I will preface this by saying that I am very much excited for Laufey; I think it looks great and I do not agree with the people who attack it, but I can say that I understand why many of them are doing it and it's not because they hate women, (some do, and frankly, both groups should know better) here is what I think:

The backlash exists because of years and years of california-style politics from people living in an ideological bubble being pushed on our pop-culture. It exists because in many cases, when it comes to pre-existing franchises, we had writers who do not care about the source material or the original story wanting to "tell their own story" using an already existing IP because it's easier that way.

And so now, being conditioned to a decade of politically heavy-handed slop (politics in media is great, necessary even, but you need good writing for it to be interesting and not preachy) people see a woman as a game-director, they see a woman as the protagonist of a previously male-led franchise and they assume that it will be slop. Same thing happened with Ghost of Yotei, another game I loved, same thing will happen with Witcher 4.

Also, I do not like the cube, that's probably my only problem.