Tony2077 said:
i love the series it just is a very small bit annoying the second is on a system i really don't have any interest in
I'm going to be very snarky and pick on you for a bit, but only because I like you.
I hear this often, but the truth is you DO want a Wii U. You want a Wii U right now, in fact, because you could then play Bayonetta 2, one of the best games of the year, and a series you claim you love. You would like nothing more than a Wii U to play Bayonetta 2.
You just don't want to PAY for a Wii U because it's an expensive piece of hardware, you may have already spent that money on a PS4 or Xbox One, and you would PREFER to have the game on a system you already own.
But you do have an interest in the system.... for Bayonetta 2. A highly desirable game is on a system you don't own, thus you are interested in the system, just not to the degree of giving them a few hundred dollars for it.
But if the Wii U was totally affordable and the game was in your clutches? You'd be totally interested. GAMES are what make people interested in systems, and the Wii U, for better or worse (mainly for your wallet), is a vastly more interesting system with a stellar game like Bayonetta 2 exclusively on it.
I mean, I don't have a Wii U either. But I'd be lying if I said I'm not more interested in the system now than before Bayonetta 2 swept the floor with all those perfect scores.
Silentpony said:
I guess I would ask, and forgive me if this details the conversation, but why are the writers Bayonetta given such a pass? I mean Bayonettas sexuality, her sucking and humping of things, theyre almost irrelevant to my larger thought really. It's not WHAT she does, it's why no one looks at the men behind the curtain.
People have. And the answer was, well, there were many people behind the curtain... and not just MEN. Bayonetta in this game was designed by a FEMALE fashion designer, along with all her outfits and costumes.
For example, when Mass Effect 3s ending pissed everyone off, the rage was directed at the writers. How could they write this?! No one stepped up and said the Reapers have agency and Shepard made his/her choice so deal with it.
That's because the Reapers were slaves, and they had no agency, thus nobody brought that up because it doesn't exist.
When Lara Croft was almost raped, everyone was disgusted someone wrote that in a game. No one just shrugged and said the bad guy was just confident in his sexuality. He has agency and choose this life.
Well, the game was also written by a FEMALE writer as well. Beyond that, the in-context situation is hardly sexual. If you fail, there's nothing sexual... he just flat out kills the main character. More importantly, he's a no-name thug, a video game obstacle, and thus nobody CARES about his agency or sexuality because he's ultimately NOT IMPORTANT.
When the new assassin creed demo had no women, everyone called it terrible and non inclusive. No one said well it was the women's choice to not be assassins. They decided to not be in the demo and we should respect that choice.
But there ARE female assassins in the series. Hell, there are female assassins during the French Revolution as HISTORICAL FACT. The most famous French assassin was a woman during that time period. Also, the lack of women wasn't so much of an issue as it was the REASON we were told they weren't there: "they were too much work." THAT was what most people were upset with.
Dead or Alive extreme beach volleyball? Absolutely terrible! sexist! Disgusting. No one steps forward and says it's their choice to dress up in skimpy bikinis and bounce around in slowmo. No one respects Helena or Kasumi for their confidence in their bodies. Nope, they're sex doll.
It's not their choice. It's the developer's choice. A developer with a repeatedly poor history of representing women, and continued litigation involving women in the work place. There is a point to Bayonetta's sexuality, and it actually defines their character. I own every Dead or Alive game, and practically NONE of their (mostly interchangeable) outfits contribute to their established personalities. Also, I don't think people can choose to "bounce in slowmo". I've tried it. I can't get it to work...
But Bayonetta strips naked and grinds her enemies to death with her crotch? GOSH! what strong female characterization. How respectable. How progressive and confident she is!
No one bats an eye that writers made her this way. No one asks why she strips, it's just part of who she is, forgetting who she is isn't up to her.
Actually, she weaponizes sex, making it one of her many means of dispensing enemies, thus turning it from something forced upon her to something SHE forces upon OTHERS. And people did ask why she strips; it's even explained in-game how her very outfit is made from her own magic hair, transmuting into alternate forms and beasts and monsters. It's one of the few games that DOES answer why she does it. She is never not in control of her form or sexuality, which is the key difference. She is not the docile recipient most of the time like most other fanservice women.
I would go so far to say Dead or Alive Volleyball is a progressive game compared to Bayonetta. Yes DoA is trash, but it's not trying to hide it's naughty bits behind artsy filters or smoke monsters DoA isn't trying to pretend it's here for anything but cheese shots and doesn't throw in boss fights as part of a needless delaying tactic between strip shows.
It's called Dead or Alive VOLLEYBALL. It totally hid its pervy dress-up simulator behind the veil of "it's a volleyball game, REALLY!" The fact that you had to UNLOCK stripper pole dances as REWARDS meant that they hid the naughtiest bits behind fluff and stuff. It did it's very best to be softcore while not having the guts to actually commit to its one-note gimmick of sexual pandering.
It's honest that this is fap material, pure and simple. where as Bayonetta has to pretend it's erotica, i guess so as not to piss off family friendly Nintendo or the moms who bought Wiis for their toddlers.
Bayonetta 1 was exactly the same way and was NOT on Nintendo systems; it was on the systems that GTA, Duke Nukem Forever, and, yes, Dead or Alive Volleyball were on.
There's a lot of great material out there that can be both smart AND erotic, fun AND sexy, mature AND silly, naughty AND nice... Bayonetta's not even the first to walk that balance.