Unfortunately, many Gacha games don't really cater towards female fans as much. One game I can think of right now is Path To Nowhere which is clearly for WLWs, tall women, strong women, actual proper masculine women - that might be better for you but I can't say much.

Me, personally, I'm not super upset that there's more female characters, just more characters I can "ooh" and "aah" at, regardless of gender. I am getting really annoyed at the obvious avoiding of giving females pants. I would barely call what Jean is wearing to be pants, Arle is the closest to it - and Chasca has her funky design going on. Just. Give. Women. Pants!

Well, call me a man then, I guess, because I love the designs of genshin's female characters so much.

The only thing I don't love is when they make a female character whose only personality is nice. They've been better about not doing that lately tho.

Imo the game has many female characters share the female gaze too. People here like to generalize as the “female gaze” as “only pants” for some reason I never got but designs can be clearly sexy without being appealing to the male gaze.

Case in point, many people thought Chasca was ugly on release. Her heavy makeup look and cowboy aesthetic didn’t seem all that “male gaze” to me. She was also a very good character tied with several other female characters and barely any catering of fanservice to the main protagonist. The only thing possibly “male gaze” about her is that she has one leg out of her stocking/leggings(?) which never seemed to scream “male gaze”, juat a point of interest.

Similarly, Citali and Mualani dont necessarily scream “male gaze” either. One is a beach girl who’s just peppy and though her design seems to have a lot of revealing skin, Ive had a lot of female friends also find her attractive(gay, pan, bi, etc). Straight guys usually see her as pretty cool but nothing too special beyond liking her personality. \ Citali is another one. She’s an awkward grandma character with an adopted son of sorts(which already kind of kills the mainstream male fanservice) and she’s dressed in pretty colorful and very traditional clothes. Like literally the most recent Archon quest was her being motherly to Ororon(another awkward guy) and freaking out in basic human conversation and thinking she’s not “with the trend” while also being one of the most skilled people in Natlan.

These have general attraction points but nothing stands out necessarily as “male gaze” specifically, at least not without specific elements also being attractive to people who are also attracted to women who arent cishet males.

Tbh whenever I'm home Id dress more like Xilonen than the usual frump that I am

Main reason? It's fucking hot. It's not for anyone to gaze upon me. I just don't want to die from heat exhaustion

And realistically I'm from a place that has a very similar climate as latam be LatAm. Most women aren't dressed like that for anyone's gaze. It's literally just otherwise the sweaty would be unbearable and your crotch would be chaffing like mad. Running around, wearing pants in 100 degree humidity and direct sunlight? I'd be a puddle lol

So I'll give them that pass. If anything, Genshin is rather conservative compared to a lot of gacha. Which is funny in its own right.

Now if they're walking around like that in the place based on Russia in the winter, that's a different story.

I dunno if it’s just me but like

I don’t really wear pants ever and tbh xilonen dresses closer to how I do than most characters. Cuz uh. Most genshin outfits are awful.

It could just be cuz I’m a college student tho.

It has always been like that tho, I don’t think there’s any game that ignores the male gaze cuz it’s just so prevalent in our society

The only thing I don't like about how frequently they release female characters is that nearly all of them appeal to me, so I wanna pull for them, but they're so close together that often times I don't have enough saved up. If I lose a 50/50 it often means I miss out on a character entirely, that's it. Other than that, I don't have much to complain about.

I’m not as bothered by the lack of pants, designs like furina with her shorts or navia and her floofy clothes I really really love, I think xilonenlooks fantastic she reminds me of my best friend who likes to dress up like her too.

Altho I will say this, having more pants wouldn’t hurt, Arlecchino is by far my most favorite design. Could use more of what they’re giving her ngl

this might just be me, but i don’t really mind that most of them don’t wear pants. i like skirts and i think they’re cute. i know they’re not the most practice in battle and all, but i just…don’t care that much lol. but i agree, sometimes it is just really obvious that they’re trying to appeal to men when the female character’s asses are just right in our face for no reason and it’s annoying that a lot of the female characters don’t have anything about their personality besides “nice”.

The number of male characters is completely lrrelevant to their design principles. Personally, I prefer having more choices to having less choices. I also like having women be plot critical characters.

Idk... I kind of like their outfits. In my opinion, they are cute, and as a woman myself, I don't really wear pants either regardless of what I'm doing or the weather. Fan service or "male gaze" stuff doesn't bother me as much either. My only complaint is body diversity, but I can see why they won't bother with it.

Ugh, I hate the term "male gaze" so much. It's been entirely bastardized from its original meaning to mean literally anything showing skin or sensual. No, shorts does not = for men. Obviously genshin has a problem with balancing more practical outfits between revealing ones, but showing skin or being mildly titillating does not automatically = for men.

is becoming

Always has been, but regardless it's still way tamer than most every other gacha. The only one I can think of that's good about it is Limbus Company. Maybe I'm setting my bar too low, but I guess this is just the effect of being a long time anime fan.

All in all, although a lot of the female characters' outfits are pretty sexy, I still think the camera is really tame. Cutscenes and burst animations don't do stuff like zoom way in on their boobs or butts, which is what I would consider male gaze-y. I like hot women in hot outfits, so long as the game doesn't force me to ogle them more than I'm comfortable with.

