More Female Main Protagonists In Final Fantasy

[jazzflower92]

The problem is that people (both men and women) tend to worry too much about how fiction characters portray themselves. Or rather, how they are portrayed. Since it's fiction, it's obvious someone decided to dress people in a particular way, and for them to have whatever body they have. In that sense, it's a conscious decision taken by somebody. Yes. But I don't think there's necessarily as much sexualisation as people make it to be. Just as "beauty is in the eyes of the beholder", the same goes for this. In my opinion, that is.

And just to make sure, Rishi, if it was a female creator exploiting a female body in a sexualised manner for whatever purpose, would you be okay with it?

And "I don't care" about the origins. What I wanted to talk about was how people behaved. And I've seen way more females calling other females "whore" than I've seen men do. And based on their bodies, too.

I agree with Licorice in that, while our culture is what it is, it's up to the individual, whether to take part in it or not. I know this may sound pedantic, but if I'm the socially awkward person I am, it's because I chose not to do the very same things everyone does. Partying, dancing, drinking until you pass out, ... Those things are not for me. And only because society accepts them as "part of the game", it does not mean I have to do them. It may be a problem for me, because it makes me less interesting, socially speaking. At least with a big part of the population. But nobody's forcing me to do it, and so I can decide.

And you know what? Absolutely every male friend I have would rather have a flat-chested girlfriend than the same girl with fake breasts. The size doesn't matter, for pete's sake. Men generally like real women. At least I know I do. And yes, of course, I may have a preference on that area, but it's just another physical trait. As hair and eye color is, or height, or other stuff. It's just that. A preference. It doesn't mean you wouldn't date a person who didn't have that. We all have our preferences, be it in food, hobbies or the hipothetical boyfriend / girlfriend's looks. The thing is we need to avoid getting too obsessed with those preferences. Hell, when I was with my girlfriend, I thought her the most beautiful woman on Earth. And I can tell you the only thing she had that was part of my preference was a relatively short height. Period.

Also, huge trigger warning. The world may be theoretically more controlled by men, in general terms. But women have a very big importance. Much more than a lot of people say they have. I simply do not believe a president's wife would not give her opinion on things, when they're not in public, for instance. And almost on every couple I know, the woman has a special power of decision that no man has.

You have really impressed me with that post.

You know if there was another Final Fantasy game with a female lead.I would like the story to build up a male decoy protagonist.Its a term for a character who is being set up as the main character but is later killed or put aside of the real main character.Here is what I was thinking if the main lead was a female who for the most part was based on Aerith but as later more and more focus goes on her than to the male character.Thats when the male character is killed off for real and it cements her role as the main character because of his death.

Basically it would be like what if Cloud and Aerith's roles were reversed.The female character becomes the lead while the male character becomes the fallen comerade.

 

[Alex Strife]

I tend to think of FFX as this.

We start with Tidus and slowly the story lets us see Yuna's the one who's really important. Yes, we still get the "This is my story" because we're seeing the world through his eyes. But he's not the TRUE main character in my opinion. She's the one that matters and he's the guardian whose job is to protect her. And FFX-2 is what confirms this.

Also, you have "Yunie" making a change during the game. I think despite being what would be considered a "typical female" character, she's strong and evolves, and even grows some confident. And while FFX-2 is not the best game out there, her dynamic with Rikku and Paine is quite good, because she can tease them and stuff.

 

[jazzflower92]

I tend to think of FFX as this.

We start with Tidus and slowly the story lets us see Yuna's the one who's really important. Yes, we still get the "This is my story" because we're seeing the world through his eyes. But he's not the TRUE main character in my opinion. She's the one that matters and he's the guardian whose job is to protect her. And FFX-2 is what confirms this.

Also, you have "Yunie" making a change during the game. I think despite being what would be considered a "typical female" character, she's strong and evolves, and even grows some confident. And while FFX-2 is not the best game out there, her dynamic with Rikku and Paine is quite good, because she can tease them and stuff.

Yeah,if they had a game like in tone like FFX or FFVII again I defiantly want it to be a female lead espically the latter because of the facts you said about FFX up there.

Then again there is the saying why don't you go out and write your own story if no one is doing it.Yeah,but maybe its my desire to have more main charactes who are my own gender that is talking.Plus I would like it if more games played around with some cliches and tropes concernng female characters/leads in general.

If I was going to play around with themes in FFX and FVII,I would both potray religion and science in a good light.In fact maybe it should be that the church could have its clergy double as scientists as well.I mean it has happened in history before where religion has promoted scientific discovery.

