FF8…was full of teenage drama. I didn’t like it; I don’t remember many of the the specifics of the plot, and the characters were boring.

You probably know as much about FF12 as I do, since it’s not out yet. One of the female characters who’s name I don’t remember at the moment is supposedly a powerful, intelligent warrior-type, though.

As for FFX-2, I totally agree with you. I played through it because I wanted to see what the FFX characters did after defeating Sin, but I didn’t particular like it. The story wasn’t interesting and the characters were annoying.

Some other RPGs that have physically/mentally strong female characters that you might want to check out, if you haven’t already: Wild Arms 3 (Virginia, and she’s the lead, though she begins the game rather inexperienced), Wild Arms 4 (Raquel is a crazy powerful physical attacker and intelligent, too), Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance (Titania, a paladin, is sort of a mentor to your main character and can singlehandedly win many battles), Suikoden III (Chris was my favorite of the three main characters and a fully armored knight), and Shadow Hearts 3 (Shania is dressed for porn, but she seems pretty intelligent and the game’s strongest fighter).

There are plenty of strong warrior-type RPG women out there (though male leads are admittedly more common).

I think that was more the point of the article, rather than emphasising how no RPGs are different ever. It’s also more than a few years old by now, so that’s another thing to keep in mind.

In fact, if there was a lead character in FF6, she’d be it (at the very least, she was one of the most important characters, even if there was no true lead role present in that game).

Personally, I’d call FF6 the most progressive in the series thus far. (FFX-2 had an all-woman cast, but their main purpose was to be eye-candy for the guys and a “dress up barbie” for the girls. Not exactly progressive, imho.) Although, to be fair, I never actually played through 7, 8, or 12. And I don’t know much about 12 outside of the beginning portion.

Personally, I don’t really care whether the lead is male or female, or what kind of naughty bits the healer has, just as long as the game is good.

Yeah, now if only marketing and game development could get that memo…

I’m not so sure that I agree with the article you posted — it exaggerates, or at least I think it does. There are clearly some cases where the article is true, such as FF4’s Rosa/Cecil and FF9’s Zidane/Garnet, but it doesn’t seem to mention (and in fact, denies) that this “healer girl/lead male warrior” setup isn’t the only way Final Fantasy games are done…or console RPGs in general, for that matter. There are plenty of strong warrior-type RPG women out there (though male leads are admittedly more common).

FF5’s Butz was a weak lead at best (now, admittedly, I only played through about 1/2 FF5), and the game focused on the other characters just as much as it did on him (I read a walkthrough once — later in the game, the party is 1 male and 3 females, which I definitely thought was different from the norm). FF6 didn’t really have a healer girl. Terra could certainly heal, but she was hardly helpless and could equip some of the best weapons in the game *and* blast her enemies with strong magic. In fact, if there was a lead character in FF6, she’d be it (at the very least, she was one of the most important characters, even if there was no true lead role present in that game).

Personally, I don’t really care whether the lead is male or female, or what kind of naughty bits the healer has, just as long as the game is good.

You seem to have some experience with Square’s games and RPGs in general, but I can’t help but feel that you may have formed your opinions based on a narrow sampling of games in the genre (after all, some games have more healer-girls than others…). Perhaps you can clear this up?

I’ve been playing video games since I was too young to hold a controller (my mother, who played with me, was always very nice about listening to my, “Go here! Do that! No, pick THAT up! No, no, no, use THAT spell!” directions, but I think a part of her was relieved when I was old enough to do it myself), so, I’d have to disagree that my argument is based on a “narrow sampling”.

But I don’t see where I said “the girl is always the weak healer”, rather that it was one of the most prevalent archetypes for girls in RPGs. And I stand by that. With recent games that stance has become less rigid due to character customizability becoming desireable, but even with FFXII, the first girl you get in your party is already geared up to be the magic user. You can change that, but generally when there’s a predisposition people (including me) don’t.

And on the subject of prevalent archetypes, you pointed out Rydia — who I have to say is probably one of the most influential video game characters in my life. She represents another one, similar to the Healer Girl. She’s still physically weak, but instead of healing she uses destruction based magic. You can see her archetype in games other than the FF series. The Breath of Fire series, for instance, relies heavily on that stereotype. The first one casts Nina as the Healer, but subsequent games have their Ninas as the primary attack-based magic user.