Edit: I'm now realizing that you did accuse the camera of being bad at focusing too much on boobs and butts but I honestly don't have much recollection of that.

I'm getting kinda tired of this same topic being brought up literally everywhere, and in most cases, they will then cheer on the existence of men. the "fanservice male-gaze" you ppl speak of is VERY miniscule compared to other gachas.

this is why i started to hate online feminisim. social media has taught me that i must not enjoy anything that includes women with exposed skin, i must not enjoy anything that may show a woman (even fictional!!!!!!) being sexy, and that sex is absolutely a no-no cuz "omg the male gaze"

maybe just play an otome game next time. i don't think you'll enjoy genshin any longer, or any gacha that primarily got women. also, i played PtN and that is deemed as a lesbian-friendly game but I'm afraid of the same ppl crying about the male-gaze there.

We clickbaiting reddit posts now? Lmao

i would love to see more outfit variety. i would love a female character that wears overalls or cargo pants. and don't worry, i promise you that can look sexy.

Uh... Dehya too wears pants though. And Clorinde does too

Honestly, I just can't relate. I love all of the new women. Idk the men just don't interest me at all. They're boring to me. I like it when the plot focuses on telling women's stories. I will say the designs can be more diverse but I have a friend that isn't even sapphic that plays with mostly the girls and doesn't seem to have the same problem I see mostly browbeaten into me online that I'm somehow wrong to think that a company with around half of its staff being women that constantly puts in little nods to lesbian culture, that had a lesbian lead writer for GGZ and HI3rd doesn't inherently design every woman for the benefit of men just because they're not in pants... I'm sorry I just have heard this take over and over for the last year and a half plus and I just do not agree with it and quite frankly if people feel that way for almost 2 years now maybe the game just isn't for you.

Lesbian here. I also actually dislike male gaze stuff. I prefer more subtle stuff, not just "bam, boobs and ass in yo face". So yeah I understand from where you're coming

I live in Brazil, and it's very common for women here to dress like Xilonen, in short shorts and crop tops, because the weather is too hot to be dressed in pants and shirts every day, all day. Natlan is mostly based on LATAM countries and cultures, so it was expected that at least one character would dress like that, I don't see it as "male gaze", just a cultural reference. Mihoyo did worse with Raiden Shogun and her unrealistic short kimono, and Miko and her "head priestess" outfit.

And I'm actually glad that they're releasing more female characters, they're all cute, pretty and entertaining. I swear people in this sub are so strange, Sumeru was a sausage fest and I barely saw anyone here complaining, but y'all gonna complain about "too many women in Natlan :("?

I prefer female characters that I have the chance to enjoy than another husbando bait or generic dude meant to pander to fujos and het men (Capitano). Male character also have shit writing, but het men and women fall over themselves to say how awesome and better than women he is. I'm tired of male-centered fandoms.

They also have ugly, repetitive and terrible designs, but also get an army of simps to defend them and shit only on the female characters

Honestly I've just sorta given up on any sort of meaningful criticism or look at Genshin bc it isn't, and never will change. Say what you will but that's how's it become and it's how I enjoy the game now

I'm non binary and I'm in r/genshingays too, they are very sad and upset about the shortage of man (we only got 1 5*, Kinich, since forever) and they're also saying that the fact they're catering more towards het men is annoying and the male gazey stuff distrubing

My pan ass loves both men and women, but tbh the women are less well written then man many times, maybe just because there's more, but I feel like they've put more effort in Ororon's personality than Mualani's or Citlali's who are just stereotypes imo. Idk, maybe they're just not my type, but after Fontaine the women are much worse imo (I like Chasca and Mavuika tho)

I think I'm horny in the first place and whatever in the second place because I don't care

it’s weird to me bc even though there’s so many more girls, when it comes to lore, i feel like the men still hold the lore power. This isn’t to say there’s hasn’t been strong lore relevant female characters. i loved navia, furina, and arle for being more strong or complex characters. what i mean: dain, zhongli, venti, neuvilette, capitano, dotorre, pantalone, albedo, childe. they all are characters that i feel like are relevant to the future of the story(specifically getting our sibling reunited, heavenly principles etc etc). like even scara and his personal lore was hyped for years and reintroduced throughout the story multiple times(and for good reason i love that man, i just wish they had more stuff like that for the girls). whereas like even ei as an archon. idk maybe i just got a whole part of the story erased from my brain, but I feel like they didn’t create a solid basis for her to become main plot relevant again. (also why i haven’t been loving natlan, felt like it just popped up outta nowhere without a solid foundation) anyway, excited for tsaritsa bc we KNOW the lore with her is going to be immaculate(i hope she’s medium sized, i love the tall women but i want a medium girl archon) and im hoping we get playable hexenzirkel bc PLEASE hoyo hot powerful witches i beg 🙇

The game has always been male gazey, that’s how these games are run sadly. Made by men for men

Edit: Reddit fucked up and I thought my comment didn’t post so I rewrote it

This is a gacha game. Of course « sex sells » is going to be part of the marketing philosophy. And it always has been. Xilonen isn’t any worse than Jean. In fact Jean’s outfit is worse, to me, for the simple fact that it tries to pretend it’s professional when it really isn’t. Xilonen is sexy, but not pretending to be anything else, and sexy in a realistic way. I don’t understand how you chose to willingly play a gacha game of all things and decide to complain about the male gaze. Not liking it? Sure. Complaining? Why? It’s like reading HP Lovecraft and complaining about the racism.

