Liara’s transition from videogame character to statue has left her a little more curvaceous than before.
BioWare is once again looking for fan feedback on one of the women of Mass Effect. It’s not FemShep this time though, it’s the Asari scientist Liara T’Soni. BioWare has teamed up with the Japanese company Kotobukiya to create a “bishoujo”-style Liara statue, and wants to know what fans think of the prototype.
“Bishoujo” is a type of character design seen in anime and manga and refers to “young and pretty” girls. As you can see from the images, the bishoujo Liara is quite different from the Liara that appears in the game. The comments on the Mass Effect Facebook page are overwhelmingly negative, with most saying that it strays too far from Liara’s established character. Nearly three and a half thousand people have clicked “like” on the album though, so the the overall opinion would seem to be mixed.
I’m hoping that BioWare and Kotobukiya go back to the drawing board with this one. There’s nothing wrong with the design itself per se. Sure it’s cheesecake and there’s almost no way we’re going to see some sexed up version of Garrus or Thane or whoever to balance the scales out, but it’s certainly not the first large-chested, “sexy” Asari we’ve seen. The problem is that this is supposed to be a specific Asari, and while it’s a well made statue, it doesn’t look like Liara, and more importantly, it doesn’t feel like Liara.
Source: Eurogamer