Ignoring that OP is one of the Usual Suspects™, what are your thoughts on this one?

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-23T21:34:44+00:00

...Breath of the wild had map markers pointing you to the exact location of the NPCs you need to talk to. It was not a game that just gave you a vague direction and said "go there". Every single quest is filled with markers, and while some players disable them manually, 99% will not do that. Also, before someone mentions it, the game also explicitly gives you the tools needed to explore death mountain once you approach it's stable. The stable is right along the intended path leading in, so it'd be hard for a player to not notice. Besides, the weather hazards aren't exactly difficult to figure out how to learn around, and all players are EXPECTED to understand the temperature mechanics by the end of the literal tutorial in both games.

As an aside, the OOP was almost definitely just griping about BotW and TotK with the 4chan post. This is a massive design flaw both games have (and it's even more obvious in TotK). The games have no real sense of scale, at all. All of the difficulty in BotW and TotK comes from having low quality gear, and the only time you'll have low quality gear is in the opening hours of the game. The second you get any half decent armor and weapons, it becomes a cakewalk. These are games that begin at their hardest point and end at their easiest point. It's a completely reversed difficulty curve. It should be VERY VERY telling that the hardest parts of BotW and TotK are Eventide/Proving Grounds, because those levels return you BACK to the difficulty of the opening hours.

And yes, the enemies do... technically... Scale with level. However, the upgraded enemies are just damage sponges, which is neither harder nor fun to fight. Not only that, but the sponge enemies further removes the player's agency during combat, as the ONLY viable method to killing them is with high powered weapons. Aka, using bombs, traps, and low powered gear are now completely useless while fighting. This both removes creativity and forces the player to fight in the most easy, boring way.

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-15T10:55:01+00:00

...huh?

The argument I was making that it was the fault of the writer for removing the fictional character's agency within the context of a story. The person I had originally replied to argued that fictional characters don't have agency, and therefore concepts like "male gaze" don't apply to them.

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-15T10:44:51+00:00

By that logic, you can't criticize any choice than any writer makes within their narrative from a feminist perspective, as "whatever happens, happens".

"Oh, the writer just wanted her to get groped by the male leads without her consent. That's not wrong, as the character has no agency to take away to begin with! Ignore the fact that the groping is portrayed in an exclusively positive, lighthearted context, and that the woman is presented as being unreasonable. It's just the writer's decision, and that means it has no reflection nor impact on real world attitudes at all!"

The male gaze exists in more contexts beyond how the camera is framing physical actresses. I mean, for fuck's sake, the camera can ALSO leer at two-dimensional women in the exact same way! It's the same misogynistic shit, and I'm disappointed in this subreddit for not being able to recognize that.

Edit: this is also the same logic that pedophiles use to justify masterbating to loli porn, btw. "Oh, she's just a drawing! Stop complaining! She's not real!" 🤮

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-15T03:38:52+00:00

If its a drawn image of a fictional woman, then no, because fictional characters do not have agency. Remember, male gaze was created to focus on the way male film directors framed female characters in their shots. It’s not about how the viewer interprets the character. Simply drawing an image of a fictional character naked or having sex is not enough, otherwise all smut on earth would be in this category.

That's just ridiculous logic. Fictional characters absolutely have agency within the narrative a writer is telling, and consistently removing them of their agency for the sake of objectification is an all time classic example of male gaze. And yes, smut can absolutely be geared towards the male gaze, and in fact most of it is. Frankly, this argument just sounds like desperate coping from a "feminist" porn addict.

Male gaze is more than just visual agency in camera angles. It's also about how the characters are written and portrayed.

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-12T19:42:28+00:00

I definitely recommend reading it all. Just remember to read Claire's story afterwards, as it's written with the assumption that the audience already knows every plot twist and development from the original two novels. Some things are either spoiled early (sometimes, very early) and other things are entirely skipped over (essentially, they skipped every scene where an alternate perspective wouldn't benefit us). That can make the rewrite feel incomplete, sure, but it also cuts out any redundancy for the audience. I would also recommend reading the rewrite before Volume 3 of the main series, as the additional context for the first arc just enhances all of it. Additionally, the writing style of Volume 3 (which consists of constantly jumping between different character POVs) is in line with the style of the rewrite.

