Probably more facetious than I should have been in my comments, but still… folk sometimes get all bent out of shape for the silliest of reasons.
Agreed. But to damn a game without even playing it simply because it has a no choice female protag is a bit weak. And then to follow that up with comments like “she’s not even hot” is just thinly veiled misogyny, imo.
They absolutely are. But the Star Wars universe is much, much more than that. At it’s core, it’s a simple good versus evil scenario, but played out over many years and across a vast area. And it’s a universe with many significant characters than don’t have Force powers or use lightsabers. Even in its original story, A New Hope, characters like Han Solo, Chewbacca, and C3-PO are integral to the story.
Yes, the Jedi, and the Force, and lightsabers are important elements of the Star Wars universe, but it is a universe that has extended and grown way beyond just those elements in the almost 50 years since that first movie. I’m not for a moment discounting those elements, they are cornerstones of the world. Just saying that there are many other stories that can, and do, happen in a galaxy far, far away without depending on those aspects to make them valid SW stories. Outlaws is one of those.
Like @Wlad, I’ve never quite understood what “woke” means in the context of media and games. Making a female character or a person of colour or a gay person the lead character in your game is not “going woke” - it’s just mainstream media catching up with the real world. Fictious worlds (like the Star Wars universe) allow for much more flexibility in characterisation.
If we’re talking about real world stuff, kak like making Cleopatra black in an effort to “blackwash” history for example, then sure, nonsense like that is worth making a noise about. Ubisoft’s abuse of Japanese culture and tradition with the many inaccuracies in their AC Shadows trailers and world building most definitely need to be challenged and addressed. That the only two playable options in the game are as a female Samurai or a black Samurai - despite being historically accurate - is just silly. Those are historically by far the two least likely people to have been Samurai in feudal Japan. Yes there were female and black Samurai. But not to have the option to play as a traditional and more likely male character is a daft decision.
They could have made it work so well for them. “Here’s the lead character in our new game - a wicked good traditional Samurai warrior. Oh, and as a bonus, if you’d like to, you can also choose to play as a historically accurate female or even black Samurai.”
