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An image said to be an internal Capcom document caused a stir after it was posted on the Hardware/Industry (“Geha”) board. The document reportedly states that “character designs like those in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Mario are outdated” and that “SIE (Sony Interactive Entertainment) has a better grasp of diversity.” The thread split over the portrayal of female characters in Nintendo games, the long-standing criticism that Street Fighter characters like Chun-Li, Dhalsim, and Blanka are “stereotypes,” and the sales performance of Monster Hunter Wilds versus World.
What people said
Men always cast as the protagonist/main character
Fixed, stereotypical roles based on gender or race
Fixed, stereotypical roles based on gender or race
Capcom's "black history" (Japanese slang for an embarrassing past best forgotten)
Re: #2
Still haven't managed to make it "Black" enough, huh (playing on the word for "black/dark" in the previous post)
Still haven't managed to make it "Black" enough, huh (playing on the word for "black/dark" in the previous post)
Re: #2
You don't need to make even "history" considerate of Black people…
You don't need to make even "history" considerate of Black people…
Re: #2
With thinking like that still around, no wonder Wilds won't cast a proper classic beauty as the lead either — she's got blemished skin, glasses, the works
With thinking like that still around, no wonder Wilds won't cast a proper classic beauty as the lead either — she's got blemished skin, glasses, the works
Especially in games, Princess Peach and Zelda are through-and-through classic damsel princesses who need protecting. Sure, there are exceptions with a twisted setup, but they're just that — exceptions
Re: #15
It's the old "why is the standard formula the standard formula" thing.
At the end of the day, it's that way because people like it, and forcing a twist on it doesn't change basic biological instinct
It's the old "why is the standard formula the standard formula" thing.
At the end of the day, it's that way because people like it, and forcing a twist on it doesn't change basic biological instinct
Nintendo even accepted reality and thought "fine, let's just make Peach the protagonist" with Princess Peach: Showtime! — and it bombed hard. For some reason everyone acts like that never happened
Re: #23
Nintendo put out a Peach-as-protagonist game 20 years ago too. And Metroid's had a female lead for 40 years
Nintendo put out a Peach-as-protagonist game 20 years ago too. And Metroid's had a female lead for 40 years
What's weird about this kind of thing is that the "damsel who needs protecting" trope isn't treated as "fine to have or not have" — it's treated as something you "should avoid"
Re: #40
Because there are people who flip some weird switch and kick up a fuss… Gotta avoid the risk, right!
Because there are people who flip some weird switch and kick up a fuss… Gotta avoid the risk, right!
Peach and Daisy being like that is just stylistic convention — they've properly headlined other games, throw shells at Mario and Bowser in kart racing, basically saying "I'm not just here to get kidnapped!"…
Re: #42
I don't like that kind of counterargument, because it's like saying if they hadn't done any of that, they'd need to comply with political correctness. It should just be free to do whatever regardless — even if she were only ever a princess who gets kidnapped, that'd be fine too
I don't like that kind of counterargument, because it's like saying if they hadn't done any of that, they'd need to comply with political correctness. It should just be free to do whatever regardless — even if she were only ever a princess who gets kidnapped, that'd be fine too
After World, Wilds kept the losing streak going and crashed all the way down to 980 yen. They put out "rushed job" info at TGS, and sure enough it's got a dead atmosphere — just recycled animation from old titles with a parry ("clash") system slapped on. There's a huge weapon imbalance around parrying too, so it just turns into a game where all anyone does is go for parries. PlayStation as lead platform is such a jinx it even killed off Palworld — no wonder the only thing it's got left is picking the Concord series. Concord is the future of PlayStation. Why not go down together with PS? lol. They just keep killing off one IP after another like this
Re: #49
Lol, calling World a failure when it sold 30 million copies. Meanwhile "half-Rise" (a dismissive nickname for Monster Hunter Rise) couldn't reach those numbers even in a fire sale
Lol, calling World a failure when it sold 30 million copies. Meanwhile "half-Rise" (a dismissive nickname for Monster Hunter Rise) couldn't reach those numbers even in a fire sale
Re: #71
That's because World left a massive amount of unsold stock, and major nationwide retailers were literally begging them to stop shipping more, lol. Never seen anything like it — World was just crammed onto retail shelves without actually selling to customers, so retailers got stuck holding that huge pile of inventory and prices crashed. And now it's happening again — poor retailers
That's because World left a massive amount of unsold stock, and major nationwide retailers were literally begging them to stop shipping more, lol. Never seen anything like it — World was just crammed onto retail shelves without actually selling to customers, so retailers got stuck holding that huge pile of inventory and prices crashed. And now it's happening again — poor retailers
Is Resident Evil about the only Capcom game with a female protagonist?
Re: #54
Other than that, the only ones I can think of are Dino Crisis and Clock Tower 3.
Nintendo actually has more of these than Capcom
Other than that, the only ones I can think of are Dino Crisis and Clock Tower 3.
