Button noses, slim yet slightly muscled physiques, tight fitted clothes, white, and so forth. Add to this that when you see most of the women featured in these games, youРІР‚в„ўll notice one thing: nearly all of them are the standard definition of РІР‚СљattractiveРІР‚Сњ. WOC (women of color) protagonists exist, but are even rarer. Furthermore, they are more often that not white male leads. The amount of games that donРІР‚в„ўt allow you to create your own character still predominantly feature male leads, and these games are still the majority. Say what you will about the amount of female characters that games like Overwatch receive, or insanely popular female protagonist lead games like Life is Strange. ItРІР‚в„ўs no secret that the video game industry has a major issue with female representation. Zarya from Overwatch fits almost zero beauty standards, but sheРІР‚в„ўs a small selection of playable female game characters that fits this category. These design choices, and those similar to them, greatly hurt the industry in terms of that representation. Needless to say, while we are slowly inching toward less than the standard in terms of the conventionally attractive and that representation, the medium still has a long way to go. So whatРІР‚в„ўs the big deal? Well, in the end, HashinoРІР‚в„ўs comment is very indicative of female character design problems in the industry at large. Now, this by itself doesnРІР‚в„ўt sound too bad, right? Hashino isnРІР‚в„ўt being directly offensive, after all, and itРІР‚в„ўs not as though heРІР‚в„ўs demanding the characters be extraordinarily, mind blowingly, unattainably РІР‚СљhotРІР‚Сњ. This was nixed, however, when Director Katsura Hashino stated the following: РІР‚СљAll female characters should basically be on the cute side.РІР‚Сњ As a result of this, the design for Tae was softened to ultimately be more appealing. The character originally featured РІР‚СљmurderousРІР‚Сњ eyes and an all around unapproachable demeanor. In a quote from Shigenori Soejima, character designer for the third, fourth, and fifth Persona games, we learn that Tae Takemi from Persona 5 originally had a very different look.

While many fans are likely rejoicing (who wouldnРІР‚в„ўt be, the Persona games are amazing) thereРІР‚в„ўs some troubling developments coming from the book that raise questions about design choices for certain characters. We could have seen a much cooler looking Tae, but no.Р”Р‡or those who arenРІР‚в„ўt aware, The Art of Persona 5 book was just released in the US.

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