Argh.

[pyrephox]

I have just read an entire thread on the lack of strong women characters in the Final Fantasy series wherein /everyone/ utterly ignored the existance of X-2.

Yes, in general, the FF series is bad about making the females the mages and healers who don't get in there and get their hands dirty. This is very true. But, damned, people, give Square props for making a game where /every/ playable character is a female, and more, all playable characters can take any role you want them to. You can, in fact, have an entire party of sword-wielding berzerkers for FF X-2 if you like, and every one of them will be a woman. (Moreover, the female characters in X-2 are strong, self-actualized women who regularly kick ass and take names. Yeah, characters like LeBlanc are nothing to get excited about, on an empowerment level, but damn.)

That's kinda frustrating.

Comments

[patpandahat.livejournal.com]

I think it goes back to the dress-up doll or Charlie's Angel image to X-2. Like no empowered girl could dress in the fashions any of those girls do, it can *only* be that they're oppressed tools of the patriarchy or some annoying crap like that, because they wear shorts.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

That's a shame, because the 'dress-up' system was /fun/. :P

[cythraul.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, I heard a lot of rumbling from male reviewers about not wanting to play with glorified dress-up dolls...

[patpandahat.livejournal.com]

Well, personally, I think much of that is just ass-covering, given the vast majority of dress-up dolls I see are skewed to titillate male users.

It's like the video-game review equivalent of "I only read these lad's mags for the articles."

At the same time, god, X-2 was just so positive and optimistic a game for the Final Fantasy series that it's unfortunate more people didn't like it.

[aerlorn.livejournal.com]

Or it could go back to the 'FX was so bad, I'm not playing a sequel to it'. Add the 'dress-up' slander that was added to it, and there's probably quite a few people out there who just didn't play it and hence, forgot about it.

[cythraul.livejournal.com]

I'm discovering that, in worldgen, choosing genders entirely at random (except where it would be too painfully illogical) produces extremely interesting results.

[cpip.livejournal.com]

The last time I tried that, the randomizer heavily favored women, such that I actually felt the need to add a couple of men to keep it from pretty much having a nearly-exclusive run of females in charge of, well, everything.

[cythraul.livejournal.com]

That's half the fun! :D See, I just run with it - right now it's given me three hundred years of royal succession with, by pure chance, zero male monarchs!

In a small sample, you're always going to get weird behaviours that don't look uniformly random - behaviours that characters can notice and comment on ICly.

[caravel.livejournal.com]

I found your LJ from our mutual friend foolsguinea, and your SNK vs. Capcom Card Fighters icon interested me enough to actually go look at your LJ.

I don't think FF X-2 is the best "strong women in FF" example. What about FF V, where 1/2 the party is female in the beginning, and 3/4 is female at the end? Or FF VI, where Celes puts the group back together? (And Terra's a good character there, too. Yes, they're both magicians, but they're no slouch in a fight, either.)

I might think that FF X-2 isn't a good example because I really didn't like it--after 20 hours of play, I was waiting for the plot to start happening, and it still wasn't, so I moved on with my life.