Some SJWs are already getting triggered over Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The game features some sexy female characters wearing clothes and featuring designs that just about any red blooded male would find titillating. Well, as is usual with the rope and dance pony show, Social Justice Warriors have emptied their impotent rage into the troughs of social media for their followers to feed on, and some of that rage centers squarely around the attire and female sex appeal of the characters featured in Monolith Soft’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the Nintendo Switch.
One Twitter user actually forewarned of the forthcoming storm, insinuating on November 24th that SJWs would likely have a conniption over the character designs.
As much as I’m hyped for Xenoblade Chronicles 2, I’m equally dreading badly it’ll be tarnished by the toxicity of the fans it’ll attract
— lotus juice (@stonefrees) November 24, 2017
As the embargo lifted on the game and footage, reviews, screenshots and gifs began to emerge, so has the creepers from the corners of the Social Justice hall of cacophony.
Twitter is the home to most of these views, where white knighting and “realistic” proportions come into a discussion about a world where people live on giant flying titans that have their own ecosystems on their back while genetic-fantasy people can turn into living weapons.
I’m fine with xenoblade chronicles 2’s anime artstyle. It’s just some female characters body proportions are erm… unrealistic
— raichu (@araquanid_) November 29, 2017
Y’know, one day, the animators who put boobs on these women will see one in real life and realize they’ve beend misled for years.
— 🐯 the 🦁 (@TigretheLion) November 29, 2017
(For the record: I think Monolith Soft’s character design is getting worse with each game and yes go enjoy your Anime Tiddies™ but that shit ain’t for me bless up)
— Nibel (@Nibellion) November 29, 2017
This is a hilariously yet horrifically bad design and by FAR the worst blade design so far… I can handle the others but this is borderline hentai and certainly not suitable for some of the younger players.
— liam (@leighumm) November 28, 2017
Oh my god, this looks terrible. I already had my upsets over all the other Xenoblade 2 designs but this is actually one of the worst character designs I’ve seen in recent memory, and I play Fate Grand Order. pic.twitter.com/obIrAzy9Cc
— Dandy Guy (@PiraandStocking) November 29, 2017
I’m a big fan of XC on Wii & spent well over 200hrs on XCX on WiiU. I’m put off by these designs. Don’t mind the celshaded anime style, but there’s anime & then there’s spaghetti-limbed teens with hippo-sized breasts, spouting giant buckles, zippers & moaning infant voices.
— Thierry (@Cheebee85) November 29, 2017
me: wow… the character designs for xenoblade 2 literally can’t get any more ugly, unappealing, inconvenient, overcomplicated, or misogynistic at this point
xenoblade 2: hold my beer pic.twitter.com/9Ysfe8QscN— I Got A Condo In Manhattan (@botwzelink) December 2, 2017
There are tons more conversations about boobs, boob sliders, boob sizes, boob proportions, boob swords, boob armor, boob philosophy, boob physics, boob jiggling, boob weapons, and just plain ‘ole boobs.
JRPG’s really need to cool it on the big breasts for female characters though. I mean I’m looking forward to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 but my back hurts just looking at Pyra. 😑
— 🌙🌸 (@ShingetsuMoon) November 30, 2017
stop quote tweeting this your horny assholes i don’t care how hard this makes your dick
— KM (@Kheyehm1) November 29, 2017
The design of the female protagonist in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 gets worse every time I see it. Tacky, sexist, and clashes with the setting.
— BirdTypeGlitch (@BirdTypeGlitch) September 13, 2017
Yeah this stuff makes me pretty sick. I didn’t play the game but I watched a trailer and it seems there’s a girl in it who’s also literally an object?
— Sabrina Bonfert (@SabrinaBonfert) December 2, 2017
Xenoblade chronicles 2 challenge see how far/how long you can play the game before summoning a gross design
— Dunc for the Holidays☃️ (@WaddleDunc) November 10, 2017
The social media conversations extend an exhaustive list of variances on the topic of character designs in Xenoblade Chronicles 2…. and boobs.
Thankfully, some gamers are fighting back against the disparaging remarks aimed at Monolith and the designs in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Green Mick seemed to sum up the situation by saying “STFU” about it.
#XenobladeChronicles2 Consider this: Stop trying to censor art for your own subjective tastes, make your own game and shut the fuck up. That’s my advice, you’re welcome. 2/2
— . (@Green_Mick_XD) November 30, 2017
Now surprisingly, sites like Telegraph, Metro and RPG Site actually avoid getting into the gendered politics of body proportions and somatic measurements. Instead, some of the sites (so far) have focused on the actual merits of the gameplay, the integrity of the mechanics and UI, and the performance on the platform. Perhaps this is a sign of the changing times where we’re moving away from the sociopolitical vectors in which scores for games are measured and heading back toward game reviews centered on the meritocracy of enjoyment?
The takeaway, then, is that while there are some SJWs complaining about boobs and bounce on social media, the game reviewers (so far) are focused on the content and quality of the actual game. In a way, this is good because it means that all of the sociopolitical burdens put through the yoke of media grandstanding is finally being lifted off the necks of gamers. Keeping the criticisms contained to comment threads and out-of-the-way forum posts means that it’s no longer a discussion being blasted front and center from the media’s podium.
Many gamers were originally worried about the game’s localization in the West because Nintendo had some Western localizers work with Monolith Soft in Japan on the development of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 to help speed up the localization process. Thankfully, however, the team sent to work with Monolith Soft was from Nintendo’s European branch and not Treehouse, so we avoided a situation where the game’s female leads saw their pelvic bones being removed.
However, this is still the early goings of Xenoblade Chronicles 2’s life on the market, and it’s always possible that SJWs fishing for clicks from the platforms could ratchet up the levers of propaganda to some insane heights and force gamers back into the trenches of [current year] culture debates.
(Thanks for the news tip Kyuryon)