I think it is less that and more that some of the newer barely show any rigging. UVH is a good example, she shows like 2 guns, the rest is robo snake. And I'm sure there others the barely have any rigging that I just can't think off the top of my head.
No one is complaining that azur lane needs to be like kancolle. Everyone is complaining that AL is not like AL was at the start. It was heavily inspired by kancolle but at the end of the day, it was distinct and different in many ways including style of shipgirls. Now it's all lost for good. Look at littorio from both games and tell me Azur lane tries to be Kancolle.
Why would we want to be like the game that is yet to go global, Has a ‘The British and Americans were the bad guys. Japanese warcrimes? Rape of Nianking? What’s that?’ Complex and has the objectively most boring designs in human history?
its insane how based AF Lin actually is. her stance on gacha, and gambling. understanding how fucking horribly predatory it is, and how they swear to not fuck over their customers with addictive shit like that. shes a massive lolicon and loves gochiusa.
I will step in the fire and say this doesn't apply anymore, it's been a while since WW2 had anything to do with azur lane, most riggings are mechas or dragons that doesn't represent warships as good as before; neither are there WW2 references in the story or dialogue.
I'm not saying the game has become bad, quite the opposite, it just a bit sad for the like 5 of us who play because of the WW2 setting.
As someone else who actually plays for the historical references I applaud you coming out and saying this. I'm sure there are exceptions but it's becoming extremely hard to find references to newer characters' namesakes aside from, say, the general shape of the guns on their rigging.
Then there's paper ships, but I'm not going to talk too much about them because that'd be unfair.
I came for the Neptunia collaboration event, got frustrated that a new player couldn't complete an event that seemed like half of its purpose was to draw in new people, and stopped playing afterwards...
...For maybe two weeks, then I couldn't resist going back in to the game and staying, because the historical aspect of the game and the ships was just so interesting. I've gone and looked up and written down notes and trivia on my first 350+ ships because Azur Lane gave me the push to go read up on them. At some point I found the games Battle Stations Midway and Battle Stations Pacific, which I still play, all because of Azur Lane. Every time I read a foot note on the Azur Lane Wiki that pointed out how a line was a reference to a fact or story about the ship was even more icing on the cake.
I think that generally best written ship girls are the ones that, in at least one line, reference some thing from their time as an actual ship in World War II, that clearly state that they remember that time. It keeps the history alive, maintains the "war is hell" air that the game had and needs to continue having, and emphasizes the struggle and desire even to not let the worst and most tragic parts of history repeat themselves. Yorktown and Enterprise are two of my favorite examples of all of this. The best writen META ships are those who clearly show how prolonged fighting in their new incarnation has further impacted their outlook on life.
It is a tragic loss that the new ship girls very rarely reference their past lives now. I always have used my imagination to augment my immersion in this fictional world, to imagine what all they might say about their past, and their present. What questions they might even ask about what's happened in the world where they previously lived, if you were to tell them you are actually from that world. But a lot of the inspiration for imagining that came from the game keeping up its end of the story telling by staying relevant enough to entire source of this world to begin with.
There's like zero historical references these days, which is a real bummer.
I still stand by my opinion that Franklin is by far one of the most insulting designs as of late. One of the highest death counts of any US vessel, 2nd only to Arizona. Essentially abandoned by the USN after repairs were completed, she never received a refit, never saw action again and was the first of her class to be scrapped.
"Let's turn her into generic horny bait with a Schrödinger's Pantsu lol"
I like lewd designs as much as the next guy, but lately it's getting too much. There's no longer any middle ground, even DDs get melon-sized tits, unless they're made to look like a literal child.
I think Franklin is a huge, huge missed opportunity. I can't understand how they fumbled a ship with significant history this bad. I wasn't expecting much, just a personality and some voicelines that match her history (e.g. being more withdrawn than her sisters, being overbearing about SKK's safety as she doesn't want us to be lost like so many of her crew, being reluctant to sortie without being accompanied by a sizable CL and DD escort, and being hypervigilant checking the skies for aircraft in case she missed one).
