Mirror’s Edge 2 was just announced. Online across the globe, gamers are excited. While many are looking forward to the sequel in Japan, there is a group of gamers there who are not thrilled with how the protagonist looks.
This isn’t the first time gamers in Asian have objected to Faith’s appearance. Back in 2008, a Korean fan, unhappy with Faith’s looks, decided to give the Mirror’s Edge character a makeover that apparently would make the character more appealing to Asian gamers. It’s sometimes true that Asians and non-Asians have different appreciation of physical appearances.
At that time, the game’s producer Tom Farrer told Stephen Totilo that he found the revamped image “kind of sad”, adding, “We wanted her to be attractive, but we didn’t want her to be a supermodel. We wanted her to be approachable and far more real. It was just kind of depressing that someone thinks it would be better if Faith was a 12-year-old with a boob job.”
Those comments set off a flurry in Japan, with people online writing an array of responses that ranged from “There’s no way Japanese would accept a face like that” to “But foreigners think slanted eyes are sexy”. Some in Japan, however, did find the original character design appealing.
Now in 2013, gamers in Japan once again seem upset by Faith’s appearance — even though, the game’s trailer barely shows what she looks like. Above, you can see a much clearer look.
In Japan on Twitter, people generally seem more excited, simply tweeting out the game’s release info.
On Japan’s most popular gaming sites Hachima and My Game News Flash, however, commenters are going off on the character design. “The main character is once again way too homely,” wrote one. Other added that the character was “not cute” or just plain “ugly”.
“Yep, just like before, slanted eyes,” added another commenter.
One gamer even wrote, “Dear EA, Dragon Age is also like this, but why are all the faces this fugly?”
“We said change this,” wrote one commenter.
“Once again,” added another, “this looks like a face that Japanese gamers won’t accept”.
It’s really to early to tell! In the images EA released, the Mirror’s Edge protagonist does look slightly different, which isn’t uncommon. Character designs do tend to evolve over time, and that seems to be the case here.
One commenter online in Japan did like how the character’s mouth looked. At least there’s that. I guess.
Comments
52 responses to “Japanese Gamers Once Again Dislike The Look Of Mirror’s Edge 2”
If we could stop calling it Mirror’s Edge 2 that would be great. It’s a reboot/prequel.
I’d like to see where you got that information from. All reports so far are that the game is indeed Mirror’s Edge 2 and isn’t a reboot.
these are the same people that complain that mounting animations in MMOs take too long but object when there’s no cast duration.
I mean, she’s not a supermodel but she’s no picasso either, I mean what is the world coming too when your main criticism of a game is “she’s not cute enough”.
Its a first person game too. So 99% of the time you wont even be able to see Faith’s face. Which makes this complaint even crazier to me.
And keeping in mind that all of the cutscenes were in the form of a graphic novel anyway.
I didn’t mind those, but would prefer in-engine cut scenes in the ‘reboot’.
Keep in mind this is a Japanese audience, not an Australian or American audience. At the risk of sounding racist, a lot of Japanese people have different expectations to a lot of ‘western’ people.
One thing that is universal: the ability to find anything to complain about.
Fine. We’ll just replace her with a generic white male soldier from halo/cod/bf/quake and no one wins.
Or we could let the developers choose how to design their own characters.
Around the point at which I realised this story was about asians who prefer more western looking asian characters disagreeing with westerners who prefer asian looking asian characters my head exploded.
Then I remembered a conversation I had once with an asian mate of mine. He explained that the asian girls that white guys think are attractive are not the same ones asian guys think are attractive. I said I thought this was actually a great feature and worked out better for both of us. He agreed.
Unfortunately with how artistic styles in Japanese (and just Asian games in general) games have stagnated, the market over there have just become far too settled on more or less one style. That and the prevalence of ‘kawaii’ culture and overlapping of anime styles and many games, makes them (at least that’s the conclusion I’ve drawn) adverse to more “realistic” depictions of humans.
