More female protagonists

[Jinx]

So far in the series there's only been a handful of games where you control/the main character is female (obviously some of the older games you can choose who you control, but most games you can only play as a specific character).

Personally, I'd love to see more games with female main characters. That's also speaking from a female's perspective. How do you boys feel about more female main characters? Girls, does it bother you that most of the FF series is male-centric?

[krissy]

all for it

lightning's games were some of my faves

ff6 was good cause you played as a lot of ladies

ff12 was nice cause you could switch who you wanted

it bothers me that it's male-centric too. it's annoying to see chocobo girls in bikinis running around but no chocobo boys in speedos handing out fireworks too, you know? although i appreciate the ratio of male to female cleavage in the recent games, lots of npc's in ff13's universe seemed to like to show off their chests!

[blackmage_nuke]

Whatever the lead is doesnt bother me but what I like is when the gender ratio is skewed against the lead gender.

Example:
FF5: 1 male to 3 Females
FF6: 3.5 females to 10.5 males

[Colonel Angus]

it bothers me that it's male-centric too. it's annoying to see chocobo girls in bikinis running around but no chocobo boys in speedos handing out fireworks too, you know? although i appreciate the ratio of male to female cleavage in the recent games, lots of npc's in ff13's universe seemed to like to show off their chests!
That's horrible. The male body is an abomination. The Muslims have it backwards. The Men should wear burkas, the Women belly dancer outfits.

[Shorty]

I don't really care about male or female either way. I just want them to have a strong story and character development.

It doesn't bother me that the games have primarily centered around male main characters. There are strong female characters featured in every game, which is enough for me. The females often make good counterparts to the male main characters and I think they have done well so far.

[Colonel Angus]

I don't really care about male or female either way. I just want them to have a strong story and character development.

It doesn't bother me that the games have primarily centered around male main characters. There are strong female characters featured in every game, which is enough for me. The females often make good counterparts to the male main characters and I think they have done well so far.
I feel the same way. The fact that all the characters in X-2 were female didn't make a difference to me whether or not I wanted or liked the game. It was more about "How fun is it".

[Wolf Kanno]

Echoing Shorty's answer, for me it is more about how well written the story and character are. I found Lightning to be a flat character who would have been boring regardless of gender but I can appreciate someone like Shion from Xenosaga who is utterly unlikable but well written.

If it works for the plot and they themselves are written well, gender really doesn't matter. With that said, I wouldn't mind if FF finally broke out of the "Rule of 3" issue.

[Mercen-X]

Whatever the lead is doesnt bother me but what I like is when the gender ratio is skewed against the lead gender.

Example:
FF5: 1 male to 3 Females
FF6: 3.5 females to 10.5 males

So then you would prefer a game where a male leader runs a crew of females..?

How about a game where the entire playable cast is female? While X-2 took on that challenge, it's not technically a main installment.

[Pike]

Girls, does it bother you that most of the FF series is male-centric?

Actually it does not, and in fact I kind of like it, because I prefer playing male characters in games.

Overall though the gender of game characters does not bother me one way or another. So I could take or leave more females - it doesn't affect the gameplay!

[blackmage_nuke]

Whatever the lead is doesnt bother me but what I like is when the gender ratio is skewed against the lead gender.

Example:
FF5: 1 male to 3 Females
FF6: 3.5 females to 10.5 males

So then you would prefer a game where a male leader runs a crew of females..?


Or a game where a female lead runs a crew of males

[Mirage]

I would prefer more females as main characters in my final fantasy games. I like the variety and different perspectives that makes for. I also greatly enjoy games where I have a selection between a male and a female at the beginning of the game, then get delivered more or less the same overarching story, but from two different perspectives. This of course requires that the two are both well written, not just tacking on the feature for lulz

[Loony BoB]

I actually think it's been done okay recently. I am concerned that there seem to be no playable females in FFXV, but I'm sure 2-3 will suddenly become playable. I'm pretty sure SE knows that playable female roles are important in the history of FF games.

I don't mind if a lead if female or male so long as they are tolerable.

[Pumpkin]

I like there to be a decent number of female characters, but they don't have to be the main or playable ones. I'm a bit discouraged by how only 2 females are seen for XV so far and I hope they add to that number, especially since I don't even know if either of them are playable.

[maybee]

If they are like Terra, Serah or Celes then yes please.


If she's like Lightning Farron then haha


























no

[Jinx]

I really like what they did with FFX where Yuna and Tidus were equally the main character.

I made a thread recently about being able to switch which character you control, and I think that would probably quell a lot of my dissatisfaction with how few female protagonists/controllable female characters there are.

[Mirage]

I wish I could have just controlled Yuna in FFX.

