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Has anyone else noticed that most female characters in Final Fantasy games generally use magic or bows(unless there is no class/many classes). And if a guy uses magic its either offensive magic or they are really old.

Lets look at this. Rydia summons and uses black magic, Rosa uses Bows and magic, Porom uses white magic, Relm, Celes, and Terra can all use some kind of magic. Fran starting weapon is a bow.

Agree, disagree?

Edit

Thanks for reminding me leilong

This post has been edited by yomama on 15th June 2008 19:49

That seems to be the general way female are handle in a lot of classic fantasy. It still goes on to some extent today. Look at a lot of classic comic book characters (besides Wonder Woman) and you'll see most of them had some sort of powers that kept them out of a physical fight.

Legend of Dragoon also continued this with Shana and Miranda, who both used bows and healing magic. Also in the first FF, the only female characters were white mages

It is proven that females aren't built the same way as men, because of their primal purposes. Women are built for giving birth to children, and men are meant to be tall and muscular, which helps them do more physical tasks like lifting heavy objects. I'm not saying that those are the only special purposes of each gender, but naturally, that's kind of the way we ended up.

Stereotypically, women are the brains and men are the brawn. Magic takes brains, doesn't it? I can also imagine men handling swords better than women, because they're all "virile" and stuff.

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I agree with what all have said on this. I would like to see a women character similiar to a valkerie of norse mythology (i think norse) who rode flying horse with freaking pikes! Id like to see what would happen if the two switched roles, ie men were more attuned with magic (non-physical combat) and women were the ones who ran into battles, weapons blazing with the fury of a thousand suns!!!

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I believe the trend does show that, but I believe this is the correct way to think about it.

I'll try to avoid sounding male chauvanistic, BUT. As a former poster said, the male anatomy is more powerful strength-wise than the female, and may be better suited for direct combat because of that.

But who am i to say that, i'm a wimpy nerd.

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Yeah, but however, in one of my favorite games in history FFT, the gender specific classes are kinda reversed of that thinking, Bards, the buffing wuss, are male only, the Dancer, the alluring status mistress, is built for offensiveness! Not to mention Agrias woops arse.

In FF4, Cecil became a caster as well (sorta) and can use magic, not to mention Edward.

In FF6, yea, it follows the formula, no real defense on that one.

FF7 is pretty customizable, and limits follow the "girls like to heal" formula, but Vincent and Cloud have some of the highest magic after Aeris.

That's about as far as I get in the non-formulaicness, cuz it's been too long since I've played FF8, and FF9 follows the formula, and I haven't played any PS2 ones...yet (FINALLY just got me a PS2 yesterday )

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Well, the new Final Fantasy (XIII) will have a gunblade lady whooping a$$ all ninja whoop woop.... Tifa was mighty physical.... So were Agrias and Meliadoul in Tactics.... Terra and Celes, although magic users, were considered "knight class" by their ability to use large swords and armor (and Celes was a GENERAL, not some opera "floozy!").... so there are some arguments for both sides..... but I do see what you mean.... in 8 they're all long range or magic or both.... actually both, nunchaku and whips and..... a long range shootie thing..... they're all women in 9 (even Steiner. That's right, I said it).

that is the fact apart from ff8 where they use weapons and XII where i had them with HAMMERS!!!!!! :D:D

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Yeah, that's too bad. Female characters are always stuck with the out-of-the-way, supporting roles.

I did, however, like that Celes in FF6 was pretty tough, and her main weapon was a sword.

It's true for the most part that women in comic books may seem weaker than their female counterparts, but there are some notable exceptions.
Jean Grey/Phoenix from the X-Men is one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel universe, even though she was considerably the weakest of the original X-Men. Also, Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four has been described as the most powerful of the Fantastic Four.

And, there are certainly a lot of powerful female warriors in Final Fantastic, like Agrias, Meliadoul, Beatrix, Tifa, etc.

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Lets look at this. Rydia summons and BM's

This means something COMPLETELY different in the medical world. I about LMAOROTFLBBQ-ed myself when I read this. If Rydia really does these things, I hope she does them in the privacy of a bathroom stall.


Even though FF VII can be "counted out" due to customization, and Cloud does have one of the highest magic stats... the proof is in the pudding:

All of Cloud's limits are unspeakable power topped off with awesome sauce.

All of Aeris' limits are Cures, Esunas, and Revives. And she single handedly controls Holy, the ultimate White Magic.

