I was surfing facebook and saw the latest MH4G collab news when it hit me.
You know how for the past few years people have been kicking a fuss about how women are portrayed in media? Especially in comics and games?
Somehow it doesn’t matter what genre and time the game is set in, or what the role of the character is, female characters are always given revealing, sexy clothes and armor to wear.
There has been so many posts and memes about how unrealistic these designs are that these days and so many campaigns to push for more realistic and protective armor for female game characters.
Whilst all the outcry is mostly justified, I feel like the crowd is so busy stoning the designers for their overly sexualized designs that they forget to acknowledged games that actually got the whole armor thing right to begin with.
For example, Monster Hunter aka MoHun AKA MH.
The only way your character is going to be running around in his or her undergarments in this game is because you chose to fight naked (because you’re either suicidal or an insane gamer). That being said, there are very low incentives for anyone to choose a female avatar in MH and become crazy good at it just so they can watch their character fight in underwear. Because character design for MH is design done right.
Your character is supposed to be a hunter who lives in a world where people make a living out of slaying dragons with swords and hammers. Naturally your character is going to be buff, even if they are female. So there no such thing as stick thin legs, over-exaggerated boobs. Your character is still aesthetically pleasing and not like female body builders, but she’s designed on the basis of a female who lifts hammers and great swords while rolling around wearing dragon-hide armor on a daily basis.
Speaking of said armor.
In MH, armor, even female armor, actually protects the body. Yes, I don’t know how realistic these armor are for real fights because some designs have so many parts sticking out and dragging on the floor, but fact of the matter is, aside from the Kirin Armor and the Narga armor (which compared to armor for women in other games is still relatively realistic), most of the armor for females in the game are just as realistic and pragmatic as the men’s, and they even look better! I mean yes, the character’s butt is left hanging out in the Tigrex armor, but that actually makes some sense, it provides hip mobility; the legs, shins, chest, shoulders, arms etc. are all covered in tigrex scales.
Basically, I feel like MoHun deserves some recognition for its gender equality in character and armor designs. And I also just felt like being a uber biased fangirl and preen about how awesome a game Monster Hunter is.
I wrote my freaking advertising paper on MH’s marketing strategy after all.
The little things in my head 