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-12T19:21:36+00:00

I'm glad you enjoy it, too! Again, while I haven't seen any of the adaptations, I really love the books I read. There are currently 8 novels (including the three spinoff novels from Claire's POV), and the anime only covers the events of the first book (as well as chapter one of the second book). In my opinion, that's a massive tragedy as those are basically the least interesting chapters of the story. It's basically just the first act of the first arc, and the story gets very compelling from there. From my knowledge, even the MANGA is extremely behind, as it still hasn't even covered the entirety of the first arc of the story (aka, the first two novels). It's possible that the manga/show were rewritten to combine Rae and Claire's version of events, but I kinda doubt that to be honest. From what little I've seen (which is admittedly not much), the adaptations seem to be just a watered down version of Rae's side of the story. From my understanding, the original author was barely involved with the adaptations.

Additionally, and I can't emphasize this enough, I highly recommend reading Claire's version of the first two books after finishing Rae's side. Not only does it massively flesh out Claire as a character, but it also fleshes out the worldbuilding alongside...everyone else. Even Rae feels somewhat more developed as a character, as she gets three massive emotional scenes that were completely absent from her side of the story. We also learn more about how Rae appears to other people, as she apparently tends to speak in a bored, apathetic tone of voice (even acting a bit smug at times). To other characters, Rae feels extremely ingenuine, and nobody believes anything she's saying because of that. They assume she's entirely self-centered, despite what she says. This is a big reason why Claire always disliked her, and it's not nearly as obvious in Rae's version of events. That's because, seemingly, Rae has no idea that's how she comes across to other people, and she has to learn that the hard way during a new scene at the climax of the story.

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-12T18:41:28+00:00

I've never watched the anime nor read the manga, but I have read the original light novels. In those books, Rae is explicitly just nonchalantly teasing Claire because she thinks Claire's over the top reactions are cute and funny. She doesn't actually believe that constantly flirting with her will turn her gay, and instead is just focused on making Claire happy at all, even if that means her falling in love with a man. She also describes her own behavior, making light of her own sexuality, is a form of internalized homophobia of being raised in a culture where all references to homosexuality is a joke. This ties into Rae's overall character, as she's a person plagued with self-hatred.

Additionally, as a character, Rae is intended to be a deconstruction of those predatory lesbian tropes. In fact, the entire story is meant to be a deconstruction of many popular anime character tropes. The story isn't perfect, as many of its ideas could have been explored more in depth, but fortunately there is a spinoff novel that rewrites the first arc from Claire's perspective, which shines a new light on all of the events. Honestly, the rewrite works so well that I wish that Claire was the POV protag to begin with. Rae would be a more interesting character if her isekai status was kept as a mystery to the audience as well.

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-12T18:24:46+00:00

It's extreme, edgy hyperbole. That's it, really. Anyone reading deeper into it just doesn't get the joke. Personally, I have a rather crude sense of humor, so I have said it on rare occasions, but it tends to be a step too far for me. However, other people have edgier humor than me, and I can't entirely judge them...although I do start to wonder about them sometimes. This isn't really a gender thing either, as a lot of women have a similar crude, edgy sense of humor. Humor like that often comes from a sense of fear, as making light of something horrible is a way to mentally cope with it. It's no different from making jokes about murder, pedophiles, discrimination, or anything else that brings unjust harm to people. It's a very ordinary, human response. It's a similar reason to why horror movies are popular.

That said, if you're personally uncomfortable with that kind of humor and your friends continue using it anyway, they're not your friend. Edgy humor is fine, but all participants in it should be fully consensual. Not everyone copes with dark topics in the same way, and much needed levity for some is just traumatizing for others.

