how the characters look so 0/10", done for the day and gonna get payed..
Scores are just plain retarded. Anyone that actually read the review can tell you that 90% of it is actually positive. theres one small paragraph at the end that points out the problems with depictions of women.
The atlus publisher even responded saying they think its a fair review.
Ah, the 28 years old with the mental age of 12.
So you're basically insulting everyone who feels sexually aroused past the age of 12 as well as generalizing everyone who enjoys this game as a 12 year old pervert or someone with the mind of one. You're also insulting 12 year olds for being lesser creatures due to their supposed perversion and feelings of sexual arousal.
I get it, you first masturbate at the age of 12. Is it some thing to board about ???
You just demonstrated the maturity of an 8-year-old.
and your point is?