Yeah, and the reactions to you fighting back would have made for other ways to drive the prejudice point home, I imagine.
I knew a guy in college who cross-dressed every once in a while. Very cool, easy-going guy.
Ben discusses Mainichi
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 On 07/22/2013 at 11:23 PM by BrokenH See More From This User » |
"The coffee house...It's kind of like the bar-hub in Atlus's Catherine!"
Mainichi review: Groundhog day?
I’m going to lay it out on the chopping block. When I first heard Nier had a hermaphrodite character a few years ago I passed it off as tactless shock value and swore I would never pick up the game. Though I didn’t know it at that moment, my prejudice against hermaphrodites was obviously showing. Fast forward to now and Nier is one of my favorite rpgs and Kaine is at the very top of my “most beloved videogame characters of all time” list. It’s Funny how our opinions can so drastically change in a short period of time. In my case I’m glad I became more open minded and less close minded.
However, this blog isn’t about Nier. It’s about Mainichi. In Mainichi, you are a transgendered lass named Mattie. Each day before going to the coffee café you can choose to put on make up, dress up for the occasion, or waste your idle precious minutes playing videogames. (Mattie, I like you already!)
Throwing myself into the role of a transgendered person, I went all out! My first few days consisted of dolling myself up and putting on heels. I’m not gonna deny it, humans are vain creatures and I wanted to look “fabulous” for every occasion!
If Mattie decks himself (herself?) out 100% he (she?) gets positive attention. It’s because in this state she can almost entirely hide her maleness though there is one annoying asshole who recognizes Mattie as “male” no matter what precautions she takes. (This confrontation does a pretty good job of making you feel awkward which I’m sure is what the creator was going for.)
On the same street you will get negative comments and more head-turns when Mattie decides to go dutch instead of drag queen. (Dutch in this case meaning you go out with no makeup and no wardrobe change whatsoever.)
When donning the persona “Glam Mattie” you’ll get the cute male coffee barista to flirt with you but as “Normal Mattie” the same coffee barista will be polite yet aloof. Either way Matt’s friend will sucker her into buying a coffee for her! (What a leech!)
As an experimental take in putting someone into unique walking shoes, Mainichi does well enough. I got the feeling Mattie is really a normal person who just so happens to be attracted to men and who loves women’s fashion. I related to him/her both because I have a gay friend named Matt and because this Matt (Sorry,Mattie!) so happens to be a gamer just like me!(Incidentally my real friend Matt is a gamer as well. The gay one I mean. I do have several straight friends named Matt who game too. There are gazillions of “Matts” I tell you! Do I seem nervous? I mean sure, I am a straight guy trying to give his perspective on a lifestyle I'm mostly ignorant to. How can I not feel as if I'm saying something "wrong" without actually realizing it? I'm a friggin fish out of water over here! )
The problem is Mainichi isn’t really as interactive as I would have liked. You cannot fight the bigoted asshole who screams obscenities at you in the street. The cars don’t move. When your “friend” asks you for a coffee the millionth time you cannot tell her to “fuck off” or tell her “Hey, how about you pick up the tab for a change, aye?”.
With only very minor variances you live out the same day over & over again the exact same way. If the people in the street said different things each afternoon you encountered them it would have been a lot more engaging. Maybe the creepy jerk who hit on you before discovering your secret and screaming it to the world could even get up the nerve to clumsily apologize at some point instead of shouting the same horse-shit in your face in a never-ending loop. Lastly, there would have been more emotional investment if Mattie got to be on a somewhat interactive date with the barista. Whether the barista was homosexual himself or a heterosexual guy who “freaked out” it would have been fascinating to see the outcome either way as well as how Mattie would have coped with the situation personally.
As a pro tolerance message and a possible 1st attempt using RPG-makerVX, Mainichi is serviceable and recommended. It’s just kind of sad there’s not much of a game here to speak of. (And I preemptively apologize if I played it wrong and somehow missed some of the content.)
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