| Jaicee said: Oh I'm with you (100%, as my annoying president might say) on Aloy as a character! I said nothing about Horizon: Zero Dawn being the best game on the market or anything of that nature. Personally, for my taste, I consider the level of storytelling in so-called AAA games to be kind of a joke and Zero Dawn doesn't offer the best of them at that. Like BOTW, it's basically a kazillion-dollar, multi-national technology corporation selling you on the merits of technology and trying their damndest to make you feel as awesome as they can in the process. It'shallow stuff. Aloy is just another generic, superhuman hero character in essence and the tribal peoples are just lazy stereotypes about First Nations (despite the research that GG supposedly did on the subject). It's standard-issue feel-good gaming complete with most of the usual tropes that go along with that (detective vision, radio towers, and all the other "gamey" superficialities). It's a plastic corporate product with a self-serving theme that's calculated simply to sell as many copies as possible. I consider Zero Dawn to be narratively inferior to the likes of NieR: Automata and Tales of Berseria, to say nothing of the real narrative competition in the indie scene. And I completely agree with you that TLOU II would make for a much better success story when it comes to female-focused "AAA" games if it obtains commercial success (which yes, it very well may). All of that said though, neither commercial success nor gender politics are an art contest. If they were then Gone Home would be top-selling game of all time. We're not talking artistic merits here. We're talking sales projections. We can't be naive about what that does and doesn't imply. Strong character development and plausible lines and abilities have never mattered when it came to establishing Mario, Link, Master Chief, etc. as household names. For that matter, neither was it important for Samus during her time. I don't think that strong character arcs are necessarily what will cement the success of the next popular female game character. |
I don't think it'll cement it, but i do think it's an important part of the process. Just as direct final success shows the viability of an IP, the demands that game creates help shape the specifics of future projects. When a game does something really well, others often follow suit. As it happens the original TLOU makes for a good example. It was ND's first attempt at a serious, character driven experience, and the overwhelmingly positive reception it got helped make Uncharted 4 was it is. It's not perfect, but it was nice having it be able to properly explore Nathan's flaws as a character, and in turn how they fuel his motivations (while still being goofy fun haha).
Slightly off topic, but since you mentioned it; How long is Nier? It's been on my to-do list since it launched, and i think i'll be done with Horizon in a couple of days. I'm wondering if i'll have time for Nier before Persona 5 comes out early April 
