

– US Gamer’s article on the announcement of the remake As I highlighted earlier, this is a very common and disconcerting pattern among many publishers, and over time I will tackle other titles that abuse this pandering means of selling content. This is merely the beginning of a broader discussion of games utilizing women and girls as sexual objects here in Gender Gazette. This DLC is explicitly sexist AND gross all at once! And just to reiterate, Primm is a teenager. As discussed elsewhere on this site, the industry gravitates many of its decisions around the interests of 18-30 year old men. And while there may be some women and non-gender conforming individuals delighted by this as much as some men, I am positive that Square-Enix wasn’t thinking of them when they deemed this as a means to sell this remake. In fact, I think based on her personality as presented by the Wikia (“While Randi is often reluctant, Primm is rash and very self-empowered, reacting strongly to chauvinism and male subjugation”), she herself would be appalled at what is happening to her. Primm as a character did not suggest she would be keen on pouncing around in a tiger two-piece in any circumstance - much less combat scenarios - but Square-Enix’s mandate has made any sensibility vanish for the promise of a perverted pre-order pickup. So to sum up, this is an unsurprising but disappointing addition to Secret of Mana‘s overall legacy. Square-Enix is basically selling a pre-order incentive to let people potentially ogle a teenaged girl in a fetish-fueled swimsuit, which is super icky.
#Trials of mana outfits series
The Wikia for the series lists Primm as 17 years old. The other major point of this argument is that the heroes of Secret of Mana were originally called “Boy”, “Girl” and “Sprite” before their names were canonized. By buying it before release, it is a show of support of such content, used or not. Square-Enix will not track who redeems the DLC codes the numbers that matter to them are the pre-orders themselves.
#Trials of mana outfits code
No matter if you redeem the code for it or not, it is permanently attached to any early sale by default. It’s a goofy and sexist piece of equipment for sure, but it didn’t visually force itself upon the player like this does.Īnd before I hear this rebuttal, yes, you don’t have to use it, but it’s still going to float around in your game purchase history because it’s a pre-order bonus. She still has on her default clothing no matter what the player equips her with, as do the two male characters. Now, having played the game, I am cognizant of a “Tiger Bikini” armor you can buy for Primm, but it doesn’t actually change her sprite to reflect it. They get to have their entire body clad in a chunky tiger costume. But in Secret of Mana‘s case, the original game did not force Primm into a titillating outfit at the expense of any narrative consequence of battling monsters in such an impractical set of clothes, and the two boys aren’t joining in the beaching attire here. Multiple companies, from Nintendo, Atlus, Deep Silver (in a particularly extreme case), Capcom, Namco Bandai, Gun Media, and numerous others have decided to issue either pre-order incentives or DLC packs with their women (and men in some cases, just to be fair) dressed down to summerwear. I am well aware this is not a new practice. She doesn’t even look all that pleased to be wearing it in the promo! As for the two boys, they get to continue wearing full-body suits that do not highlight their bodies or serve as any sort of fanservice beyond being adorable…which is not a equatable tradeoff for a skimpy bikini and oversized paw boots and gloves for Primm. It’s easy enough to read the logic behind this decision: a likely all-male committee determined that a bikini would be an appealing factor for presumed male players to boost pre-orders for the game, so they forced the lone female character into a sexist costume for additional profit. Primm, in contrast to the male characters, has been relegated into a sexy bikini costume for the Tiger set.


If you know me and this topic well enough, you can imagine what this article is all about, so let’s just get into it, shall we? The Steam page for the game showcases that there is a “Moogle Suit” set for all three (which I find entirely unoffensive), a Tiger Suit set for Randi (Boy) and Popoi (Sprite), and a Tiger Two-Piece for Primm (Girl). Square-Enix will offer costume changes for the main cast, and confirmed two sets of such outfits as a pre-order bonus: As a fan of the original (despite never finishing it) I was initially intrigued, but I do have to admit that the game did two things that soured my enthusiasm - the overall low budget appearance of the project (sorry, but these 3D models come nowhere near capturing the vibrant spritework of the original), and the pre-ordering plans. Earlier this year Square-Enix announced a 3D remake of the SNES classic Secret of Mana.
