A comparison of the effectiveness of PCs in game based on gender.

[Dhyerwolf]

Zidane was just around the ability to run around with the "Killer" skills and be running on constant doubled physical damage. Not like I'm making a very comprehensive argument for him. I guess Steiner's large damage leads and durability at points are more notable. Just a gut reaction that Garnet/Eiko don't feel like a very strong 1/2 (there are games in the category two below that feel more female skewed to me on first reaction).

I definitely wouldn't see Aika as MVP. Her big advantage is speed, which is great, but there's not really much damage to capitalize on it.

Fina's 6 SP S-Move is probably the best MT in game due to Rain of Swords prohibitive cost. I guess it might somewhat be a question of what is more worthwhile. Invaluable techs against the hardest challenges of the game, or characters who are more steady against more enemies that don't really threaten you anyways. In SoA, the split is huge, and the girls don't have really enough in sweeping over Vyse to even give them that much of an edge there.

[Grefter]

Even outside of Summon I would still rate the girls in FF9 that high, FF trends towards healing being very strong and thus incredibly centralising.  A party with both the girls even if Summon wasn't the strongest damage (And MT to boot) is still significantly stronger than a party with one or neither of them just based on longevity alone.

Zidane gets consistently strong ST damage like halfway through the game if you use a portion of his skill points to do it (Can be cheaper if you know the game well).  The girls on the other hand can keep them open for defensive purposes like status immunity (and can be safely spammed blindly if you don't know the game well).

Also this topic has Dhyer posts and multiple things about Arc the Lad and nothing about the fifth game in the series.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Pretty much any fighter can do what Zidane does, and the mages can all do pretty good damage in other ways anyway. Garnet/Eiko are the best because (a) they can heal, and (b) they can do their damage MT if needed.

I've honestly never been terribly convinced by hype for Ricardo's skills? They all felt a bit underpowered, often worse versions of Lucia's (which themselves I didn't find wonderful outside her strike booster, which Ricardo doesn't even get). It's entirely possible that Mao's MT revive skill is more valuable than any of his, but regardless, I'd see her superior magic winning out anyway. Granted, Mao might not be third, but the fact that she even has a good case for it is pretty telling I think.

[Dhyerwolf]

Arc the Lad 5: Effectively has one PC? 10/10 important female plot NPCs top of the list (also just 1).

FF 9 isn't a game that really prizes longevity much though. Especially near the end.

Boost is a pretty intensive use of skill points too.

I could be misremembering, but FF 9 wasn't big on enemy swarms. In fact, it had an usual love of randoms coming alone for an RPG, IIRC (late at least?). This isn't a big a deal for Eiko, but more notable for Garnet since that 9999 isn't a thing in game. She focuses on MT over ST. I guess my in game respect for Garnet just guts her outside the top 2. Not a great rusher, Eiko is the better healer, and having that random mute period (not that 2 dungeons and running around is that long a period, but enough to murky up the water). Or I could just be prizing ending the battle quickly (in terms of time spent in the battle itself, since Boost is "fun" in that it's trading damage for actual game time spent).

[Grefter]

Objection.  It is impossible to finish an FF9 battle quickly.

Boost is expensive as hell, yes, but boost is also hellaz late game when you have the skill points to burn for it.  Zidane is juggling Killer skills the entire game just to stay relevant (and competing with steal boosting craps as well.  You could argue the net value in extra turns attacking vs an All Killer setup for those lacking knowledge for that kind of stuff.  You know for that niche of clueless optimisers.  Shout outs to y'all).

Literally arguing on the value of the characters based on *effort* factor, because FF9. 

That said it really really really is the Healing that makes them rate.  Outside split path sequences and the Mute phase I see no reason at all not to run both Eiko and Garnet.  In those split path sequences they both clearly shine and wtfever to 2 dungeons.  It only really muddies the water in Eiko vs Garnet to me and I thought consensus was the Eiko had stronger WM skillset anyway?  (WILL LOOK UP BECAUSE SUPER IMPORTANT YO)

Edit - I was thinking it was based on availability of like Protect and Shell, but looking at the gear that gives them I don't see a big difference, so I don't know, but whatever.