I can just imagine it now a perky female clerical science heroine.She would probably be like a mix of Rikku and Yuna put together.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

It tends to be very difficult to portray both religion and science positively, as they are opposing ways of making sense of the world. Where religion has sanctioned science, it has typically only been to the extent that the research doesn't disagree with the faith.

It's never a good thing.

And you will be very unlikely to see such a story come out of Japan. There is a reason the religious establishment in RPGs always turns out to be evil. Imperialist Japan left a horrible taste in its citizenry's mouths after the humiliation of World War II. Not only did the defeated emperor have to publicly declare that he was not divinity, but the Japanese collective unconscious has had to shoulder the guilt of the mushroom cloud ever since.

All because of faith-based living at the national level.

While there were some who didn't abandon their belief in the emperor, they have become a laughable minority by now, and pretty much all died out. At any rate, they haven't had much, if any, influence in the world of manga and video games in decades.

 

[jazzflower92]

Just to note I will not want to turn this into a religious discussion mainly because they always will get ugly.However,I do think you can if you have the right skills to potray both religion and science as good.But that is my opinion.

Anyway back topico you prefer lighthearted heroines or do you prefer the more serious ones?I say I prefer the lighthearted ones because sometimes being too dark can be overwelming.However,being too lighthearted will make things seem too sugary.Like any good work its the execution that makes it good.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Most people on this board are able to discuss religion in a reasoned and measured manner, particularly where the discussion may be more about its portrayal in media than about the merits of religion itself.

Also, you kind of did bring it up.

 

[Kermitu Kleric Katie]

Here's my favorite females from each FF:
I-III: Not really sure, not enough characterization(especially in I) for me to make a decision
IV: Rosa
V: Lenna
VI: Terra
VII: Tifa
VIII: Rinoa
IX: Garnet
X: Rikku
XI: Shantotto
XII: Ashe
XIII: Serah

 

[jazzflower92]

Most people on this board are able to discuss religion in a reasoned and measured manner, particularly where the discussion may be more about its portrayal in media than about the merits of religion itself.

Also, you kind of did bring it up.

Sometimes I put my foot in my mouth.Since,I am Christian I tend to sometimes like bring faith into things.But yeah since Final Fantasy comes from Japan they do have a different view on religion.In constrast in America where Christianity was and is still a big influence.

Hey,speaking of faith.Not so recently I have heard in a report that women are more likely to believe in God than men are and are more spirtual.I have a feeling that Final Fantasy does seem to have women who are on the spirtual side of things.Heck,even though Japan has been wary of organized religion they still are influenced by Shintoism and parts of Buhhdism.

 

[looneymoon]

This is very thought-provoking. On one level I agree, but on another level I don't think it is the purpose of works of fiction to preach and promote a better society, but rather to reflect that society back to us and inspire us to think about it. If video games (or novels, or TV shows, etc...) limited the way they presented women to a few "PC models" they would truly be mere escapism. Nothing should be off-limits to the creative person.

I don't think it's really telling anyone to be limiting rather than telling people to be self-aware of what they are doing. Something that is exploitative should never be off-limits, but it should be something the creator is intellectually aware about and have a stance on. Some of the best art comes from using exploitative tactics in order to create discourse on whatever it is exploiting. Exploitation for exploitation's sake is a very terrible thing imo, but at the same time, exploitative media can be used to make very thought-provoking things (for example in games - Bayonetta is exploitative, but in its exploitation it creates a very self-aware and interesting commentary). I honestly don't have a problem if a creator is aware of the types of problems they might be creating in expressing something a certain way coming from a certain kind of position.

Maybe the media is controlled by men, although I think this is a widely-held assumption rather than a proven truth - but nobody is putting a gun to women's heads and forcing them to buy all those magazines that tell them how to diet and the best way to please men. Nobody is marching them off to plastic surgeons and compelling them to get breast implants. If women stopped buying into all this crap it would lose its power. And I do disagree that society is controlled by men, I totally disagree. I think it's really disingenuous for women to try to claim they have so little power.

Considering pretty much all major [Western] institutions (be they media, political, religious, etc) have men in charge (mostly white), and the wealthiest people are once again, white men, then it's a really hard thing to deny. Society itself is made up of the individuals in it yes, but it would be almost impossible to disprove that the structures that frame it are very patriarchal.

