Despite Dragon’s Crown being a solid game, its characters’ bodies have come under some scrutiny. Regardless of where you stand on that issue, it’s hard to defend interactive scenes in the game that allows you to grope NPCs. To show how touchy the player can get, here’s a NSFW gif by psoodo that makes fun of said interactive scenes.
Fair warning, some folks may find this content uncomfortable.
In order to understand the parody, you’ll need to know what it’s making fun of. The actual game allows you to mess with both female and male characters during dungeon cutscenes. These scenes allow you to click on these NPC’s bodies to elicit a reaction from them. The difference between the male and female-specific cutscenes that stands out, however, is that the female characters can be seen in particularly compromising poses.
Here’s footage from the Japanese version of the game (though the same scenes occur in the western release) by sansviedotcom:
But if you don’t want to sit through the video, this is what the groping looks like, sans moans:
And for comparison’s sake, a man in the same type of scene:
It should be noted that the reaction is the same no matter where the NPC is clicked, and that you can abstain from groping sensitive areas if you so choose. Additionally, both characters respond with sexual sounds in the actual game, even if the men aren’t positioned as provocatively or squirm as intensely as the women do…not that these scenes would be any less weird if they did, but still.
That brings us to psoodo‘s parody of the groping scenes, which highlights the difference between the male and female groping:
He even added animated toe curling.
( psoodo Via Tiny Cartridge)
Comments
33 responses to “The Groping Scenes In Dragon’s Crown, Parodied In One GIF”
That certainly seems dodgy. It’s also quite weird in that I haven’t been following what Dragon’s Crown is actually about, so as far as I know it’s a game about groping slightly animated images? I guess it isn’t actually about that, but um… yeah. Odd.
Anyway I actually just wanted to comment that sir muscleor up there has a neck that’s like 4 times as wide as his head… o.0
he looks like he has come straight out of Fist of the North Star
Can’t wait for this game. Been playing Muramasa Rebirth while I wait for it to arrive.
The amount of displeasure and negativity shown by Kotaku towards it only makes me anticipate it more.
So you can see what all the fuss is about?
Not really, I know exactly what to expect from the game, a number of people I know already have it. Looks amazing.
More because I personally find much of the criticism to be little more than absurd click bait and totally unnecessary, it’s a shame they can’t look past the equally absurd (albeit purposefully) proportions of all the characters.
that the animator didn’t animate the guy when you clicked on his nipples?
it looks more like poking rather than groping…
I love the whole amataur psychology hour comments this game keeps getting from left wing unemployed kids.
It’s nothing to do with being leftwing, it’s just white-knighting stupidity: that crosses all political boundaries. It’s the same reason that idiot David Cameron is trying to ban porn in the UK.
It’s naive to think it isn’t an issue in a ever progressive world.
Some people find that it advocates the idea that women are overly sexualised in modern media and entertainment. That is a compeltely reasonable opinion that follows logic and evidence.
My beliefs notwithstanding (I also think that the whole thing shouldn’t be taken too seriously), the criticisms made of the artstyle are perfectly legitimate. From my point of view? Maybe not, as to me it’s just your average anime artstyle that shouldn’t be taken too much to heart, but from a feminist game journalist’s point of view? Perfectly legitimate, and insightful if you’re the type of person who has an open mind and doesn’t assume spiteful things of people with different opinions.
This has little to do with feminism. It’s reactionary, superficial junk.
In reality it does far more harm to feminism that anything else- playing directly into the false stereotype that feminism is all about being angry at boys for liking breasts and wanting the whole world to be gender neutral- the outdated and mischaracterised “battleaxe” version of feminism.
It’s clownish, cartoonish, a sideshow.
People tend to “whiteknight” by taking on these kinds of issues because it’s a very easy, simple, HIGHLY visible bandwagon. They think they’re doing a very good job and being progressive, when in actuality they’re missing the point and setting everything back.
