Oh em geee *rubs hands* A thread for me!!!
Okay, first of all, what I will recount is a process of twenty years of being in this fandom (I've seen some shit), so along those two decades there has been a development, not only in the games, but also in me.
What makes FF boys visually attractive to thousands of players?
That they are designed exactly for that. FFVIIR has a wide array of characters, each with their own charm. Before that, there was FFXV, were EVERYONE ranged from pretty to ruggedly handsome.
I remember people complaining about XV, that there weren't females in the group, that it lacked representation, yadda-yadda. I was pretty happy about a game with a group of four dudes, and each one is modeled to apeal someone. Do you like boys with emo aesthetic but a dorky side? Noctis is for you. Do you preffer a punk-wearing, easy going, boy, but who is actually an insecure puppy who only needs live? You've got Prompto. You want a big, beefy dude who will treat you as a princess? Gladio says hi. Want a perfect gentleman who is always impecably groomed, knows how to cook and housekeeping? Here's Ignis. And the ten year gap only made them all hotter, if that was possible.
And then there's the rest of the cast and, for the very first time, men above 30 looked good in a FF. Cor Leonis is a looker even at 54, and Ardyn... what to say about him? They managed to design a man with harsh facial features AND good looking at the same time, just like many men you could find out here.
I'm not talking about the movie because that case was less about designing the characters and more about finding an actor/model who fitted the creators' idea. But if I were, I'd tell you it's the same thing: that there's a character for almost every taste, and none of them fit the bishonen stereotype.
Do you find FF boys handsome or do you tend to think they look unrealistic and way too feminine so you feel like punching them in the face?
They ARE handsome, be them bishonen or not. I don't feel like punching them, poor things. You don't ask to be born with gorgeous silver hair and thick eyelashes that would make a drag queen green with envy
If you do find them handsome, does it make you feel bad about your own appearance (e.g. ugly, unfit, unworthy, etc.)?
FFVII was my very first FF and my very first videogame. Back in late 90's there was the manga aesthetic and I'm no ashamed to say that, while other girls went bonkers for singers/actors, my thing was videogame and anime characters. My reasoning when they called me weirdo was: These fictional characters are as out of reach for me as those singers are from you. A smile still creeps to my face when I remember the murderous glances from my classmates that followed those words, and a few seconds later they were yelling a barrage of excuses (they REALLY thought they could end up dating the guys from Take That or the Backstreet Boys, lmao).
Now... while I know how to apreciate the beauty of FF characters (specially since drawing/painting portraits is my thing), I'm no longer a teen.
I've spent my life being overlooked/rejected/dumped by boys who could never hold a candle next to any FF boy or man (forget the bishonen, I'm talking about the more realistic, rugged up ones), neither in terms of physical appearance, nor in personality or quality as human beings (and let's not talk about having a well-attuned moral compass, or even knowing what it is). That makes you think long and hard about your real worth and what men around you really value or demand from a woman and what they have to offer in turn. The answer was pretty gloomy, I shit you not, but that's a matter for another thread.
Do you enjoy playing a character who has muscles of steel but a baby face? (A dig at Cloud or Vaan, for instance.)
I don't care about how the character looks, as long as the writers have done their job making said character interesting or relatable. This said, if I were to talk strictly about eye-candy, I'd say that I prefer a muscles of steel guy with a manly face.
Are you attracted to any of the characters in particular (aesthetically, platonically, romantically, or sexually, if that's not too personal to share), and why?
I said this before, that when I was a teen I used to like fictional characters and favour them over singers and actors. One of the reasons was that fictional characters were always what you saw in the screen, while singers and actors would always have "surprises", if you know what I mean.
But with time, I grew up and I supose things changed.
I know this might rub people the wrong side, but this is my experience: While playing Dragon Age Inquisition, I completed the romance arc with a certain character, which ended in a wedding. Suddenly I realized this: "I'm a +35 woman who has never seriously dated anyone and never been in a relationship, and I'm using videogames as a way to experience something that might never happen to me. I fact, this might be the closest I'll ever come to being told "I love you" by someone, and it's just a bunch of pixels with a pretty texture slapped over them, voiced by an actor who already has a family, and following a script writen by people who aren't thinking of me, but of all the demographic group I happen to be in."
And, after having a good, long cry, I decided I would never, ever follow any romance subplot on any rpg, no matter how tempting it might look.
So no, I don't do that anymore. I don't even search for pairings when looking up fanficts, and I don't write romance (or what passed as such. Really, my attempts at it were laughable, and I think that's one genre I'll never master). Heh, I've even decided on not participating on various zines because they dealt with pairings. That stuff doesn't appeal to me anymore, and I don't know why
HOWEVER, that doesn't mean I don't apreaciate the beauty of some characters, or their badassery and, through them, I've discovered how I have changed myself. So that, if twenty years ago I squealed over the most feminine-looking guy, no matter how much carnage he sowed, now I'd rather be head over heels for a guy who was well-spoken, intelligent and with a good heart. Then again, such man would never settle for something like me, but remember that we are talking hypothetically
