Should Final Fantasy pull a "mass effect"

[Seifer_Leonhart]

Some players prefer Male lead characters, Some Players prefer female lead characters. The 3rd person shooter game Mass effect solved that problem by giving the player the ability to choose the gender of the character.


The online sequels of Final Fantasy like 11 and 14 have that option but regular games like 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,13 and 15 don't have that option.


The Main character of Mass Effect is Alex Shepard. If you notice Alex is a unisex name because You have the ability to choose what Alex will be Alex's Gender, skin color ,sexuality and etc. You can make Alex look like you or look like your girlfriend. Also you can choose the characters Alex can romance.

In Final Fantasy the love interest of the main character fix.

Left Picture is Alex as a Man and right picture is Alex as a woman.

I think this can give the game replay value.

 

[mbuzma]

I wouldn't mind that at all. They would need to hire 2 voice actors for the protagonist, but that's not really a big issue.
I played Mass Effect 2 and IIRC both male and female Shepard can romance the same characters, so even scripted romance in FF could work.

 

[Seifer_Leonhart]

The romance never had customization ability in Final Fantasy. They always have a fixed love interest. Imagine if Cloud have the option to romance Tifa instead of Aeris, He wont be broken hearted instead since Tifa wont die but Aeris will.

 

[mbuzma]

I know, that is why I mentioned scripted (or, in other words, fixed) romance. The only potential issue is the possible controversy that would arise from the possibility of having gay/lesbian relationships in the game ( but then again Mass Effect has that as well and yet is pretty popular so...).

 

[Heatman]

It's nice to make the game in such a way that gamers would chose the sex of the characters, but that would be a huge work for the developers in making arrangements for the voice actors. In my opinion, I think that the developers should decide the sex of the characters and make arrangements for the voice actors for each character. It's should now be the decision of the gamer to chose a male or female character.

 

[Seifer_Leonhart]

I know, that is why I mentioned scripted (or, in other words, fixed) romance. The only potential issue is the possible controversy that would arise from the possibility of having gay/lesbian relationships in the game ( but then again Mass Effect has that as well and yet is pretty popular so...).

I dont really think it will be controversial anymore. Final Fantasy 13 have lesbian characters. The main character of Overwatch is Lesbian

All American Tv show have an LGBT quota filled. In case of Japan, Gay romance is also very popular to Japanese women. Japanese women are so into 15 because they ship Noctis to male characters.

Muslim countries I think are the only ones will be so against it but they are not really a major gaming market.

 

[Athanas]

I am comfortable with both male and female characters.

 

[Seifer_Leonhart]

It's nice to make the game in such a way that gamers would chose the sex of the characters, but that would be a huge work for the developers in making arrangements for the voice actors. In my opinion, I think that the developers should decide the sex of the characters and make arrangements for the voice actors for each character. It's should now be the decision of the gamer to chose a male or female character.

Yeah they will need an extra voice actor to re-record the lines in with an opposite gender but it is not really that hard. Saint's row and Mass effect managed to do it easily and those games are from companies not as big as Square Enix.

 

[overcast]

I prefer the male lead. It makes me relate to the game. I am not sure with the FF though. It's their baby and it depends on their choice. But I'd only play the game with the male leads.

 

[Seifer_Leonhart]

I prefer the male lead. It makes me relate to the game. I am not sure with the FF though. It's their baby and it depends on their choice. But I'd only play the game with the male leads.

So You didnt play 6,13 and X-2 because all of those games have female leads. Specially X-2 where it is composed by an all female team lead by Yuna and her team mates are females too.

 

[KellyGeo]

Giving the players the opportunity to chose the sex of the characters is going to be a huge task for the game developers. Personally, I don't prefer a one sided sex FF game just like FF 15 had to be a male lead character game. Some people had issues with this while others didn't but I prefer to have it being a mix up of both male and female characters.

 

[Seifer_Leonhart]

Well many games had successfully did it with an ease. The Saint's row series and Mass effect series have done that successfully. There rumors that the Next Zelda Game will give people an option to make Link a female.

Also Square Enix had given that Option in 11 and 14 but they never had that option in offline titles. Final Fantasy's rival Persona also have the option.

 

[overcast]

So You didnt play 6,13 and X-2 because all of those games have female leads. Specially X-2 where it is composed by an all female team lead by Yuna and her team mates are females too.

Yep got bored with that perspective. I don't mind team mates and enemy as female leads. I have problem playing as a female POV lead.

 

[Seifer_Leonhart]

In my case I am so secure of my sexuality that character's gender dont matter. I hate 15's all male homerotic gay baiting cast but I still played because it is a good game. 6 is the greatest Final Fantasy game of all time.

Also I will rather have a female character than a underage stripper like Vann.

 

[KellyGeo]

Well many games had successfully did it with an ease. The Saint's row series and Mass effect series have done that successfully. There rumors that the Next Zelda Game will give people an option to make Link a female.

Also Square Enix had given that Option in 11 and 14 but they never had that option in offline titles. Final Fantasy's rival Persona also have the option.

Then if other games have done this and it was a good success, I do not see anything wrong with Final Fantasy developers taking out a page from their book and doing the same just to satisfy their patronizers. If this is done, I believe it's going to make a lot of people happy.

 

[KellyGeo]

Yep got bored with that perspective. I don't mind team mates and enemy as female leads. I have problem playing as a female POV lead.

Haha, seriously you have a problem playing as a female POV lead in Final Fantasy. This means that you would so much enjoy playing the Final Fantasy 15 series of the game because it's a male lead character POV.

 

[KellyGeo]

In my case I am so secure of my sexuality that character's gender dont matter. I hate 15's all male homerotic gay baiting cast because it is a good game. 6 is the greatest Final Fantasy game of all time.

Also I will rather have a female character than a underage stripper like Vann.

You must really hate the plot and character lead in Final Fantasy 15 because from how you analyze things, I can seriously feel it in your tone. If it's up to you, the FF 15 series of the game would have been scrapped off by now.

 

[Seifer_Leonhart]

Haha, seriously you have a problem playing as a female POV lead in Final Fantasy. This means that you would so much enjoy playing the Final Fantasy 15 series of the game because it's a male lead character POV.

Or he enjoys the homoerotic bromance between five commercially attractive dudes.

There is nothing wrong with it though. If the main character's gender is customizable though everyone will be happy.

One of the main rivals of Final Fantasy is Fire Emblem. It's main character is named Corrin and you have an option to make him male or female.

 

[KellyGeo]

Or he enjoys the homoerotic bromance between five commercially attractive dudes.

There is nothing wrong with it though. If the main character's gender is customizable though everyone will be happy.

One of the main rivals of Final Fantasy is Fire Emblem. It's main character is named Corrin and you have an option to make him male or female.

This looks very interesting, if one can get all Final Fantasy characters to be set up or most of them to me made this way, I'm definitely sure that most players would be appreciative of the upgrades.

 

[Maestro]

This is definitely a good idea. I see more gamers getting involved if this happens cause if there is anything I've learned is people like to experiment more than they would care to admit.