I think someone's tin foil hat is a little too tight on someone's noggin if they feel a negative review means they have THE AGENDA.

@darji: SHE HAS NO AGENDA. she did not like the character designs (also she thought it was very grindy and did not like that part) so she did not like the character designs and said so in the review.

What agenda do you think she's pushing exactly?

(I know the answer to be honest because you are nothing if not consistent)

@extomar: It is not the review score it is the text. Did you even read it?

Her points are basically:

Man this game is sexist

and combat is repetitive

But the art is fantastic but damn this game is so sexist.

Oh did I already mention how sexist the game is?

@darji:

lol

So would "yes I did read it" or "no I did not read it" would mean I am part of THE AGENDA? I'll give the answer that you want to perpetuate belief video game reviewers are out to get you!

Here is a hint for Darji: Reviews are opinions. She can have whatever feeling she has about any product she is tasked to review and should be free to comment on them as she see fit.

I haven't played the game yet, but I question whether or not a female character has zero point to their existence aside from being beautiful. There must be some point to that character within the story. Everything is an exaggeration here. So yes, most female characters are going to be sexy, just as most male characters are going to be freakishly muscular. But this just goes in circles and its been covered so many times. The whole art style from the game is about exaggerating everything. Large muscles, voluptuous women, freakish monsters. There's a clear inspiration from Conan and art like the legendary Frank Frazetta:

It is not going to be many people's cup of tea. But many do it enjoy it and there's nothing wrong with that. That is where I start to have a problem, when people begin saying that this is some sort of demeaning, wrong thing that should be stopped. There's this weird disconnect. On one hand women want to be wearing whatever they want, but on the other hand, female characters are criticized for being too sexy.

That really shouldn't be the way review sites work for both cases.

@darji: There are only two paragraphs+2 sentences in that review regarding her critique of over-sexualization of the female npcs.

All these threads about tits lately, and the only laugh to be had was the line "penis doesn't equal boobs, vagina equals boobs" (I wish I could remember the source, so I could thank them properly) about three boob topics ago. Stop ruining fun things like tits, by grouping them with stupid things, like getting angry over review scores.

How does the game compare to God Hand? Since God Hand is the greatest beat em up ever.

Christ, this game will sell gangbusters base on all this attentions. I hope it does, Vanillaware deserves it.

Jp - 180,000 sold out (not counting dd)

us - ???

My gf thinks this topic is too loaded so here you go

P.S not making a gay joke. With all the boobs talk lately, it needs to be even out. Its the Japanese way.

@mcghee: According to the review the npcs in question only exist as mcguffins to be saved.

I'm not really upset at or offended by this game, but her critique is a fair one and everyone getting uppity about it are being ridiculous.

I don't really have a strong opinion either way on this game, but I do really enjoy reviews of games trying to be more than just "this game is hella good at guns pewpew."

Heh, the art is a bit nuts, but the game seems solid.

And yeah, Polygon is... Well... The weird documentary about the site was dumb and pretentious which was pretty off putting, and the Sim City review changed three times which was super weird. It's not a site I visit anymore.

It is half the review And it starts with a Bang as well. So basically she totally like the combat, the enemy design and variety the art, the choices you have, the balanced classes and the only think that bothers her is grinding and and the sexist buillshit. So yeah a 6.5 is totally justified.

News: No it is not. So what about women who are not offended by this? Are these now sexist too? You guys need to understand just because someone does not like things means every men or women will like or dislike it as well. Who is she to determine what is sexist and juvenile and what is not?

This kind of stuff has nothing to do in a review. You can mention it but it should by no means influence the score.

@mcghee: Man, I'd love a "Fire and Ice" game.

@darji: if you honestly think that no reviewers let their own opinions (agendas) colour their reviews, regardless of the medium, you are incredibly naive.

Furthermore, the "agenda" in this case is completely justified based upon her opinion. If these factors reduced her enjoyment of the game, it should be reflected in the score. If I was reviewing this game, I would be docking it points for having a hideous artstyle (because, to me, the whole thing looks bad).

i think the polygon review was definitely at least slanted by her distaste for the art and whatnot (everything is sexist these days) . but she did call out other issues with the game.

i dont think the art extremely slanted the review, but it did got in the way for her,because it definitely colors the review with the context of the text, same with the escapist review.

im not really gonna base buying this game off that reviews because i dont trust those 2 enough. gonna look to the others, which the majority seem to dig it.

Large, cartoonishly disproportionate breasts are offensive to my palate! The overly sexualized males in the game don't bother me though.

I need to blow off some steam, time to dish out gory slow motion headshots in Max Payne 3.

Game will sell well, and it already is doing so. One bad review wont change jack shit, since the people who held these opinions would never have bought this game, because guess what, shit just ain't meant to appeal to them.

@shinjin977 said:

Christ, this game will sell gangbusters base on all this attentions. I hope it does, Vanillaware deserves it.

Jp - 180,000 sold out (not counting dd)

us - ???

My gf thinks this topic is too loaded so here you go

P.S not making a gay joke. With all the boobs talk lately, it needs to be even out. Its the Japanese way.

Free is awesome and totally sexualizes men and I am totally fine with it. Again that is why Japanese media is so liberal they do it for every character because they have the freedom to do it.

I have to wonder what it is a male would be offended by though. Because he would be embarrassed to be seen playing it? Because it "holds back" videogames? I don't think every single game out there should be made with the intent of maturing the medium and not every dumb, fun game should be shallow like Bejeweled. I mean, does a beat em up game based around loot need to be treated with the same same seriousness as The Last Of Us? The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire, Journey, there are an increasing number of games that push for more mature stories and deeper experiences with heavy emotional impact. Do we really need to jump on every game that doesn't?