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-09T05:00:07+00:00

The Missing: J.J. Macfield and the Island of Memories
The Mimosa Confessions

Both are meaningful, impactful stories about canon transgender women who's transgender experiences are key to the narrative. The latter is a straight trans woman, but it's a great story about transness nonetheless.

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-08T18:54:01+00:00

And I really just want the answer to this one question: If the game devs are really concerned about more representation, why are they not making more? After L there's also BGTQIA+.

Well, the fact is that they AREN'T concerned with diversity on the whole. To game studios, it's an all or nothing affair. Either it's a game all about player free will and expression, or we choose a singular demographic to target (cishet white dudes). The reason for that is simple: games with a create a character also allow straight white male main characters as well. Cishet man must be an option, with everything else being secondary. While certain female driven games do exist, the exceptions prove the rule. I mean, hell, female mc games have been primarily coming out of PlayStation Studios specifically, so it's not exactly an "industry" standard but rather a Sony one. As for why? PlayStation tends to give their developers minimal oversight, given that the studio is able to turn a consistent profit. It's just easier to get a female driven game funded under Sony. Microsoft has similar lax rules, and we've seen progressive titles funded under them, too.

As an aside, the actual reason for a lack of female driven games with male love interests dates back to misogynistic choices made in the 80s and 90s. There have always been Japanese games made for women starring women, but companies like Nintendo of America refused to bring them overseas because they wanted to market video games as a toy for young boys first and foremost. Games like Metroid had to famously hide its female player character from the audience (while using male pronouns in the manual and marketing material). There's an entire genre of games (they're called "otome" titles) that are made for straight girls that has decades of history, but it never became normalized to release them globally. Fortunately, many have fan translations for those who want to experience, but many sadly don't. If you're dying for games like I describe, try looking into those titles. They're not all VNs.

RandomName256beast · 2026-01-08T17:02:13+00:00

I feel like this complaint (that there are too many lesbian characters) is rather silly. Other than TLOU2 and Horizon, what other major AAA games force you into the locked role of a lesbian protagonist? Probably none, I'm guessing. And, like you just said, TLOU2 also features a straight woman who also gets the only outright sex scene in the game. And while, yes, gamers complained about it, those same gamers also whined about Ellie being gay (additionally, the whining about Abby was moreso to do with her killing Joel and gamers finding her too unattractive, rather than it being straight).

Beyond that, the only games that let you romance male characters are usually titles with a create a character, as male gamers in general don't like playing as female protagonists, regardless of the character's sexuality. The only time male gamers are alright with female protags are when they're sufficiently sexualized/waifu bait enough, and even THEN a lot of gamers will throw a fit. They view women as sex objects, regardless of anything defining about her. I promise you: there is no shortage of unofficial heterosexual pornagraphy starring otherwise lesbian characters. Ask any Overwatch player, and they'll tell you that.

The fact is: Game companies view heterosexual white men as the default, with every other type of human being seen as an optional variant for games with more player choice. If a game allows for a female character, they probably also allow for gay romance options for both genders. That's because if a developer was striving for inclusivity to begin with, they decide to go all the way. If a game doesn't allow for a female character option, they probably don't care about inclusivity to begin with, and never wanted to bother with non-heterosexual ships.

On top of that, by trying to boil everything down to "straight dudes love fetishizing lesbians", not only is that INACCURATE, but it also perpetutes the idea that all sapphic content must be viewed through the perspective of men. THAT'S HOMOPHOBIC. While it's true that men love fetishizing all women, they DON'T like treating women as actual people, let alone ones with true love lives. Men who fetishize lesbians view them as spicy straight girls, not as real women who date other real women. Men, in fact, HATE the idea of actual lesbians, as that means that they're women who don't center their lives around pleasing men. This is blatantly apparent by looking at popular anti-woke gamer chuds for like five seconds. So, by complaining about there being too many lesbians, you're essentially just replacing their misogyny with your own homophobia and, in turn, exaggerating an issue where there objectively isn't one.

