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INTEREST: Bayonetta Graphic Designer Shares Nintendo Costume Sketches




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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:07 pm Reply with quote
Wow, Nintendo suggesting a character look more risqué? That's the first I've ever heard about such a thing (Samus's jet high heels notwithstanding).

Quite a contrast to Nintendo's reputation for prudishness.
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Stuart Smith



Joined: 13 Jan 2013
Posts: 1298
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 4:52 pm Reply with quote
To be fair, that reputation is mainly attributed because of Nintendo of America's behavior. Nintendo of Japan has had little problem with sex and gore in their games. The Mario and Pokemon series has had a lot of sexual quirks that were omitted or downplayed in the American releases of the games. A lot of violent/sexual games for the Famicom and Super Famicom never came out in America. And even now the DS and 3DS has gotten a lot of those otaku pervert games where you rub and touch girls that never come out in America.

This leads to a lot of conflict of interests between NoA and Nintendo back home in Japan on certain games. One recent one I noticed is Cia from Hyrule Warriors was downplayed/omitted from a lot of American advertising for Hyrule Warriors. Even on the official site the profile picture for Cia is one from the side where her cleavage is hidden. On the Japanese site her cleavage is on full display in her character profile.

Fatal Frame recently came out in all it's wet T-shirt, sexy glory on Wii U. Still remains to be seen if NoA will bring it over to the west as it doesn't line up with their "child friendly" image.

-Stuart Smith
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GateCrusherDX



Joined: 17 Oct 2014
Posts: 15
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 5:20 pm Reply with quote
@Stuart Smith "Mario" doesn't really have any sexual references. Even if it does, considering the fact that all Mario games focus more on gameplay, does that even matter? Ditto for "Pokémon", to lesser extents. Also, whilst the US is a bit less open to sexual content, Japan has been on a mission to purge extreme gore in their games, which is funny, considering that Akira and Ghost in the Shell is far more violent than any western/American game.
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DKL



Joined: 08 May 2005
Posts: 1940
Location: California, USA
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 6:35 pm Reply with quote
The amount of polish that went into these costumes is pretty awesome.

The Star Fox costume actually changes your guns and turns them into lasers.

You even get the lock-on reticule from Star Fox 64.
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 7:05 pm Reply with quote
Well, Hyrule Warriors and Fatal Frame were pretty recent releases, so whatever Nintendo's attitude is right now of sexual content in their games was likely Nintendo's attitude during then.

I never really gave much though about it being Nintendo of America in particular though. I always just thought about Nintendo priding itself as a family company, which I suppose would apply more to violent content than sexual content.

What sexual content was there in Mario games and Pokémon games that had to be toned down? Mario, I always felt, is supposed to be innocent and a moral center type of franchise. Unless Honey Queen was way more flirtatious with Mario in Super Mario Galaxy or something. (Certainly, they kept the butt thing in Pokémon Battle Revolution.)
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Lavnovice9



Joined: 23 Oct 2012
Posts: 276
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 9:40 pm Reply with quote
Wonder why they went with power suit rather than Zero Suit for Metroid representation. ZeroSuit is hotter

IIRC the American version of Paper Mario omitted the fact Vivian was a crossdressing boy and made him a girl. Also they took out that gay bara hiker who hits on the male protagonist in Black & White, and the crossdressing teacher too. So basically crossdressing/gay stuff NoA has a problem with I guess.

And well the PokeGirls are pretty sexual by default.
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DRosencraft



Joined: 27 Apr 2010
Posts: 665
PostPosted: Sat Oct 25, 2014 11:55 pm Reply with quote
Nintendo's games have long focused more on a family oriented strategy, at least in the US where games have for much longer been pegged more as kid stuff. It became a hallmark, their core business, so they haven't been able to just move away from it just like that. Their core demographic is fairly young, and more often than not to have relatively more involved parents/guardians, so they have to keep that demo happiest.

As for these Bayonetta designs, I imagine it was based more on the idea of recapturing whatever audience was lost from the console switch, and gaining an added audience. Given the game already has an M rating anyway, they probably figured there was no harm in playing up that rating a tad more if it brought in players. Really it's not even anything that dramatic, at least not relative to her other costumes in the last game, or even her normal one.
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enurtsol



Joined: 01 May 2007
Posts: 14758
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 3:00 am Reply with quote
DRosencraft wrote:

As for these Bayonetta designs, I imagine it was based more on the idea of recapturing whatever audience was lost from the console switch, and gaining an added audience.


If there was enough audience in the first game, it wouldn't had needed to be rescued in the first place. That's why there's not hopes up on its Wii-U debut - people aren't gonna magically flock to it just because it's on the Wii-U.

Will "Bayonetta 2's" Weak Sales Prevent Nintendo From Securing More Wii U Exclusives?

  • There are three main explanations for Bayonetta 2's misfire.

    First, Super Smash Bros., which sold over 1 million units within its first two days in Japan, likely stole the spotlight from Bayonetta 2. Second, the Wii U -- which has a reputation for more family friendly first-party titles like Mario Kart 8 -- simply isn't the ideal platform for M-rated series such as Bayonetta. Third, Japanese gamers heavily favor handheld titles -- of the country's top 10 games, four were 3DS titles and one was a PS Vita title.

    Bayonetta 2 isn't a third-party title, since Nintendo published the game, but it is a refreshing new outside IP that stands apart from the company's other first-party games starring its flagship characters. Bayonetta 2 was also considered a test of how more mature third-party games would fare on the Wii U, a platform dominated by casual first-party titles.

    Looking ahead, Nintendo will need to jump between major first-party releases, like Super Smash Bros. for Wii U, the new Legend of Zelda, and the new Star Fox game to keep gamers interested without a safety net of third-party support. "Darker" first-party Wii U games like Devil's Third and Fatal Frame: Shrine Maiden of the Wet Crow might get some press, but they probably won't move the needle any more than Bayonetta 2.


(So T&A isn't helping Nintendo. Fatal Frame did worse btw, and Hyrule Warriors not too hot either.)
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leafy sea dragon



Joined: 27 Oct 2009
Posts: 7163
Location: Another Kingdom
PostPosted: Sun Oct 26, 2014 3:36 am Reply with quote
In a way, I suppose it surprised me too that Nintendo would step in to help make a game that'd get it an M-rating. I assume Bayonetta 2 has an equivalent CERO rating. (I don't know how violent it is though, which I assume is the biggest factor that'd drive a CERO rating up.)

I remember that bit about Vivian being a guy. Was he supposed to be a crossdresser? I thought he was simply an exaggeratedly feminine man. I also had no idea about the bara biker.

I think with those cases, they didn't want to attract attention from angry parents (which I guess was partly the point of the post). Especially so with any explicitly homosexual characters, as homosexuals in American fiction are still a rather taboo subject and thus the mere presence of even an extra like that biker would draw controversy.
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