Due to more modern audiences being less tolerant about the oversexualization of women, it is not uncommon for remakes of older games to switch up the original’s portrayal of female characters to better suit current times. For example, Capcom altered Ashley Graham in the remake of Resident Evil 4 in an attempt to correct oversexualizing her in the original. These were changes that most audiences responded fondly to. So what is wrong with the redesigning of Maria?

To start with, Maria was not oversexualized in the first place. Her original outfit, despite showing off her figure, did not border on pointless nudity and it perfectly fit the context of her character. It is miles away from other design choices such as 2B’s maid costume in Nier Automata or the women in SoulCalibur being near naked: neither of these outfits make any sense in the context of their respective games. Maria’s outfit serves an actual purpose in the story.

It is true that Maria does not have traits that are consistent with a strong female character in today’s terms. But why does she need to? If her character is stripped of her sexuality, flirty personality, and dependent nature, we are receiving a much different character, and, in turn, a much different story. Maria is quite literally a manifestation of James' sexual desires. She is a hallucination caused by him seeking his wife again, but this time, under his terms, making her a sexual being. She is the personification of guilt felt by James for wanting sex with his dying wife. 

It is not that this new outfit could never work for Maria’s character, but when put next to a picture of the original, there seems to be a clear effort to lessen her sexuality. There have been rumors around different approaches that Team Bloober might take to retain Maria’s characterization, one being that she loses more clothing throughout the game as James’ mind slowly deteriorates. While there are avenues that can be taken to make this Maria redesign work, the initial reveal of it directly fuels the concern that fans have for the need for subtlety in this game. 

Moving onto Angela, the character with the darkest and most profound story in this game and debatably any game in the franchise. Angela is a nineteen year old abuse victim who killed her father and brother after suffering years of torture by their hands. Despite the depth of the character, all Angela scenes put together amount to around ten minutes out of the entire game, which typically has a total length of around eight hours.

How can such a complex character be built in such a small window? Subtlety and nuance. And one of the ways her story was conveyed was within her character design itself. Angela is very young, yet she has a mature, older appearance in the original game. Her features are sharp with hollowed-out cheeks and tired eyes. Also adding to her maturity is her outfit: a white turtleneck and brown pants.