To be entirely fair, these designs aren't new for Suikoden, though never this blatant.
Namely, the designs appear in the grasslands region with some of the tribes in that area. Take for example Aila from Suikoden 3. And this isn't a one off character either, one of the 3 protagonists from Suikoden 3 is Hugo who has a similar design too. Suikoden 3 came out in 2002.
It also wasn't the first appearance in the series of these character or their design, though the full body artworks aren't typically seen in game beyond the opening cinematic of Suikoden 2 (1998). And remember, S2 is largely considered the best in the series by most fans, which includes characters like Lucia, whose white outfit is what was used for S2 before she reappeared in S3, Rina and her younger sister Eilie.
This isn't to say that in today's day and age that Eiyuden didn't have any red flags, but the idea that this specific design is foreign to Suikoden isn't entirely true either. And frankly, it seems like the game is mostly okay (not great, not bad) with the main issue being abysmal translation issues and poor optimisation/glitches (like apparently encounter rates being tied to framerate, so playing above 60 fps results in no encounters).
Don't get me wrong. I don't blame anyone for seeing that promotional roster and groaning. Trends set expectation, and trends for the past decade or so scream that there would be issues. But I also don't blame people who hoped it wouldn't be this bad. Sadly, nostalgia is one hell of a thing, and it can be hard to simply turn away from things. But it is what needs to be done, especially now when nostalgia bait and riding on coat tails is the bread and butter of SocJus infiltrators.
The people who argue about this don't even bring up the game, they're just defending ideology.
Because the game isn't the point to these people. They're ideologues. Activists. Entryists. They're not interested in the game, they're interested in spreading their message. The game is a means to their end, and nothing more.
To be entirely fair, these designs aren't new for Suikoden, though never this blatant.
Namely, the designs appear in the grasslands region with some of the tribes in that area. Take for example Aila from Suikoden 3. And this isn't a one off character either, one of the 3 protagonists from Suikoden 3 is Hugo who has a similar design too. Suikoden 3 came out in 2002.
It also wasn't the first appearance in the series of these character or their design, though the full body artworks aren't typically seen in game beyond the opening cinematic of Suikoden 2 (1998). And remember, S2 is largely considered the best in the series by most fans, which includes characters like Lucia, whose white outfit is what was used for S2 before she reappeared in S3, Rina and her younger sister Eilie.
This isn't to say that in today's day and age that Eiyuden didn't have any red flags, but the idea that this specific design is foreign to Suikoden isn't entirely true either. And frankly, it seems like the game is mostly okay (not great, not bad) with the main issue being abysmal translation issues and poor optimisation/glitches (like apparently encounter rates being tied to framerate, so playing above 60 fps results in no encounters).
Don't get me wrong. I don't blame anyone for seeing that promotional roster and groaning. Trends set expectation, and trends for the past decade or so scream that there would be issues. But I also don't blame people who hoped it wouldn't be this bad. Sadly, nostalgia is one hell of a thing, and it can be hard to simply turn away from things. But it is what needs to be done, especially now when nostalgia bait and riding on coat tails is the bread and butter of SocJus infiltrators.
Because the game isn't the point to these people. They're ideologues. Activists. Entryists. They're not interested in the game, they're interested in spreading their message. The game is a means to their end, and nothing more.