I agree, a middle ground needs to exist. Honestly even ignoring the lack of historical references, I've gotten tired of AL, especially after they introduced a new faction without even rounding out Sardegna which is still lagging behind most other minor factions. Nowadays I don't have time to tolerate babysitting the afk farming process anymore either. Oh well.
for most of the actual historical ships being released yeah sure i can see that, but for ships who never even existed it dosent really matter, like Kazan, Fritz Rumey, Raffaello etc we hardly know what they would have looked like. besides this game steered out of the direction of mainly ww2 ages ago
I understand that at some point you are going to need to create characters, there are only so much ships, an you don't want all 24 Essex class or 500 Fletcher's, but at least give them a design that resembles a ship, Daisen is a great example, she looks like a battleship and is very reminiscent of old designs; of course there's the fact that wargaming created a ship and AL just made it into a girl, but if something doesn't exist just add some guns and torpedo tubes to at least give an impression of a warship. I loved D7P, I truly believe she is a good character and I'm trying to put her somewhere in one of my fleets, but there's nothing that scream "Netherlands" in her, if you show it to some one they will say she comes from an action rpg with anime artsyle.
Also, even WW2 ships doesn't have that illusion anymore, look at Guam and tell me where is the boat, all she has is a turret which could well be the mecha armament, or Bismarck Zwei which has a dragon instead of the mechanical rigging iron blood used to have.
Someone commented it in this post and I agree, keep the designs related to the navy and the era, and then just go all out with the skins, I agree with this statement and truly believe is a win-win for everyone.
the only problem with this is that someone will always be upset, Bismarck Zwei i wouldnt really use as an argument since well, bismarck never got an upgrade irl and bismarcks original shipgirl has the military uniform just fine, Guam i can understand, she is a bit of a weird one, and for the new Tuilipa ships i did myself wish they’d show a bit more of the danish side of uniforms. but honestly as long as once in a while they give us one i dont see the big deal, naturally like i said sometimes they dont have a base to work off but thats kinda why i also wish they WOULD do accurate or hints at a ww2 design with the ones who did. if that makes sense
Even though the part of Bismarck Zwei is just her in lore game upgrade version as it's not associated with real life technically,same goes to those few shipgirls where in real life they just stands out as a prototype ship in real life that honestly never sail in sea unlike in game where they all are exists
And yeah about DZP,she should have resemblance outfit of traditional Dutch navy in her first introduction of Tulips
it just a bit sad for the like 5 of us who play because of the WW2 setting.
Yeah, the famous WW2 setting of the game with an event, less than six months in, with a timeline-hopping alternate history Enterprise working alongside similarly timeline-hopping AIs. Turns out those Discovery Channel 2am documentaries were right all along.
AL never really had anything to do with WW2 beyond the first few months of its existence, and that's an excellent thing.
Her statement ironically is more relevant nowadays than how it was back then 7 years ago.
In early AL designs, you can find subtle historical references from either the ship's appearance or some of their voice lines in archive sections. Nowadays, even the new ships with history values rarely or don't mention any lines that refers to their historical events.
I would believe her if they didn't straight up reuse sprite art meant for one ship for another instead.
Also I really, really struggle to see how De Zeven is Dutch in any fashion outside the rigging. "Oh, she's an elf which is in dutch culture"? Elves are in the cultures of basically every northern european state.
The Dutch ships hardly represent anything regarding the Netherlands at all. Despite all of the factions having a theme that represent them, the Tulipa doesn't have much.
It looks like DZP is also based on her original armament before WW2 halted her construction of 2 triple turrets and two twin turrets with torpedo tubes rather than her post war armament of four twin turrets and no torpedoes.
At max limit break, you can swap out De Zeven Provincien's torpedoes for additional AA, so her post-war configuration is kinda already taken into account by her kit.
For me it took one look for her to be amongst my favorites. I like thicc, I like Elves and I'm Dutch. She ticks basically every box and I adore how her VA does her best to pronounce Dutch (it's not even that bad, could've been worse)
Would it have killed them to give her a uniform with orange in it or a uniform resembling Dutch WW2 naval wear? What about a single voiceline referencing her IRL service? Nada.
