Time of the month:a rant about female characters

Ask questions about the personality and backstory of the multitude of characters in the Suikoden series.
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CameoChic444
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Time of the month:a rant about female characters

Post by CameoChic444 »

I don't know if anyone eles feels like this but aren't female characters quite weak overall compared to their male counterparts?
In terms of the physically strong characters I can only think of Cecile who rates near the very top. Others such as Valeria are strong enough but compared to Victor, Pahn, Humphrey etc she doesn't fare that well and her other stats are mediocre. Heck, even the main character and Flik can beat her and they are much better overall.
So you may think that magically females score more highly. In the main this is true but the top few are always men. Most notably Luc, Crowley, Mazus etc O.K. There are plenty of very good female magic users but by level 60 the only one to have a score of over 200 is Sarah and you don't even have full control of her.
I think there is also definitely an imbalance with the good all-rounders. Does anyone eles feel like this?
Last edited by CameoChic444 on Sun Aug 22, 2004 1:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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patapi
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Post by patapi »

Ronnie Bell, Oulan and Emily were one of the best physical fighters in their respective games. At least you don't get a female version of Tuta... *shudders*
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Vextor
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Post by Vextor »

I managed to make Valeria dish out more than 20000 damage with one hit. Flik or Viktor would never be able to deal that much damage. Valeria rules.
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True Griever
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Post by True Griever »

How did you manage to do that amount of damage with Valeria...? I would like to see the set up for that amount of Damage, cuz I always liked Valeria and this would be another good reason to pick her over Kasumi and having her in your final team :D.
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CameoChic444
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Post by CameoChic444 »

Don't get me wrong there are plenty of good female characters but several points annoy me such as Odessa being the best character in s1. She seemed to have better luck, skill, speed and magic than the main character and about the same power but obviously was killed off near the beginning.
I know it's a cliche but i'd rather the female characters were the best at magic if not at power but they are never in the first few slots. I don't know much about s4 but from what i've read it isn't going to be much better and with the return of a certain character occupying you-know-whos spot i feel that the girls won't get a look in.
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Silvermouse
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Post by Silvermouse »

Well, I think most video game companies' target audience is teenage boys, so that's probably one of the bigger reasons why we have a lack of strong female roles as compared to male roles, but they are out there.

On the mundane side, Suikoden 3 has some pretty powerful female mages (Estella, Sarah), and Emily just about destroys everyone else in combat.
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CameoChic444
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Post by CameoChic444 »

I haven't played 3 but in 2 there were almost no good female characters aside from wakaba and a few others. In the first one there were quite a few - Cleo,Sonya etc but more selfishly i'd love to see a female mage with a magic score above 200 by level 60, even if that would mean she'd have virtually no hp or defense. From what I've read this is unlikely to happen - what's the obsession with old eccentric codgers anyway??? - who do they appeal to?
I know Sarah fulfilled the criteria in 3 but from what i can gather you didn't have complete control of her :( I want a top top female mage who is neither 70, 13 or eccentric!
Mymiridion
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Post by Mymiridion »

Wakaba wasnt the only good female in 2, there was Rina, and Eilie, which i thought were pretty good. In 3 Viki was a pretty good mage too. And i agree Emily pretty much destroys anything.

I think, like was said before, video games tend to have teenage guys as main characters. I dont think anything is wrong with it, and id rather play a game with a male character.
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Post by Soul Eater »

Well I think the female characters are worse fighters overall, but I can't complain about that as it's true in real life. I know it may be un-PC to say so but if you take 50 random men and 50 random women the men will be better fighters overall.

In the games the women tend to have higher Skill, Speed and Magic. Luck is pretty evenly shared.

Most of the characters with outstanding stats tend to be male, such as Luc and Crowleys magic stat. I think of Magic as being like academic intelligence. Females score higher overall in school exams, but most of the outstanding and highest results come from males. Men might not like being told that women are more intelligent on average, and women might not like hearing that there are far fewer female geniuses, but it's a statistic. Still, a statistic is just for generalising, so it doesn't mean it is true for everybody.. just usually.
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CameoChic444
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Post by CameoChic444 »

You Chauvinist :wink: I can see your' point but in real life academic ability is only one measure of intellect - there is common sense which I think a lot of so-called brainiacs lack and I tend to see magic more in line with creativity and imagination anyway which women would more lean towards.
It is only right that the main character should be male as most players are but that is why it is more important for the female characters, which are in the minority, to be worthwhile and not simply novelty characters. Having speed and skill are useful but the most exciting stats are power and magic and women should be better represented. There is nothing realistic about attacking or using magic in this way so normal rules shouldn't apply - After all if someone stabbed you with a sword you wouldn't just lose a few hps!
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Silvermouse
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Post by Silvermouse »

Play Suikoden 3. Chris Lightfellow, a female, leads all of the knights of Zexen. Sarah, both Vikis and Estella are all excellent mage characters.

Progress is being made! :wink:
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CameoChic444
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Post by CameoChic444 »

Well the games do have a pretty girl/ soldier beauty attack etc ...but they also have plenty of pretty boys and such - Maybe there is discrimination the other way at times, I mean look .at Lepant's stats and compare him in usefulness to Eileen's magic stat! - I was always confused how he could be so useless when he had such an important role in the first and even the second game
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Post by Lechium »

in Sui1 Camille is on the level with Flick when it comes to about anything, from what I remeber... she was a monster and that's all I know lol.
There are plenty of great female charcters in sui's especially in 3.
Aside from the mentioned ones Sierra in S2 was great fighter/mage, and Nei was a great support charcters/lil bit of fighter in S3.

And dont forget Kasumi!

P.S. in S3 the female ninja (Ayame) seems to be superiror to the male one (Watari).

P.P.S. I am a bit confused about nature of your complains -- Suikoden is about wars, and wars are predomnantly fought by men (like it or not, army is 50+% male in most countries). The ratio of men at the frontline of any given war to the women, in the real life is much higher than it is in suikoden.
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CameoChic444
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Post by CameoChic444 »

There is a good representation overall but certainly in the first game Pahn, Victor, Kasim etc easily beat the top female attackers - Ronnie Bell, Valeria, Milia and so on. Crowley and Luc easily beat Hellion, Eileen, Tengaar etc in terms of magic. There are plenty of good all-rounders - (Cleo, Camille, Sonya...) though. - I would advise anyone to put Camille in the front row and watch her dodge and counter like crazy at the end!
Lechium
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Post by Lechium »

so you want the game to be sompletly equal to both sexes, i.e. same number of good fighters/mages/archers?
I dont mind, and like female characters, but 'ploticially correctness' really annoys me.
Let males make better tansk and females better support charcters... what's wrong with that?

P.S. Leknaat was nto a playabel charcter, but her and Windy were implied to be best mages out there.
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