USA really is a trash country, no offence to the people living in it but damn. That country always has something fucked up going on.
Still, in general it isn’t Shimbori’s fault. But he shouldn’t keep the ball rolling now he is in charge. He now has the power to turn the tide for DOA6 and DOA as a fighting series in general, so he should be really careful when making upcoming decisions. When it comes to the costumes at the moment I think he’s making a step into the right direction, sexy outfits that are okay to have. Some people might find the Christie dominatrix outfit too much, but I think it fits Christie as a character since she is someone that seduces people to assassinate. I personally don’t think TN should add swimsuits to 6, without a beach stage swimsuits look out of place and awkward to fight in. If Shimbori decides to add swimsuits I hope he keeps it at 3-4 swimsuits per character max so it doesn’t turn into a DOAX4. If they are going to do guest characters they should take more of the serious characters like Kiryu and Jin so DOA6 is actually seen as a fighter.
This. Funny enough, they did take Mai in the more "extremely faithful to KoF, Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting" direction in their trailer without really going for anymore fanservice shots or lingers that isn't present with her to begin with in those games.
That, to me, is the best direction DOA should go for if it wants any new female fighters or guest characters.
As stated, sexy outfits are fine... but there needs to be limits.
What I meant is the gaming press, interviews and previews focusing almost entirely on DOA's sexualization. They hardly care about anything else, they all berate Shimbori for DOA's sexualization and recently (and imo rightfully so) for hoodwinking everybody at reveal the sexualization was going to be reduced. (We never believed it, but others did.) SoulCalibur 6 and Street Fighter V are and were never constantly berated like this to the point of making their director frustrated, even angry.
And we can't blame Shimbori for that. That's the main general problem is the fact that the journalists don't really care for the state of games because most of them can't even play games well, if at all. And you equally have people who say they don't give a shit apparently believing them hand over fist. It's basically a parasitic give and take and the only reason it keeps popping up because both groups don't give a shit about DOA at it's depth, they see the harbinger of SJW vs. Sexuality. Reminder that Journalists was NEVER kind to DOA at any point, with this political shift, it just gotten exponentially worse.
Shimbori's just gotta stick with one narrative, which I think he's finally doing (a year too late, but still). It's the wishy-washy responses that led him into trouble. Just say what direction you want to take your game and stick with it. The "desexualization" controversy was obviously entirely invented by chuds on the internet, but they were able to get it going because Team Ninja didn't have clear marketing/messaging when they announced the game. I'm not blaming the developers, this problem is Itagaki's legacy, but they could have contained it better moving forward.
You want DOA to be taken seriously? You want "I'm a fighter" to be the slogan? Then you have to just ignore the chuds and creeps measuring boob sizes and spamming the DOATEC twitter, and you also have to completely dismiss "journalists" who repeat those chuds' talking points. Stay the course, make your good fighting game.
Ironically, Shimbori did. That still didn't stop them whatsoever and still doesn't because they see what DOA5 did and what happened to Xtreme to be their... shall I say "Their Vietnam". Journalists never gave a flying fuck about DOA and has always consistently gave it shit, especially after Xtreme became a thing, people need to remember this is nothing new.
Where the problem comes from is that those complaining see what Shimbori stated as a betrayal to THEM. Even though they don't play DOA seriously, if at all or even give a shit about it, they suddenly care because they feel it will just give the SJWs another push... even if it's Shimbori and Team Ninja's decision and one of the many things they argued for was that Developers should be able to create what they want without any agenda pushing(how ironic...).
I honestly haven't seen the guy flip-flop at all, just mistranslation after mistranslation and surprise, surprise, everytime he clarifies himself, he suddenly isn't given any press or anything. People complain that the sexuality has been toned down since Day One... despite Shimbori clarifying it in Day Two... but no one cares because well, that breaks the narrative.
You see my point here?