Unusual character gender ratio

[Ayra]

Generally, strategy games tends to follow one of these combinations:

- All male characters

- All male characters with a token female character

- Mostly male characters with a few females

- All female characters

It's very rare to have a game where the number of male and female are equal (with Awakening being one of those few). I've never seen any strategy game that had more female characters than male characters that featured both females and males (besides the main character).

But if we take the list of characters so far we've seen in Fire Emblem IF, not categorizing characters that have some divisive opinions on and Kamui, we get an unusual result

Female

---

Aqua

Felicia

Camilla

Sakura

Nohr sister

Hinoka

Kazahana

Orochi

Linca

Maid #2

Blue-and-pink-hair cavalier

Pink knight

Dark mage

Male

---

Marx

Ryouma

Bow bro

Book bro

Saizo

Gray-black cavalier

Butler #1

Butler #2

Green-hair ninja (likely)

Inigo 2.0

Unsure

---

Tsubaki (I assume male but there's some discussions on the subject so leaving unsure)

Fighter-from-Nohr-screenshot (I assume female, but there's some discussions on the subject so leaving unsure)

Hoshido ruler (Obviously female, but unknown if she'll be a unit or not)

Ganz (Shown in green in screenshot, but I assume he's the boss of the stage after the cutscene and not an allied unit)

Unless I'm missing some, that leaves us with 13 females and 10 males we've seen so far. It's most likely not the entire cast of course, but I find it interesting that there's actually more female than males up to this point. For one I think it'd be a nice change of pace if the game actually featured more female than male playable characters.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Ayra

[Dragoncat]

I think FE generally has close to an equal ratio. Dunno about other games though...

[Shadow Mir]

I think FE generally has close to an equal ratio. Dunno about other games though...

Awakening certainly was close to gender equal, but I doubt most other FEs were. FE7 only had 13 females to 30-ish males, for one.

[Respite&Nepenthe]

I've honestly never come across an all-male or all-female strategy game...?

[Shadow Mir]

I've honestly never come across an all-male or all-female strategy game...?

And neither have I, for that matter.

[goodperson707]

Awakening certainly was close to gender equal, but I doubt most other FEs were. FE7 only had 13 females to 30-ish males, for one.

not to mention 2 of those are hector mode only. And closer to 2 to one than 50 50 for fe8,6,5,10 as well 10 i think was the best i did with around47 to 26 fe 7 i think was the worst i did.

Though on main post we don't have enough to go on but it probably will be at or close to 50 50 though maybe on the female side which i would not be adverse to.

[Ayra]

I've honestly never come across an all-male or all-female strategy game...?

Most military or history-based games (PC games mostly) are either all-male or all-male + token female.

Regarding all female, you have things like Hyperdimension Noire: Goddess Black Heart (Strategy spinoff of the Hyperdimensional Neptunia games), Japanese-only games like those "battleship girls" games I don't know the name offhand of, and the annoying "harem" games like the recently announced Lord of Magna (Male main character + only females) sort of fit. All those are mostly fanservice.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Ayra

[Respite&Nepenthe]

Most military or history-based games (PC games mostly) are either all-male or all-male + token female.

Regarding all female, you have things like Hyperdimension Noire: Goddess Black Heart (Strategy spinoff of the Hyperdimensional Neptunia games), Japanese-only games like those "battleship girls" games I don't know the name offhand of, and the annoying "harem" games like the recently announced Lord of Magna (Male main character + only females) sort of fit. All those are mostly fanservice.

I see. Thanks for clarifying. I'm not much for historical games (or harem games, for that matter), so I see why I've missed out on these. I wasn't accusing you of being wrong or anything. Just confused.

But yes, Awakening has always been even or close to even.

[Philranger]

FE6 (not including trial map characters)

35 Male, 19 Female

FE7

31 Male, 13 Female

FE8 (not including trial map and Orson)

21 Male, 12 Female

PoR (no trial maps)

31 Male, 14 Female

RD

47 Male, 25 Female

Awakening (counting both the Avatar and Morgan as both male and female and including Priam, Aversa, Gangrel, etc.)

26 Male, 25 Female

I'm guessing we see closer to 1:1 like Awakening than 2:1/2.5:1 in previous iterations.

