Hi! I found this topic because the new Shantae game's fans were mad that its own giant mermaid boss didn't have the enormous boobs they saw in a fan-made edit, and someone pointed out that the boobs of this game's mermaid boss were quite a bit bigger (as indeed they are.)
As a suggestive-to-softcore artist of some ten years' practice, I'd like to go over a few of the points I've seen in this topic.
ClassinessErotica is not inherently lowbrow. Like any other theme, sexuality is as classy or as disgusting as its patrons make it. An audience who is ashamed or mortified at the sight of large or enormous breasts in general has a very unhealthy view of sex, as do the people who can't respect boundaries or standards.
Evil is sexy, demons are disgustingBecause so many people are sex-aversive, we've associated sex with evil, especially in the religious contexts that are central to
Castlevania and by extension
Bloodstained. This means that demons are frequently depicted as well-endowed or perverse. Demons who are able to control their forms often intentionally choose these racy and profane appearances specifically to unnerve human sensibility, as a show of pride, or because human sex organs are a foreign concept to them and they're curious.
And, of course, should the setting allow demons to mutilate the bodies of human victims with curses, they will care even less how the end result looks.
Thus, "there's no point" is itself the point. They are vile demons; they need not adhere to human reason. Indeed their spite drives them to actively protest it.
Design theoryThat's incorrect. That's an element of
level design in a video game, not character design in general.
While it's true that certain games rely on their characters and enemies' appearances hinting at their gameplay effect - for instance, Miyamoto demands this of all Mario artists - this is most effective in whimsical games with simple art styles, hence why it works so well for Mario.
But the more detailed a game's art style becomes, the more "hardcore" its gameplay, and generally the more seriously it takes itself, the less effective and desired this strategy becomes because it can easily become cartoony, hand-holding, and unbelievable. "How convenient that this HD-rendered demon has a giant glowing red target clipart on it" etc.
In character design, you can make whatever you want stand out as long as something does - this will make the character easier to recognize and follow onscreen, as well as to recall later or draw fan art of et al.
Lo and behold, this monster's breasts alone keep chatter going about her and the game demo. It brought me over here when I'd never heard of the
Bloodstained kickstarter at all, so they're doing their job.
As video game characters are not real and thus are not bound to realistic physics or cause and effect, you can make any or no excuse for any detail on any character you want. Indeed plenty have been made in this topic, such as the idea that this monster may be the mother of many other sea demons. Whether she is pregnant
at the time of the battle or not doesn't even matter; breasts symbolize motherhood either way so they may freely be exaggerated on mother characters.
Water sacs?Agreed; such apologist nonsense strongly resembles bargaining, one of the many facets of denial.
They're boobs and they're spectacular.
Creators can change thingsNot only is ancient mythology not real so it has no "facts", but this game is not that mythology anyway. Vepar is female
in this game (I presume; I haven't followed IGA to hear him speak directly on gender.)
Many creators have changed existing mythologies far more substantially:
- Dungeons & Dragons references many prior mythological monsters, but changes random things about them to the point I wonder why they borrowed the name. Gorgons, for instance, are fire-breathing cow monsters; in Greek mythology they are the three snake-lady sisters Stheno, Medusa, and Euryale.
- God of War has little to no care whatsoever for the original Greek stories of personalities of any of its characters, and pretty much every one of them is personally murdered by Kratos the first chance he gets to do so.
- The male Hindu god Shiva is a female ice spirit throughout Final Fantasy.
- The first two Breath of Fire games translate the goddess Myria's name as Tyr, a male Norse god.
- Pegasus today refers to any winged horse. It is actually the name of a specific winged horse, whose species was called the pterippus (likely from ptera "wing" + hippo "horse".)
- Harpies were originally birds with the faces and breasts of human women and not considered remotely attractive. They are now humans with the wings, talons, and possibly tails of birds and range from cute to amazingly hot.
The list goes on. Use original myths to make hypotheses, not presumptions.
ImportanceBecause video games are our modern expression of culture. They combine our current tastes of art, cinema, music, writing, wish fulfillment, sexuality, and a myriad of other things. To critique society's art is to critique society.
He was not, however, arguing that endlessly complaining about, censoring, or mandating creativity was desirable or valuable and indeed it is not. These conversations must happen not to censor art but to protect it; the antagonists of creative freedom would absolutely love for no one to say a word as they sneak around culling pretend things they don't like.
Other thoughtsThe most off-putting thing about the monster's breasts is not their size, but their awkward jiggling. Video game jiggle physics have always been very unconvincing and look rather forced. If the motion of her breasts can be made more natural or subtle, they will look considerably more tasteful and less uncanny - to me, anyway.
Don't put too many giant boobs in. It'll detract from the few that are there.
yey