Bit of a tangent, but back to the whole males being offended over female representation thing. Personally I find it hard to believe a male would harbor genuine offense over it. I had a drawing teacher who was a male. There was a male student who made a drawing of a naked woman who had a super model like figure. She was realistically proportioned and it was a really good drawing, much better than anything I could do. But the teacher made him redo it cause it seemed potentially sexist and offensive. The student argued back and the teacher asked a female student whether she found would find it offensive. She responded "I guess I would be." I don't know if she was genuinely offended or if she simply agreed because of our strict teacher. I didn't hear a lot of confidence in her answer. In the end he had to redo the drawing. That never sat well with me and it always felt like the teacher was being offended for someone else and was grading an assignment based on that rather than the quality of the work itself.

@krullban said:

I don't think a 6.5 means it sucks. Polygon's review scale is different that Metacritic's. A 6 is considered "good, but uneven overall execution" which sounds about right for this game, at least from what I've seen of it.

Also, I feel the criticism of the art style character designs is warranted in this situation. Have you seen some of them? They're waaaaaaaayyyyyyyy over the top.

@grantheaslip: These will not get any backlash but I am pretty sure next week someone will write an article about this here^^

So you can go over the top, but there's a top above that top that you can't go over?

I can't believe this crap is still going on to this degree. I really hate the internet sometimes.

Why so? If a reviewer has the same mindset as you and likes the kinds of games that you like, while the other reviewers don't enjoy the types of games you enjoy and have entirely different thought proccess why wouldn't you follow and read the one that matches your views?

It totally makes sense that you will inspect reviews that address the art style issue to their final verdict if it is a concern to you.

If not then there are reviews that don't address it and focus on other aspects.

I'm just saying that it's good that we have reviews that are on each side of the coin, it's not a war between reviews, just opinions, one is not better than the other (as long as the writing is solid of course).

This ain't even about boobs.

It's the same old tired shit: "a reviewer didn't review a video game according to my standard of agreeing with me".

ok since you guys did not get it i am removing it. Refer to my religious example please.

Ok you're talking about that deal with the Polygon reviewer being a feminist or something like that? I have seen someone here say something like that but I really don't know what's that about so if you could enlighten me on that?

But still what's so bad about it?
If you know that the person who is writing the piece that you are reading has some kind of bias root in him that you heavily disagree with, you can just ignore him and move on to someone who matches you're style of thought.

That bias review probably has it's audience, and you're probably not in it.

But if you are leaning to "the integrity of the site" or "poisoning the mind of their readers" or some shit like that then that's something else.

@darji: That's not even close to a proper comparison, also you compared feminists to racists so you don't actually know anything about feminism or racism.

Darji,

Darji pls,

shut up.

I got permabanned from GAF today for having a dissenting opinion on the Polygon article. Go figure, aye.

@animasta: ok a more serious comparison. What about religion in video games.

For example: Binding of Issac has very questionable religious content. What if I have a strong Agenda as a very religious person. Would it be ok for me on a non religious siite to actually lower the score because of this questionable religious content. I do not think so. If I want to see scores for especially such points I would visit sites edicated to this. Like a site for women in video games, or a site for religious content in the media.

And yes I understand the difference but all these people racists, feminists, religious people are special groups with a special agenda they want to follow. For example people who hate Soccer. Is it ok for them to include in their score their hate for soccer and lower the point? By making comparision how a Madden did that already way before the new Fifa did?

Wow...just wow. That is certainly a something that Darji wrote.

Yup because racism and not liking an art style are the same thing. Nailed it.

Man this is getting way sidetracked...

So... this game looks pretty cool, thoughts?

I'm all for a "Fuck Polygon" train, but let's at least start at that 7.5 for Last of Us or that ridiculous documentary. Oh right and Sim City.

@darji: Agenda is not synonymous with opinion.

@brownsfantb: she likes the art style. But not the "questionable" representation of women in it. And I bought the racist example up to show you something totally ridiculous to make my point even more clear. But ok since you did not get it how about my religious example? I even gave you a game for that.

So darj is at Giantbomb complaining about review scores not being objective. Yep.

That's not even true at all. The majority of the review is spent talking about the gameplay, boss fights, etc. There's mention of "large breasts" and "juvenile influences" at the top and then a sidebar about the female characters in the game. That's it.

I can totally understand why the art style is offensive to some. Vanillaware has every right to put out this art, and celebrate their artistic vision. And people have the right to criticize the fact that it over-sexualizes its main characters (IMO in a grotesque way).

And a review is a person's opinion on the game. For some, the art is enough to make them dislike the experience. Just like how many disagree with how JRPGs are thrown under the bus for having "dated" mechanics, and shooters are called repetitive for have the same "roller coaster" effect, and that every game is either zombies, retro-pixel art, (post-)apocalyptic, or a minecraft clone. You are free to disagree with the review, but I appreciated the Polygon review for talking about the feelings of the reviewer. I won't feel comfortable playing that game in my home, and the art has a lot to do with that.

God, I can't wait for the Quick Look of this game.

So....doesn't the game look fun?

@solh0und: Yes it totally seems to be fun if you look and read all other reviews. Even in the Polygon review she thinks it is pretty good except the grinding thing and the other stuff.

Yes the game is great fun if you are a fan of golden axe or D&D SOM. I will just end the argument right here then. This is the sorceress. Ok? got it? Lets go back to talking about flushing pie down the toilet.

Jeff didn't like the bits he played from demos and said (on twitter) he finds the art to be off-putting pandering. So I expect the quick look to blow up, filled comments like "I'm not playing this juvenile childish wankfest garbage" and "gawd more white knighting feminist bullshit!" and of course obligatory comment about how all Japanese are perverts or how anime sucks.