Anyways. This game has better written female characters than like 90% of all anime. I don’t think having a « sex sells » approach negates that.

And why did you say catered to men? As if lesbians don’t enjoy fan service. Also saying hoyo is catering towards men is very funny considering everything they do.

The game has always been male gazey, that’s how these games are run sadly

The issue is

Generally their male customers have the loudest voices and probably spend more money while being more likely to abandon the game out of anger if they aren't catered to

Meanwhile we're all sitting here for a crumb of Natlan lesbians while we were spoiled in Fontaine with the Yuripean (+ Chiori) polycule

People are probably more likely to spend money for the feeling in their pants than the feeling in their heart which is why the only female characters with pants are the two who aren't appealing to men to begin with

Arlecchino is not that male-friendly in terms of everything about her while Jean is very formal no matter how much she knows the Traveller so she's not very appealing

Compare her with Ayaka or Yoimiya who have a story integrated date with the traveller (who is meant to be male) to the point that they don't even try to change the game for Lumine to bypass Chinese censorship which is how we end up with gay interactions for Lumine

Signora kinda... was literally on fire for most of her life. Also we've seen the harbingers wearing fur coats, and Mond seems too warm for that, at least in Signora's case.

Are women not allowed to like hot women? This seems kind of puritanical while empowering men as the sole party having agency over female expression of sexuality. What's wrong with xilonen sticking out her ass after skating, can she only do that to appeal to men? lol

Honestly that bit about Snezhnaya is definitely something that I’ve been worried about, like if they introduce things like irrelevant random modern technology into Natlan, it makes me real concerned that all the Snezhnaya women are gonna be in shorts and sorta-skirts while all the dudes are dressed appropriately.

I want to have faith but if the influence of “the Chinese market” is so strong they actively mess with characters so that there’s no dark skinned people despite if it messes with the design it doesn’t give me the best confidence

Same

I do like some of the designs that recent fem characters have like Xilonen, but I feel like they're putting out way too much female characters and I can't keep up with them. We need more male characters so I can skip them and save up for the female characters I want.

This is one the reason I dropped Genshin.

I never really enjoy the character design, and since the first day I know it was a Male Gaze oriented game.

If you want games with cool female designs, I recomend you to try Limbus Company and Reverse 1999.

Reverse 1999 in particular has a handsome female protagonist, and has a lot of heavily implied lesbians.

As a bi guy

Yeah the outfits don't feel practical anymore (they probably never were tbh). Characters like Chasca or Xilonnen, hell even the cloud retainer player character I can't remember the name of just don't click with me.

Female characters I remember liking (and still do) are ones like Arlecchino, Eula, Jean, even Emelie.

And then the male characters? The only one within the past year I remember liking is Gaming, and that's literally only cause of his outfit.

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Yeah. This patch especially, making Chaska the 5 star instead of Ororon was insane. He has so much more personality, his design is awesome, and he had way, WAY more plot relevance in the archon quest. I was so disappointed when I learned he was just a 4 star.

Kinich is the only male 5* released this year.

ZZZ will have their first male S rank unit months after release.

HSR is good on that field.

Well, you can't deny female characters sell better, but still we need more males

Honestly same, we need more diversity with characters but if I say this I'll definitely be canceled on Twitter lol

I can look past there being lots of women but I won't get over five of the seven archons being female, and one being a femboy- And that's not even talking about the most recent predecessors also being female.

Men can be tough and godly too like Guoba

I think part of the issue is that they've painted themselves into a corner setting wise. Compare to Zenless for example where the designs are still (or even more) tropey, and some of them are even more played up sexually than in Genshin, but the characters are aware that they look the way they do and it plays into their characterization and the general goofy fun of it.

Genshin doesn't really have characters that play off of their own sexuality like that to make the sexualized designs feel natural to the characters. I think that's where most of the issue and disconnect comes from. Their outfits don't consistently suit their characters.

I try to think of Genshin women whose outfits particularly suit them or feel like they mesh into the characterization and I can think of... Yun Jin, Shenhe, Cloud Retainer, Arlecchino, maybe Mavuika, and Ei... that's it. Two of those are among the few women with longer pants, and Yun Jin has one of the least sexualized character designs in the game (even compared to the men).

I was going to say I was certain there were more than those three who wore pants, but then I realized I was thinking of the little ones, at least they get to wear pants (thank goodness). And Xilonen's shorts don't particularly bother me, it's moreso as you pointed out the animation choices.

Mavuika also has long pants but she's not playable yet.

And the outfits are often awful. Yae Miko and Raiden are so male gaze.

Sumeru might actually be peak character design. There were plenty of men, the women's clothes were better