It reminds me of people who try and argue against crazy creationists by saying we’re all evolved from monkeys or chimps, not understanding that this is NOT how humans evolved and by fucking up the argument that make it harder to convince these nutters. (i.e these species evolved from a common ancestor to us earlier on down the evolutionary chain, It’s not a direct linear relationship.)
Well, the artstyle does over-sexualise the portrayal of women, and believe it or not, some women don’t find that appealing. This means that the game’s target audience obviously isn’t women, which is fine, but reviews about the game from a womens perspective merely stating why most women would find it unappealing is completely warrented. The opinion that the game is enforcing the male power fantasy and promoting the sexualisation of women to young, teenage boys, an opinion that stems from this, is a completely valid point of view of anyone.
I mean, it’s not even entirely to do with feminism. You don’t really have to be a labelled feminist, per se, to even hold an opinion like this. The arguments against what this game promotes are valid, is all I’m saying, and that stereotyping people, dismissing arguments by pigeonholing people with titles like “whiteknight” isn’t really showing a great load of insight into the issue, either.
Sure, there are a lot of “whiteknights” who would be doing EXACTLY what you are saying, but there are a lot of people who would appear to you as “whiteknights” who are not that at all, but are people who legitimately hold their (perfectly vaild) opinion.
It’s a controversial issue, there are people on both sides of the argument. Both sides are reasonable. Throwing out the ad hominen is never called for unless you can’t present a successful counter-argument.
“Well, the artstyle does over-sexualise the portrayal of women”
What about the men?
Or did you miss the last gif?
It does over-sexualise the portrayal of men, I agree. That isn’t what I’m getting at though. I’m merely stating that criticism of the game’s artstyle is entirely valid from the perspective of a woman or feminist, and that it shouldn’t just be dismissed by labels such as “whiteknight.”
I agree that the whole thing shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but I’m not going to pretend like they aren’t legitimate criticisms.
Ummm, that last GIF is a parody of the scene in the game that someone made, showing what the groping scene would be like if the guy actually was sexualised. That giant muscledude further up that’s actually from the game is much more like a power fantasy rather than explicitly sexualised.
My mistake. My point still stands, that it should be a discussion about both or none at all.
I never expected such an eloquent response from someone with the name Captain Ballsack. I tip my hat good sir/madam.
Just doing my duty.
hehe… duty
“Whiteknight” is not an ad hominen, it is a description of the behaviour that results in these entirely superficial (well meaning, “trying to help”) crusades, of which this is a prime example.
The rationalisation you bring up about sexualisation is appealing and seemingly makes sense, but only if we view these things in a culture vacuum- we ignore thousands of years of art history, we ignore contemporary popculture etc.- you look at it in isolation and it seems aberrant. That is always the method in these examples of white-knighting: creating an issue wholesale by mischaracterising and de-contextualising aspects of popculture.
The fact is that these images are NOT overly sexualised at all: they are only sexualised, not overly so. And you can not look at them outside of both the wider cultural context that they are a part of OR that which they are intended: comical, bawdy, fun looking games.
Your claims of ad hominen are wrong. The whole point is that this is certainly not a reasonable argument with valid points on both sides, rather this is a purely constructed issue, this game has been set up as a strawman so that people can take turns as Don Quixote and easily knock it down. That is why this “white knighting” behaviour must be recognised and called out.
-And again: this is not feminist nor is it helpful for feminisim because it misconstrues the point of feminism and in doing so harms its image.
“Well, the artstyle does over-sexualise the portrayal of women”
What about the men?
As fryiee1 said; “both or none at all”
Don’t make it about one side.
Feminists *sigh
You’re missing the point of my entire argument. I agree that there really isn’t an issue with Dragon’s Crown, I’m merely saying that the people who TAKE issue with it are perfectly within logic and validity to do so, because there are legitimate criticisms to be made about the game’s artstyle (criticisms, I’ll reiterate, that I don’t really agree with).