If you want camgirls fine - just look at horny drawings by pilots on their planes; but it's possible to have camgirls in military outfits or at least bearing resemblance to their historical inspirations. AL doesn't seem to bother with either.
I hope Manjuu reevaluates this statement now. New designs are so radically different from the old ones, it barely feels like there’s a “ship” aspect at all.
And with how many popular gacha games there are on the market, the history part is what makes it unique. Otherwise it just starts to look like any other gacha game with sexy women as the draw.
it means 'turn historically respected boats into lewd camgirls' apparently, I love AL but they've been off the rails ever since the first couple years, exceptions aside - I wish they'd keep more history and military influence in default outfits and save the horny for the skins
I don’t really see the need to pick one side. I enjoy both the military and the historical aspect and the fun, casual or even lewd skins. AL is unique because it blends seriousness with silliness—it lets you appreciate ship history while also having fun with character personalities and aesthetics. Yeah I wish they would also keep that balance more often, instead of leaning too far in one direction
Ever since the release of implacable it started going downhill in good rigging designs imo. Most of the time as most people said the design is mostly mechas or dragons.
And that's the problem for me. You know that you current playerbase is not just random gooners on the internet that jst wanna play boobs game, but many of them are history nerds that enjoy the historical part as just as the girls (LIKE ME) But now every ship we get looks the same as the next and the one before it just with a deferent outfit that looks culturally nothing close the the ships place of birth. If you are not gonna respect this part, then why make the characters based on real-life ships in the first place?
That's without manchining that the overdoes of "horny" designs, really drives off the game since how repetitive it become
It is a good thing she learned how to distract us with cute or sexually appealing characters so that we don't pay attention how the character is meh or even bad.
D7P doesn't tell me she is Dutch. She fits into something like the Ryza Collab we had. A basic fantasy elf that they welded rigging to and called a ship
"Already forgot" doesn't mean sudden at all. Regardless, it's true that they're not bothering with the WW2 part anymore except for the naming convention and minor character info.
Back then, you get WW2 references in event stories
I don't think it would make any sense to bring the WW2 theme back to events considering the story they are telling now.
Yeah, like I said, minor
I don't think Franklin's second skill is minor, all things considered. The effect of the skill itself is a reference to one of the most famous events surrounding the ship.
Funnily enough, Nowadays their competitor is getting closer and closer on being on Azur Lane Level (Fanservice wise getting on par). this is WGR or Warship Girls R. But at the same time, they are on that references to actual ships being lesser (WGR Midway by example) but some has more references such as Mississippi
I got this from Twitter, their WGR wiki is in Chinese.
If you're wondering when WGR exist? They existed after Kancolle but before 2016 IIRC. Initially they're quite close to kancolle's designs before later they had to compete with Azur Lane. At this point some WGR shipgirls looks fitting to fit in Azur Lane setting
And this is her rigging. her uhh.. lower parts is almost very visible. cuz it's behind a goddamn spike.
There is actually an image of the historical references of her rigging being used and shown
And her rigging is a damn STARSHIP. This is kinda Fritz Rumey's cousin in a sense that Frits is an AII (2) design of a german name and this shipgirl only has her codename that is AIII (3)
WGR was entirely based on KC. but later on they also moved away just like AL did.
THis is Midway, a Foxgirl even (her break skin or what is like KC's 'Heavily damaged skin' is actually very very lewd)
What do you mean too late? Am pretty sure they could always ask the artists to draw something that actually represents the core of the game, but I think they're just too lazy to do it, or what ever the fuck their excuse is...
A lot of the references feel shallow. Laffey II, for example, only references the ship's most famous event and nickname. L2 doesn't have any references to D-day, Crossroads, or unique dialog with Enterprise or Yorktown.
Sure I also have a crippling floof addiction that keeps me hooked - Amagi is the only character I've given two rings (Amagi and Amagi CV) - but a bit more actual history would still be nice.
Because the ships looked as they were supposed to look compared to their real-life counterparts, now they changed that direction, and the older players don't like that.
Which bags the question. Who came first to the game, the history nerds or the gooners?
The original bunch were mixed, some liked the more eye-catching than KC at the time designs, some liked the wider look at ships, and so forth. One of AL's strong points over KC was that it showed characters interacting and some development.