Nintendo actually has more of these than Capcom
Why did so many companies genuinely buy into political correctness and adopt it? Where did they even get the idea it was worth paying consultants for? Nintendo seems to have rejected it — wonder what was behind that
Re: #65
Because doing business in the West requires the pretense of favoring "people/organizations who understand political correctness." Blame the media. Though honestly, Asians and Asian companies have benefited quite a bit from diversity pushes too
Because doing business in the West requires the pretense of favoring "people/organizations who understand political correctness." Blame the media. Though honestly, Asians and Asian companies have benefited quite a bit from diversity pushes too
"You can't portray women or LGBTQ people as weak" is actually moving away from diversity. True diversity is having both strong and weak characters regardless of gender
Re: #67
Exactly right! Forcing women to be strong ends up denying the existence of delicate women. Capcom (mockingly written here as "Capunko") really is the height of stupidity
Exactly right! Forcing women to be strong ends up denying the existence of delicate women. Capcom (mockingly written here as "Capunko") really is the height of stupidity
Even as an internal document, the fonts are all over the place and it looks pretty rough — is this even real?
Re: #69
It's an image that leaked during the incident when hackers breached Capcom
It's an image that leaked during the incident when hackers breached Capcom
Re: #69
It's probably been run through machine translation — the type that overlays translated text right on top of the original, like the camera-translation feature on smartphones
It's probably been run through machine translation — the type that overlays translated text right on top of the original, like the camera-translation feature on smartphones
The logic gets twisted from the start when you forcibly deny one thing just to affirm another. Also, lumping the traditional meaning of "political correctness" together with "woke" doesn't really work, does it?
Re: #72
Right. If you're talking about diversity, both should be allowed to exist. But the customers just didn't choose it…
Right. If you're talking about diversity, both should be allowed to exist. But the customers just didn't choose it…
Re: #89
That's a Japan-only thing. Overseas, retailers can return unsold stock, so you can't just over-ship like that. Even on Steam, concurrent player counts have World beating "half-Rise" too
That's a Japan-only thing. Overseas, retailers can return unsold stock, so you can't just over-ship like that. Even on Steam, concurrent player counts have World beating "half-Rise" too
Re: #94
They don't bother counting and announcing how many units got returned overseas — has there ever been an announcement of "this many got returned so far"? Lol. And bringing up Rise's Steam numbers is embarrassing, just stop — that just outs you as clueless, since like 90% of its sales were on Switch, and it's already been said outright that Rise selling well is what bailed them out, lol lol lol
They don't bother counting and announcing how many units got returned overseas — has there ever been an announcement of "this many got returned so far"? Lol. And bringing up Rise's Steam numbers is embarrassing, just stop — that just outs you as clueless, since like 90% of its sales were on Switch, and it's already been said outright that Rise selling well is what bailed them out, lol lol lol
Even Zelda in Breath of the Wild ditched the "proper princess" outfit and got made a bit less pretty
Re: #96
Not just the outfit — the eyebrows too. Thick eyebrows are a pretty niche taste
Not just the outfit — the eyebrows too. Thick eyebrows are a pretty niche taste
Chun-Li, Dhalsim, Blanka — characters steeped in stereotypical bias, unforgivable
Re: #100
The fact that nobody said a word about it back when the game launched is the answer right there. Suddenly crying foul now is basically just a shakedown artist after cash
The fact that nobody said a word about it back when the game launched is the answer right there. Suddenly crying foul now is basically just a shakedown artist after cash
Capcom's a total weathervane, honestly. Back then they got swept up in the "political correctness matters" trend, but now that the trend's died down, they probably don't care much anymore
Re: #102
If they don't care anymore, then Ascendance must be full of gorgeous characters, huh
If they don't care anymore, then Ascendance must be full of gorgeous characters, huh
It's impressive Street Fighter's kept going as a series. In Street Fighter II, almost every character would be "canceled" by today's standards
Re: #113
Way too late for that. Between the main entries and all the version updates, there've been dozens of releases, and those characters have appeared in basically all of them. Making a fuss about it now is just tacky. That's why the Street Fighter series never blows up into controversy — the more you criticize it, the more it just looks like "wait, were you not paying attention this whole time?" It's kept going strong regardless
Way too late for that. Between the main entries and all the version updates, there've been dozens of releases, and those characters have appeared in basically all of them. Making a fuss about it now is just tacky. That's why the Street Fighter series never blows up into controversy — the more you criticize it, the more it just looks like "wait, were you not paying attention this whole time?" It's kept going strong regardless
Background and Key Points of Debate
Within the thread itself, one theory holds that this document is an image that leaked during the 2020 unauthorized-access incident at Capcom, though its authenticity hasn’t been confirmed. Some have also pointed out, based on the inconsistent fonts, that it may have been mechanically generated by machine translation software. It’s not unusual these days for overseas publishers to bring in diversity consultants, so the existence of such a document wouldn’t be strange in itself — but the full content and when it was created remain unknown. Opinions in the thread split because the discussion mixed two different things: an ideological debate over the merits of certain character designs, and a numbers-based debate over the sales performance of Monster Hunter World versus Wilds. Worth keeping in mind on the latter point: shipped units versus units actually sold, and differing return practices by country and region, make simple comparisons difficult.
*This article is compiled as excerpts and a summary from the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, aka “Geha”) thread “Capcom Internal Document: ‘Zelda BOTW and Mario Are Outdated. SIE Is Wonderful’.”
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