Suikoden had a lot of weird characters that busted through stereotypes, but it would be kinda hard not to do that, saying there are 108 characters in each game.
And i think your talking about Chris from Suikoden III who a high ranking Zexen knight
Vyse wanted to be killed. *Nod, nod.
Or didn’t really care. Either one.
Aye there are a couple of those. Like it was mentioned, Suikoden had a lot of characters between the three games, but most of them were only confined to a two-bit, cliched personality. Like the fast elf would always talk about being too fast for you, the servant would always piss and moan about trying to protect you. The two hot bishounen knights would be two extremes, with the usual nobleness that comes in the package of a gentleman. The old vampire who wont stay dead and lives to taunt you and comes off as dumb. Etc.
I don’t really care about character skill stereotypes, but personalities… Either overly happy, overly angsty, or just someone who pushes in and does what they feel they’re obligated to do in whatever way they feel they have the right to do it seem to be the favorites… And there’s always a love interest no matter how many psychological issues everybody has. Augh… Is there an RPG out there where people aren’t falling in love with each other left and right and the main character isn’t any particular stereotype? O_o?
Grandia people were often incessantly happy, especially Justin.
I liked his style.
HAHA! I shall save this worthless thread!
Really they need a deppresed teenager. He could even have his own statis problem called teenage angst.
Done! From now on, I am “A DEPPRESED TEENAGER” lad! Cue the theme song!
Okay, honest question here, can anyone think of a gay hero or lesbian heroine? I mean lets talk for a second about breaking stereotypes. I’m sure that we can find a supporting character who isn’t straight, but seriously here, I can’t think of a single solitary hero who is interested in the same sex.
As wierd as that game might be to play, it sure would be a great way to break the whole fall in love stereotype but still have the character fall in love, right?
These are the questions we should be asking. Because they are more troublesome to the homophobes.
This is what you get for bringing up romance and steroetypes at the same time.
Or on a less socially pertinant topic, when was the last time since Legend of Mana that a good guy and a bad guy were in love, and that didn’t result in the good one ‘saving’ the evil one?
Just because there are no out and out gays in video games doesn’t mean it’s because of the “homophobes”. As you probably have noticed, homosexuality isn’t widely accepted as it will probably be in years to come. Don’t force something upon gamers, that might upset some people and spark more division. That’s like saying how come there are no coloured people in video games.
Who cares? I’ve heard of some people bitching about the same thing about television casts, but when things really come down to races and sexuality that much, are the shows and games really enjoyable, when all we’re thinking about is trying not to offend anyone? Because that’s pretty much imppossible. let’s just try concentrating on the quality of the game, rather than if the hero is a wimp, or chinese or gay or not. Really.
Riou from Suikoden 2.
>>
Zell is gay >.>;
and I really could careless if there was some kind of gay hero. A game just about that would be really pointless. Like, what the crap, it’s like making a game to make shinny new graphics.
:kissy:
Flik :O~
Camus and Miklotov ^^
I don’t think Zell, Flik, Camus, and Miklotov count as the main characters (although Flik damn well should).
wild arms 1 and 2 have heros like that. i dont know about number 3, i didnt play it yet.
Zell wasn’t gay.
Having gay/lesbian hero(ine)s, would not make a game anymore interesting. It would make it different, but not always more interesting.
What we truly need is new styles of characters. Ones that don’t fit the premade stereotypes, or maybe that fit partialy in two, or more, stereotypes. However most new things are not liked as much, so developers are usually reluctant to try new things.
I dont think it IS possible for a character not to be in any kind of stereotype. The key is to just have them fit into weird combinations of stereotypes.
I just wanted to say that having a queer lead would make for a distinct difference from the trend. I didn’t say that it would make a game any better or any worse, just novel.
I think that the hero(ine) needs to be a character more often, and the whole originality side of things is just another thing that can distract us from the real issue. While it is ture that a mopey hero with a mysterious background and a disgusting amount of compassion when dealing with non-violent situations haas been played out at least a quarter of a million times, that doesn’t mean that we can’t enjoy playing that game.
Think of it in terms of Final Fantasy X: Tidus wasn’t fully real, and so, rather than have us go into too much depth about his conflict internally as he is coming to understand Jecht, they give us the easy version and let him vanish into the aether at the end of the game. And then, we think to ourselves, “wow, he made a huge sacrifice and gave his not real life for the sake of everyone” rather than say “damn this kid needs to grow up and stop being mopey about his dad.”
Now lets think in terms of Lufia 2: Maxim was such a willing hero, but in the end, we don’t stop and think, “Maxim was a cool hero.” Nope, instead we think, “Dekar kicked way too much ass to let Maxim get the lead role.” ::dekar!::
And last, but not least, the boy from Secret of Mana: With a total of less than eleven lines of speech, and none of his own spells, we don’t wonder what role he played in the game after the sprite became a member of the team, and why we should care about him at all. Instead we rejoice that we have finally vanquished that vile monster that threatened all humanity, and lament the fact that we destroyed the primal life force of magic and the earth.
My point is that a character doesn’t have to be dynamic to get us to say, wow, cool hero, and in fact, sometimes a non-stereotype tricks us into thinking that the character had depth that really didn’t exist. Character developement is the key.
Zangief, hero of Russia, 7’2", 350 + pounds, wrestles bears for fun…
…gay as the ukelele.
And voila.
Sol Badguy, representation of Ishiwatari Daisuke, rumored, if not 80% true, to be rather homosexual himself, being bored with heterosexuality (hey, this is just speculation at the moment, but quite frankly, the speculation makes so much fucking sense that its scary). Hell, speculation goes that Ishiwatari Daisuke’s Ky Kiske stems from a desire to fuck a blue-eyed blonde (well, that and an unhealthy obession to Helloween, but that’s just for the name and all that jazz).
Two examples, one’s a main character, the other’s a supporting character. If you want proof about Zangief’s gayness, check out the Plot FAQ on gamefaqs.
Regarding a certain Zangief dislike: I have no comment.
....well, okay. Got the official confirmation. Yes. Zangief IS gay.
Makes me look at his SF2 ending at… quite a new light, now. “You dance
very well, Mr. Ex-President.” And one of his CvS2 win quotes is “My body
is perfect! I should be in a magazine!” And there’s also him prancing
around in a succubus body without any emotional turmoil impact in Lilith’s
Marvel VS Capcom ending… Oo I’m not sure if that proves things there,
but it’s true that he’s gay. Actually, the Japanese stereotype for a gay
man is a big hairy scantily clad (usually in something like a thong) man,
often with a mustache. Well, Zangief fits most of the bill, sans the
'stache (which I guess would be what Eagle’s there for). On a side note,
although the “dislikes young women” thing was added to his bio only
recently (come SFZ3), Zangief’s been officially gay ever since he was first
designed (the statement can be found in a source as old as the Official
Street Fighter 2 Fanbook).
There, got it. Taken from the Plot FAQ verbatim.
Igatona, you are now officially my hero. I don’t care how queer or straight you are, you are still a hero.