Also, it's not so simple to say "well just don't buy that" when it's a systematic issue that bombards everyone from the day they were born. Maybe no one is threatening women to do these things, but many certainly have been brainwashed to do so, so it's not that simple. It's not even supply-demand at this point, it's a form of thought control - a way in which to mitigate freedom of choice. To just say "well stop buying them" doesn't work because capitalism is a tool that it part of the problematic structure, part of what fuels patriarchy. Stop buying into one type of image the media is selling? Well, it will only be countered by a new limiting image that will be established as the new pervasive idea.

We can cope with these things on an individual basis by not conforming ourselves into the system, but in order for wider perceptions to change it we need to facilitate a culture where there's no need to "cope." Yes, women have power, but the problem isn't in whether or not women have power, it's if women can assert their agency in a system which has developed in a manner that has the power to appropriate that power and manipulate it in a way to fuel patriarchy.

Spoiler: There's a journal that goes into these things in a really detailed manner that is completely free to access, but I'm just gonna put this one quote here because it really gets the point across better.

http://www.liesjournal.info/files/lies-final-download-single-page.pdf

It is not that optimism is simply ineffective, that it has been appropriated and de-fanged by a system of repression and may thus be saved, but rather that it exists alongside shame and silence, each playing their part in a broader production of sex and gender. If it was once radical and marginal to assert an essential, or simply available, goodness to sex, it is now central, institutional. Far from the domain of some radical set, it is at once an ideology of patriarchy and of the majority of its opponents, a disparate, heterogeneous collection of discourses united in common aim. It is the optimism that insistently, cruelly returns us to the work of fucking...

Capitalist apologists always deploy platitudes of “unity” and “equality,” not to insist that we should act in order to become unified and equal, but to say that we already are – and as such, should “put aside our differences.” Capitalism’s liberal framework cannot articulate how race, sex, and class are maintained as material and systemic social relations. Instead, these categories are reduced to individual attitudes. Any racism, sexism, or act of class war is fashioned into a story about perpetrators and victims; liberalism only registers and disciplines individual oppressors, never structures. In the process, the demands made by the oppressed for changes in their actual material conditions are ignored, or worse – appropriated, co-opted. (Take, for example, so-called “reverse racism”: the idiotic triumph of the liberal individual over history.)

I am not one to deny that women (or any under-privileged group for that matter) is completely powerless. It's a fallacy to victimise people to the point of infantilisation. But the whole thing does become a mess when the rhetoric of women is used in way to disenfranchise women even further and bluuhh social science is super complicated.

And just to make sure, Rishi, if it was a female creator exploiting a female body in a sexualised manner for whatever purpose, would you be okay with it?

It depends. If a female was exploiting the female body for the sake of making a buck or something, that is just as fucked up as if when anyone else does it.

If it were the case that both a man and a women were doing this with the intent to create commentary on a specific matter, then I would definitely take the female creator's voice into more consideration because that's closer to her experience, and that's her talking about her body.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Because I'm curious, how do you define "exploitation in a sexualized manner," Rishi? How does one know it when they see it, what -- if any -- are its inherent harms, etc.?

 

[jazzflower92]

Because I'm curious, how do you define "exploitation in a sexualized manner," Rishi? How does one know it when they see it, what -- if any -- are its inherent harms, etc.?

Putting fanservice over character develpment and personality is a sure way to make something exlpoitative.Take for example the anime of Rosario Vampire which has too much emphasis on the fanservice and less on the character interactions and story.

 

[looneymoon]

Because I'm curious, how do you define "exploitation in a sexualized manner," Rishi? How does one know it when they see it, what -- if any -- are its inherent harms, etc.?

Well, you could argue that all media that uses sex is exploitative because somewhere along the line, someone is going to profit from it

The way I have been using the term is to say, "the use of sex or sexual images for profit." I think the word has a connotation for selfishness and unethical-ness, but I haven't been intending to use it with those things in mind. There is probably a better term for what I'm trying to say out there, but that's what my vocabulary led me to.

It's kind of harder to talk about the harms in the realm of fiction because... well, fictional characters don't have a voice or even feelings which say that they feel like they were exploited. In the real world I'd probably assess harm primarily through the experience of the person involved in what was happening. The beauty of fiction is how we can interpret it in different ways, and what I may think as harmfully exploitative can be empowering to another etc.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Yes, "exploitative" definitely has a negative ring to it. I'm not sure what might be better words for what you're describing -- "sexually provocative," perhaps?

Now that I know what you're describing, I think I misunderstood you before. As you were using "exploitative" earlier, you don't necessarily mean it's negative to use sexuality for profit, aye?

