This is my opinion, The game's story is great, and the characters are very likeable
But in the downside, I feel the designs sizes should be normalized, they are buffer than they should, like, how are you supposed to survive a night with them?
I mean, if they are big its ok, but the musculature feels unbalanced sometimes like with the blacksmith
At least with the human characters, Lycans and Lizardmen look more realistic somehow as their proportions feel more balanced
I feel like female designs are more appealing on this game as they feel more realistic and inmersive on the sizes
I respect your opinion but if the game tries to cater to the "Normie/Mainstream" mindset to make things more realistic for the sake of "'muh immersion" then it loses its appeal to its target audience who are in majority, Bara lovers. The main appeal for this game is the Bara art; good story and likeable characters are just sweet sweet cherry on top.
There are other games that offer a more immersive experience but none of them even offer characters(visually) like this one. Unless you count the Hulk, it's quite rare. In BG3 there's Halsin but compared to these guys', the dude's a twink.
There's Coral Island which I must say have some stunning characters, but there's only one character there that's Bara coded. At least in this game there's a whole range of personalities I could choose from and have them still be Bara coded.
The only character I've seen similar to the ones here from a more "immersive" gaming experience is Iron Bull from DAI. But he's not even that hairy.
If you want an immersive VN experience with immersive body types there's "Coming Out on Top" as well as "Dead Dating". A more simplistic style though but has immersive body types as well is "Robin Morningwood Adventure".
I respect your opinion too, but I dont mean that the Bara is the problem, I mean more of logics, I mean, the bara is valid, but muscles are unbalanced, to me, Bara is when you see guys on top condition having romance, but in this case the downside is that it maybe goes a little over the lines of bara, making it really uncomfortable for some in some instances
I can make a comparision, the Blacksmith is one of those who are unbalanced and have muscles that dont make a lot of sense, while the lizard hunter of the swamp is great because his anatomy is bigger, but balanced, making it more appealing
My point is that you can survive a night with the lizard, but not with the blacksmith
This game isn't meant to be immersive nor logical. I mean, you fight bad guys by having sex with them on the battlefield for goodness sake. It takes on an absurdist approach, especially on the masculinity aesthetics. And that's the style Hyao stuck with. Why else would everyone, including their grampas be a bara hunka-loompa in this world. Even the animals are... bara hunka-licious. It's a game meant for suspending ones disbelief.
There's been plenty, and I mean, plenty of debates like these before with straight male gazed games and their obsession with watermelon boobs. And they never really conform with what people deem "realistic" and just do what they want because it's not really meant for the masses.
But alright, let's apply all that anatomically correct logic to all of the game:
- Bernard wouldn't be buff because he's just a merchant. He wouldn't even need all that muscle to do his job and livelihood in such a small town anyway. He would be lean with only a bit of muscularity, but he wouldn't be big.
- The bandits would all be skinny as well since apparently they have a supply problem and they can be beaten by a mere herbalist, further supporting this point that they're probably weaker from their lack of supplies.
- The lizards wouldn't have pecs because realistically, they're not mammals who would need nipples. They would look more like the lizardmen from Divinity Original Sin 2.
- A huge majority of the men in Bareshade wouldn't even be buff because only Logan has a homemade gym and I doubt he would share it with the rest of the people.
- Heck, even the Nameless One wouldn't even need all that muscle because his greatest asset is his mind. A character like that already exist in another game called BG3 and no thank you, I prefer the Nameless One.
So that would be what... a huge chunk of the Lower Aigran side being unappealing (at least to bara lovers), leaving only Logan and Gunnar who both have physically demanding jobs, to be the more appealing romanceable/fuckable candidates. In a Bara porn game.
Might as well just play Skyrim with sex mods or DOS2 lol. because excluding the Argonians, the body types there are much more logical and realistic.
EDIT: I hope you don't take this as me being mean lol. I was reading what I was writing in my head and it doesn't seem dickish in my voice but I don't really know how other people would take and read these. So yeah, just clarifying.
I would like to give my own opinion too. Personally, I believe that this game is perfect just the way it is. Games are meant for our entertainment, and as I understand it, you keep mentioning that the way the characters are designed doesn't make any sense and is "unrealistic," thereby making it unappealing, tho entertainment varies from person to person. For me, I play lustful desires as a kind of stress reliever; a way for my problems to fade away. You could say it's a means of "escaping from reality." So, is it truly necessary to always be logical and balanced when your main goal is simply to have fun??
I mean, IDK, I just feel its a little weird, like, I dont complain of magic or clothes, but IDK, I feel is hot when you see stuff and It makes a perfect sense in the mind, or IDK, the game does not need to change, I just believe it could be hot if some guys muscles were nerfed for aesthetics, still being Bara of course, Bara men are still hot, dont get me wrong