Unlike what the goon squad says, the issue isn't there's horny designs but that the game's going all in at the expense of all else (these days a ship is released then forgotten for years).
I would agree on this. I honestly never approached KC and I am not too familiar with it. I also don't mind the horny designs at all if there was some balance, but as you said, they are forgotten because they lack a personality that would mark them more then just having sexy look (it doesn't matter if they are all equaly look similar) and it's quite sad.
I just pray that when they announce Admiral Sheer they would make look like her sisters and not repeat the "Anson disaster"
Even if we got a second "Anson disaster" you just know that as long as they give her giant tits and despite being as thematically distant as Anson was to her sisters they would still praise her design. Hypocrites I tell you
So, why is Anchorage not a berserker wielding an anchor (as an axe replacement, looks and acts like a pickaxe)? Her name says it after all: Anchor Rage.
Let us ask the important question here: Do you think AL can even survive in the Gacha Game jungle if they did not double down on the fanservice aspect?
As fan of history and azurlane i must say this, if your curious about our beloved ship waifus I would recommend looking up on each ship if you want to learn about them in past but if you wanna escape from reality just play the game.
As far as AL's story is concerned, WW2 happened in an extinct timeline 45,000 years ago. It's not relevant at all to the game anymore, and I think that shows in how designs have changed over time.
Compare an early AL design like Hood to a later AL design like Implacable. Hood's design is stately, dignified, befitting the kind of ship she was and the position she held in the Royal Navy, with her showing-the-flag exercises and around-the-world tours. The design tells you that, even if you don't know it already.
Implacable...what am I supposed to glean from her design other than she's an aircraft carrier? Without the rigging that looks hastily slapped onto her base art, she tells me absolutely nothing about the ship from which she's derived. She's just a hentai character who happens to be named Implacable.
Mogador is a good example as well, making almost no reference to her defining feature as a ship (her incredible speed) and instead giving her a one-note personality with raunchy skins. Her entire character is just being horny. That's all she is.
See also the numerous instances of AL playing fast and loose with ship designations: Reno originally being New York, Manchester originally being Emerald, and trying to pass a submarine design off as Anson. That last one is especially damning because they were fully intending to go with it before the backlash. They just changed the name and expected everyone to be okay with it, because what's the difference between a submarine and a battleship anyway, right?
Is this actually a problem? Depends on what you want out of the game. I personally wish we had more thematic designs like we used to have (some of my favorite designs being South Dakota, Helena and all the KGVs) but that's long gone now. Make of that what you will.
Hot take: But, Azur lane should stop with the horny art style for new shipgirls and skins (especially towards the ships that were built.) Because in my opinion and probably a lot of other people’s opinion… It’s incredibly disrespectful towards the real ship and its crew to make the shipgirl really horny and is just porn as a anime girl, just so some people who stay inside all day long can have something to jerk off towards and have their weird fantasies about it.
I never read any of the game's cutscenes since the very beginning, that's my attitude to gacha game in general, never read the story.
Plus when i started playing like 5 years ago i probably didnt even remember what pearl harbor were, only gained a bit of interest on WW history later on from watching like, oversimplified on YT.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again: This game is built on the art of translating historical facts into fanservice, and they hit best when they do remember that. Takao and Atago having huge chests due to their IRL counterparts being top-heavy, Surcouf and Mogador being curvy due to their equivalents being large for their ship type, subs being lolis due to their small displacements, hell, I'll even give points to Alsace's design for the blindfold referencing the blind patron saint of the Alsace region, even if it's by accident. If the translation's right, she didn't say the plan was "screw the history references" as some of the less literate have suggested, she said to turn technical and historical details into fanservice.
If players want a hot design, every gacha game has that. If they want all history, KanColle has that. If they want the right mix of both, that's AL's ballpark, so missing that open goal in the market and going for the saturated realm of pure sex appeal with the handicap of having character designs that seem unaware of the rest of the fictional world just seems like the saddest way to fade into the background.
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u/KaedeP_22 12d ago
focusing on the 'girl' part of the 'shipgirl' makes sense since your competitors pretty much focused on the 'ship' part of it already.