[AndrewRogue]

Baldur's Gate
Cast distribution:  16 Males, 10 Females
Best PC: Male (Edwin, Minsc, etc. Take your pick.)
Higher average:  Uh... dead even-ish, apparently.

Used DSimpson's guide on this one. Honestly though, I feel this one could swing either way based on certain character valuations. Both genders have their stars and their failures. Males have more generally "good" PCs, but they also have more "bad" PCs. On the whole though, the males do reach the top of the chart, but not by a large margin. It really is quite close.

Baldur's Gate 2/ToB
Cast distribution: 12 Male, 6 Female
Best PC: Female (Aerie)
Higher average: Male.

Despite my disagreements with DSimpsons ratings for BG2 (underrates and overrates a couple PCs, IMO), the males just get more of the strongest PCs. Not that the females are far behind here. I dunno. This one is pretty close too, but I think the males barely edge it out here.

Dragon Age: Origins
Cast distribution: 7 Males, 4 Females
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Sure, I'll buy Dhyer's "all the mages are girls" argument.

Dragon Age 2
Cast distribution: 5 Males, 4 Females
Best PC:
Higher average:

Mass Effect
Cast distribution:  3 Males, 3 Females
Best PC: Uh... I'm actually kinda stumped on this one.
Higher average: Gonna go with dead even-ish here.

Yeah, consider me stumped here. Its ME1. Everyone murders everything with some trick or another.

Mass Effect 2
Cast distribution:  6 Males, 6 Females, 1 Other
Best PC:
Higher average:

Mass Effect 3
Cast distribution:  4 Males, 4 Females
Best PC:
Higher average:

[VySaika]

Neverwinter Nights
Cast Distribution: 1 customizable main, 4 males, 2 females.
Best PC: Either(main character), Male(not counting the main)
Higher Average: Male

The problem here is the allies can't be controlled at all. So some of them would be better...but suffer from idiotic AI in game. Making the non-casters actually "better" alot of the time. Odd, I know. Tomi(m)(if the MC is not a rogue) > Grimgnaw(m) > Linu(f) > Daelan(m) > Sharwyn(f) > Tomi(m)(if the MC is a rogue) > > > > Bodyknock(m).

Bodyknock is TERRIBLE, but not so bad he drags the male average down from Tomi's utility and Grimgnaw's all around beastlyness. Also you only get to bring one of these with you, so this does color some things.

Neverwinter Nights: Shadows of Underentide
Cast Distribution: 1 customizable main, 2 males, 1 female.
Best PC: Either(MC), Female(if discounting main)
Higher Average: Female

Dorna > Deekin > Xanos, pretty cleanly. Dorna as a rogue with some cleric levels, or a cleric with some rogue levels, is just more useful on average then the other two. Deekin is pure bard, so no levels wasted on inefficient multiclassing, while Xanos is SORCERER AND BARBARIAN. A melee fighter who has given up levels to bad spellcasting, or a spellcaster who is behind on caster level for bad melee fighting that DISABLES HIS SPELLCASTING. Xanos is bad and should feel bad.

Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark
Cast Distribution: 1 customizable main, 2 males, 2 females, 2 female temps, 2 male temps
Best PC: Either(MC), Female
Higher Average: ....this is rough. Push, likely. Or Male, if you hold Aribeth's availablility issues against her.

So the temps are Linu, Sharwyn, Tomi and Daelen from NWN main campaign. Buuut you can only use them for chapter 1, and cannot bring them into the real meat of the game. So I'm not really counting them. Aribeth, the "best non-main PC" is only around for the last chapter, missing the first two. Buuut the last chapter has alot of nasty, and I'm counting her as a permanent PC there.

So it's Aribeth > Valen > Deekin > Nathyrra. Add >s between Valen and Deekin as necessary, and it's arguable that he's better then Aribeth due to availability as well.

NWN2 I will have to think about more. More cast, more control over thier actions, and DnD 3.5 balance issues makes  it a little harder to just toss out there.

