Vanillaware’s latest game, Dragon’s Crown seems to be generating some minor “controversy” online thanks to one prudish writer-type who’s “ashamed” to play the game in public because he thinks George Kamitani’s artwork is sexist based on how one character looks (see below) and nothing else. Yikes. For starters, while SOME of the heroines in his games may be exceptionally curvy (as in they make Christina Hendricks look like Twiggy), they’re not just lounging around falling out of their tops or waiting to be rescued by some lantern-jawed dude in shiny armor at all.

Kamitani’s larger than life gals do a damn good job at kicking all sorts of ass all around the screen, and I’d gather that the character in question will see her fair share of real-life cosplayers who like the outfit and Kamitani’s singularly pneumatic art style. As you can see here, some of the guys in Dragon’s Crown are exceptionally beefy (and even less dressed in some cases). Granted, I’m quite sure the audience for this will be primarily male, but I can recall quite a few gals and guys into Vanillaware’s excellent beat ’em ups buying the glorious Odin Sphere and/or Muramasa: The Demon Blade and not whining about boob size as an issue. Not to mention that it’s kind of foolish to fault an artist’s work because you don’t grasp his style…

If this so-called “professional” journalist is afraid to grow up and play a game that’s looking spectacular because he’s afraid he’ll get attacked by rabid feminists or his wife/girlfriend/child will see him as some sort of pervy guy or whatever… perhaps HE’S the “14-year old” here. But that’s his issue. Hell, I’ll GLADLY take a Vita review code for this one from Atlus and write it up as a fair piece, as I’ve been a fan of Vanillaware and Kamitani’s art since the awesome Princess Crown (which needs an HD remake one day) on the Japanese Sega Saturn and I know the team busts their behinds on each title they create. Stirring up a “controversy” because you don’t understand artistic stylization and trying to foist that on the public as a reason for not playing (or buying) a game is a form of censorship that needs to go away because too many people like that use what’s in their minds to cook up a reality that’s not quite there.