Comment on Planescape: Torment, Part 2: …to the Desktop by Oscar Hurtado

Speaking as someone who grew up playing more Japanese RPG titles and far less western CRPGs (although I am still incredibly fond of Ultima 7 in particular, which was a constant presence on my COMPAQ Presario desktop PCs as a kid), I've never felt that there would be an inherent disconnect between making female characters who are conventionally appealing in either visual, romantic or platonic terms and attempting to tell an emotionally, dramatically or philosophically compelling story.

There's a very long history of Japanese developers playing around with those elements in their storytelling output for both consoles and PC. Their projects have achieved varying degrees of success, ranging all the way from the juvenile to the sophisticated in quality as well as in their representations of fictional women filtered through the anime aesthetic. Whether you consider that as a good or bad trend is a question of preference, but...I'd argue that approach, let's call it "all-encompassing" in nature, has continued into the modern era. One example woul dbe the works of Yoko Taro (of Nier fame).

That said, those creators based in Japan (and now also in places like China and South Korea) typically aren't nearly as cynical about it as the mention of "babes" in the Torment pitch. They just tend to create games (or animated productions) with attractive, heavily stylized people as a matter of course. After all this time, even terms like "husbando" and "waifu" have found a non-ironic appreciation. It's considered a point of charm or appeal, not something trying to be mean-spirited.

I know some CRPG veterans still tend to look down on JRPGs for their casts fulls of pretty boys and pretty girls embarking on a quest (often to figuratively or literally topple and dethrone a deity), among other objections, but I think the both critical and commercial success of the industry, which is very hard to deny as an overall trend, speaks much louder in the long run.