[Grefter]

Baldur's Gate
Best PC: Male (CHARNAME)
Baldur's Gate 2/ToB
Best PC: Male (CHARNAME)

uwat?  There is 0 difference between Male and Female in BG1.  BG2 outside of Romance quests there is no difference. Unless you have a really convincing argument that Romance quest only items are that influential I am going to call you crazy (and the good shit from those is unique to the character you are romancing rather than Bhaalspawn...).  The strongest I can think of comes from Jaheira's and is only good for her.  Not as good as the Amulet of Power, but you probably want to give that to a more dedicated mage/priest type...

[metroid composite]

I don't have a strong opinion of cast balance in most games, or just agree with the ciatos in the few cases where I do, except...

Final Fantasy Tactics
Cast distribution: 4 women, 6 men, 2 neither
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

I dunno, I feel like the best cast member in FFT is generic female, and you should have four of them in your party >_>.

Valkyrie Profile
Cast distribution: 10 women, 12 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Male

Five best PCs are probably Lenneth, Lawfer, Lucian, Arngrim, and mage. 3/5! Seriously, unsure of how to deal with mages in this, since they all occupy one specific niche.

Hmm...dunno.  Like...I never run fewer than two females in VP, and frequently end up running three.  (Two mages is an optimal party at many points in the game).  And ok so you can't remove Lenneth, but I'm not sure why you'd want to with bow lenneth being insane.

VP is also really weird, because character strength varies a lot depending on situation.

Let's see...

Females:

Lenneth (best in cast)
Freya (temp/bonus dungeon chaaracter, but very good)
Jelanda (Mage, solid)
Nanami (Mage, solid)
Yumei (Mage, solid)
Aelia (Honestly?  I don't use that much of her; I'm less of a fan of Lawfer than most people seem to be, although I still recognize him as good in the windows when his weapons are good.  But I've never had much use for a character who is slightly worse in most ways).
Lyseria (Mage, I do feel like mages unlocked later in the game tend to be of less value, just because you can run three mages at most, and your other mages will be trained up more...so she doesn't tend to have a place in-practice)
Lorenta (Mage, solid.  She's the last mage I've been known to pick up and use; and she has a lot of starting spells so doing so can be reasonable).
Mystina (Mage, ehh, sort of late but....  The cutoff is before her for me, probably because I dislike her personality, but she has a good spell selection, and some people choose to use her because of that...and I can't really fault them for doing so).
Shiho (Mage, and a late one, but actually she still has a niche--I believe she can get might reinforce before it's normally available, and that's actually noteworthy enough to propel her into making the cut a lot of the time).
Jayle (garbage)

Males:
Arngrim (Yep, definitely used him on challenge runs to take out specific bosses)
Lawfer (My feelings about him aren't -as- positive as some other people, as the first few times I played the game I didn't figure out the item crafting, and I've subsequently done challenge runs which also disallowed item crafting, and he drops off in the bonus dungeon.  But no question he's good; when I beat C-ending boss Freya, he's an integral part of my strategy).
Belenus (He's probably average; can't think of a challenge run where I was like "oh man, I need belenus for this", unlike, say, Lewellyn.  But he's not bad)
Llewelyn (I have found him to be an optimal choice in challenge runs...once, mostly because his PWS can be insane against the right target, but he is also hilariously bad in a lot of situations)
Kashell (This asshole crashes disks, screw him.  Umm...in all seriousness, I have considered using him in a challenge situation because greatswords are so good.  I ended up going with someone else, but I breifly considered it).
Janus (Ehh...average for a fighter I guess, but not someone I'd really want in my party)
Jun (Garbage)
Badrach (Garbage)
Grey (Garbage)
Suo (Garbage)
Gandar (Probably the worst mage because of how late he joins while adding nothing new)
Lucian (Definitely good, although he also tends to be just as much of a temp as Freya most of the time.  I also feel like he's more of an allstar in randoms, where being able to PWS solo means you can save three characters for other targets.  Against bosses having a beastly regular attack, and a weak PWS is actually not what you want, because you don't get the multiplier bonuses.  Can't really think of any challenge runs where he was a roleplayer, but being a temp gives him less opportunity, of course).
Lezard Valeth (Well...ok, I suppose Lezard is technically worse than Gandar in the race for least practical mage.  But unlike Gandar at least he's overflowing with fantastic quotes and great voice acting).
Brahms (Very good afterame character to the point that I feel he's actually a little underrated.  17 hit PWSs are good for the ridiculous amount of multipler they provide.  I think he should probably make the cut over Lucian in most aftergame parties--despite the massive advantage regular sword users are given in the aftergame).