 

[Splintered]

Mother fucker I had a huge ass post and it got deleted. So if this makes no sense sorry

There is a difference between being sexy and exploitative. Where that line in the sand is drawn in vague and I don't know where it is. But it's safe to assume that the majority of gamers, females AND males, know the difference between a woman character with sex appeal, and when they are being sexually manipulated through some weird ass decision making.

Vocal minority aside, most women don't mind playing sexy women, a lot of them prefer it. A little fanservice doesn’t bother people. But there’s a difference between characters like Fran in XII, Miranda in Mass Effect… and the characters in Dead or Alive Beach Volleyball. Or in anime terms, Tsunade from Naruto has a huge female following and they like her design. Gantz… has a lot of issues but yes, it does get flack for the way it portrays women. Because if you read it. You would understand.

I don’t know if there are huge ramifications of this exploitation other than the fact that it gives a negative stereotype to the media and it alienates a large portion of the demographic. But just from things I remember seeing, Tifa has always been a fanservic-y character but with depth and strong characterization. In Dissidia, she was given jiggle physics and I DO think that negatively impacted fandom discussion.

I was on gamefaqs for the first few weeks and every Tifa topic devolved to BOOBS within the first four or five posts. Gameplay questions, story questions, everything. Anytime character discussion or “favorite character” section came up, the moment people mentioned Tifa other fans would pile in about how she’s only there for fanservice and that the only people would like her is her boobs, and I would read the entire thread through and she was the only character that was given that treatment.

The way people are portrayed on games affects the way fans look at them. Tifa wasn’t taken seriously because it felt like no one on the other side took her seriously.

There are times when fanservice gets in the way, DOA Kasumi is a character I actually like. And stories in fighting games are usually stupid, but in one of her endings in the game she becomes topless mermaid and it’s like, What the fuck. It was so painfully embarrassing that it was only there to be ridiculous fanservice that it got in the way of her character. What little there was.

If you look at it from a player perspective, people are constantly complaining about how gamers treat women. Hell look at the drama from cross play, where a progamer harasses another female progamer in front of everyone, asking thinks like what her bra size in front of the crowd until finally she makes an excuse to leave. And when trying to explain his behavior he just says something to the affect is- This is how gamers do it, get use to it. Or how they use booth babes who obviously never even seen a game before and now have to present it, and that’s the way it is because. You know. Stop being a prude.


If the medium that the social interaction is based on treats women and men differently, then yeah, you’ll treat the actual people differently. Actually, it’s not even caring about treating characters differently, when something becomes so lopsided that its frustrating people, then you’re going to have pushback. Gamers are in general close to the internet crowd and that comes with its politically incorrect culture and all that jazz, but if it ever cares about growing as a medium, exploitative media will eventually have to be addressed. If nothing else it stunts the growth.

I’m the odd one out… I actually think there is wealth of good female characters in gaming. I like Tifa, and Fran, and Claire Redfield, and Alex Vance, and Miranda, and Aveline. Just because someone is sexy or drawn with a male gaze doesn’t take away from being a good character. Fanservice doesn’t destroy a game. I think most gamers I have met don’t treat women like shit. Men that like fanservice don’t harass other people.


But there is no way that not once while playing a game you were like, “lol, wtf is this.”

 

[Splintered]

I'm double posting because I'm a rebel and my other post is all text

You wouldn't believe I actually give little shits about gender and videogames from by huge tl;drs. But I seriously have seen these arguments pop up over and over again in my dashboard and youtube and it's seriously annoying.

Because both sides will fight and talk past each other because they both speak different languages.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

I just don't know who is being exploited here, the women whose boobs get used to sell things, or the men who'll buy any fool thing a pair of tits tries to sell them.

Edit: Splintered, I wrote this before I saw your videos. They're made by someone much more knowledgeable than me and they pretty much address everything, so, I'm done here. And thanks for posting them, I got a lot out of them.

 

[Splintered]

I just don't know who is being exploited here, the women whose boobs get used to sell things, or the men who'll buy any fool thing a pair of tits tries to sell them.

Both of them. There's no denying there are girls who use games and theirselves to get shit, whether it is popularity or free things on MMOs or something.

But at the end of the day, the women that uses their boobs gets the free shit, the men who buys the stuff gets the free boobs, and the only people that get the short end of the stick are the

1. People who are trying to make gaming culture more mature
2. The female players that get lumped in with the stupid shit others spit out.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

If the medium that the social interaction is based on treats women and men differently, then yeah, you’ll treat the actual people differently.