It seems they’re under the impression that Western developers design Asian characters such as Faith with the intention to racially insult or something. And no, this is not coming from a white guy talking as if he understands racial stereotypes directed at ethnic minorities. This is coming from a guy who is part of said ethnic minority who has been fortunate enough to grow up understanding both sides of the globe to some degree.
Japanese nerd culture has become one giant ball of rage about literally everything. It wouldn’t matter what she looked like. ‘Otaku’ culture is split into so many completely insular subcultures that someone is going to object.
Heh more or less. Though I wouldn’t say it’s any worse than our nerd culture haha. @pfhorunner pretty much summed it up with his last sentence.
True enough. I just feel like Japan is getting consistently out of touch. What other place has an entire sub culture Of people who proudly shun human contact, while demanding that the celebrities they stalk live strange, pseudo lives in order to please them? What other country thinks that attitude is totally Ok? Spending any amount of time on 2 chan is a pretty crazy experience.
Nerds are weird. Japanese nerds are bizarre.
Cry some more.
I don’t get it.
Wouldn’t they be happy that the character represents eastern country’s in a western game? Or would they prefer another stereotypical Caucasian character.
Anyway I think Faith’s look is unique and stands out in the video game world. And she is plenty cute.
So should we start complaining about games from the East and their boring, generic art style?
EDIT: And nevermind that the Battlefield 4 gameplay, in the same press conference, featured killing of Asian enemies. Don’t they have other things to pick on other than a first-person characters face?
Read the article, a few people complained, not the entirety of the Japanese people or gaming community. Christ, I could go to just about any article here and find people complaining about the most stupid things, doesn’t mean I think all Australians are like that
Faith’s pretty. I don’t know what they’re all on about. We first saw her back when Lara Croft was known for her massive bazoongas, so it was refreshing to see a playable character who could actually pass for a person. Faith is an awesome protagonist not just because she’s a kickass female Asian — a minority group — but also because she hasn’t been oversexualised by EA. This is the sort of character we should all be admiring.
But no. She’s gotta be the hottest chick out there apparently. I don’t get it.
They’re clearly upset over the lack of tentacles
Who gives a fuck
Why do ppl report shit like this as if Japan was still the center of the gaming universe? They should spend more time worrying about their ridiculously high youth suicide rate and not about the cup size of a character in a game. Maybe if she was raped by some tentacles they’d be more into it.
Harsh but honest 🙂
I find this both insanely tragic (suicide… tis true) and yet hilariously funny… (tentacles…)
Because it’s Kotaku? Japanese microcosm and gaming is their thing.
Because it’s Brian Ashcraft. Japanese microcosm is his thing.
A slightly callous way of makinga decent point.
If Faith looked anything like the girls from DOA or FF series I don’t think there would be any problem besides she looking very fake.
Seriously?! A few Japanese players have a cry and people get upset and attack Japanese people in general.
Do all westerners get attacked for the few self entitled bad mouthed immature kids that permeate the forums, games and message boards of the world? No……they don’t
It works both ways. I’ve had groups of Asian-language speaking people tease me in their own language while they thought I couldn’t understand what was going on by their gestures and expressions. It’s not behaviour exclusive to one culture: dickheads exist everywhere.
Unfortunately, the language barrier insulates us, so the only thing Westerners here have to go on is Brian Ashcraft’s reporting of the forum posts and whatever limited cross-section of Japanese culture they’ve experienced. Not exactly a broad basis for comparison. I’m curious to know, what are most Japanese people saying about the game and Faith’s new look if these are the exceptions?
This topic is always stupid.
Apparently people only like the original design because that’s what is attractive to westerners.
Easterners are complaining because that’s what is not attractive to easterners.
So it doesn’t matter who the character is or what the game is about, so long as the female characters are hot.
A lot Of the issue is that she looks like a normal person. She’s attractive to Some and not to others… You know, like a normal person.
