Implementing the jiggliest of jigglies in Dead or Alive: Paradise doesn’t necessarily imply Team Ninja was trying to objectify females.
Dead or Alive: Paradise, an upcoming PSP game that the ESRB once described as being filled with “creepy voyeurism” where “women’s breasts and butts will sway while playing volleyball,” is allegedly not meant to be soft porn or to degrade women. Yoshinori Ueda, the game’s director, told Eurogamer that the unique visuals are instead meant to be a tribute to the beauty of the female form.
The Dead or Alive series, which began in the fighting genre, has always been known for jiggly boobs, but the Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball spin-offs (first released on the Xbox) take it to a different level, often putting the tools in players’ hands to zoom in on every naughty bit possible as the game’s characters play sports or lounge around an island resort. To anyone that thinks the games are soft porn, Ueda replies: “That’s certainly not something we’re intentionally going for. From our perspective, we’re trying to make beautiful women, that has been the focus – we want our characters to be beautiful. The DOA characters are strong and that they look the way they do is based on trying to bring out the beauty of women.”
“We’re certainly not trying to degrade women,” he says. Instead, his team is “trying to show off the beauty of their bodies … trying to show that they are beautiful characters. It’s not that we were trying to make softcore porn.” Ueda apparently really, really, really enjoys the beauty of a specific type of woman: that which wears clothing which could barely be considered as such. Hasn’t he ever heard of appreciating inner beauty as well? I wouldn’t mind getting to know about Kasumi’s goals in addition to watching gravity affect her protrusions.
I doubt Ueda is being entirely honest here. It’s one thing to appreciate the beauty of a woman, but another to basically invent new technology to get body parts to jiggle more realistically. Whenever I look at Dead or Alive Xtreme, my brain usually releases a quick “wtf” at the shenanigans my eyes are sending back to it. The games aren’t offensive, but it is rather funny just how far Team Ninja takes its “appreciation.” Ueda says his goal with Dead or Alive: Paradise was “to offer a little bit of paradise,” and I’m sure he’ll be able to accomplish that goal for many people out there when the game releases next month. Please, just keep it behind closed doors.
Source: Eurogamer
Published: Feb 26, 2010 09:28 pm