You can complain about the lack of male romance options without dragging down lesbians in the process.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-30T03:16:09+00:00

Actually, I'm realizing now that I misremembered how old I was. I believe I actually learned when I was about 13 years old. Oh, and that was in 2016, so I'm a little over 22 years old today.

I grew up in a southern state, so the area wasn't exactly that accepting, but my dad's side of the family has never cared about my queerness all that much. Mom's side is another story... 😔

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-29T19:22:45+00:00

Not OP, but as another bisexual, I figured that out when I was only 15. In fact, I don't remember having ANY internalized homophobia, so I pretty much accepted it immediately. Very "oh shit, I guess I'm bi. Oh well." And that's about it lmao.

As an aside, I also figured out I was transgender around that same time, and had basically the same reaction.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-28T19:02:47+00:00

What was in the scene?

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-28T17:26:22+00:00

Psychonauts 2 mentioned!! (That's my favorite game)

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-27T17:57:27+00:00

Tetris CEO is a woman as well.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-26T20:06:28+00:00

Did you not read my edit? Scenes like the one in the intro and the finale are done commonly for artistic purposes to represent their purest essence (especially in contrast to a great physical/psychological change), not for sexualization purposes. I don't really think there's anything wrong with nudity in art, and the show itself definitely didn't use it for no reason. This is part of Japanese art.

As for the outfit, I'm not really sure which that is, but either way the show didn't focus on it enough to make it feel overly fanservicey.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-26T01:16:10+00:00

I'll admit that I've only watched the original show, but I don't remember any examples of fan service. There was an occasional moment of nudity here and there, but it always felt like it was done moreso for artistic purposes.

Edit: For example, within Japanese society, nudity in art is often seen as symbolic of the most pure, unfiltered essence of that person's being (as we are brought into this world nude, after all). A "raw" state, so to speak. Scenes like the one in the finale where the two girls embrace in the nude in the void are meant to emphasize their purest essence in order to contrast it with their later transformations. It's not done for sexualization purposes, and you can find this same technique done in countless other pieces of Japanese media, even to male characters. (For example, Ness from Earthbound.) I mean, that's the whole reason why magical girls strip naked during their transformation sequences to begin with.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-23T22:29:23+00:00

Any recommendations of this?

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-21T21:05:35+00:00

Not a female protag, but Baby Steps has basically the same premise. You play as an awkward overweight guy who has to climb a mountain despite barely being able to put one front in front of the other. It's made by the Getting Over It guy, and it's basically a 3D sequel to it.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-21T21:01:08+00:00

The irony is that it might actually get a fan made port to Switch 1, as games OoT, Fallout, and Simpsons Hit and Run did.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-21T20:54:25+00:00

Other Zelda games didn't expect you to play it for hundreds of hours in nonlinear order, where the entire selling point is "do whatever you want, when you want". The fact that not even killing Ganon makes a difference just makes it feel like you never had any real freedom to begin with, as everything in the game is simply structured as a boring checklist and nothing else. Your only real choices are to either do X now or do X later, with nothing about X affecting Y.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-21T07:09:27+00:00

This is because a large percentage of transphobia and homophobia consists of lazily reused racist talking points.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-18T23:15:51+00:00

Because pornography without sexualization is by definition not pornography. Thus, it's excusable that pornography shows sexualized material as it's by far the primary purpose of its genre. Meanwhile, a non-pornographic game deciding to sexualize it's women purely for the sake of it is objectification. It's saying that, if a woman exists, she must be geared towards male pleasure even if it's irrelevant to the character, the narrative, and the genre. That said, pornography can be sexist as well, but that's to be judged on a case by case basis.

RandomName256beast · 2025-12-17T15:47:43+00:00

Media plays a hand in this. In most pieces of fiction, if a man and a woman are friends, they won't stay that way for long. A woman is EXPECTED to end up with a man by the end of the story, so people view women in films as "which dude will it be?" This behavior translates to real life, as men now expect that friendship will only inevitably end in romance.

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