[Anacybele]

I find the higher female count to be interesting too, because typically, Japanese like male dominance. >.> But I'm glad that for once, females are moreso running the show, especially if you pick female Kamui.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Anacybele

[Thane]

I've never understood why a male-dominated cast is the standard; does the gender of characters really matter in a good story? I know most games are usually marketed towards young men, but I can't recall ever thinking "damn, I'm playing as a woman, this detracts from my experience!". Playing as Samus, or going up against Kreia, the best character of any video game, is epic, and their genders have absolutely nothing to do with that.

Edited May 1, 2015 by Thane

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

to be fair i think its less of that and more "males are the expendable gender"

[Tsunami922]

I like the ratio they had in Awakening and hope that they stay close to that.

I think it'd be a nice change of pace if the game actually featured more female than male playable characters.

This is fine as well. Actually, this is the preffered option.

[Florete]

I really liked Awakening's even ratio myself (before Spotpass recruits, it's actually majority female, which is extremely rare), and I'm happy If seems to be doing the same. I'm especially happy that it looks like I'll be able to have two leading ladies (Kamui and Aqua).

I've never understood why a male-dominated cast is the standard; does the gender of characters really matter in a good story? I know most games are usually marketed towards young men, but I can't recall ever thinking "damn, I'm playing as a woman, this detracts from my experience!". Playing as Samus, or going up against Kreia, the best character of any video game, is epic, and their genders have absolutely nothing to do with that.

While plenty of male gamers will claim this and mean it, it's simply the case that most male gamers gravitate towards male-lead games (or movies, books, etc.). The opposite is true for women, too, but women are more likely to go for a male lead than men are to go for a female lead, and most entertainment is made by men and for men as it is.

I probably went further there than you meant, but basically, having a male lead (and sometimes, a majority male cast) does matter, even if only subconsciously, to many male gamers.

[Thane]

I know, and I realize that as well, I just don't exactly understand why. I suppose the main problem is that forcing developers to add or make characters they don't want to create won't solve anything either, contrary to popular belief.

[goodperson707]

^^ i would say in fire emblem at least that it seems to me that the men have more generally considered generic characters though that could just be me and the ratio of more guys to mess up on. Also a good amount of the archetypes were originally male i believe, so i see why it took a while to move away from that, and that adds a bit to it IMO like the fighter pair and cav pairs.

Edited May 1, 2015 by goodperson707

[IceBuster573]

There's a female dark mage? Who is it? The only I can think of is exclusive to the new TCG.

[Magical Glace]

I've honestly never come across an all-male or all-female strategy game...?

Does Touhou Chemblem count?

Idk if Rinnosuke is playable though. If he is, it wouldn't be all female.

But Touhou strategy fangames in general count I guess.

On topic: So long as there's no Tharjas, male or female, I'm happy.

[SaltyPearl]

I think it's pretty cool with more female characters, but I honesty hope it's like Awakening with a equal amount of male and female characters.

Edited May 1, 2015 by RawritsNowi

[Book of Ereshkigal]

On topic: So long as there's no Tharjas, male or female, I'm happy.

You mean a mostly naked mage? We've already seen a map sprite that looks like a Tharja ripoff, see here:

http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/nohr5.jpg

Bottom left-ish

[Roflolxp54]

You mean a mostly naked mage? We've already seen a map sprite that looks like a Tharja ripoff, see here:

http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/nohr5.jpg

Bottom left-ish

Not to mention one of the cards from the Cipher TCG.

[Nyanko]

I hope they start showing more of the male characters in the next trailer. I'm more interested in them than any of the females shown so far. We should at least get more info on Book Bro, the Hoshido archer, Tsubaki, and the two unnamed men on the box covers.

[Ayra]

You mean a mostly naked mage? We've already seen a map sprite that looks like a Tharja ripoff, see here:

http://serenesforest.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/nohr5.jpg

Bottom left-ish

The icon looks quite a bit different from Tharja's icons in Awakening though, both base and promoted. It's not like the mercenary or cavalier who matches their awakening counterparts. We know that the dark mage featured in the card game (Cipher) is an original character, but her clothing design fits the icon better than Tharja did. So I think the Cipher mage design is a good indication of what the generic Dark Mage design will be in IF (and likely the clothing design for the new Nohr dark mage).

[Loki Laufeyson]

Having equal or more female characters in a game shouldnt be seen as unusual. The more diversity in cast, the better it is for everyone.

[Xyr]

I would be very interested to see an FE with a majority female cast; not all-female, just majority so. Most of the games I have played with parties have been FF games, and thinking back, most have had half male, half female casts. It's kind of surprising thinking about it now that not one of them was ever 100% male. So female majority pls, IS.