In regards to Square and their portrayal of women, I’d further recommend reading this article: The Male Lead Syndrome: How Far has Squaresoft Really Come?

Ultimately, I didn’t delve into the whole task of listing all of the archetypes of women because that’s a whole series of posts in itself. I’ve considered doing it — and I do hope that one day I’ll get to it — but right now I have so much more on my plate that it’s not something I want to take on right now.

Rydia in FF4 was a magic user, but she used damaging magic — and few of the other characters could come close to matching her damage until the very late stages of the game. If you wanted something dead, you went to Rydia. In one scene, Rydia also saves the party from being killed by one of the big bad guys.

Terra and Celes from FF6 were good with magic, but they were also good fighters, and two of the more powerful characters that you could pick. The best of both worlds, in other words. Both have some cool scenes in the game; Celes saves the party in one of them.

Tifa in FF7 used martial arts to beat down her enemies. She also saved Cloud from madness, pretty much all by herself. Yuffie can also be a fairly powerful fighter.

Freya in FF9 was one of the best fighters in the game. Beatrix, who was only playable for a short time, was an insanely powerful swordfighter — stronger than any of your own characters.

The main character of FF12 is going to be a non-healer girl type of female.

Agrias and Meliadoul from Final Fantasy Tactics were powerful swordfighters.

I can think of other fighter-females in other Square and non-Square RPGs, but I think you probably understand what i’m getting at.

I know that there are some healer-girls-with-staves characters in Square’s games (Polom, Rosa, Yuna, and Garnet, to name a few). But, on the other hand, there are also several martial females, too. For that matter, there are plenty of male spellcaster-types that fight with “wussy” weapons (Tellah, Edward, Palom, Strago, Vivi).

I’m not saying there isn’t sexism in Square’s games — but you post doesn’t concede the fact that women in RPGs take on a variety of roles besides healer-girl. You seem to have some experience with Square’s games and RPGs in general, but I can’t help but feel that you may have formed your opinions based on a narrow sampling of games in the genre (after all, some games have more healer-girls than others…). Perhaps you can clear this up?

Regards,

AM
http://www.adarahs.com

FYI- Adarahs is not a person, but rather the name of our film team. I understand the difference between a critique of a person and the piece. I typed it to mean our film team, not the poster adarahs. Sorry for the confusion.

You, however, do not have that leeway and for blatantly ignoring the red text right above the comment box where its says, “By posting here, you agree to abide by the rules listed,” you are banned. People who are unwilling to play nice are not welcome here, period.

adarahsmember: While there is something such as overanalysis, it is not determined by whether or not what I read from the subject agrees with author intent. Neither you, nor adarahs, nor Atrius-the-banned have engaged in anything but telling me I am wrong because that’s not what you guys meant. You are missing the important part of what I was doing here: Discussing Megan’s portrayal as it relates to greater context of Square games.

The only places in which you may inform me as to what actually happened were the parts where I was speculating as to the intent, or the reasoning behind something. The rest - which is the true meat of my piece - is not up to you to decide. You can agree, disagree, or whatnot, but you do not have the authority to tell me that the frame in which I chose to examine the piece is off limits.

And something that I apparently wasn’t clear about when I said repeatedly that I enjoyed the film: I am not attacking adarahs. It is a useful skill to have to be able to separate the critique of the work from the critique of the person. While I think it would be great if y’all could actually take something positive from this critique - namely to step back and examine some of the subtle sexism both in Square and, by extension, your piece - the facts are that I don’t “fault” adarahs, or anyone involved in the project, for the portrayal of Megan. Even if you had been able to balance the team in terms of gender, the very fact that you were making a Square parody means that there would be sexism. And I still would have commented on it.

Honestly, I had come to the conclusion that the obvious way in which you highlighted the sexism in Square games by beating up on Megan and making her absurdly weak was a good thing. I am a little sad that, instead of taking my critique with grace and actually thinking on what I have said, your team has opted to get on, and stay on, the defensive and take only negative things from this post.