Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya is none too pleased to see his creation being regarded as nothing more than a sex object to ‘fans’ of the game. In a remark posted on his Twitter profile, Mr. Kamiya states, “It seems there's pornographic doujinshi based off Bayonetta... There are fans who will resent that, and I hardly think those responsible [for the doujinshi] hold any love for the game..."
Regarded by our own David Radd as a Bacchanalian feast in sophomoric gaming excess, Bayonetta was a hit with the gaming community. A game in which the main character uses her own hair as clothing, shoots guns with amazing accuracy and knows how to dance like a starlet is very intriguing and the gameplay offers interesting mechanics that few studios have ever been on level with. The problem ,though, is one cannot help but think that gamers have their attention focused on…other assets.
Though it was critically acclaimed, the explosive action game is a long ways away from promoting the kind of feminism that most gamers seem to be ignoring. Whether or not gamers wish to embrace the creative identity Mr. Kamiya was aiming at is up to time, education, and a lot of patience.
2 Comments
May 14, 2010
That's amusing. It reminds me how Team Ninja was up in arms when some modification released for one of the Dead or Alive titles that depicted the females naked. Still, these sort of unlicensed third-party elements can be exploitative and I can understand from the perspective of reducing the character to a single element, and as anyone who played Bayonetta knows, the game's plot is much more confusing than simple sexual fetishism.
May 14, 2010
This is kind of like when Eidos fired their Lara Croft model for posing nude for Playboy. They thought she was negatively portraying the character. Um..........ok:)