The first mainline Harvest Moon game developed by Natsume. Nintendo 3DS. [ Game Guide ] JP release = None. NA release = Nov 2014. EU release = Jun 2015.
Floh wrote:Wow, you're really fast.
I have forgotten to unlock fall, so I have to do this, before I'll meet them.
But I´m glad, I have build the stairways to hell, allready.
LOL, it's summer and my business is fairly slow during this season (we're a college town), so I've had quite a bit of time to work. Plus, I was lucky enough to have almost everything I needed to speed through the base requests hoarde---I mean, stockpiled...already. I think to get through the base stuff I needed to grow 2 sets of crops and mine a couple of times (pink diamonds...Andrea is an expensive woman).
Anyway, just got the first summer request done, so I'll pop that into the post. Another pretty exciting set of items from Luke...
I guess I'm the only person that's perturbed about the new female candidate having her shirt open so much that her bra middle is showing. I would go so far as to call it "needless sexualization", but that may just be me! Who knows!!
Huh, I never even noticed until you brought it up. I guess I'm getting desensitized to these things -.-
To be blunt though...
Spoiler:
When you have a chest that large, you're stuck with one of two choices: buy clothes that are one size too big, or wear clothes that otherwise fit but are tight in the chest area. Which makes them spill out like that in an entirely unintended but obviously sexual way. It looks like she's wearing a plunge bra for that reason, which I have to do too with certain outfits, but even that is showing. Which also happens sometimes. Though there are bras with even deeper plunges than that one.
On a related note...
Spoiler:
The problem I have with these things is that when you ask yourself, "Why is she dressed like that?" 90% of the time the only answer is, "Because male players will like it." How a woman dresses is a core part of her personality, but it's rarely treated that way. Instead, she is dressed up like a doll for cheap fanservice. I have no problem with a character like Fujiko Mine from Lupin III, for example. Is she used as fanservice? Of course! But a large part of Fujiko's character is using her sexuality to get what she wants from men. It's a core part of her character, and taking that away would be to make her an entirely different character.
I can usually roll my eyes and ignore stuff like this, but a few cases here and there do bug me, like Samus's stripperific outfit. Mostly because Sakurai tried to justify it by basically saying, "Samus's Smash model designer was a girl so that means it's not sexist." Still, when you ask yourself "Why is a strong bounty hunter who used to pass herself off as male dressed like that?" there is no answer except, "Because male players will like it." And that is somewhat insulting to Samus as a character. There is a dearth of strong, non-sexualized female characters in the gaming business, so it's sad to lose one of them to a cheap stunt like that. Give me a solid in-universe reason why Samus would dress that way, and it's fine. Otherwise, it's not.
There is nothing sad about being of a fragile race.
— Diana, Legend of Mana
Lirishae wrote:Huh, I never even noticed until you brought it up. I guess I'm getting desensitized to these things -.-
To be blunt though...
Spoiler:
When you have a chest that large, you're stuck with one of two choices: buy clothes that are one size too big, or wear clothes that otherwise fit but are tight in the chest area. Which makes them spill out like that in an entirely unintended but obviously sexual way. It looks like she's wearing a plunge bra for that reason, which I have to do too with certain outfits, but even that is showing. Which also happens sometimes. Though there are bras with even deeper plunges than that one.
On a related note...
Spoiler:
The problem I have with these things is that when you ask yourself, "Why is she dressed like that?" 90% of the time the only answer is, "Because male players will like it." How a woman dresses is a core part of her personality, but it's rarely treated that way. Instead, she is dressed up like a doll for cheap fanservice. I have no problem with a character like Fujiko Mine from Lupin III, for example. Is she used as fanservice? Of course! But a large part of Fujiko's character is using her sexuality to get what she wants from men. It's a core part of her character, and taking that away would be to make her an entirely different character.
I can usually roll my eyes and ignore stuff like this, but a few cases here and there do bug me, like Samus's stripperific outfit. Mostly because Sakurai tried to justify it by basically saying, "Samus's Smash model designer was a girl so that means it's not sexist." Still, when you ask yourself "Why is a strong bounty hunter who used to pass herself off as male dressed like that?" there is no answer except, "Because male players will like it." And that is somewhat insulting to Samus as a character. There is a dearth of strong, non-sexualized female characters in the gaming business, so it's sad to lose one of them to a cheap stunt like that. Give me a solid in-universe reason why Samus would dress that way, and it's fine. Otherwise, it's not.
I'm a lady. I know how hard it is to find shirts that can cover your bust without making you look weird. But this only causes more questions to be formed.
Spoiler:
Why bother making her bust that big, then? If you're going to go with that argument as her creator, why not just shrink the bust so that she can walk around without revealing her bra like that?
Why not give her a bigger shirt? You'd probably be doing her a huge favor. She's wearing a corset and (since that thing looks like leather) it would only pull up the...unnecessarily short shirt and cause HORRIBLE CHAFING and sticking and rashes in heat, since sweat would be formed. There's no excuse for it beyond "we have to make her look sexy...in this farming game...that's rated E and is aimed towards young people".
