Killer is Dead (Grasshopper/Kadokawa Games) 360/PS3 2013

[EvilBoris]

I have been playing games for years and I still don't know ****.

Just play Lollipop Chainsaw then you'll know ****

[chopemon]

Give up the snark for once Boris. It's old.

Suda's games vary from great (NMH) to pretty okay in a good way (Lollipop).

Let me be clear: I think the Gigolo mode is sexist and gross and I staunchly support the anti sexism movement. However, I do not support the double standards on display.

I haven't played Killer but I hope that the sexism is handled in the same way it is in other recent Grasshopper games. Every male character that objectifies women in a GM game is mocked. Travis is a pathetic nerd who's desire for sex allows him to be manipulated by Sylvia. He goes home every day to his little man-den full of anime toys and porn (a bit like me). Garcia is a meat head who is clearly overly possessive and jealous. Any of the characters that objectify Juliet are humiliated and killed. GM games are not bastions of feminism and they clearly objectify women but with that comes a commentary. I assume this parody of James Bond has the same. James Bond seduces women as part of a mission objective and exploits them for his own ends. This often gets them killed yet they are held up as great films and good family entertainment.

Another game repeatedly glorifies the trafficking of women for sex and the use of others for sexual slavery. Where were the warrior reviewers then? Did they criticise the game for the giving you a mission where you rescue trafficked women (dressed in stripper outfits in containers full of dildos) and then put them to work? No, they gave it 9/10.

The Gigolo missions are sexist and gamify women but why is this game getting called out while others are celebrated? I'm not defending the game until I've played it but I am mystified at the double standards. I know it is sexist but as an adult I can see that and still enjoy it for what it is. I am a grown man with a girlfriend and I don't feel embarrassed by showing her this. We can look at it together and laugh at it. She isn't offended by it and I can seduce virtual women without her thinking less of me. Not according to the reviews though, I am a piece of **** for liking it.

And have we truly got this insane? Do we criticise a game that lets you seduce women more than games where you kill hundreds of people? We revel in mass murder and praise life like death animations then act like the Daily Mail when we try to seduce a woman?

There is a distinct and clear divide in the reviewers based on geography. Maybe Europeans care less about the sexism? Maybe UK and US reviewers are so completely on their high horse and being white knights that it affects their reviews? Maybe I'm a juvenile degenerate (I'm certainly being made to feel like one by the gaming social media and reviewing elite)?

Maybe I'll agree with the reviews when I play it, maybe I won't. I'm just angry at the double standards and hypocrisy.

I cannot wait to play Killer is Dead I love Grasshopper.

[EvilBoris]

I actually really enjoyed Lollipop Chainsaw, but it was a bit ****.

I'll be buying Killer is dead because of Lollipop Chainsaw, but I'm under no illusion that it will probably be janky as ****.

[nakamura]

The simple fact is reviewers are generally idiots, certainly modern ones. They moan about games like Lost Planet 3 for being generic and all that yet praise similar games like Gears of War and Call of Duty despite them being highly generic and lacking any interesting gameplay mechanics.

Reviews are not worth the paper or webspace they are read on.

[Guts]

I haven't played Killer but I hope that the sexism is handled in the same way it is in other recent Grasshopper games.

Good post, chopemon. I totally agree with everything you said. So *beep* tired of this "sexism" rubbish these days everywhere.

The Eurogamer moron even says this himself in the review:

Gigolo mode is presumably intended to portray our hero as a Bond-style smooth international playboy, but instead he comes across as a pathetic, socially impaired creep who has to bribe women for sex. How it didn't end up cut from the game is unthinkable.

Obviously he has totally missed the point. So sexism is okay when you do it "cool" like woman-beating James Bond from the 60s. Oh the irony.

[Sketcz]

There is a distinct and clear divide in the reviewers based on geography. Maybe Europeans care less about the sexism? Maybe UK and US reviewers are so completely on their high horse and being white knights that it affects their reviews? Maybe I'm a juvenile degenerate (I'm certainly being made to feel like one by the gaming social media and reviewing elite)?

There's definitely a serious problem with US critics. I read one laughably pathetic article recently that tried to proclaim the portrayal of women in Dragon's Crown was equivalent to the racist stereotypes found in films from the 1960s. Really? A large breasted necromancer and muscle-thighed warrior woman are the same as racial prejudice? WTF are they smoking over there?

It seems to be an annoying phase plaguing the internet currently. I recall a time when fantasy art by artists like Frazetta were hailed as amazing. Today, any portrayal of women is seen as somehow a violent assault on our morality. Ugh, I'm bored of hearing it. And as you state - the double standards. Something like God of War has nudity and sex (and sex minigames), but no one complains and it gets high scores across the board.

I blame America's puritanical religious foundation, which seems to infect so many echelons of thought, even in non-religious circles. Some of our writers are becoming the same type of over sensitive sanctimonious morality crusaders. My biggest concern is that their continuous whinnying and bleating is going to negatively affect the creative freedom of developers, who might fear further backlash and so censor themselves, or simply not bring the games out at all.

