Life is Strange almost had Male Protagonists

[Freya]

lifeisstrange.jpg

Life is Strange is the a new interactive drama episodic game being released by DONTNOD entertainment and SQUARE ENIX. The game has an element of rewinding time to cause butterfly affects with the story line. The choices you make will cause rippling effects throughout the timelines. It features female protagonists, which almost didn't happen.

When DONTNOD was marketing the game to various developers, most wanted to change the main two female protagonists to male ones feeling that male would resonate more with players. It wasn't until they came upon SQUARE ENIX that they weren't told to change the character's gender.

"Square is basically the only publisher that didn't want to change a single thing about the game," DONTNOD co-founder Jean-Maxime "J-Max" Moris says in the video. "We had other publishers telling us 'Make it a male lead character,' and Square didn't even question that once."

Life is Strange is about a highschool senior who rewinds time to find out how a friend went missing. Life Is Strange will be available Jan 30th, 2015 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

What are your thoughts on how Square Enix was the only Developer that wanted to keep this episodic adventure intact?

[Colonel Angus]

Doesn't shock me. Square has always been fair w/ female protagonists &/or strong female characters. Parasite Eve, FFVI, FFX/X-2 are just a few games that feature one or the other. I know XV is a sausage party, so maybe they're hoping this'll balance things out.

[Freya]

Square enix confuses me sometimes. They do this then they have boobalicious Cidney. This is a great move though.

[Colonel Angus]

Square enix confuses me sometimes. They do this then they have boobalicious Cidney. This is a great move though.

Well, just because Cidney is boobalicious it doesn't make her a weak or poor character. Everyone's making assumptions on just her look w/o getting to know the character.

[Ayen]

GOOD!

Square enix confuses me sometimes. They do this then they have boobalicious Cidney. This is a great move though.

Well, just because Cidney is boobalicious it doesn't make her a weak or poor character. Everyone's making assumptions on just her look w/o getting to know the character.

Don't know who's been saying all that. All I see are comments that's the outfit is sexualized, stupid, etc. And I agree with that.

[Vyk]

Well I guess I'm definitely buying this game. I hadn't heard about the controversy over things like Remember Me until well after my girlfriend had rented it and played through the whole thing, or I would have bought that game for the same reason. I don't think I've ever heard of Square doing executive meddling into any of their side developers. Pretty sure Sleeping Dogs and the Tomb Raider reboot were allowed to do their own thing. I imagine that's how Human Revolution ended up being such a tolerable entry into the Deus Ex franchise

Edit: Actually, upon further reflection, I think I'd like to know what developers they tried first who were trying to force them to appeal to all male gamers. I doubt that information is in the video, or if they'll ever release it, but I haven't watched the video yet. About to go make dinner

[Depression Moon]

Square Enix taking it without hesitation doesn't surprise me either like others have said, but I wonder why they didn't go back to Capcom since they already accepting of a female protagonist the first time. Japanese companies in general seem to be fine with making games with female protagonists. Capcom for example had Resident Evils 1, 2, 3, and Code Veronica with female protagonists. You also have the Dino Crisis series, Tron Bonne adventures, Okami, and the face of Darkstalkers is Morrigan. Square has had FFs VI, X-2, XIII, XIII-2, XIII-3, Threads of Fate, and the Parasite Eve series all with female protagonists, not to mention the recent Tomb Raider.

I have a feeling that they go to western publishers first, because when I think about it, there aren't many western studios that have a track record with a lot of female protagonists.

[Freya]

Well I guess I'm definitely buying this game. I hadn't heard about the controversy over things like Remember Me until well after my girlfriend had rented it and played through the whole thing, or I would have bought that game for the same reason. I don't think I've ever heard of Square doing executive meddling into any of their side developers. Pretty sure Sleeping Dogs and the Tomb Raider reboot were allowed to do their own thing. I imagine that's how Human Revolution ended up being such a tolerable entry into the Deus Ex franchise

Edit: Actually, upon further reflection, I think I'd like to know what developers they tried first who were trying to force them to appeal to all male gamers. I doubt that information is in the video, or if they'll ever release it, but I haven't watched the video yet. About to go make dinner

It doesn't say in the video. What's quoted in the original post is what is said in the video.

It was probably western developers. They seem to have the harder position of female leads in games.

[Mirage]

I'm just wondering who's decided that a game must have a male protagonist in order to appeal to someone who is male.

[Rin Heartilly]

I'm just wondering who's decided that a game must have a male protagonist in order to appeal to someone who is male.

I second this.

[Del Murder]

I'm just wondering who's decided that a game must have a male protagonist in order to appeal to someone who is male.

Nobody decided that, because that's not what the article says. I'm sure there's truth to the market research even if it isn't right.

Kudos to SE for actually going with the creators' vision.

[Mirage]

I didn't say that's what the article said. That wasn't really the point.

[Night Fury]

I read elsewhere that they didn't want a female protagonist because males wouldn't want to see their character kiss a male.

“We had some [publishers] that said, ‘Well, we don’t want to publish it because that’s not going to succeed. You can’t have a female character in games. It has to be a male character, simple as that.’” Moris also said of that game that the lead character’s gender “just felt right from the beginning of development,” and that changing it for marketing purposes would have “endangered the consistency of the whole game.” Apparently with Remember Me, people took issue with male gamers playing a female character who kisses a male character. “We had people tell us, ‘You can’t make a dude like the player kiss another dude in the game, that’s going to feel awkward,’” said Moris.

[Ayen]

Two words: Mass Effect.

Go smurf yourself, anonymous publishers.

[Mirage]

I remember that time i vomited all over my keyboard because my shepard had sex with that beefcake down in the hangar.

I actually wanted to friendzone him but he would have none of that trout