>>715765631>artistic freedomThese characters aren't ugly because of "artistic freedom". Nobody sat down and went "right, we need an ugly actress for our game because that's more realistic". Any human male with eyes would've cast an attractive girl in the role.
You only get casting like this from 2 mindsets. 1 is ideologically minded suicide, the idea that the male gaze is icky and must be avoided to bring about a utopian society where men show no interest in women. And the second is just basic female competition, also known as jealousy. You can't cast an attractive girl in the game because that might reduce my dating prospects as men realize that girls more attractive than me exist!
Neither of those are artistic freedom, they are as far away from art as you can get. Where this game actually stands is probably somewhere in the middle, getting most of its funding from the 1st category, meaning this choice is entirely profit motivated.