Grey Carter said:
I shouldn't need to explain that the male characters are NOT sexualized. They're idealized as part of a male power fantasy. THEY ARE NOT designed to appeal to women. There are plenty of reasons to defend Dragon's Crown's stylistic choices, chief amongst them being the awesome technical prowess of the Vanillaware art team, but the whole "the men are sexualized too!" argument is bullshit and you know it.
As for the Amazon drawing from Greek ideals, debatable. The ideal greek form had wide hips (check), defined musculature (check), correct fat proportions (nope) and small breasts (hell to the fucking nope). I personally adore the design, it's exaggerated to the point of freakishness, which I like, but I can see why others take issue.
Finally. No one is calling the game misogynist. They ARE calling it "sexist." Which is a fair cop, the game's female characters are treated differently from the male characters, just look at the poses. You can argue that this is because the game is drawing from sexist influences (Frazetta et al) and recognizing these influences is good, but it doesn't make the final product any less sexist.
You're really going to tell me the Wizard isn't sexualized (which surprisingly hasn't been brought up a lot in discussions like this, or the elf (total loli character w/ zettai ryouiki and all))? He's the perfect mold for that. A pale, brooding, physically weak bishi? That is Loki to a tee, who is apparently creamed over by girls a lot. And they don't expose a lot of skin to be attractive either.
yet.
The Wizard? Sexualized for who? This is a guy who's got many physical traits of Sephiroth, short of the big sword, and less bondage gear/leather. Sephiroth, a person who still inspires guys to name their characters after him to this day when given the chance. Sephiroth, despite being the badguy is, amazingly, still popular among guys.
He's also the stereotypical wizard, short of appearing young enough to not be hunched over, and covered in wrinkles. Long gray hair, lots of cloth on, not physically imposing. He's not exactly tall, dark, and mysterious. Not sure Brooding fits. He's dressed a bit too brightly under that cloak for brooding.
He's not as extreme of a stereotype as the Dwarf, or the armored guy to say the least. Likely for aesthetics.
Kinda funny that the Sorceress was designed to go against typical Necromancer portrayals being old, crusty guys, but the Wizard didn't get that sort of attention that I know of. Again, this is likely for aesthetics.
And I don't think it ever really fails that a game has the pretty boy of the group. At least with games from Japan. A lot of the sentai/team tropes exists still from old sentai days. I don't think the Wizard is really a bone thrown to the female gamers so much as to fill the pretty boy/bishi slot of the team that seems obligatory. I don't think he's sexualized, more than there to look cool. And, men, and women alike, we all want to play a protagonist we think is cool, don't we?
Sure some people, both men, and women might be attracted to him, but, well, he's not being talked about much, is he?
I'm not sure what we'd talk about with that guy. He seems kinda bland, and normal. I mean the Amazon, and Sorceress get the most attention, one for exemplifying a woman's lower body strength, and the other for representatives of life, though most just see "BOOBS!"
I guess the Wizard looking normal is what we're supposed to talk about much like the Elf gets talked about despite her competition. She also is more or less the steretypical elf ranger, but a girl.
Lets not forget that 1/3 the guys seem sexualized, even according to you.
3/3 of the women are sexualized. The Amazon has butt jiggle for crying out loud. All 3 women are deseigned to appeal to guys, in the end.
And the Wizard is -not- Loki to a tee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pl30aEahlIU
This video breaks it down pretty well. Women generally want something deeper than the surface, and the Wizard barely stacks up, IMO.
Moreover, I really doubt the Wizard was modeled after Loki. I don't think anyone was really swooning over Loki before that movie either.