I think in cases like this, we have to consider what the author (which isn't necessarily a person with a vision, but can also be a company with a business agenda) would have been thinking when they came up with a character's appearance and stated age.
There are multiple reasons why I might want to make a character with a particular body type. Maybe I just want to feature many different body types, maybe I want to make some sort of comment that requires this body type, maybe I want to use it to titillate. An author is not necessarily innocent, and the reasons they give for a character being childlike or sexualized may just be a way to excuse an intention that they feel will be criticized.
Fictional characters are not real people. If they look a certain way or if they act a certain way, it's because someone chose for that to happen. Even if there is an excuse, it doesn't change why the decisions were made, especially if the excuse is transparent and doesn't affect anything else about the character.
Considering that
every other woman in the DOA franchise is designed to titillate, and that
it is a prominently advertised feature of the series, I don't think anyone was considering petite women when they made Marie Rose. They didn't do it to be realistic or for variety. They did it to titillate a group that their other characters do not reach.
Yep, Joe Lieberman won the war back in the 90s and gaming has been all polical correctness since. This is why there is no violence or nudity in games anymore. I blame Howard Lincoln for selling the industry out. Oh never mind, we can't blame people who were actually making decisions, so I'll blame Soccer Moms instead.
Mortal Kombat was a fun franchise, why cant we get games like that anymore?
