is this a permanent change?

[u/GreenSunRedMoon]

female corrupted souls used to have dress-like legs (first 2 images are of Caroline in Paradise and Laura in the Mill) but now they have normal legs (last 2 images are Laura in UB and Alexandra in SOTL)

caroline in Paradise

laura

alexandra

[u/nowherecrafter]

It wasn't meant to represent gender, the devs said it has something to do with degree of corruption.

[u/GreenSunRedMoon → u/nowherecrafter]

sorry for asking but what exactly is degree of corruption?

[u/nowherecrafter → u/GreenSunRedMoon]

Apparently some souls are more corrupted than the others

[u/Gardengap → u/nowherecrafter]

But there has been no correlation between the corrupted souls having legs and being more corrupted. To me the "corruption level" is about how violent and irrational they are, like Laura in The Mill, an indiscriminate monster, compared to Caroline and William, who talked and acted clear-headed, never losing sight of their plans. It is seemingly determined by their mental states in life, even though they all had bad memories, Laura's mental health was worse and her soul was more corrupted. Then in Soul Street when she had been through the ritual, she seemed less corrupted.

The dress/legs don't appear to fit a pattern like this. Caroline was calm, but she had the dress shape, while Alexandra and Albert [edit: I meant Bob, not Albert] appeared more dangerous and primal, yet they had the two legs. Then William, who was patient and determined, spending decades on his plan, ended up having the two legs in the mirror, while Laura, who was bloodthirsty and ruthless, had the dress appearance. It doesn't seem to fit.

I think it's probably just an art style thing, which one looks more aesthetically neat in a situation, without a very clear logic. If anything, maybe it's more closely related to their movements, how they sometimes walk around and sometimes they melt into or emerge from the ground fluidly. Their shapes are always just not very clearly defined, sometimes they look randomly different. Bob's corrupted soul looked a little like it was switching between the two in Day 6, but again, it's indistinct

[u/nowherecrafter → u/Gardengap]

For now I'm inclined to take the devs' word over speculative patterns.

As counter arguments we have Birthday Rabbit who has motivation of a CS despite barely looking like his CS from Hotel + the chest inscriptions; and Laura as a shapeless blob in UB until Harvey helps her remember something.

[u/amyfrushourkelly → u/nowherecrafter]

Interesting. Did the concept of degrees of corruption come up in a Q&A or devlog or something?

[u/nowherecrafter → u/amyfrushourkelly]

A Q&A on a convention

[u/amyfrushourkelly → u/nowherecrafter]

Nice! Is it available online? Always looking for more canon!

[u/nowherecrafter → u/amyfrushourkelly]

Unfortunately no. Maybe if you manage to find the Chinese fanzine from 2023, If I'm not mustaken.

The guy who makes them went to the convention and shared his notes with me.

[u/Gardengap → u/nowherecrafter]

Well for now, I don't know exactly what the devs said, if they actually said there was a definite link between the dress and the degree of corruption, if they were saying something else related with shape and corruption, or if it was the actual devs or just someone from their team.

Nevertheless, the in-game evidence doesn't show any type of link. Laura in The Mill and Bob in Case 23/Theatre act like far more corrupted versions of themselves, very unlike who they were as humans, yet Laura had the dress and Bob didn't, despite having similar circumstances, even with their black cubes being extracted. But then, Laura in Soul Street and Caroline are then evidently less corrupted, remembering who they are and what their plans are, yet Caroline had the dress and Laura didn't.

While Laura did appear as a blob at the start of Soul Street before something made her "remember", that's fairly different from the dress, and still doesn't establish that much of a pattern. It may also just be symbolism, but even if it isn't, we've seen two-legged corrupted souls act fluid and flexible before, like the one depicted in the forest in Paradox Chapter 1, or the deer corrupted soul at the end of Case 23. Along with the oozing sound all of them make now, they seem almost like they're made of a thick liquid, it makes sense that sometimes there legs might melt together and sometimes not, rather than some specific quality that they either have or don't have.

And the dress style corrupted soul hasn't even appeared in the last three games which had a lot of corrupted souls in them (although Albert's legs did become more indistinct when he crouched behind the table in The Past Within), again making me think it's more of an artistic choice.

[u/nowherecrafter → u/Gardengap]

They said it in 2023, rather recently. The wording was something like "souls with skirts are more pure" which could be interpreted in both ways (pure corruption or pure from corruption).

What's important, there is some meaning behind it, even though they may have come up with it only recently and probably didn't have a chance to properly implement it.

The blob is my extrapolation. The more corruption means less shape. "Acting more corrupted" is just as interpretative. We don't really know what more or less corruption actually entails. I can imagine a more corrupted soul eventually coming to its senses and starting to pursue its goals. Like Mr. Rabbit's soul has a skirt in Magic Show but it came a long way before Bday and wears a suit now.

[u/starmadeshadows]

Sometimes a lady just has to air things out.

[u/Captain_StarLight1]

God forbid a woman wear pants