DO YOU PREFER "STRONG" OR "SISSY" PROTAGONISTS?

post=142048
Even Justin from Grandia, in a stunning example of character development goes from pretty much the most unlikable protagonist ever to the fukken man who handles his fucking business.

I don't know how much of a parallel this is, but Luke from Tales of the Abyss is similar/eventually likeable and cool, as is Neku from TWEWY (although to a lesser extent).

you forgot the loli


I prefer 'competent' heroes. Ones that do things that don't make me groan or do completely retarded shit but aren't infallible super geniuses that can do no wrong.

GRS kinda nailed it. Just give me someone who just sort of knows what he's doing and can intelligently compose himself.

"The book Game On: The History and Culture of Videogames cited Ivy as an example of realistic character design affected by "the Japanese 'deformed' aesthetic and the global influence of cartoon animation", noting she made characters such as Lara Croft look "positively monastic" by comparison."

Do any of you remember when Lara Croft was risque and overly sexualized? She seems positively tame now.

post=142066
Wimpy-looking protagonists are easier to relate to, for most gamers I've encountered. It adds to the "fantasy" aspect of the game.

I think it detracts heavily from it. When I play an RPG, I am basically playing a game of make-believe. Why would I want to pretend to be a wimpy scrawny ladyboy?

post=142056
Anyway this is a cultural thing. In Western RPGs/games the standard of attractiveness is big burly men with twelve pack abs and women with 62 Z breasts wearing nothing but dental floss, because that's what westerners like. In eastern games there is more of an emphasis on cuteness and you'll see generically attractive, androgynous male heroes and overly cutesy (but probably still stacked) female heroes.

A prime example of this sort of cultural difference in games is NIER, which has, in Japan, a sissy ladyboy protagonist named Nier trying to save his sister (or something like that), and in any other place other than Japan, has a super macho man and also father who works out 23/7 (he spends the other hour eating flapjacks) Nier trying to save his daughter (or something like that).
They both wear equally stupid clothing though.

I personally don't care either way as long as the Sissy character isn't too unbearably girly or obnoxious, and the manly character is still a person under all that muscle. I can even withstand either of them wearing incredibly weird clothing as long as that clothing is the norm for all the characters in the game.

If your characters are both girly and wear dumb clothing (I.E. Entire cast of original characters in the Kingdom Hearts series) you've got to have something that is fun enough to trudge through the story for me (I.E. everything else in the Kingdom Hearts series) or I'll probably just stop playing.

But a big muscly character with no brain to back up the brawn is just as boring and uninteresting as a scrawny emo kid. Don't know where video games got the idea that someone that is fit has to be a troglodyte. Maybe all the higher-ups in square enix, etc, were picked on by jocks when they were kids. Anyways, this isn't enough to get me to stop playing the game entirely but I'll probably dread every moment they're on screen.

Since I'm going off on a tangent I'll end this here.

I just sort of think that it's sad that Japan just cannot let go of the whole sissy aesthetic to the point where the main character in NIER, the exact same game by by S-E, are pretty much two different people in the Japanese and Western versions.

i prefer not to create one-dimensional characters like this!

Any character who ever cries or shows weakness for any reason is invariably labeled as "emo."

post=142013
Why can't a scrawny MC pack on the muscle as he levels (assuming he's raising Strength)?

GTA: San Andreas :D Only it's not an rpg...