The opinion represented in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Operation Rainfall as a whole.
Hi y’all. Something caught my attention recently that I really need to vent about. Since I have this amazing website to share my thoughts and opinions on I figured now was a good time. Anyhow, a video caught my attention on social media the other day as often happens! No, it wasn’t cats doing cute things or even any animal doing something cute/crazy. This time, it was a man telling me that it wasn’t that big of a deal that I no longer had control over my breast size in Xenoblade Chronicles X.
What? So many, many things wrong here.
I’m not even going to touch other alterations or censorship issues revolving around this game. We have covered that with both news and opinion pieces, and y’all can feel free to go browse those articles if you haven’t already. I’m sticking strictly to the issue of removing the breast slider that allows players to alter their breast size in a created character.
This is a feature that was in the game and it has been decided that it should be removed for our version. I’m not attacking any game that doesn’t have this feature. It is one thing to not have an option, it is another to take the time to remove one that already exists. I’m not sure why they did this and I definitely don’t agree with that decision. Regardless, it has been decided, and now any created character that happens to be of the female persuasion has to have the same chest size.
*looks down at chest, and glances around at some others in the room*
Nope, that won’t work! I can clearly see that all women are not created equal. Just in my immediate family we have 4 different women with 4 different bra sizes. Now clearly I am not going to go into any more detail on that but I hope you see what I am getting at. And just in case you don’t I’ll point it out.
All women look different.
I know. I know. Shock and awe, right? We aren’t all cut from the same cloth. Even if we were, that cloth would be sized differently to fit each of our bodies. The size of a woman’s bust is a key feature in how we look. Most people who want to make a custom character that represents them would like to make it as real as possible. I understand that some features may not be available. We might not have our exact hair style represented because of the massive amounts of hairstyles that exist. Boobs aren’t that complicated though. I’m not saying my character should have my exact boob shape but why the hell can’t she have at least an accurate size?
So far, speculation is going around with the idea that Nintendo wanted to stop people from making a younger looking, flat-chested character, and dressing her in an outfit not deemed appropriate by most of us for an underage girl. Alright. That might even be a valid complaint.
Actually, now that I think about it, no it isn’t. The problem with this argument is that we are failing to see boobs as anything other than sexual objects. Do you know what boobs are? Fat! They are fat pockets. They exist for the sole purpose of feeding our children. That’s it! That is why they are on my body, so that if I ever have a child I can nourish it.
Another thing to consider is what if a teenage girl is playing the game and she is flat-chested? Sorry girlie! You are going to have to use this one breast size. Let’s just hope it doesn’t do any further damage to her ego since society already tells her she doesn’t look good enough in a tank top.
On the flip side of this, I’ve seen comments that maybe they don’t want the guys to make large-chested characters and play as a slightly slutty character (because clearly y’all are pervs who only play as a woman character because… well, bewbs).
Seriously I’ve seen people comment with ideas like that recently. It was mostly men saying that by the way, so you guys might want to track them down, smack them around a bit, and set them straight.
Unless that is in fact the reason you play as a woman, in which case… carry on.
We all know that bigger boobs mean over-sexualized, right? Sarcasm of course, since that is pure bullshit. Y’all know how I feel about that. And if you don’t, you should go read a different Crystal’s Corner where I get into an issue regarding if I myself am sexist, if it is OK for me to like certain video games, and being confident that the way I dress isn’t over-sexualizing myself.
How about instead of worrying what we might do with our create-a-character Nintendo lets us choose what we want our video game creations to look like? Women already have people telling them what they should look like enough in real life, and frankly, we don’t need it pushed down our throats in our entertainment.
Sorry Nintendo, but a cookie cutter chest won’t work for me and I doubt it will work for most people. It might seem insignificant in a game with so much going on and hundreds of hours of gameplay being poured into it, but that is a long time to play and not see the bust size you wanted. I do realize that in the grander scheme of things, this doesn’t equate to, for example, women not getting paid as much as men, but it is still important.
