Going backwards especially to the era of MK9 designs for women would be an awful idea. There was ZERO contrast, zero distinction between what makes the women who they are just a focus on hyper sexuality whether it fit the characters or not. Everyone with circus boobs and high heels? Homogeneous character designs are never a good thing.
They even managed to make Sheeva sexual: a character who has never ever presented herself as anything but a fearsome warrior with graceful bows for a win pose is feeling herself up in her win pose for this game lol. They even gave her pink lip stick and a more feminine face. Anyone that was a fan of Sheeva didn't pick her for her looks my baby.
Sexuality is fine, but it should be applicable to the characters involved. I expect Mileena being dressed in a more skimpy, sexual way as it has some context to it and you can rationalize and tie it to her story. Sonya and Kitana? Not at all. MKX Sonya and Kitana were beautiful and their designs were befitting of their character and lore.
Diversity and contrast is the way to go and MK9 did not provide that for the women.
Well said, I agree with most of this.
On one hand, I'll make it a point to say that I don't take the genre of fantasy too seriously in terms of clothing or equipment being practical. Little girls with huge swords, big burly dudes with mallets twice their size, it's all about the cool factor and I adore stylized nonsense.
To me, the point of the genre is to make things surreal, and things that don't exist.
Suspense of disbelief is a major part of the genre and making people with unrealistic bodies isn't new at all. The ancient Greek and Romans made idealised statues of their fictive characters just so much as you'll watch a cartoon and won't make it an issue that the characters have saucer eyes or whatever it is that they do.
One can find entire studies around the idealised bodies and their representation in art throughout the ages, among which you'll find the statue of David, Venus of Milo or the Venus of Willendorf all the same.
I know that there's been a movement that keeps parroting "that's not practical wear for combat" or "Conan should die of hypothermia" or even "omfg so sexist" and "Greek statues are gross because their genitals are showing" but I don't think that those people grasp the idea behind art, Fantasy, or pretty much anything of culture.
I'll argue that artists like Boris Vallejo or Frank Frazetta are amazing and I felt that the MK9 Character Design with its idealised bodies and completely unrealistic clothing was a call back to that style. An homage to something the character artist and myself have grown up liking, most likely.
I liked the way all those characters looked in MK9, with the possible exclusion of the Flesh Pit outfit and I definitely preferred them to the disproportionate mess that most of MKX's characters were.
On the other hand, I fully understand why some people felt some of the design take away from the otherwise gruesome and dark theme of the setting. If we want to be realistic in a game of green glowing movie stars and four armed Shokan warriors, we could have preferred ninjas to not be blue, yellow, red or purple but simply wear dark linens like they do in the original fantasy stories.
Sonya being dressed like a fetish stripper rather than actual military personnel was a huge turn-off for many. But then in MK1, she was dressed in a typical 80's Fitness-Video get-up rather than military personnel as well.
For the above reasons, though, personally, I didn't -hate- the way she looked. It's just that there was this part in the story where Cage literally calls her out in actual surprise going "you're ACTUALLY a soldier?" and that outrage was perfectly justified. Unless you realise that Cage is a bit like Deadpool, just a bit more subtly breaking the fourth wall of the game constantly acting like he's an actor acting in a video game that's about an actor acting .. that's a lot of acting. But you get the point.
Recycled physiques was simply a choice to save time and assets and I fully agree that I'd liked Kitana, Mileena and Jade to all have more distinctly different bodies, but then we all know that they were always played by the same actress so there is that for an argument.
MKX Kitana was beautiful, you say. I always found her overall concept to be very appealing especially her "Tournament" outfit because I could never get myself to like the puffy pants and the Chun Li braids. Her face didn't improve much either but that's done so that her skull fits into the grinder so it's fine.
MK9 Sheeva being sexy - I liked her design personally, she looked just like she did in MK3 and her alt costume was pretty fierce looking in my opinion. If you find that to be overly sexy I'll disagree. She's a barbaric creature like Goro is, who's always been practically naked with only his loin cloth being in the way of being nude. Sheeva wearing that 80's swimsuit was a fun idea in my opinion.
Finally, I understand that this is an American game and in America decapitation, mutilation and evisceration are fine on screen while breasts, asses, penises and vaginas are not, but I'm fairly sure that the rest of the world still thinks of sex, sexuality and even turning someone or something sexual as a very human aspect of humanity.
Personally, I hope that NRS will keep designing costumes for both those who prefer to look gritty, dark and realistic and for those who prefer the outrageous designs of MK9 and most definitely hoping for all the classic costumes to return as well, with the gear system to come.
Those people crying about "omg objectifies women wahh" no it's a damn design, STFU and get over it. It's their game, they can do what they want. People love to bitch and moan and politicise everything now and it's sickening honestly. Those people can stay in their little safe spaces.
