The recent free-to-play sensation, The First Descendant, received a summer update on July 31st that includes bikinis and swimwear attire.
The First Descendant is a third-person MMO “looter shooter” developed by the Korean conglomerate Nexon, known for its controversial microtransactions.
Nexon was previously fined $8.85 million by the Korean Federal Trade Commission for misleading customers about unboxing rates in games like MapleStory. Despite this, the company continues to generate significant revenue through these practices.
Gamers are aware that free-to-play games often employ various tactics to encourage spending, such as time-gated content that forces players to wait long periods to progress or craft items.
Upgrading characters and increasing damage potential requires extensive grinding for rare materials. The First Descendant incorporates these strategies, along with pay-to-win microtransactions that allow players to skip the grind and acquire more powerful and visually appealing characters.
Like many looter shooters, The First Descendant tends to be quite bland. During my time with the game, I found the gunplay and movement to be extremely smooth and well-refined despite the obvious shortcomings of the Unreal Engine in terms of texture popping and frametime stutters.
However, the game falters with its weak story and repetitive overworld mission structure in my own opinion, not to mention the grind required to upgrade your gear after reaching the endgame.
However, the main positives of The First Descendant are its attractive and enticing character designs, which are a rarity in modern game design. This aspect alone makes the game feel like a breath of fresh air.
While the gameplay loop can be monotonous, it is more enjoyable with friends, as a looter shooter’s fun largely depends on who you’re playing with. Given that the game is entirely free to play, I’m willing to overlook its shortcomings.
Despite having a mixed review rating of just 54% on Steam from nearly 73,000 reviews, The First Descendant maintains a thriving player base, regularly exceeding 100,000 concurrent players daily.
Nexon seems to be capitalizing on this by offering something other studios are adverse to implementing these days, sex appeal. While game journalists criticize attractive female character designs as being sexist, the vast majority of gamers, men, as evidenced by Capcom’s Super Election Survey, prefer attractive character designs over gameplay aspects.
Many modern AAA games from Western studios and Japanese developers adhering to globalist policies have faced financial losses due to censorship and a focus on diversity and inclusivity, resulting in batshit ugly character designs.
At launch, the Ultimate Bunny character in The First Descendant was the only costume that revealed significant skin. However, the July 31 summer update introduced swimwear cosmetics for three female characters and an open shirt and swimming shorts for male characters, although the latter is certainly less popular among players.
In terms of gender equality, the male-focused summer attire costs just 375 “Caliber,” the game’s premium currency. Caliber can be purchased in-game in increments of 250, 520, 1060, 2750, 3920, and 5750.
With the cheapest 250 Caliber package costing $5 USD, players are essentially forced to spend $10 USD on the 520 Caliber bundle to buy the male summer set.
For Valby and Viessa’s swimsuits, however, the cost is 750 Caliber, requiring players to spend $15 USD for a single swimsuit. So, any claims about a “gender gap” or women being valued less than men in The First Descendant‘s microtransactions are unfounded.
The swimsuit attires are well worth it for avid players who may not prefer Bunny’s abilities and playstyle.
Summer-themed cosmetics are a popular trend in gaming, particularly among Asian developers. For instance, fellow Korean developers SHIFT UP recently introduced the Stellar Blade Summer Update, adding bikinis and monokinis for its attractive protagonist, Eve, as part of a limited-time update, similar to what The First Descendant offers.
These outfits are highly revealing not just for Valby and Viessa but also for the playable character Luna, who has her own “Pool Party” bodysuit available in the in-game store as part of the “Exclusive Luna Bundle.” This bundle costs a staggering 1650 Caliber, requiring players to spend $35 USD, although the swimsuit itself can be bought separately for 750 Caliber.
The prices for these individual cosmetic attires are outrageous, but that’s typical of free-to-play games. Despite the game’s blandness, plenty of players seem to be enjoying it, unlike Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which was a tremendous flop costing Warner Bros. $200 million.
One could argue that the $15 cost for Valby’s or Viessa’s swimsuits is justified since the entry to The First Descendant is free. Spending money on in-game cosmetics isn’t a terrible deal if you’re enjoying the game and frequently playing those characters.
As always, sex sells. It always has and always will. There’s no point in pretending that gamers would have cared about Stellar Blade if its protagonist had been another progressive, fat, queer woman of color like many character designs in modern gaming fixate upon today.
Such as Sony’s hero shooter “Concord.”
Gamers are straightforward: they don’t want to be patronized or force-fed progressive content created by political activists, only to be labeled as racist or bigoted for not supporting it.
They especially resist when such games are made in collaboration with companies like Sweet Baby Inc.
Consumers, both male and female, want fun and engaging content featuring characters with visually appealing designs. They don’t tolerate the eradication of femininity in modern games, where the “objectification” of women is criticized by liberalized developers and radical journalists who label everything as sexism.
While we can denounce the predatory nature of cosmetic microtransactions, this would only fuel the narratives of journalists who loath attractive women who ultimately hate games such as The First Descendant.
The First Descendant defies the current norms of ugly female characters and progressive themes. Instead, it offers a choice of masculine men, handsome men, and primarily women who actually look like women, allowing gamers to play as these women in various feminine garments.
I look forward to seeing how The First Descendant progresses in terms of additional story content. Hopefully, over the years, Nexon will develop the game into a legitimate contender to titles like Warframe and Bungie’s Destiny 2, who recently let go of several activist developers.