I dunno, I feel like males have more characters where I feel like "If I'm using this character in my party, something has gone horribly wrong, or I'm just training them up to give them levels or something".  For females that list would be Lyseria and Jayle.  For males, it's like...Jun, Badrach, Grey, Suo, Gandar, Kashell.

And...while I think 2 males, 2 females is probably the most common party gender distribution, 1 male, 3 females is pretty reasonable at several points.  Like...any party with Freya in it.  Like...various points in the game where two mages are optimal.  Like...if you're item crafting then Lawfer+Aelia+valk+mage probably has a case for being the best party for a period of time.  On the flip side, 1 female, 3 males?  Yeah...that like...never happens for me, ever.  Even in the final dungeon when I'll sometimes use Lezard for his stylishness, chances are I'll also be using Freya.  And ok yes, you can run 0 mage parties, but like...I run 3 mage parties more often than I run 0 mage parties; mages are stupid good at some points in the game, and pretty much never bad.

[Grefter]

See my knee jerk for VP1 was female has all the mages for like 5 chapters.  Female wins on the strength of that alone to me; even if you interpret Mage as interchangeable kludge of explosions.

[metroid composite]

See my knee jerk for VP1 was female has all the mages for like 5 chapters.  Female wins on the strength of that alone to me; even if you interpret Mage as interchangeable kludge of explosions.

It's more like...

Female has all the mages for 7.5 chapters (males getting one mage midway through the final chapter)


But uhh, yeah, if you go by Captain K's FAQ with his star ratings on characters...I mean, ignoring the part where I don't agree with some of the star ratings (Lewellyn has a 1 star rating, Badrach has a 2 star rating, Janus has a 4 star rating, wat o_O) if we just take the averages....

Female: 4 stars on average (4.09 counting temp/bonus dungeon)
Male: 3.08 stars on average (3.27 counting temp/bonus dungeon)

[AndrewRogue]

Baldur's Gate
Best PC: Male (CHARNAME)
Baldur's Gate 2/ToB
Best PC: Male (CHARNAME)

uwat?  There is 0 difference between Male and Female in BG1.  BG2 outside of Romance quests there is no difference. Unless you have a really convincing argument that Romance quest only items are that influential I am going to call you crazy (and the good shit from those is unique to the character you are romancing rather than Bhaalspawn...).  The strongest I can think of comes from Jaheira's and is only good for her.  Not as good as the Amulet of Power, but you probably want to give that to a more dedicated mage/priest type...

Oops. I actually had a bout of insanity since I've been playing PS:T. I forgot CHARNAME was either gender.

[Grefter]

Did I forget the number of chapters in VP1?  Yes I did.  I had 6 in my mind as the final chapter.  I also kind of throw out postgame in "in game use" analysis.  Clearly this bumps it on my to play list when I am done with Icewind Dale I think.  The question is do I buy it again on PSN, find my UMD or do an install.

And I was throwing Gandar a bone on availability as well >_>  He may suck and be a terrible person, but he got a pimp cane yo.

I might do BG analysis myself at some point because we clearly have OPINIANZ about usefulness here.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I am generally not including generics in this since you could say "well female Monk is terrible" or whatever and I'd agree. I decided just to rank the standard core PCs rather than generics.