Tifa, in her mighty fisticuffs fashion, seems to break this rule... until you remember her limit... that ever so manly Beat Rush combo attack. You know, the one with the Water Kick, Meteodrive, Dolphin Blow, and Meteor Strike... elemental attacks.

FF VIII, also with the full customization, breaks the rule... not really.
Quistis learns Blue Magic as her limit.
Selphie casts massive magic combos as her limit.
Rinoa is a Sorceress, as is Edea. And by Sorceress, I mean a trait that only the female characters could contain that is inherent evil magic.

FFX speaks for itself: Yuna is a White Mage Summoner, Lulu is a Black Mage, and Rikku is a thief - job compensation for a lower attack stat.

And in X-2, when summoning wasn't an option anymore, they compensated Yuna's magic with guns... Yay for ranged weapons! Also, they paired her up with a big sword-toting chick that seemed awkward and out of place, probably because she should have been a dude.

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It's not that the women are wimps... It's that a gigantic sword is just a more masculine weapon. And plus, all the girl/women designs are thin and attractive... There's no way they could use a large weapon. So they get stuck with the less bulky bows and smaller swords and magic.

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Also, they paired her up with a big sword-toting chick that seemed awkward and out of place, probably because she should have been a dude. 

That statement just made my day!

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Odd thing is, in FFXII the two women characters that I use most often (Ashe and Penelo) use a Giant Spear and a Katana, compared to a bow or even staff.

But yeah, it is commen for female characters to use lighter weapons and magic.

This isn't just a Final Fantasy thing, it's the general swords and sorcery D&D style. Women are the gentile spirits that usually bring reason (and love) into the story. Males are the knights or hot headed wizards that counter-balance that. As of late they try to throw in a few variants to the mix, but generally women will favour spirit and speed over strength and defence... especially since female "armour" in most video games is a g-string.

Of course the main character (usually a male) will have the balance of all of the stats.

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it does seem like RPG /fantasy games/stories in general.
Even a non-mage female characters seems to be more or stealth than raw power characters (can'tthink of many barbaric female classes >_>

edit: but hey every guys like hot female character with dual katana xD
....no? xP

This post has been edited by Bismark87 on 28th June 2008 03:13

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Bismark87: a Valkyrie class might qualify. The only example of this I'm familiar with is from Nethack, but there are probably many other examples.

Also, as for something that fits the stereotype: Selan, from Lufia 2, though she uses swords and rods, not bows.

On the other hand, Artea, who is male, is considered a magic user by hardcore players, and also uses bows.

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For anyone who played Legend of Mana (Squaresoft), there's a peculiar female character who combines both brute force with a gigantic sledgehammer and healing. When someone types how to mark a spoiler, if no one has done it yet, i'll post who it is ^^

(By the way... i'm probably the only one who used Cloud in FFVII as a healer, ignoring his Limit Breaks)

This post has been edited by Lucky_Clover on 21st September 2008 07:37

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Well, it's true for most FF games, yes. But elsewhere the stereotype's broken on occasion. The best examples I can think of are Ayla from Chrono Trigger, Alena from Dragon Quest IV, Presea from Tales of Symphonia, and Sapphire from Disgaea 3 (she's a parody of that stereotype, it's hysterical)

This post has been edited by laszlow on 21st September 2008 17:09

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I'd definitely say this trend is not limited to Final Fantasy games. I personally don't mind. I tend to agree with those stereotypes. Men do tend to be larger and women a bit smaller. Given the melee/ranged selection I'd tend to assign the roles as they've typically been done.

However, I do think it's refreshing to see most tropes turned on their side. Ayla from Chrono Trigger comes to mind as do Kazin and Tyrin from Shining Force 2.

Quote (leilong @ 15th June 2008 18:42)

Tifa, in her mighty fisticuffs fashion, seems to break this rule... until you remember her limit... that ever so manly Beat Rush combo attack. You know, the one with the Water Kick, Meteodrive, Dolphin Blow, and Meteor Strike... elemental attacks.

Umm... none of her Limits are elemental what-so-ever. They may have elemental names, but they aren't elemental.

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Quote (laszlow @ 21st September 2008 10:35)

Well, it's true for most FF games, yes. But elsewhere the stereotype's broken on occasion. The best examples I can think of are Ayla from Chrono Trigger, Alena from Dragon Quest IV, Presea from Tales of Symphonia, and Sapphire from Disgaea 3 (she's a parody of that stereotype, it's hysterical)

yeah, I was going to mention Alena too, though when I first saw her, I thought "oh hey, she must be the mage in the group, she's wearing a pointy hat after all..."

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