Speaking of which, ScreenRant gave it a mediocre score for "lacking in inclusivity and diversity"
If a gaming journalist puts such ridiculous reason for getting a few points off, that must mean the game is good!
Hmmm. Its an odd place to go, but they do justify pointing it out saying
1. According to them the world is completely devoid of female characters, not even NPCs, which they state is odd considering the story its based on.
2. Apparently the studio has gotten into some hot water stating women aren't welcome in gaming or some such.
Idk, I can understand if women are a glaring. Its funny, I thought to myself "Theres lots of games without women because they lack any purpose in expressing gender " then I realized I ... can't think of any games that don't have women in them. Thats just not a thing in modern games. Pikmin? Im honestly struggling.
Technically even mario has bowsers cousin/daughter whatever and peach. Lots of gendered creatures.
Now I did think of Dark Souls which has the campfire maiden, but I think that's it.
Idk its a weird thing to call out but they do justify it, noting Journey to the east has lots of female characters so omitting girls is....odd.
I don't think it justified taking points away if the story is still good, but I also thought screenrant was just ai generated articles for the last 4-5 years. I wouldn't take them seriously as a review outlet.