Preemptive Retaliation

So I wasn’t quite in that videogame slump that I mentioned before, considering that in the past few weeks I have absolutely devoured another game that I’ve been wanting to play. Maybe I was just burned out on the whole fetch-quest rinse and repeat of some of Prey’s missions. Near the end of the game I was doing for the sake of doing them, thinking that maybe, maybe, I could 100% this one. It was the same thing that made me almost regret my time with Hollow Knight. Just a compulsion to squeeze every iota of “fun” out of the game before finishing.

This almost happened to me with Nier:Automata. As I said before, I completely devoured this game over a few weeks, and became obsessed with all the quests it offered and – spoiler alert? – all the endings for it. I had discovered a few of them accidentally by myself, but as I was reaching the end of the game I started going back and trying to achieve them all. Even I could feel how tenuous it was though and managed to stop myself from ruining the experience by achievement hunting. The ending that I settled with was… yeah, I’m happy with it.

But I won’t go into that. Nier:Automata is one of those games where it’s best to go in with as little detail as possible. Plus, if you really want, there’s a plethora of youtube essays about the ending that you can peruse. My thoughts fall in line with theirs. It’s a very well-crafted game. It has a great story, it asks some thoughtful questions, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself, even if it did make me pretty uncomfortable to begin with.

I remember a few years ago I was playing through Cibele; a charming, heart breaking game that forced me to revisit my younger days of internet relationships. I played through it in an evening, staying up late to polish it off. The game ends with a video of the protagonist (and creator) visiting her online boyfriend and having sex, which is an interesting point in the context of the game, but it happened to be right then that Anna sleepily walked in to see how I was doing. I spent the next thirty seconds trying to casually ignore what was going on onscreen whilst also trying to give rushed context to what was actually there, and that I wasn’t into very extremely softcore porn.

In the end she didn’t care. She was too sleepy really. But it’s a moment that’s haunted me.

I don’t consider myself prudish, but sex in my media is something I find embarrassing. It’s why, when I bought Bayonetta for the Wii-U, I had to explain to her that there would be some fan service in there, and then had to explain what fan service was. It’s why I had to justify Lollipop Chainsaw as a surrealist pastiche and not exploitative to my flatmate. It’s why I had curate my Steam preferences after playing Doki-Doki Literature Club to avoid the sexy anime games that followed. And speaking of anime, I had the unfortunate timing of family walking into the room as a character appeared provocatively dressed in Death Note, a series that is otherwise completely lacking in sex.

I realise on typing this that all my examples are from Japanese creators. Maybe it’s a cultural thing, but sometimes their representation of women makes me uncomfortable. I know that I shouldn’t apologise for enjoying a hobby which has a multitude of influences, but it is something I’m embarrassed about. When I play these games I can’t help but think about why this character is there, and why are her boobs so big? Is there a reason they seemed to pay attention on that level of breast jiggle? Are they making a point on her sexual power, or is it something put in for the lads? And that just adds to my pointless dilemma; if developers are using a sexually appealing design, am I reinforcing that demographic and perpetuating it. And what if I do find these portrayals attractive? Am I doing them an injustice by not acknowledging their sexuality along with their strengths? Am I belittling them by considering them as sex objects when that’s not their intention? Does this make me a bad person?

Hold up. Let’s take some of that and put it back in a box and bury it way down where it should belong. Rewind. Start again.

In Nier:Automata one of the main characters, 2B, is a dangerous android weapon of precise destruction. She is firm, formidable and a force to be reckoned with. She also performs her duties in a fetishized loli dress with a cleavage window and knee high boots over thigh high stockings. The dress has a slit up the side, allowing ample views of her crotch in cut-scenes, and billowing up as she runs revealing thong underwear. A lot of the female characters are designed in similar proportions, but 2B is the only one that seems to be this sexualised. Contrast this to the other character, 9S, who is dressed conservatively, almost childishly, in a simple top and shorts. There was no sexualisation of him to balance it out, or anyone for that matter. There is a male character who is formed naked with a sculpted body, but then he’s explicitly shown to have to genitals to avoid sexualisation. All the game has is a female character, dressed in fetish clothing, being all sexually attractive. It was as if the game was winking and nudging me, telling me that it knew why I was really playing, and what I was really up to in the game. You’re not here to play a game, you’re here to look at boobs and butts.

And then, much to my surprise, the game called me out on that. Without going into too much detail, after you complete the game the first time you’re asked to play through again, but from 9S’s perspective. He turns out to be the more interesting character in the end, and seeing everything from his perspective changes up how you view the story. Throughout the game he’s been friendly and protective to 2B, and the crux of his story arch is his relationship with her. At one point the game has an existential moment where the enemy is goading 9S on, questioning his motives and intentions. And then it throws out, “You’re just thinking about how much you want to **** 2B, aren’t you?”

The game fucking called me out on it.

2B was purposefully sexualised, not solely for power reasons or as something for the lads, but because it’s something for the lads, and the developer knew that I would react it that way. They knew that I would see 2B as a sexual object, and the 9S would be attracted to her too, and used that against me. It was a stroke of genius that addled my perverted little mind.

It made me reconsider the detail put into small moments of the game – decisions that I wrote off as strange or lazy that actually had a real purpose to them. In the first run through of the game we see the story form 2B’s perspective, and all the cut-scenes focus on her actions since she’s the main character. In the second play through, playing as 9S, the cut-scenes are unchanged. I thought this was lazy, to be honest, until I realised they just reinforce the overall goal. They still focus on 2B, but it’s almost as if we’re seeing it from 9S’s perspective. Before we were focusing on her because we were her, now we’re focusing on her because we admire her. The game goes through excruciating lengths for us to sympathise with 9S and follow his mindset. Hell, there’s a third character who is almost a copy of 2B, apart from her body is scarred and broken, and 9S fucking hates her guts because she just reminds him of his own hang ups. Jesus this game is good.

And this is only a small part of the games appeal. It’s so self-aware in what it is, and uses those tropes to play off its message and play with the gamer in such an interesting way. The game was crafted with a lot of thought, and love, and attention. I am a huge believer of videogames being a form of art, and this is definitely art. Definitely a highlight of the (gaming) year so far for me.