Poll: So Castle Crashers was awesome -- until it forced me into being a lecherous jerkface

[persephone]

So I bought Castle Crashers on Steam; my sister and I wanted a two player game to play together during our mutual convalescence from a nasty turn of health, and it was on sale.

We booted it up, hooked up our controllers, and jumped right in. All the available characters were completely covered in cartoon armor, and the animation style made their sex impossible to discern. I figured this was so we could project anyone we wanted under that armor. Right away I decided my orange fire-themed warrior was a woman. I tend to prefer playing as women in games, and if it's all hidden under armor, why not?

My sister and I jump in, and straight away, barbarians invade and kidnap all the court ladies. Fair enough. Straightforward plot I can get right behind: a horde of invaders being bad, we need to go stop them. We started playing the first level, and I was really loving it. It was challenging without being frustrating, fast-paced, tons of fun. By the end of the gauntlet my sister and I were coordinating closely in order to beat the boss fight, calling out health drops and the like. It was pretty damn awesome.

We were a solid team, and we won the day. The boss was defeated, and one of the kidnapped ladies was tied to a stake. We grabbed the loot from the boss and cut the kidnapped woman down.

Then it got weird, and a game I'd been really loving suddenly put a really sour taste in my mouth.

A symbol of crossed swords over a heart appeared. Neither my sister nor myself knew what that meant, nor could we figure out how to get the freshly rescued woman to come with us. She was saved, why was she just standing there? It was my sister who figured it out: we were expected to fight each other over her.

Why?!

We'd been a team. We'd become a closer and better team over the course of the level. Hell, the game didn't even *have* friendly fire -- until it expected us to duke it out.

I told my sister, "No, that can't be right. Besides, I'm not a lesbian!" I'd decided I was playing a woman -- even if I wanted to beat up my sister/teammate, which I did NOT, I didn't want to do it over what was frankly an empty set piece of a woman. She was a vapid, sexualized prize, dolled up in makeup and a red dress, standing there mutely waiting for one of us to claim her.

My sister told me to go ahead and attack her, to see if that was indeed what the game wanted us to do; she was nearly dead already, after all. So I poked my sister with my axe, she fell down, and then my character walked up to the captive woman and smacked her on the lips (without taking their helmet off, no less!).

I was left rather upset. My sister pointed out, "The game obviously expects us to be playing men." But why? And why did we have to be men who beat each other up in order to kiss women who are clearly prizes and nothing more? I had no issue with the game's cartoony style (which was actually awesome), or its straightforward, violent plot (also awesome). I didn't even have an issue with the women being kidnapped and needing rescue -- they weren't warriors, clearly, of course they'd need rescue. But this, reducing the women to mindless prizes for lusty men, that turned my stomach. As a woman myself, I felt degraded, reduced. By a game.

My sister, on the other hand, wasn't really bothered. She said was only a game, and I shouldn't be upset by it. But, I am upset by it. I don't know if I even want to play this game anymore, and when I'd been having so much fun, too.

So, TL,DR: Castle Crashers was awesome until it dictated I was a lecherous man who would beat up his fellow soldiers -- on whom his life depends, by whose side he just fought for dear life -- in order to kiss a sexualized, socially empty prize woman he'd just rescued.

Would or should this be upsetting? Does this upset other gamers, or am I just overreacting?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I'm not going to sit here and say that you aren't allowed to be upset over how this game portrays women, but I think you need to think about the context of the game before you get upset about it.

Castle Crashers is a silly/cartoony take on medieval fantasy. It's poking fun at the kind of old school medieval fantasy where women were considered prizes to be won by the big strong manly man, and where all a man had to do to prove his worth is be manly. The whole thing about the woman being a mindless prize and ready to fall in love with whoever is the winner that's meant to be a joke.

As far as the whole thing about comrades in arms being ready to kill each other over a woman at a moment's notice, that's also historically a part of medieval fantasy. If I'm remembering the King Arthur legend correctly (and there's a good chance I'm not), at one point Arthur almost kills Lancelot after finding out that Lancelot has been having an affair with Guinevere, but Lancelot escapes and that event is what begins the decline of the knights of the round table. So again, I'd say this sequence where the two castle crasher knights are fighting over a woman is just a joke about medieval fantasy.

 

[Fractral]

While I can understand why you're upset, I think you might be looking for meaning in the wrong place. Castle Crashers isn't a game that expects you to take it seriously, as you'd see if you played a bit further. You totally should play it a bit longer; it's a great game.
To put it into context a little, here's what happens when you kiss the last princess:

Spoiler

I doubt that's some kind of subversive sexist message.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

In a different context, It's a neat gameplay idea. Your working with someone helping them out, but you don't want to help them too much because you know at the end you will have to fight them to get the prize. In context, the prize is a kiss, or is it the woman? I can see that being bothersome. Then there is the game assuming that the players are male. That, well common,(seems to be getting less common) is also bothersome.