I have to wonder, though, to what extent the medium actually treats them differently. I won't say it doesn't, but it seems to me that the designs of most in-game male avatars could be argued to be fanservice as well. Even old-as-dirt characters like Edgemaster and Heihachi could make somebody's Stacked and Packed calendar.

Is getting to control such avatars seen as being as much a fanservice for dudes who get to fantasize about being these characters as the hot chicks put on display in-game are? If so, is it not the public who brings the double-standard to the table when they argue that character designs in games are offensive and exploitative because female gamers don't have characters who look like them to play as?

I don't know about the rest of the dudes on this board, but I know I don't look anything like Kratos.

I kind of feel like the whole debate of sexuality in gaming is a non-issue, and that those who take up sides in it are often just playing into some older societal notions that sex is for dudes, and sexy guys aren't fanservice 'cause dudes would never get off on other dudes (lololololol), so only sexy chicks appeal to a prurient interest, which is the interest of dudes.

'Cause, again, sex is for dudes, and dudes don't like dudes. And chicks don't even like sex, much less hot chicks (lololololol) and representations of hot chicks in video games.

Dudes.

 

[jazzflower92]

The line between fanservice and exploitive is a thin but it can be achieved.

Take for instance the character of StarFire in both her cartoon and comic versions.Starfire in the cartoon although has some fanservicey moments but its her bubbly and warm personality that really draws in the fans.Her character comes first with fanservice as an added bonus.

Unfortunatly for her comic book counterpart,she is too oversexualized to the point its her entire character.Many recent stories with comic Starfire often just make her boobs with legs and not any personality.

 

[Splintered]

I have to wonder, though, to what extent the medium actually treats them differently. I won't say it doesn't, but it seems to me that the designs of most in-game male avatars could be argued to be fanservice as well. Even old-as-dirt characters like Edgemaster and Heihachi could make somebody's Stacked and Packed calendar.

The arguments I most see for this is that Heihachi is an untouchable idealized form, that both women and men are idealized. The issue lies that the idealized form for men and women in the games are both made from the male perspective. There are no women fapping to Heihachi/Kratos/Marcus Fenix (well, some are but you know what I mean).

I would be amiss to point out that this is changing, Mass Effect staff specifically say that Thane Krios was designed with women in mind. And I think a lot of the the male cast from Final Fantasy is designed for fanservice.

I think another argument that pops around actually stems from comic book/manga: where men usually get a diverse set of faces and women recycle one or two, with different hair colors. I mean, Nomura is infamous for the two different faces- but Nomura created Barret, Wakka, Auron, Sazh, Snow... and look at Yuna, Tifa, Aerith, Rinoa, etc.

Women don't diversify as much because creators tend to keep traditionally pretty, and this is something that is pretty much admitted to. And this isn't the guys fault because girls like their videogame counterparts pretty as well. Women admit to taking lower gear because it looks better than higher level armor all the time.

I don't want to say too much about that because I really don't want to make this about a man vs women thing where guys are forcing women into a little box. I understand the arguments of patriarchy and stuff but to me it sounds more like a "time to grow up and treat your female characters with more respect before you alienate more of your demographics" thing.

Unfortunatly for her comic book counterpart,she is too oversexualized to the point its her entire character.Many recent stories with comic Starfire often just make her boobs with legs and not any personality.

Starfire I know little about, but for another comic book reference, Catwoman, specifically the drama after the relaunch of the DC universe.

Catwoman is always a sexy, fanservicy character, but she also always had a strong female following who enjoyed it. After the relaunch the "sexy" was turned to eleven and dipped dangerously into the exploitative territory. You can compare the first issue with the relaunched issue of Catwoman that got a lot of women readers pissed off, to how she was shown in Batman inc. where she was still showing off but I don't know anybody who didn't like how she was in that issue.

I can't really explain it well but it kicked off a whole bunch of arguments about sexy female characters, and exploitative female characters made for pandering- and how different creators will thinly veil pretty ridiculous shit with the a faux idea of "feminist sexual liberation" and how it doesn't apply in these situations.

 

[jazzflower92]

Yeah,maybe they should use more older women characters as well.Mainly I have seen lots of older men characters while older women charactes are often in the background.By older women I mean females over 40.It would be fun seeing more middle aged/elderly women who can also kick butt.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

I can definitely agree that there should be more older females around, kicking ass, taking names, and so on. My mother-in-law just turned 44 and can be one of the biggest bamfs (also a total milf, but that's another story) ever.

