Topic: The PlayStation Fan Thread

Abby legit doesn't even look like a strong woman

I get that they wanted to make her look built so she'd come off as physically intimidating but she straight up looks like a guy with a ponytail and a more feminine voice. They way overdid it on making her look muscular imo

@Zuljaras I was also critical of that choice from Yoko Taro, but he did it before and nothing happened, so to see backlash now is confusing. Some people like it and some don’t. Personally I’ll appreciate the female form but not if it’s rammed down my throat à la Quiet from Metal Gear. That’s just ridiculous and the similarly convoluted logic doesn’t help her case.

Aloy’s 100% motion captured; a Dutch model, Hannah Hoekstra, portrayed her. So to insult Aloy’s design is to insult a real person with feelings. Her design is completely fine and to call it out is unnecessary. Yeah, expecting gamers to accept it and move on is too much.

Curious about Abby and why you don’t like her; I haven’t played LoU2 so the views I have are very superficial.

@TheFrenchiestFry Aloy’s musculature was quite natural I’d argue. In photo mode it was easy making out muscle, and it wasn’t overdone.

@TheJGG The funny thing is I am now playing through TLOU2 and experiencing the great environments

I really really dislike the story but the worldbuilding and the animations are quite good.

Abby for me is unappealing physically. Not in the attracted kind of way. She looks dull and extremely boring. I do not like playing as her. I saw the model she was made from and I saw the same thing

Her voice actor however is fantastic. She voices most of my favorite characters in gaming

To be fair, like 0.001% of women actually look anything like that. In the case of Abby, it's not like people were actually exaggerating something in order to try and make a dumb point. She really did look deliberately unnatural as possible.

In the case of Aloy though, some people are clearly just exaggerating to try and make a point, because they don't like that western AAA games don't really have attractive women any more. Which is kinda true, western AAA devs have made a kind of deliberate over-correction from the days when everything was boobs and asses (90s and early 2000s), but this particular example really isn't a very good one. Aloy still looks 95% the same as she did before, and was never ugly in the first place, she's just not been designed to be a sexual character at all, which is fine for any individual game.

I do think there are respectable reasons for having some sexually attractive characters though, so I don't think people are JUST being "misogynistic". For example, I enjoyed the romantic subplots in a game like The Witcher 3 like 10 times as much as I have in any Bioware game in recent years. A massive part of that is just because I was genuinely attracted to the characters, and so just responded naturally as if I were Geralt. Haven't been able to do that in any Bioware game for quite a while.

@TheJGG The problem with her body is that she looks offputting and just plain weird. In the beginning, where she's not huge, Abby looks like a nice decent girl. And then she becomes He-Man, and it all goes down the gutter. It doesn't help that some cutscenes make her more significant than she is. It seems to me the developers used a man's body and plastered Abby's head on it.

About this Aloy situation, She looks awful in some shots. She got some bulldog cheeks. Looking at her reminds me of Jimmy from Rockstar's Bully.

@Zuljaras I'll get back to you on the story, I haven't played either LoU 1 or 2 yet so I can't vouch for it being good or bad. Naughty Dog has a decent history of making strong female characters, like Ellie, Elena, Chloe and more, so this to some must have been a step forward in that Abby is literally strong. I notice with Western games that their character designs are less than interesting.

I always end up analysing or commenting on Japanese character designs, or character designs by Japanese developers... because they're nicer to look at and have more diversity. Except with teenage boys, you can have three character types there; big and strong but dumb, short, quirky and annoying, the really smart one with glasses that's weak. I'm referencing Gladio, Prompto and Ignis of course from FF15.

I agree though, in terms of voice talent Laura Bailey is one of the best I've ever heard. How she voices Rise and Kainé both is unreal.

@Dezzy Western games tend to lean towards realistic graphics, so naturally that would mean realistic character models and realistic body proportions. For me in Aloy's case there's absolutely no justification to complaining when considering the art direction. The PushSquare article had a tweet from one fan that made a "new" or supposedly better model for Aloy, which looks quite terrifying. Some people may look to Aloy as a role model and if her design's changed like that it could lead to body shaming. It already is though.

I believe there's better ways to represent her strength instead of giving her muscle. It's still a conscious development choice though and this important to her character. I assume the reason people don't like it is because it's new to mainstream videogames, having a physically tough female protagonist. And while 0.001% of women look like that... some people do.

@TheJGG Oh the story in Part 2 is very bad. All the care from the 1st one is gone and replaced with just hate. Druckman even promoted it as a game about hate. None of the characters make sense for me. You would think they would go for something complicated but instead they screech "ReVeNge bAd!!!!".

Do you know the feeling of satisfaction when you finish a game and say to yourself "Damn that was good!" ... well you will not find it here.

I do not like most of the new characters and to top that they even made me hate the ones from the first game

I am glad that the graphics and the atmosphere are absolutely gorgeous!!!

I think that the writers should've gone out more instead of sitting on Twitter and boasting how damn good they are.

I see no particular reason why those 2 things have to correlate.

I present 9 foot vampire lady as a counter example.

@Dezzy Yeah I should have accounted for tha- no, she's an exception! Most of the time it is though, I'd cite Death Stranding, LoU, Uncharted as examples I know of that use realistic art styles.

@TheJGG "a Dutch model, Hannah Hoekstra, portrayed her. So to insult Aloy’s design is to insult a real person with feelings".
The original face model is beautiful, if Aloy actually looked like her then we wouldn't be seeing the level of criticism that's happening right now. Aloy looks nothing like her, and if you think it's a good likeness I hope you're not a portrait artist because that wouldn't be a good path for you.

lol everyone complaining about a fictional character not looking good enough like some porn star.

@Zuljaras @TheFrenchiestFry @MsJubilee Abby is modelled after a real person. Because guess what, everyone looks different, and women can be muscular as well.

I really don't get the complaints. Not every video game character has to look attractive to YOU. And even then I see no reason to complain about it.

@Octane That is so true! Everyone can look as they please but that does not mean everyone else have to like it right? It is all just different opinions.

As long as they are not "Change the model now!!!" it is completely fine.

@Octane I can't see the point. It's not even real and besides, you spend most of the game looking at the back of her head. It doesn't matter lol. I thought the original Xenoblade Chronicles faces were a little off...but I didn't once hit the internet to complain lol. It's so trivial.

OK, sorry but I'm not sure what's supposed to be 'wrong' with Aloy ....? I wouldn't say she's the best protag ever or the prettiest female in video games or anything but I don't know what people are complaining about, so perhaps if anyone wants to explain that a little?

@BruceCM Some Twitter people are mad that Aloy looks a little puffy in a screenshot. It is probably even the angle. And ofc other people have to blow it out of proportion and be offended.

Yeah @BruceCM it's as silly and superficial as it seems. So what if Aloy looks different? So what if she doesn't have boobs the size of my skull? So what if she dresses like an actual warrior? Because most female armour nowadays is disastrously unrealistic.

Also find it quite hilarious how the exact same debate's happening on Push Square right now too.

The amazons use to cut off one of their boobs so they could use a bow and arrow better, I'm outraged Aloy has two boobs AND uses a bow and arrow!