Upskirt Danger Caused Sex Change in Ico's The Last Guardian

[AugustFall]

I believe the point is the designer doesn't want his audience ogling an adolescent girl's backside for the entire game, in a skirt or pants.

Kudos sir.

 

[ryai458]

Whoa they can quote Gameinformer, and a week afterwards too.

 

[GiantRedButton]

I can identify alot more with male characters (duh)
But I think the girl not being ale to climb it thing outweights the skirt problem.
I mean pants would be odd considering that the isn't set in very modern times. Its been 50 years now when girls started wearing pants ^^
But still it's fantasy.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

I don't know...maybe gamers could be tasteful and not stare at upskirt shots?

Or use pants. No...then gamers would start at her ass.

Nevermind. Make 'em a boy.

 

[Echo136]

Here's an idea. Just have her wear pants!

 

[Aurgelmir]

Agreed with the putting her in pants idea, besides for climbing it seems a bit more practical to wear pants instead of a skirt when climbing things.

My thought exactly

 

[boholikeu]

I read the headline and initially thought "wow that's pretty progressive for a Japanese developer. Usually they are all for the upskirt fan service". Then, as the article points out, I realized he could've just put her in pants...

And any shred of respect I had was dashed when I read the bit about choosing a female character as the natural antithesis to a strong creature.

So if this guy prefers to have a guy than a girl wearing pants, then so be it. He's pretty awesome for it. How many Japanese developers stop and say "...I don't want my female to have upskirt issues. At all."? I wonder if there's any other developer this awesome. [/fanboyism]

So he&s awesome because he views women as simply being weak rather than sexually objectifying them?

Women in Japan don't generally wear pants, and little girls especially don't. It's not a matter of chauvinism or anything, it's simply the way their culture is. It wouldn't even think to most Japanese people to question is, in their minds it's no different from men not wearing skirts.

See, this is a culture that understands something that the US frequently seems to miss: it's okay for genders to be DIFFERENT, and that doesn't automatically make them unequal in some way.

P.S. Thanks

thank you for the insight.

As someone that lives in Japan, I'd like to let everyone know this is not true. Plenty of women here wear pants. Japan may have different expectations of each gender than the West, but this is not one of them

 

[DTWolfwood]

hahahahahaha XD

o man that is just hilarious to read hah.

Bless you Ueda bless yoU! XD

 

[Evilbunny]

I guess Japan hasn't discovered pants yet.

 

[Covarr]

Women in Japan don't generally wear pants, and little girls especially don't. It's not a matter of chauvinism or anything, it's simply the way their culture is. It wouldn't even think to most Japanese people to question is, in their minds it's no different from men not wearing skirts.

See, this is a culture that understands something that the US frequently seems to miss: it's okay for genders to be DIFFERENT, and that doesn't automatically make them unequal in some way.

P.S. Thanks

As someone that lives in Japan, I'd like to let everyone know this is not true. Plenty of women here wear pants. Japan may have different expectations of each gender than the West, but this is not one of them

My apologies, I appear to have made a mistake. However, depending on the age and status of this character, a school uniform (read: skirt) would still have made more sense than pants, and certainly would have helped convey her femininity. But then, looking at what's been shown so far, I guess this isn't terribly relevant.

P.S. Thanks (special thanks for correcting me, I do not like being responsible for propagating myths)

 

[Blind Sight]

Well Kratos wears a skirt and we all get wonderful shots of that when he's climbing...thank god the camera zooms out.

 

[A random person]

Couldn't you just do the downward shots at an angle so they'd just expose more of her legs without showing her panties? Add a little skirt lengthening/ physics manipulation for good measure and you're golden.

Part of me also wants to suggest that, even though it's fetishized, maybe they should simply ignore some of the panty shots (unless they're really sustained) and basically state, "yes, little girls wear skirts and underwear too, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that." As long as any flashes make physical sense and they're not emphasized, they'd be handling it maturely in my eyes.

 

[JediMB]

- Lara Croft wore pants and people still oggled her backside - of course, she jumped, swam and made grunting noises when she climbed, so that probably 'helped'.

Also, the camera tended to zoom in on her well-sculpted ass during previously mentioned climbing sequences.

I had mixed feelings about that one.

 

[WillItWork]

Long story short, this was a developer decision, it's already been done, and shows a lot more about how he thinks.

I'd prefer a lack of exploits in my fantasy game, kthxbye.

 

[Weaver]

Women in Japan don't generally wear pants, and little girls especially don't. It's not a matter of chauvinism or anything, it's simply the way their culture is. It wouldn't even think to most Japanese people to question is, in their minds it's no different from men not wearing skirts.

See, this is a culture that understands something that the US frequently seems to miss: it's okay for genders to be DIFFERENT, and that doesn't automatically make them unequal in some way.

P.S. Thanks

As someone that lives in Japan, I'd like to let everyone know this is not true. Plenty of women here wear pants. Japan may have different expectations of each gender than the West, but this is not one of them

My apologies, I appear to have made a mistake. However, depending on the age and status of this character, a school uniform (read: skirt) would still have made more sense than pants, and certainly would have helped convey her femininity. But then, looking at what's been shown so far, I guess this isn't terribly relevant.

P.S. Thanks (special thanks for correcting me, I do not like being responsible for propagating myths)

The thing is, I'll buy this argument if this took place in modern day Japan. But this game takes place in an alternative fantasy reality, I'm pretty sure once you add giant monsters into your game a girl wearing pants is well within the realm of believability.

 

[Dragunai]

And why couldn't she wear trousers? Even in ye olden times girls sometime wore breeches.

This is just sexist. It makes no sense to have the protagonist as a girl just because you think that she must wear a skirt.

The following line will explain all:

"Lead designer Fumito Ueda"

Have you ever met a Japanese game designer who didn't give the female characters massive boobies, a skirt so short it's literally a belt and long pigtails while making her eyes sparkle whenever you look at her?

/Poor Japanese Accent
"Mr Ueda, we have realised something! There are many shots from UNDER the character!"

"Why is this a problem Siuki-san?"

"There are maaaaany chances for player to see panties! This. not. panty game like panty adventures 3: the tale of the missing thong!"

"Buddhas sushi! We must change the lead to a boy at once!"

"Or we put girl into a pair of slacks?"

They stare at each other for a moment

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Siuki, you always make me laugh with your WILD idea's"

/end mild comical racism

Also worth mentioning that when Capcom roughly hashed together their latest gaming insult "Lost Planet 2" and put in the Femme Fatales faction most of their outfits let you see their underwear, in fact the hook shot you use to get around almost makes it impossible NOT to see them.

So if Capcom did it then why can't Ico!

Oh yeh cause Ico are actually a good games developer.
My bad.

 

[Serge A. Storms]

The internet weeps for the missed opportunity.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

how about just putting the lady in pants? Seems like a much easier fix than scrapping the female character altogether.

Just saying.

This sums up EVERYTHING.

 

[Firetaffer]

I wouldn't care what was underneath her skirt, so long as it was actually part of the story .

 

[ImprovizoR]

So it's going to be a boy in the skirt then? That's even more messed up. I seriously have to challenge the intellect of people in charge of this game. Pants were my first reaction when I read the title of the article.