Freedom of expression and creativity is officially dead.

I said it in another thread, but some writer needs to draw a line in the sand and say: I've had enough of this puritanical witch-hunting bull****. Respect my freedom to enjoy whatever media I damn well ****ing want.

For the record, I love Grasshopper's games. And Vanillaware's. And I don't care what anyone thinks.

[teddymeow]

Anybody buy this in the end?

[Sketcz]

No, but there's a game about being a badger, on GOG, which is seriously tempting me... Too bad I have too much work.

[Family Fry]

Yeah I grabbed a copy, camera is a shocker.
Isn't too bad, need to play some more than initial first chapters/episodes.

[chopemon]

Yeah, really enjoying it. Camera is fine, screen tearing is far less noticeable than some would have you believe and I'm not seeing any bugs people have been talking about. I am really enjoying the game. The combat isn't as precise or deep as a Platinum joint but the variants on guarding and evading work well (you can guard or evade but hitting them at the right time triggers counter attacks). The style is the main selling point and it is dripping in it. Great characters and great level aesthetics. Also enjoying the collectable finding and trying to rank up in the side missions to unlock new shop items.

The Gigolo Missions are weak (barely any gameplay) and so absurd I can't see why people are that offended. They are just ridiculous and have no resemblance to any kind of real life seduction. Or maybe they do and I've just lead a quiet life?

[wakka]

Freedom of expression and creativity is officially dead.

Fairly bold statement to make there.

[Sketcz]

Yeah, I post insane nonsense all the time. Usually though there's a subtle message in it.

The sentiment stands. Although everyone wants developers to be unshackled, they only want it on their own terms. All these wishy washy whiners are the same people who advocate art-house games and want developers to step away from the COD/FIFA recyclathon we find ourselves in - but only as long as it does not encroach on their precious comfort zone.

You can't make conflicting rules like that.

Either allow and encourage all developers of all types to express themselves as they please, or control everyone's thoughts through drugs and subliminal messaging.

Personally, I love games that feature scandalous debauchery and scantily clad ladies, and games where you play as a mother badger. As I've said in other topics, I want the whining in the upper echelons to stop.

Here's an excellent Q&A with Hifumi Kouno, of Steel Battalion fame, discussing the fear of sexuality some critics have:

What made you decide to return to standard consumer-facing games, as opposed to the hentai titles and whatnot?

HK: I will answer this very seriously. I won't take this lightly. I do not feel that there's a big difference in my thinking between standard adult titles and consumer titles. We don't have the idea that we're really shifting gears as such.

Generally, people looked down on adult titles just because they're adult titles. But this is just one genre that I want to experiment in as a game designer -- just one avenue for my creativity. There may be other avenues for my creativity. I don't want to limit what I can explore as a designer, based on expectations.

What kind of things do you think you can achieve in the adult game market? What do you want the player to feel?

HK: First, I want to say that I'm not just the game director, but I'm also the scenario writer for my titles. As part of writing scenarios, it's very important to understand human behavior. You have to address the basics of human feeling and motivation. The sexual urge and sexual motives are absolutely a core part of human behavior and a really primal urge. I think we can't forget that. I don't want us to forget that part of ourselves.

Why do you think so many people are afraid of it?

HK: If you take any given game designer, I think most of them are concerned - perhaps too concerned - with appearances and how they're perceived in the outside market, and by other game creators, even. They don't want to be seen as too unique.

I think that's also the background of the main company Nude Maker. I think that we need to be more honest with ourselves, and people should not worry about how they're perceived and do whatever their creative drive is. It really comes back to appearances, with many people.

I don't need to hide anything about adult games, and I really appreciate an interviewer who'll ask these kinds of straightforward questions and understand where I'm coming from.


What do you think of the state of the adult market right now? There have been a lot of closures this year.

HK: The budget on adult games is very small. On one hand, it's possible to really experiment and implement new and creative ideas, but on the other hand, I think people have gotten too conservative and just go in one direction and do the same patterns over and over again.

People seem to be targeting specific fetishes. Like the moe [cute anime girl fetishism] market, or the lolicon [more sexualized underage animated fetishism] stuff, all targeting very specific things.

HK: I agree with you there. I think there's a lot of those titles with moe or lolicon. My titles are definitely games first. I'm not just trying to sell them due to moe factor.

These are real games, and they happen to also contain things about sex or hentai. In a way, I think that unfortunately the effort we put into those types of things sometimes isn't rewarded, and if you just make it an easy-to-sell moe-type game, it'll sell much easier.

Do you think that you could create feelings of love within a player in a traditional game as well?

HK: I definitely think that's possible, but I think people get love and sex mixed up a lot of the time, of course. Just straightforward sex in games, I don't think that represents love.

[chopemon]

Since this has just come out on PC, it is a good time to post a 15 minute 3 Days With Suda documentary.