It’s not hard to find lists of games where you can look up girl’s skirts – developers have been including detailed underwear designs for decades, even in family-friendly games like Super Smash Bros. and Hot Shots Golf, knowing that people would be hoping for creepshots. However, some modern-day remakes of those old games are taking away the ability to do this, much to the dismay of weirdos everywhere. Most recently, it was announced that in Resident Evil 4’s remake, you would no longer be able to see up Ashley’s skirt like you could in the original, which for some reason, made gamers really mad.
I’m not sure why gamers feel the need to look up the skirts of animated female characters, just to get their rocks off. The reaction to remasters or remakes covering up characters’ panties is usually that this is ‘woke PC bullshit’ or ‘censorship’, and that they’re taking a crucial part of the game’s appeal away – some players even said ‘no panties no buy’ in response to not being able to see Ashley’s underwear anymore, which… okay? It’s incredibly weird that people feel entitled to creepshot women and young girls in video games, just because ‘nobody real is getting hurt’.
I generally believe that it’s bad to look up skirts, both in games and in real life. It’s also bad that developers give players reasons to do it, whether that be by intentionally creating something to look at, or by directly incentivising it. There have been a number of games where you even get achievements for doing it, and doing it repeatedly.
In Lollipop Chainsaw, you get an achievement called ‘I Swear I Did It By Mistake!’ for looking up Juliet’s skirt, and she’s aware of it – she’ll pull down her skirt or cover herself so the player can’t see anything. Similarly, in Nier: Automata, you could get an achievement called ‘What Are You Doing?’ for looking up 2B’s skirt ten times – the text that comes with the achievement says ‘2B’s secret discovered 10 times’. Every time you do this, she pushes the camera away – the game is punishing you for being pervy, but at the same time, rewards you for doing it.
Nier Replicant’s remaster had an achievement referencing the one in Nier: Automata called ‘Daredevil’ that you could unlock if you looked up Kaine’s skirt ten times. The description says ‘You risked life and limb ten times to discover someone’s secret.’ Do it enough times, and she will turn around, curse at you, and kill you. It’s made worse by the fact that Kaine is an intersex character – Lead Features Editor Jade King wrote about how turning Kaine’s body into a secret to ogle at did her story a great disservice.
Even if she hadn’t been intersex, I still dislike that players are being rewarded to look up characters’ skirts. I don’t think players should have to creepshot characters to get every achievement in a game, even if they’re just characters. It’s an indicator of a larger pattern of misogyny in gaming, in that even when women are written well, they’re sexualised and dehumanised – you, as a player, are rewarded for making a woman uncomfortable over and over again. This is behaviour that, I’m sure we all agree, should be discouraged, and not incentivised.
What is added by giving players the ability to do this, especially while adding in the expressed discomfort of the characters? Why do players want to do this at all? Yes, they’re just characters, but it adds nothing to the games, and instead reflects and potentially encourages misogynistic behaviour in real life. These games are created by men, the female characters are heavily sexualised for men, and their discomfort is a gag, for men.
I’m glad that developers are starting to remove this from remasters of old games, but Nier: Automata and the Nier Replicant remaster came out relatively recently. Perhaps it’s time for us all to stop being weird when developers choose to stop unnecessarily sexualising their female characters, and be grateful that this is a pattern that’s being stopped.