I haven't read this entire thread, but the accusations I've seen - that I'm only doing this for pageviews; that I don't actually care about the things I'm saying; that my criticism is contributing to the mistreatment of women - are inappropriate, out of line, and rather disgusting. I won't address those.
I will, however, elaborate on my points, since it doesn't seem like I've been clear enough.
For reference, let's look at this picture of
the sorceress. Other than her proportions, there are a couple of details worth noting. One is that her shirt is trying to escape from her chest. She also has a very childish face that resembles lolicon imagery. I don't think either of those features is beautiful or worth lauding in any way.
Now let's look at
the gif that was posted earlier in this thread. Maybe you think it's reasonable, or beautiful, or aesthetically pleasing when a female character's breasts move like that during combat. I don't. I think it's demeaning and embarrassing.
See, I don't think the sorceress's design is problematic because of her large breasts. What's problematic is that the character is explicitly designed to draw our eyes to her large breasts. They're exposed; they're jiggling; they're disproportionate. They're immediately striking. They're part of a lolicon fantasy, drawn to appeal to people who are interested in lolicon fantasies (and people who are interested in large breasts).
So yes, maybe her design has something to do with fertility, or necromancy. Maybe she's a strong, multifaceted character with interesting thoughts and ambitions. None of that really matters, because her body is presented as a jiggling sexual object for people to leer at.
(To those of you who are ready to argue that the men in Dragon's Crown are sexually objectified as well, please google "adolescent male power fantasy" and read explanations from people more qualified than I.)
Go ahead and look at
that gif again. I hope you can see how that might make people feel uncomfortable.
You could say that, examined in a vacuum, this is just a silly cartoon. But viewed as part of the video game industry - and it is, despite its niche, part of the video game industry - this is just another example of an exclusionary chunk of gaming culture. On Twitter yesterday, one person
said to me, "I like how you complain about some games being 'made for men and only men' as if that's a bad thing." Are you kidding me? I sure hope I don't need to explain why that's not okay.
Some have accused me of singling out Dragon's Crown because Japanese niche games are easy targets for a westerner. That's just not true. I write a column every week about JRPGs. I'm criticizing this one because I don't want to see the genre headed in this direction. I want JRPGs with great female characters. Strong, complicated female characters who aren't defined by their sexuality, like Estelle in Trails in the Sky or Nanami in Suikoden II. Female characters who don't come across as aesthetic objects.
One more thing: I'm probably the only person here who has actually played Dragon's Crown, and I have no interest in seeing it burn. It's a fun, interesting game that I hope to buy and play and write about. Otherwise I wouldn't care this much.
Tesseract
logs. Do not make me repeat myself.
brap
by saying FF sucks except FF12. 
www.neogaf.com
Nymphae
by keeping it as nonsensical and unrelated to the original purpose as we could.