Re: VP, I just am not sure how much credit I want to give a rating system in which has like 7 identical PCs which you can use interchangeably and call that an average. I am much more comfortable with saying "Lenneth, mage, Jayle, Aelia" vs. all of the dudes, in which the women may still win due to Badrach and Llew fuckery(and Gandar is bad due to being CHAPTER 8 JOINING MAGE AT LEVEL 1 ON HARD, WOOP WOOP!), of course. Maybe misandry is more rampant in VP than I previously thought.

<-- needs PAPER MARIO analysis

[metroid composite]

Re: VP, I just am not sure how much credit I want to give a rating system in which has like 7 identical PCs which you can use interchangeably and call that an average. I am much more comfortable with saying "Lenneth, mage, Jayle, Aelia" vs. all of the dudes, in which the women may still win due to Badrach and Llew fuckery(and Gandar is bad due to being CHAPTER 8 JOINING MAGE AT LEVEL 1 ON HARD, WOOP WOOP!), of course. Maybe misandry is more rampant in VP than I previously thought.

Well...I think you need to count mages as being at least three characters, since there are legitimate reasons to use three.  (As I recall, the best way to beat the hamsters superboss is a triple mage party with bow Lenneth; triple celestial storm kills all four before they get a single turn).

<-- needs PAPER MARIO analysis

Oh certainly.

Paper Mario 1:

Best character: Mario.  I don't even know if he should be directly compared to the partners, but like...he's blatantly got better variety and more damage with the right setup, if we are doing that comparison.

Gender ratio: 4 male, 4 female partners + Mario

Partner rankings would be like...quite possibly the four girls on top, actually.

The girls

Bow/Watt for #1/#2 as far as I'm concerned
Bombette has some claim on #3, just because starting a fight with her bomb is the highest damage you can start an encouter with, Power Bomb is very good, in that it's basically an ultimate ability which is available before ultimate level (Mega Bomb is bad, but that's fine since she has an ult).
Sushi also has a claim for being fairly high.  Squirt is the best "bomb target" style ability.  Tidal Wave if you're good at it is the best "hit all enemies in all zones" style ability.  Water Block is really good, and important in several challenge runs.

For the boys

Goombario has two niches: 1. good attack against no-defence enemies.  2. charge is good against high defence enemies (basically 4 ignores defence damage for 1 mana).  I suppose also Tattle if you're new at the game and don't have all the enemies memorized.  But...bow outclasses him in the first role, and Watt outclasses him in the second.  He's sometimes a roleplayer on challenge runs before you get those two.  That said, make no mistake, I can see arguing him as high as #3.
Kooper is OK.  Like...multitarget that just hits ground, but not as good as Bombette's multitarget that just hits ground which she gets at power rank.  Decent status, I used it against the Anti Guy Squad.  In theory the cheapest MT, but 3 FP doesn't feel amazingly cheap to me.  I tend to be a little bit boss focused due to all the challenge runs I've done, which might make me undervalue him, granted.  Fire elemental damage is a real thing that matters for frying some stuff (although so is bomb elemental damage).  Kooper I could also maybe see being squeezed into the top 4, although that's more of a stretch.
Parakarry is like...in theory his ult is nice, but Sushi outclasses him by the time that's really a thing.  In theory Shell Shot is nice, but 3FP for 6 damage at power rank competes with Bow's 0FP for 5 damage at power rank.  His divekick is even unique in that it can knock enemies off of ceilings for mario to jump on.  But in a game where all the partners have similar damage, he doesn't differentiate himself all that well.
Lakilester: On paper one of the best melee attacks (hits literally anywhere, goes through all protections like electric and fire) but nobody really cares--I actually care about Kooper's similar but weaker melee attack more because it's available during relevant parts of the game.  Cloud Nine is his niche, and pretty much the main reason you'd use him.  And to be clear, Cloud Nine is really good.  Still, probably the overall worst character in the cast.


I dunno, I mean, it's a very, very even and balanced between the partners.  If we count Mario, then he's both the best character, and probably also so far above the curve that males are on average better.  However, arguably 75% of the females are above the median.



Paper Mario 2:

I don't remember nearly as well.  That said, I do recall you can pretty much break the game with Goombella.  Have her at 1HP, and equip a bunch of partner badges that power the partners up when they're in peril health.  Now use quickchange, have a full HP partner out, swap to her, multibonk, and then swap back before the turn ends so you can have a full health partner out.  So...she's probably the best partner.