 

[Riotguards]

i find it very offensive how they portray clowns because the clown didn't throw a custard pie or squirt water into his face

its blatant hate from the developers who are just being complete and utter Coulrophobia!

burn the Coulrophobian's!!

 

[TheIceQueen]

I think you're taking this too seriously and looking a little too far into a cartoony game that has an entire level based around deers shitting.

 

[Dragonlayer]

Personally I think its quite disgusting the way the game depicts male characters as blindly driven by lust for the lost princesses, implying battle hardened knights will butcher their comrades in an instant because of a pretty face.

 

[krazykidd]

Oh wow. If that's what it takes to make you angry, then put down gaming and pick up knitting.

....seriously? You're realise the kind of game your playing right?

This is surely a joke post right? It's fucking Castle Crashers. I know people love to jump on the sexist bandwagon but fuck, this is far too much.

This.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I never once thought the knights were female. I thought it was fairly clear that they were dudes. Then again this is coming from a white male, so take what you will from that.

I think perhaps the OP missed the point. The way I saw it, the fight over the maiden is a parody of the very common "damsel in distress is the ultimate reward" trope. The game is set in a medieval-esque fantasy world after all, where maidens are often depicted as little more than objects of sexual conquest. Making the player fight his comrade in arms to the death all for a single smooch underlines the absurdity of the trope from a modern enlightened standpoint. Moreover, the entire game is tongue-in-cheek. Any type of "social commentary" shouldn't be taken too seriously. After all, this is a game where over the course of playing through the story you

Spoiler

fight aliens, encounter an artist boss that can bring paintings to life, and have a running joke of a deer that propels itself with rocket poop.

I was left rather upset. My sister pointed out, "The game obviously expects us to be playing men." But why? And why did we have to be men who beat each other up in order to kiss women who are clearly prizes and nothing more? I had no issue with the game's cartoony style (which was actually awesome), or its straightforward, violent plot (also awesome). I didn't even have an issue with the women being kidnapped and needing rescue -- they weren't warriors, clearly, of course they'd need rescue. But this, reducing the women to mindless prizes for lusty men, that turned my stomach. As a woman myself, I felt degraded, reduced. By a game.

Bolded for emphasis. Why is fighting a single person for a smooch less objectionable than killing literally hundreds of people? But again, tongue-in-cheek, don't take it too seriously.

 

[Zeckt]

Castle crashers is cartoon crazy gameplay where anything goes, it's not a place where equality is even thought about as all attention went into insanity and fun. You are over analyzing and I personally think in an unhealthy way. Relax, have fun.

 

[Richard Dubbeld]

well now I don't want to play this game. trying to stay away from stories in which the stakes are essentially a 1 dimensional character I care nothing about.

 

[woodaba]

Your poll is biased and lacks key options, for example, the one that says "It's a fucking joke, stop taking everything so seriously". If anything, the mechanic in question is a PARODY of the "save the princess" quest, by asking the logical question of "which of the four heroes gets the girl?".

 

[anthony87]

Man I never thought I'd see someone bring this shite into Castle Crashers of all things.

The soapbox must be getting crowded at this stage.

 

[Caiphus]

If anything, I was upset because I lost to my little brother every single time.

Shit's crazy out here on the streets.

Edit: Woah, this thread got mean in a hurry.

Uh. If I'm totally honest, it was a slightly awkward surprise the first time the princess-duel thing happened. Especially since me and my brother were teamworking it up. Right up until he repeatedly kicked my ass, of course.

Wouldn't say I was upset, though. It was an excuse to shift the gameplay up a bit, nothing in the dame is super serious, and the last damsel kind of proves that. Still, I can see why you might find that bit awkward. Or even upsetting.

 

[RealRT]

You fucking serious about this shit? I mean, I'm usually all pro-feminist and stuff, I was raging as all were with the whole Ubisoft thing and stuff, but Castle Crashers? You serious? For one, if anything, your teammates ALSO decide to be "lecherous jerkfaces" and fight. It's not like only one PC decides that, they all fight for the princesses. They are knights and they fight for the lady. When there's no enemy to fight, knights fight each other. It's what they do.

 

[Mark Rhodes]

Actually, the entire point of Castle Crashers is that all the knights are awful people. They aren't heroes, but complete douche-nozzles and most people miss that point because the game is so fun.

 

[Ninjamedic]

The soapbox must be getting crowded at this stage.

Don't worry, I'm sure someone will come along and generalise us as being "sexist" or "only wanting games to be made for Straight White Males" or something soon, then we can all accept that we're part of the "problem" despite not doing a single fucking thing and not supporting ANY of the AAA franchises in 3-4 years.