Anyway, this is the trout I want to see more of:
54902

[Depression Moon]

I actually think it's been done okay recently. I am concerned that there seem to be no playable females in FFXV, but I'm sure 2-3 will suddenly become playable. I'm pretty sure SE knows that playable female roles are important in the history of FF games.

I don't mind if a lead if female or male so long as they are tolerable.

I hope we have an all male cast this time. It always seemed a bit unrealistic to me how there has always been a female male balance in JRPGs. X-2 got an entire female cast, now it's time for an exclusively male group to save the world.

[Mirage]

Save that for another sequel or spinoff.

[Shorty]

I wish I could have just controlled Yuna in FFX.

Anyway, this is the trout I want to see more of:
54902

I really like this concept. The story could either change depending on the gender chosen, or they could have it fit just the same all around!

[Jinx]

Save that for another sequel or spinoff.

Pretty much this.

[Pumpkin]

I see your point about having an all male ensemble but I just enjoy playing female characters, so it wouldn't be something I look forward to. Also, maybe it would work better as a spinoff, like XV-2 so that the main series can be more diverse.

[Jinx]

Yeah, while I do have some issue with how few female-led games there are, I don't have enough of an issue to not play. But if it was an all-male cast, I probably wouldn't have any desire to play it at all.

[Vyk]

I really don't think XIII and X-2 were handled all that well, so I would probably have an issue if they don't have competent female characters in XV. I don't necessarily care if they're in the lead role or not. But I do take issue whether they exist at all or not. If it's a bunch of competent dudes and a bunch of whimpy demure whiny annoying females to complement them then I'll probably take issue as well

So yeah, I prefer games to have a sprinkling of decent females. Its rarely done very well when the lead role is the female. But I want them on the team at the very least. And if it can be done well, I would approve of having a female lead. But my expectations aren't quite that high

[Colonel Angus]

I think it's arguable that FFI had an all male cast.

[Mirage]

I wish I could have just controlled Yuna in FFX.

Anyway, this is the trout I want to see more of:
54902

I really like this concept. The story could either change depending on the gender chosen, or they could have it fit just the same all around!

In this game (Tales of Xillia) the story is the same, but some cutscenes are different due to the two not being together all the time, and the availiability of some side quests are different as well. It probably didn't require a whole lot of additional voicework and such, so I can't imagine it was very expensive for them to develop the game with two different lead characters.

If you haven't played the game, I really recommend it. It's one of my favourite PS3 games.

[maybee]

I think it's arguable that FFI had an all male cast.

It depends on whether you think that White Mage was originally meant to be male or not.

http://mmii.info/icons/feenix007/ff_8bitWhiteMage.gif

yeah ?

https://encrypted-tbn2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRQmQG2Gx5L6ltbCvsZ5E6Ns6sPxths2UjVJFd2OnKQ8dofWOFB

There is some buff/ strong chicks out there, but it looked like they were going for a religious bible Moses like style ?

I think that it was a feminime/ bishie type guy, but they changed it in later versions to fit common idea that white mage = female

But Minwu is a male white mage, and if you don't think that he's the awesome-sauce, then you're wrong.:colbert:

[Mirage]

religious bible Moses like style
That's why he's white with red hair, right? :p

I think the original white mage was obviously meant to be male, but that he was changed to look more androgynous in the remakes, to let the player more easily pretend that it was a female.

[Psychotic]

I don't really care about male or female either way. I just want them to have a strong story and character development.

It doesn't bother me that the games have primarily centered around male main characters. There are strong female characters featured in every game, which is enough for me. The females often make good counterparts to the male main characters and I think they have done well so far.I agree. I don't ever stop and think "yes, this person is a male" or "this person is a female", I notice "this person is funny" or what have you.

I think the concept of a main character is a little odd. In FFI-VI you could swap your characters about and play as whoever you wanted as your avatar, which I think was great and I'd like to see more of.

That being said, XV seems to be very male-dominated in terms of the main party. It seems like a very conscious decision and I wonder where they're going with it. Square know how popular their females are, so they wouldn't have done it for no reason. Still, I expect some tumblr social justice warriors to get up in arms about it regardless. Can't wait for that...

[Ayen]

I'd like to see more well written female protagonists in general so people get it into their skulls that females on the covers of your games won't mean less sells. I'm of course referencing the fact Sony (I think it was Sony, I forget who exactly) originally wanted to take Ellie off the cover of The Last of Us for stupid reasons. Final Fantasy is hardly the only game series in the world that have been male centric.

That said I'd gladly accept the choice to pick your gender. WRPGs like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Skyrim, Fallout, etc. have spoiled me in this regard. Hell, even Pokemon lets you choose which gender you want to be. I prefer playing as women, so yeah.

[Pike]

Hell, even Pokemon lets you choose which gender you want to be. I prefer playing as women, so yeah.

I had to do a double-take at this because the Pokemon games I poured the most time into didn't! Forgot it got added at the tail end of Gen 2.