I'm actually kind of stunned that this game got a T rating; it's pretty obvious to me that it should be rated M for the level of sheer violence involved. Of course I suppose there's some sort of ratings shenanigans involved in this the same as there are in films.
Also, I'm pretty sure I said this elsewhere, but the treatment of violence in these games/this world bugs me. Not the presence of violence -- that's fine, violence is a tool like any other -- but the ridiculous fig leaf of "oh, he doesn't kill anyone, so it's okay" which of course goes all the way back to the Comics Code Authority and all that. Being beaten senseless is not a physiologically trivial event. It's like tasers -- sure, probably sub-lethal, but if you punch a man until he blacks out long enough to be gathered up by GCPD -- what is that, half an hour? An hour? More? -- that's bad news. If you hang a man upside down for several hours, you have likely tortured him to death (just ask Mussolini!) The way this world, this... property? universe? treats this as somehow establishing a moral line between the vigilante and the hired thug is very distasteful; honestly it'd be a lot more moral, and certainly a lot more compassionate, to just kill the mooks rather than giving them long-term brain damage. Or at the least, give Batman a bunch of cuffs or something, so he's restraining people without rendering them unconscious... But this was always the complaint I had about Kenshin as well, you can't just hit someone with big metal club and knock them out without causing some rather severe long-term consequences...
But this was always the complaint I had about Kenshin as well
I always thought this was hilarious about Kenshin, actually. I mean, he got to the point where his strikes were capable of destroying trees and leaving vacuum wakes behind them capable of pulling a strong human man off his feet. But they were still "non-lethal". :P
Also, I'm pretty sure I said this elsewhere, but the treatment of violence in these games/this world bugs me. Not the presence of violence -- that's fine, violence is a tool like any other -- but the ridiculous fig leaf of "oh, he doesn't kill anyone, so it's okay" which of course goes all the way back to the Comics Code Authority and all that. Being beaten senseless is not a physiologically trivial event. It's like tasers -- sure, probably sub-lethal, but if you punch a man until he blacks out long enough to be gathered up by GCPD -- what is that, half an hour? An hour? More? -- that's bad news. If you hang a man upside down for several hours, you have likely tortured him to death (just ask Mussolini!) The way this world, this... property? universe? treats this as somehow establishing a moral line between the vigilante and the hired thug is very distasteful; honestly it'd be a lot more moral, and certainly a lot more compassionate, to just kill the mooks rather than giving them long-term brain damage. Or at the least, give Batman a bunch of cuffs or something, so he's restraining people without rendering them unconscious... But this was always the complaint I had about Kenshin as well, you can't just hit someone with big metal club and knock them out without causing some rather severe long-term consequences...
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I always thought this was hilarious about Kenshin, actually. I mean, he got to the point where his strikes were capable of destroying trees and leaving vacuum wakes behind them capable of pulling a strong human man off his feet. But they were still "non-lethal". :P
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