Good Deal and Musings on FFCC: Ring of Fates

Steam is having 50% off Resident Evil 5, putting the price at a cool $14.99!!! Now's a good time to snag a copy. Provided I don't forget, I will probably get a copy (I totally forgot), though I won't be able to play it until I can use my PC again. Away from apartment means away from most PC gaming. ;_;

I've been playing Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates lately, which is a DS game. It's been pretty fun so far, but a few things frustrate me: there is only one female character, and she is not playable. Okay, so there's another female character, but she's not human and sounds like a boy whenever there's a cutscene. Also, the boy who is of a more naturalistic tribe, relying on archers, etc, is portrayed as bestial, a little naive-- perhaps dumb-- and virtually unable to speak. Yes, he's been cut off from humans, but this is still heavily stereotypical and a little racist. Yes, even for a made-up race. Racism is racism. HOWEVER, what saves this game is that the story is very compelling, and a twist on the "OMG my parents are dead" story line. You're not out for revenge-- you're just trying to keep yourself safe from the people coming after your family. It's pretty cool. The revenge storylines are rather shallow.

But... why no playable female character? It wouldn't be that hard to let the player decide whether they want to play as the girl, Chelinka, or as the boy character... whose name I have forgotten.... They wouldn't have needed to change anything at all, but it would bypass the sexism that I hate to accuse a Final Fantasy game of. Well, who am I kidding? I adore Final Fantasy games, but I accuse them all of sexism, or at least, stereotypical storylines. Yuna and co were great, but were laden with objectification of women, and the entire story was about finding Yuna's man. Yuna, Rikku, and Paine were really awesome, competent people while they did it, though, which is why I love it.

I keep getting disappointed by my JRPGs and how they deal with gender. I need to mozy on over to PC games, lest I have a brain explosion. They tend to be a bit better, at least.