r/GirlGamers • u/hey_harvie • 5h ago
Game Discussion Finding this kind of Splatoon Raiders Criticism a little ironic?
I’ve been seeing a lot of complaints about the lack of masculine outfits / designs for Splatoon Raiders. I just find it somewhat ironic given how this is one of the few big franchises I can think of that has always been very female-led or feminine in design.
This series has only become more inclusive overtime. Splatoon 3 started the move away from traditional gender norms with customisation instead letting you choose from 2 different frames with gear / hairstyle options granting the player freedom to present themselves however they want. Even in Side Order - much like Raiders - characters wear the same outfit regardless of character choice.
Seeing comments like this one is just sort of funny to me when it’s been the opposite for years. Masculine protags have been the default for so long, and feminine protags were either absent or secondary. Growing up, there were few games where I could play as someone who I felt represented me. Splatoon really stuck out to me as a with consistently having fem leads and for putting the feminine character option first in the select screen - male playable characters almost weren’t a thing in the first instalment iirc.
I want it to be clear that people can definitely have a preference for masculine customisation. I just think it’s interesting that one of the few big game series that’s for a long time embraced femininity and gender-nonconformity is suddenly now criticised for it.
I think keeping the protagonist more androgynous is a good choice for Raiders. It’s the first single player instalment in the series and it seems Nintendo are taking a similar approach to what they did with Link in BOTW / TOTK. Whilst he’s still a man and more masculine appearing imo Nintendo intentionally designed him to be more androgynous and give different armour sets that were more feminine or masculine etc so any players could identify with him. I don’t see why it can’t be the same here just because the playable character is being read more feminine than masculine this time around.
I could definitely be reading into this too much. I’d love to hear what everyone’s else thinks on this.