Why not give her a different shirt? There are shirts that are made of materials that cling to the skin (latex/polyester mix? I forget what it's called, but trust me, it exists!) so you don't have to worry about it being tight at the top and loose at the bottom.
Regarding Fujiko, that kind of character is the only time when I can accept this kind of character design and not get angry. If you have created a character that gets by using their body (in whatever way, whether it be showing or otherwise), then it makes sense that they're going to wear clothes that are revealing! Same for if you have a character that works in a hot environment! That makes SENSE! But Andrea has none of that going for her. She doesn't work in a hot space, and even if she did, that would render her corset a hindrance. She doesn't use her body in order to get anything done! SHE WORKS ON CLOCKS.
I haven't had a chance to befriend Andrea yet, so it remains to be seen if she presents any reason for why she dresses the way she does. Given that she's a marriage candidate though, it's plausible enough to think she's dressing that way to attract a boyfriend/husband. I'm not really opposed to depicting female sexuality per se, just when it's tasteless or there's no in-universe reason for it. Or when it's not equal opportunity, even though theoretically two wrongs shouldn't make a right.
But heat rashes, oh lordy. It cracked me up when Catherine complains about them in one of her Summer dialogues. IT'S SO TRUE. A large chest size can cause musculoskeletal chest pain too -.-
There is nothing sad about being of a fragile race.
— Diana, Legend of Mana
I also thought it was a tank top under her shirt. I did think she was dressed sexier than the other candidates, but I think the basic idea is to make her look older/more mature. But as half-naked video game characters go, she's definitely very mild. Her clothes look like something a real woman might choose to wear (in that universe, anyway) and are practical enough for her to realistically pursue her chosen profession. I think that in most other games we'd barely even notice her; the main thing about her here is that she sticks out from the other character models.
I can actually only judge from the images I have seen of her because PAL-player still have to wait for the DLC, but actually I thought she looked great. I liked that she looks more grown up / mature than the other bacherlorettes. As I am playing as a boy I was feeling kinda weird because they all look so extremly young (especially Catherine).
I feel like if the only way you can think of to make a character look older/more mature is to dress them in revealing clothing instead of altering their facial structure or something, then you have an issue with character design that needs to be addressed.
I'm also not one for saying "GRR, WOMEN CAN'T BE SEXY". They CAN be as long as it either fits a goal the character has or it's part of their personality or something. I can't stand when a character is dressed with their cleavage showing or their midriff showing for no reason beyond "we wanted them to look sexy/to appeal to the 'male gaze'." It feels lazy.
Well, it's not the only way, but it's certainly one way. When you highlight a woman's sexuality, it does make her appear older and more mature. Iris was handled the same way in Story of Seasons, revealing cleavage and all. The SoS female protagonist ends up looking a lot younger than the ANB protagonist simply because she's flat as a washboard and lacks ANB girl's feminine curves. And characters like Etna from the Disgaea series get labeled underage largely because she's a pettanko, in spite of the fact she's way over a thousand years old.
There definitely is an element of "we wanted them to look sexy/appeal to the male gaze" here, but the difference between this and the Samus example I mentioned earlier is that Andrea and Iris are characters the player can marry. If the character designer fails to make characters that appeal to guys, they're simply not doing their jobs, and part of that process does involve making them attractive. The same concept applies to the male characters, too; they're designed to appeal to the female gaze. There is a growing realization on the parts of the dev teams that HM/BokuMono games have a sizable older audience with a preference for older, more mature characters. This is why SoS got Klaus and Iris, and why TLV got Hunter and Andrea.
There is nothing sad about being of a fragile race.
— Diana, Legend of Mana
I think the whole thing with Andrea was they decided to make a cool steampunk character, and didn't really consider that they were making her a bit on the "here are my goodies" side. They just came up with an outfit they liked and ran with it. If you look back at my first post re: Andrea (post release)...well, I think the word I used was "curvy". Which of course is sort of the whole point of the corset/bustier thing she's wearing LOL.
For me Tabitha looks sexier actually. Seeing her the first time was like, "Woah... girl... you lost some clothes somewhere?" I kinda did not realise Andrea's sexiness first, all I thought was that I really like her different style from the other Bachelorettes. (Actually what first got my attention was her different hairstyle. Love it!)
I think the first three kinda look similar with the style, even if Catherine is supposed to look rich. For me these three kinda looked like young girls and Andrea represents a woman. And I kinda thought her style was really great. To make her seem more mature... well, the body of a woman in the late 20s is different than a body of a woman in her early 20s. There are more curves. At least in reality. And also the style is different. I'm in my early 30s now and I dress totally different than in my early 20s.
I thought they wanted to emphasize on this.
For me it worked. Andrea immediately caught my attention and even though I have yet to purchase the DLC, I started playing as a boy to be able to woo her.
