There’s a large interview in the latest edition of Famitsu which is centred around Nintendo’s latest hit, Splatoon. The team revealed to the publication that they believed that the addition of female inklings would help Splatoon have more appeal over here in the west. The designers started with the female inklings first and then developed the boy inklings as a kind of afterthought.
“The main emphasis was on the girl, to the extent that we thought at first whether it would be alright to not have a boy (laughs).” – Inoue
“When having a chance to design a new character, there is the fact that it’s rare to have a girl lead in a Nintendo title and also having a strong and active female may make it easier to become accepted overseas. The design was centered on the girl at first, and then the design of a boy was thought of in comparison.” – Nishimori
Certainly made the game more appealing on the rule 34 side of things, but I’m not entirely sure that was intended.
Rule 34… ffs you people have issue’s.
Hey, this is the Internet after all. It’s almost “normal” after a while :p
Sadly, there’s no exceptions to that rule and people will find ways of sexualizing a character no matter what. Even I expect Xenoblade X and Genei Ibun Roku #FE to be victims of Rule 34.
yeah… didn’t know what that was till now, and it is certainly more than true.
Well they were right. The design is a lot cooler than the boy, tome at least.
*to me
That would explain why the girls designs are much more appealing.
Personally I kind of wish they’d just left it at the girl. For one the boy design is nowhere near as good, and another it’d be great to have it just be a female led game. Right now Metroid is leading the way on that front for Nintendo, while all their other major franchises – Mario, Kirby, Zelda – are all male led.
The West is the onyl one that says that, most of Eastern people chooses because of the gender not because of the design. That’s why they said that.
Oh, I’m so sorry that the Zelda franchise is male led… even though the actually title is named after the most important women in that world. Also, can we really call Kirby male? Not just bubblegum plushie? possibly?
How do you know that Kirby is a male?
He’s referred to as a “he” in many cases.
You know that the only difference between the boy and girl is the hair and hips (I play as boy because I like playing as myself) New hairstyles for inklings would improve both genders
Dumb shit like what gender’s leading a franchise shouldn’t matter. None of the girls I hang with that play video games (& that’s a lot) give a rat’s ass about crap like that. You guys are essentially picking up the feminazis discussion & entertaining it for them, cuz the females sure as hell don’t care about it. The normal females anyway.
transgender please
Why is that even necessary?
Get out.
This is why I’d rather developers never talk about why they chose a male/female lead of any game.People like this guy will start asking for bs that isn’t necessary in the game
Not everything in a video game has to represent every special little fucking snowflake out there,get over it
It shows…the girl is way better
I for one like the option to choose between male or female and select your skin tone, etc. so I appreciate Splatoon. That said I wish they’d spent a little more time making the male Inklings more polished, Some of their animations seem made for girls (like losing with a roller) plus it’d be cool to be able to change the “hairstyles” of either gender.
Oh yes Nintendo, it’s like you totally didn’t expect the female Inklings to attract the “artists” to make all sorts of forbidden art with them.
*trollface*
The girl design is cuter and it’s easier to remember.
Boy inklings is to Wii U as girl inklings are to 3DS
Did you hear about the 14 year old who crushed Mr.R in a Smash Bros tournament then called out ZeRo
Well it’s nice they’re catering to both genders at least….
>>>Humans and their highest purpose in their miserable lives, sex and everything connected to it, so pathetic>>>
Hey as long as you’re not having sex and potentially filling the Human world with more Humans like yourself everything should be ok.
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
it’s not like a single gender would have affected sales.
Because males would ink themselves? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
It makes total sense. If you remember its reveal trailer at E3 2014, the first Inkling we saw was female.
Im a boy but honestly I picked the girl to play as cuz I enjoy the design so much more
Maybe if they were older than 14
My dick agrees with them.
And they also think having no voice chat feature limited to friends only is acceptable by today’s standards and gamers WITH A FUCKING BRAIN THATS NOT FANBOY TUNED!
The girl design is definitely better. She’s so adorable. :D
So they didn’t design the characters from the heart, or from passion, it was literally all thought out with Dollar signs in their eyes. Makes me really not give a shit about Spla2oon.
It was all thought up to try and appeal to the audience they were trying to capture.
In the end though, businesses want to make money.
I like both the boy and girl designs. The girl is cooler though, because her tentacle hair hangs down and sways around. The guy’s is all tied up.
& they were right!! I love Ink boy but Ink girl is my boo. “Giggle-Giggle”.
If I had to guess I’d say it had a neutral effect, but big props to them for taking this viewpoint when so many developers insist on the opposite. Despite popular belief, I really don’t think a female protagonist will dissuade male gamers from buying a good game. A female protagonist can, however, make a game inclusive for female gamers, and if more developers were willing to do this the industry would look better as a whole. We’re slowly leaving a time where gamers are all dudes in the past. Things like this move by Nintendo help push us in the right direction, which is awesome. More female gamers is a good thing, we developers be encouraging it.
Last sentence should read ‘*developers should be encouraging it’.
Cool. Meanwhile, while Splatoon is trying to have females lead the way, Metroid is doing the opposite as Samus is not even the main character of Federation Force. Sadly, that’s not even the worst about Federation Force. In fact, it’s the only thing about Federation Force that people aren’t complaining about. Well maybe some Metroid purists are complaining about Samus not being the main character but that’s beside the point.
Most fans are upset we aren’t playing as Samus. Especially after her poor portrayal in Other M.
Wow. You actually believe what that other idiot said that people are just mad about Federation Force not having Samus as a playable character? xD He was damage controlling the shitty game they dare call a Metroid game because he ignored the bigger issues people are having with it.. Nothing more, nothing less.
Did I say anything like that? No? Okay then.
Oh but you did say that. “Most fans are upset we aren’t playing as Samus.” You practically agreed with Tanabe. Nice try, though.
And notice I didn’t say that’s the only reason people don’t like the game. Just that most fans are upset about it.
Good try though.