posted by Cap'n Cosmo at 1:43 PM

Friday, May 16, 2003

 

Feminism and Video Games
Or, Another Attack of the Whiny, Stupid People

Right, so I came across an article in the New York Times about female sterotypes in video games. I had high hopes. What I got was the typical wishy-washy excrement. And, worse, they hadn't even done their homework. They were talking about kick-butt gals in video games. Or should I say fighting games. The cited Laura Croft specifically, but also mentioned Tekken and other fighting games. You know, fighting games aren't the only games where one is required to kick some oshiri*. The writer totally ignored a genre near and dear to me. The role playing game.

Role playing games, or RPGs, usually consist of somethign bad happening and a hero having to fight his way towards saving the world, or the person is a character in a world where one must interact with the other kids. Of course, if the other kids want to fight, then you've got to kick the other kid's butt. Mainly I'm going to stick to the first type I mentioned because that's the type I play.

Although I have played Lunar2, Wild Arms3, and a few others, the games that really come to mind are those are those of the Final Fantasy series (as if you couldn't see that one coming). I've played I, II, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X, though some have been played more than others. And, I've noticed the evolution of characters through the games. The first one only have four main charcters, and it is entirely possible to go through the game with no girls. As you more on the cast gets larger and larger. So, let's compare the cast members to one another. I'm going to stick to VII, VIII, IX, and V as those are the ones I've played the most.

In VII there are three female characters. Aeris is a wuss. There are no two ways about this. You CANNOT change this. Well, I guess you could try... Aeris's perogative is to be a healer, and healer never get to be cool. So, let's move on to the other main female, Tifa. She is also pretty wussy. I've heard stories of her becoming powerful. But after something happens the Aeris which I'm not allowed to say, you've just lost your healer. Who you gonna call? Hint: It's not Barret. No, Tifa is much better suited to this occupation. Yuffie, a hidden character, is the total opposite of the other two in the fact that she kicks MUCHO BUTT! She's also a thief, an occupation usually not given to females. So FFVII gets a score of 4 on the feminist scale. Pitiful, no?

Final Fantasy VIII is doing a bit better in the fact that half of the cast is female (all three of them) and the plot focuses on superpowerful uber-onnas**. Rinoa, the female lead, is pretty wussy. She has to rely on her DOG to save her! Until something happens to her *cough*shebecomesasorceress*cough*. Then she's pretty decent. Selphie is one of those characters that can go either way. In my experience, she's been mildly butt-kicking. But she has nunchucks! Anyway... Quistis is really the feminist glory here. And I use that losely. She's kick butt. She's strong. She's so cool she's barely older then Squall and is his teacher. She's beautiful. But her personality is so... stereotyped. So, FFVIII, with it's plot being woman-centric, gets a 6. Better than FFVII. But wait, it gets worse.

The women of FFIX are... messed up. Garnet's a pansy. Eiko was raised by moogles and you meet her at the age of 6. Brahne is blue! Freya's okay. She kicks booty, but is doing this to find her lost love. Kind of the stereotypically girly thing to do if you ask me. But then comes Beatrix, and all is good. Beatrix is the main general for the Alexandrian army, and she does so serious butt-kicking. You hear her reputation before you fight her, and it should strike fear in your heart. If it didn't, after you fight her you at least believe what they said. And she has a sense of justice. She's awesome! Not to mention, all the officers in the Alexandrian army are female. So, this one gets a five, for Beatrix alone. And maybe Freya a little bit.

So now you're thinking these stereotypes must be present. Then let me point you towards FFX-2, the first FF with an entirely female cast. And let me also point towards the last one of these games into which I have put signifigant hours. As a warning, this contains many FFV spoilers. But I wouldn't do it unless it was necissary.

It's not secret FFV is my favorite game. And the reason why is the major amount of customization. You are not assigned classed, but you get to chose them. This gives you the flexibility to make this snes game have a feminism score as high as its age. In the begining of the game you have two men and two women (one masquerading as a man). But after the old dude kicks the bucket you have a party of one man and three women! Wow, a ten year old game having more female leads than male? But wait, it gets better. Since you can chose jobs, you can make your men into sissies and healers and let the girlies fight the good fight. My women? Knight, Thief, Samurai, Dragoon, Summoner. My men? Geomancer, Blue Mage, Samurai, White Mage (ha!), Dancer (double ha!). You can give the women the chance to be strong and invincible, and I have not come across another game that can do this (with the exception of X-2). Feminism score: 10,000,000!

So, as we've seen, the stereotypes depend on the games. They depend on the need for types of characters. But mostly they depend on the player's will to make the game girls into lean, mean fighting machines.

Join us next time for Which IS the best Final Fantasy? My Totally Biased Take on this Great Debate.