Are we really the good guys?

[Parodine]

After finishing the Shiva storyline in the main plot, we might not actually be on the right side in the story for all we know.

[Ashrak]

That's your choice, but it does go against the story and structure of the game, so perhaps you might enjoy a game that allows you to take on that role, more than one that does not. I am NOT saying you should go play something else, nor that you should modify how you play, those are your personal decisions, it's just that this game does not support players taking that role.

The story campaign leaves little space for the design of your RP character. Or more, the story campaign is completely independent from us, and we are just a silent observer, like Chrono. Speaking Chrono, I prefer in a role-play ambivalent characters, as Magus, for example. Or David Xanathos in Disney's "Gargoyles" (an unusually adult series, just for the Disney-90s). There is no need to puke a rainbow to be a hero. Unless your name is Sailor Moon.

[MidlaneGod]

But but chicks dig bad guys

[DrOstler]

REMINDER THAT GAIUS VAN BAELSAR WAS RIGHT ABOUT EVERYTHING

[kyuven]

Terra Celes Tifa Quistis Freya Lulu Ashe.

Terra's dad in the first half, her "kids" in the second. Her smiles are plot relevant. And she does talk.
Celes' "grandfather" is a plot point. Same as terra in other regards. Being a focal character means your voice is heard a lot. Plus you don't get to be a General by being quiet.
Tifa is ALL grins and very talkative, her "family" is Avalanche AND she lost a parent in the Nibelheim event.
Quistis is an orphan just like the other main characters, which is definitely a family issue since that fact is plot relevant. And she does smile, and she's a TEACHER, so she talks VERY often.
Freya has Sir Fratley, and again her smiles are relevant. She's the least talkative, I'll grant you, but she's not on the level of Squall or Cloud.
Lulu is Queen Expodump for a lot of things so yeah she's definitely talkative. Her "family" is her little summoner clique to the point of marrying and getting impregnated by Wakka. She does smile the least I'll grant you.
Ashe's family issues...she's royalty, and the story begins and is predicated on her wedding. Also talkative as a resistance leader and one of the actual main characters of the story. One of her first promo pictures is her with a big ol' grin.

Lightning. While there is the family issues, she has a distinct lack of mandatory smiles.

She doesn't smile as much, but again the times she does are relevant.

There's really two types of female characters: Those that are smiling ALL the time (Rikku, Rinoa, Selphie, Aerith, Yuffie) and those whose smiles are plot relevant (all of the above).
But still at some point they must smile and it is relevant.
Though lightning IS the biggest departure from the standard archetype as she's less talkative and less smile-y than other female protagonists...but when you realize her ENTIRE motivation is her sister...

[Korilynn]

On the RP angle, I treat it a lot like you're meant to treat the storyline in WoW. The people doing all the fancy things (killing bahamut and the like) are the "heroes of light". RP Backstory wise, your characters are important, helping in a battle here or there, but the main action isn't you specifically.

I'm with Razzle on the ill behaved players btw. I meet very few actually rude players. Quiet ones sure, but actually rude? Not many.



Sure we do! You just don't call it that. It's "bringing peace"



Yeah, I noticed that "help others" wasn't really much of an option in the beginning. I'm here for the money.

Wait...another RP thing of "It wasn't you who was there, it was someone else. You're not the Warrior of Light the game says you are." ?

[ChazNatlo]

OBJECTION!

I'd toss in Faris (Legacy is a big deal in V. EVERYONE has family issues, so I can overlook that) and Agrias, but really, bar the scenes where they make sure to let us know/remind us that Faris is a woman, both of them are basically written in the "Write a man>change the gender>strong female" writing style, so I'd see how well they match up to the description of a male FF character. That said, either description really only applies best to The duteroganist couple. Cid Highwind certainly doesn't count as quiet and effeminate looking.

Oh, and as an aside, When I'm beig the worst of the worst in those Western MMOs while in character, shooting random passerby NPCs, murdering the innocents because I wasn't being paid not to, and the like, I do try to still be polite and curteous to my fellow PCs, unless we are specifically RPing. Run by someone biting off morr than they can swallow, toss out a heal, add a little damage if the combat rewards system allows it and it isn't kill stealing. With any luck they will remember that act of charity and pass it along to the next person. Maybe one day someome will step in to help me.

[kyuven]

Words.

Exactly. Which is another reason 13 is a little odd. Lightning's gender is mostly inconsequential to the plot (of the first game at least) and the role normally given to characters like Rinoa, Tifa, Aerith, etc. is instead given to a character that never fights in the first game and in fact spends the vast majority of it as a statue. Her relationship with Sera is important, but it feels more like she's Sera's sibling, rather than sister.
It's a good and bad thing, and given FFXV is going to have zero playable female characters...maybe it was a bad sign, or the writers just didn't get it...
I know as someone who's a fan of strong female characters in video games, FFXV isn't looking all that appealing to me. Four bros on a road trip and all that.

[Ceodore]

Exactly. Which is another reason 13 is a little odd. Lightning's gender is mostly inconsequential to the plot (of the first game at least) and the role normally given to characters like Rinoa, Tifa, Aerith, etc. is instead given to a character that never fights in the first game and in fact spends the vast majority of it as a statue. Her relationship with Sera is important, but it feels more like she's Sera's sibling, rather than sister.
It's a good and bad thing, and given FFXV is going to have zero playable female characters...maybe it was a bad sign, or the writers just didn't get it...
I know as someone who's a fan of strong female characters in video games, FFXV isn't looking all that appealing to me. Four bros on a road trip and all that.

Maybe yaoi? I can get into that, even if they are brothers.

[Almalexia]

Women aren't allowed to have families, tongues with which to talk or lips with which to smile

What kind of torture dungeon are you running?