The video game industry’s attitude to woman and other minority groups has been a hot and potentially damaging issue in the past few months. Due to an unfortunate throw away comment by Ubisoft during E3 the issue, which has always been a grumble in the background, became a voracious roar. Columns were filled on the industries sexist attitude.
For every one of The Last of Us’s Ellies there were a hundred Lara Crofts circa 1997. For every one woman taking charge of her own destiny there’s at least ten princess’s who need to be saved from a castle. For every Catherine that probes the relationship between men and women there’s a serious like Duke Nukem.
The backlash meant that even games that weren’t overtly sexualized or misogynistic were put under the microscope. Rightly, omission is seen to be as offensive as anachronistic depiction. Gamers and industry figures alike are having to reevaluate their inherent attitudes from the ground up… or at least some are, because here, like a trombone in a library, comes Akiba Trip: Undead & Undressed.
Released last week by Acquire the title has been released for the PS 3, PS 4 and PS Vita. In Akiba Trip the protagonist battles a horde of blood sucking demons who have taken over the Akihabara area of Tokyo. These demons typically come in the form of beautiful anime women and to destroy them you must rip off their clothes to expose them fully to sunlight. So your objectives are: beat a woman and then strip her. Not exactly a remedy for some of the problems above.
The player will be able to play as a male or female and yes the demons will come in both sexes but lets not be churlish here. Any look at the artwork or the various screen shots make clear the developers intentions and intended draw for the viewer.
The themes of sexual violence are overt in a title like this, and that this is hidden away as “playfulness” only makes the issue worse. If a game intends to use themes like rape and domestic abuse to make a powerful narrative or commentary on the issues then that’s one thing, if a game like Dead or Alive wants to add some titillation to the fighter formula that’s another. But to make a game like Akiba Trip that parallels but consciously ignores its themes, well, that is offensive.
Perhaps somewhere deep down in this game is a gallon of irony or a wry dialogue on the industries current crises of conscience. It seems unlikely but it’s possible. However it is the gamers who need to say no to this sort of thing. If the game sells well then there will be others like it, if it doesn’t then there won’t.
Japan is a country known for its rather ostentatious view of sex but in its first week Akiba Trip: Undead & Undressed (Akiba Trip 2 for them) has had poor sales. A good sign that even that nations wacky libido won’t take pure nonsense.
The title is released in the US this August and hopefully it will be received with the same frosty reception.