I was saying that it was unfair to pigeonhole people who believe there is something to be criticized, and that assuming that people who are making a big deal about this just because it’s click bait or they want to be a hero is overly presumptuous and discrediting valid arguments instead of presenting counter-arguments that debunk them.
I find small breasts more attractive the giant ones. I just have a laugh at the art style more than anything. Yeah its outrageous and silly but that’s just games
I hate seeing one decent article from this person only to be floored a day later by the irony and ignorance on display. Just the idea that we get extremely similar representations of men and women in a game but when BOTH are sexualized to a relatively uncomfortable degree, she singles out the women. This isn’t equality you’re talking about, it’s personal insecurity.
The men are shown to be dominating and posing with their giant muscles (an unrealistic and inhibitive view of men) while making sexual noises. The women are shown to be submissive and seductive (an unrealistic and inhibitive view of women) while making sexual noises.
When there’s a social issue we care about, it’s probably not a great idea to go with your insecure, gut instinct every single time. Maybe think for a few minutes on several alternate viewpoints, ones from your point of view, maybe ones from the other side of the coin. If you still think the same then fight the power but i really can’t see this argument from someone who isn’t out to fan flames, get hits and make some noise. I really don’t see this as progress.
Im going to grop the hell out of this game, want now!
Ha, fantastic parody.
Vanillaware games have a wonderful sense of visual direction, the universes created are always astounding. George Kamitani’s hyper-sexualised envisioning of classic Western fantasy tropes should in itself be considered parody, though in lieu of any obvious indication it’s clearly understandable how his output is so divisive.
I enjoy the overall visual direction, inclusive of the hyper-sexualised aspects, but I’m not a massive fan of those aspects and I think that without a lens to observe the parody of Dragon’s Crown with regards to established fantasy, the hyper-sexualised elements contribute negatively to the current discourse on sexism and gaming.
In saying all of this, I wouldn’t want to begrudge the team at Vanillaware their vision, nor the enjoyment and appreciation of a player, or even the civil critiques of any detractors.
However, I would love to see less inflammatory discourse and more conversation on the topic at hand; is the inclusion of sexualised characters additive to the pre-established art style? does the atmosphere of the game suffer for the blatant sexuality or is the internal logic one that easily reconciles sexuality in the scope of the world? and for a bit of fun, should we have more respect for each other when discussing polarising opinions?
It often seems that gamers fervently yearn for mature content in their games, yet they are unwilling to engage maturely in the dialogue that is necessary for such progress.
WTF have I stumbled into.
“it’s hard to defend interactive scenes in the game that allows you to grope NPCs”
No it’s not.
It’s called artistic freedom. Both sexes appear equally. I don’t think the poses merit discussion, considering she’s clothed and he isn’t.
Checkmate.
That and unless you’re FORCED to grope said NPCs I don’t really see the issue.
If someone wants to do it then friggin’ power to ’em I say.
And if you don’t well enjoy your moral high ground I guess.
I’ll be over here not breaking out a soapbox every time something easily avoidable rubs me the wrong way.
I think the point the author was making that they’re not appearing equally. While the girl is tied up and writhes in response to the curser, the guy has no reaction to it. It’s an empowerment issue I guess. Also, just because you believe it doesn’t merit discussion it doesn’t mean others feel the same way. Isn’t the point of art to promote discussion?
I dont mean the issue doesn’t merit discussion, just that the two isolated poses isn’t a good thing to start it on. Show _ALL_ of the poses, then we can see if a trend emerges. The video only showed like, 3.
If you make a US PSN account, you can buy the game since it’s available in the US PSN. Just buy a $50 PSN voucher in Amazon though, they will send you the code via email.
Already have it and it is a blast. The “sexism and feminist waaaaaahhh” bullshit Kotaku especially have been pushing is not even that prominent. The game is 99.9% gameplay, .00001% fanservice.
why is no one noticing the ass-licious amazaon?
racists!
also, fighting is bad.. warmongers!
also, dont use carbon fuels for games, polluters!