It's probably beating a dead pig at this point, but I haven't seen anybody else mention this enemy in the game.
(Under a read more for antisemitism)
This enemy type called "Mr. Pinch" can be found in one of the later levels of the game, in the slum section. He hides in the upper portion of the screen to grab the player and fling them upward. He also pulls a coin out of their back pocket.
I don't think I need to pull up the direct references images, but this guy looks like an extremely antisemitic caricature. I've also seen the same said about the merchant npc "Mr. Sticks", but I think that design is a bit less egregious.
Its just that when you have TWO character designs that look this much like antisemitic cartoons, and their gameplay behavior is about money/greed, there's absolutely no way to wave that off as an accident or fluke. And especially after seeing so many of the creator's racist, misogynistic, ableist, and transphobic comments; I'm not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on anything.
This whole thing is a huge bummer. I don't think that this situation is quite that same as Hogwarts Legacy, most people didn't go into it knowing anything about this guy's views, and the game had just come out about a month ago. A lot of folks were having fun and enjoying the positive aspects of the game like it's animation, gameplay and music. And aside from this enemy and the racist cheese slime, there isn't much within the game itself that comes across as negative. It's also really easy to miss how bad those enemies are when you're playing, I talked to some other people who had played and none of them had noticed Mr. Pinch's stealing animation. But, once you know about them, it can sour the whole experience.
I've seen a few different reactions to this situation, some people have talked about pirating the game and modding out/replacing the nasty elements, and I've seen other people who are going to stay away from anything remotely related to this game because the entire thing gives them a bad feeling now. I think those are both totally reasonable. But I'd say the barest minimum should probably be to not financially support this game anymore. Avoid buying the soundtrack, plushies, etc, and don't buy it on Steam if you hadn't yet.