That's one of the things that pissed me off about "Soul Calibur V" -- most of the female cast we had always known was retired and replaced with younger versions, or replaced in other ways.

That said, I honestly don't think it was sexist there. Several males we had known were either gone or had retained their youth through magical means. Siegfried was allowed to age and remain a warrior, though, as was Hilde (a female). Setsuka (another woman) was still fighting (just not playable) and had trained Patrokolos, the main male character of the story mode.

Maybe I shouldn't have even brought that game up, but, dammit, I miss Taki. And Seung Mina was my favorite since 1997 and the original "Soul Edge" arcade machine.

Anyway, I don't know anything about what's going on with Catwoman after the DC relaunch -- I swore off mainstream Western comic books after the "One More Day" debacle ruined Spider-Man. I have only intermittently checked in on Marvel and DC ever since.

 

[jazzflower92]

I can definitely agree that there should be more older females around, kicking ass, taking names, and so on. My mother-in-law just turned 44 and can be one of the biggest bamfs (also a total milf, but that's another story) ever.

That's one of the things that pissed me off about "Soul Calibur V" -- most of the female cast we had always known was retired and replaced with younger versions.

That said, I honestly don't think it was sexist there. Several males we had known were either gone or had retained their youth through magical means. Siegfried was allowed to age and remain a warrior, though, as was Hilde (a female).

Maybe I shouldn't have even brought that game up, but, dammit, I miss Taki. And Seung Mina was my favorite since 1997 and the original "Soul Edge" arcade machine.

Anyway, I don't know anything about what's going on with Catwoman after the DC relaunch -- I swore off mainstream Western comic books after the "One More Day" debacle ruined Spider-Man. I have only intermittently checked in on Marvel and DC ever since.

Man,One More Day,I don't know about you but breaking up MJ and Peter's marriage just so he can let Spiderman relive his single days just is selfish.Whats worse they sold their child to a demonic spirit.Frankly from what I heard that Joe Quesada I think has issues with wives in general even saying that the spouses of those wives were more interesting without them.I don't know that is pretty sexist saying that they are more interesting without their wives.

What really makes me mad is how Emma Frost and Cyclops got together.Plus no one calls Emma out on how she stole Cyclops and emotionally manipulated him.Plus Emma Frost has been such a creator's pet as well which makes me wonder if they are using her because of her appeal.

 

[Hisako]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/vid...What-Women-Really-Want-From-Female-Characters

This is basically all the opinions I have on the topic.

I think people can be okay with idealised forms, as long as they're on the level as to what the end purpose of it is. In the end I think what I personally seek from character designs is, is there an acceptable/believable context to the way the characters behave/look? And what purpose did the creator have in mind?

You can create an overtly sexual character to make a meaningful point or reinforce some theme within your story, but you can also create a sexy (but appropriately restrained) character just because you felt like putting some nice tits on the box art. As someone mentioned earlier in the thread the two aspects aren't mutually exclusive.

The funny thing about Mass Effect is that (esp. with female Shepard) there's some pretty polar arguments about the gender equality in the games. On one hand, you have the option of making a female lead which can go toe-to-toe comparable to any male lead produced, who is within an empowered position of authority, but on the other hand her actions are only the same as the male counterpart because Bioware cba producing a second set of animations and hence contextually the female lead is by design partly just an extension of her male counterpart.
Also, you have a race of mono-gendered space-babes that can mate with any species in the same universe, which was a deliberate design choice (admittedly a homage to previous sci-fi operas).

But on-topic with Final Fantasy, I don't think making a progressive, female character has to absolutely be an active effort. While gamers may still be on average a bunch of chauvinist pigs, I think we've intellectually matured over the years and target demographics will continue to improve their standards on what they find appealing in leads, especially female leads. I personally believe if Square Enix simply continues to focus on creating believable, engaging characters, they'll continue to strike gold here and there with some fresh ideas.

Change starts with the target audience (although there's probably more chicken-and-egg theory involved there). The unit sales and fan reception to Lightning have proved that Square Enix are in comfortable territory in this aspect.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

It is true that Kratos is not sexy.

But I think it's undeniable that Square are pretty good at designing male characters who are quite definitely eye candy for the ladies. In fact Japanese designers seem to be better than western ones at designing male characters who appeal physically to women. All us yaoi shippers and drooling Turk fans can't just be wrong, can we? If only they'd all gone shirtless in ACC, what an awesome movie that would have been!!

I'm definitely (or defiantly) expecting some disgreement on this IMHO.