There is a very vocalportion of Japanese gaming culture that doesn’t givea Fuck about having normal people. They want their fetishes catered to at all times.
As a wise man once said:
“Too fucking bad…”
HAHAHA EA better put a school uniform on Faith asap. BTW left pic is way way better, right pic looks like jail bait
I like characters like Faith and Johnny Gat because it’s hard to find good Asian American characters. Asians usually portrayed in games as typical anime archetypes or Asian caricatures obsessed with honor and mystical Asian traditions with heavy Asian accents. As a fellow Asian American, I can relate better to Faith than any character from a Japanese game.
Who gives a shit?
Let them go back to the whiny RPGs where the girls all dress and look like child prostitutes, wear cat ears, and defeat enemies by blowing kisses.
Asians pissed an Asian looks Asian…. Hmm, it’s a strange world.
My first thought was, “Japanese people are annoyed that an Asian heroine appears to have more Chinese ancestry than Japanese?”
(Edit: Paraphrase: “She’s the wrong KIND of Asian! Make it OUR Asian!”)
Not a bad point. It’s still bloody stupid, it’s like us getting out backs up because white people in Japanese games have big eyes, beards and are always American.
You have no idea how prevalent that shit is in Japan.
Seriously Mr Farrer must know some attractive children because none of the images look like a 12 year old. Hes got problems
For some reason I find the Asian reactions towards Faith’s looks in this game to be somewhat amusing, see how the majority of it is in the first-person
Remember no one lives forever?
The series died because Guys don’t want to play as a girl in a first person game.
I think this is a bit of a non-issue. Just because douchebags get on Twitter and start complaining about her look doesn’t mean that it’s the general concensus of the Japanese population. If you look then you can find douchebags complaining about anything on Twitter .
In response, I suggest we write an article claiming that American Gamers Dislike The Look of Bayonetta’s Short Hair (source – https://twitter.com/search?q=Bayonettas%20hair&src=typd)
Hi Dan 🙂 I love your facial hair
And people like to bitch endlessly about western sexism…
She looks good, solid design. NOT a supermodel but that would have been fucking stupid if she did. Shut up you Japanese pervs
Anime has conditioned me to take this view about ALL video game characters…
I remember last time one issue was that basically she’s an “Asian” character designed by a white person, so doesn’t actually look like a real Asian (for example the ‘slant’ of eyes is actually caused by fat in the cheeks which she doesn’t have so it’s unrealistic).
I personally don’t have a problem with the design, but I do find it interesting on a cultural level. In Japan the stereotype for a white person is tall, blonde hair, blue eyes and a big nose. When you notice it around (eg Japanese comedians dressed like that to take the piss) it starts to get annoying. I wonder if the “slanted eyes”, high cheek bones etc are viewed in a similar matter. I remember some Japanese idols got in a bit of trouble a few years back when they pulled their eyes wide and did the “wide eyes” thing to pretend to be Korean…
The irony of everyone saying “who gives a shit!?” and the comments reach 2 pages..
Let’s not bother to please the shallow males please.
Looks like a beautiful Asian women to me, Some of these countries need a wake up call, I always thought Asian eyes were one of the things that made them unique and beautiful.
I’m not sure I can grasp what people are finding offensive here. But it does make me stop to wonder just how entitled gamers imagine themselves. Let the developer, the IP’s creator and the core story-tellers of the game make their characters look however the heck they want.
What is the point of getting bent out of shape about it? What’s the result?
It reminds me of the people who were screaming about Tom Cruise playing Jack Reacher. Not that I agree that he should have, I’m just asking what good did moaning about it do? It happened anyway. There was nothing you could do.
I dread to think what character/costume design would end up like if some people out there had it their way.
I would just like to point out that this is a first person game and all you will be seeing are her hands. So really the only thing that will affect you in game are her ugly hands, because in the first game, I think they were pretty ugly.