Vivian is also good, because she has an ability like Bow's "Outta Sight".

I seem to remember Madamme Flurry and Ms Mous being pretty bad, though...admittedly I don't remember what they do.

[Cmdr_King]

Paper Mario is kinda weird.  Fundamentally there's Mario and everyone else, Mario does more things than the partners, is unambiguously the best character, you have to use Mario, every other character competes for the second slot of two characters on-field at any time.  Mario is so central to the game that even if every female partner was better than every male partner, I think Males would still win.

Incidentally in Paper Mario 2 I think every female partner is better than the male partners (although I could be forgetting Koop's midgame niches?  It's been years and years), possibly discounting the optional thief character.

e: and metroid says the same thing with lots more detail and words.  Eh whatever.

[Grefter]

Personally, throwing all the Mage explosion kludge together as a singular entity and ignoring Gandar as a counterbalance and for being the shitpoops, by my gauge of in game worth?  Still think females win out overall because while there is more good male fighters, that singular female explosionkludge is so centralizing and good at what it does. The males that are good ride on the backs of good mages and Bow Lenneth.  So much of the game is trivialized by menu cast Poison Blow or so solidly dealt with by Celestial Star once Poison Blow stops 1 rounding all the enemies that Mage Kludge is a pretty dominating character.  Competition for that back row slot is another female or three shitty archers.  The one with any claim to fame is easily filled in for by Mage Kludge throwing small animals at enemies (for lower sustained damage with PWS with the situational bonus of Mage Kludge skill set.  You might want Might Reinforce or something).

Like legit I am struggling to see the gap between Lawfer/Arngrim and Aelia being bigger than the gap between Lawfer and Mage Kludge. (personally think Lawfer trends towards being overrated, I think Arngrim slots into similar niches quite easily with the strength and availability of Greatswords and his own in game availability.  For all that you can Send Lawfer technically being an advantage on in game use.  I love you VP for how strange you make everything).

Disclaimer on this though in that my interpretation of VP is that if you are breaking the game with IC then the relative value for damage lowers incredibly. It really doesn't matter how much overkill damage you can do when Mage Kludge has cleaved down almost all the trash enemies or the boss can be one or two rounded by Sword Lenneth, Mage, Badrach, Grey party.

I suspect relative value of PWS is over emphasised in th DL because of tournament.

Also lololol Mage Kludges kludge factor benefits if treated as one single character that counts as like seven females because they are super easy to Send and forget (except for Mystina who I am not sure gets a bigger hit on in game use for that than Arngrim?  You can't send her for less chapters?  But even throwing out Gandar on the averages if treated the same value there is more dudes so she skews the net worth if females down more because of it.)

[Clear Tranquil]

I like this topic 

[Luther Lansfeld]

Yeah I moved VP. The march of misandry continues

[metroid composite]

I suspect relative value of PWS is over emphasised in th DL because of tournament.

Mmm...not sure I agree with that.  PWSs tend to be a bigger deal in-game because you can use them on the first round.  The progression if you're not breaking the game goes something like...

* One shot the enemies with Poison Blow or whatever
* Play two mages, and two shot the enemies with two Poison Blows
* I forget if there's a period of time when three mages is good sometime in early chapter 4; I seem to recall durability spikes up a lot for Lezard's tower, but before you get infinitely reusable greatmagic.
* Have two characters each assigned to one enemy, enough to reach 100 energy for a PWS.  Use that to singletarget kill two of the enemies in the battle, with your two separate teams of PWSers

And then there's bosses of course, where you want to quadruple PWS.  Sometimes after a setup turn with Might Reinforce and/or Spell Reinforce and/or Sap Guard.  (Single mage setups only allow you to cast one of those, or you need to take two setup turns).

Like legit I am struggling to see the gap between Lawfer/Arngrim and Aelia being bigger than the gap between Lawfer and Mage Kludge. (personally think Lawfer trends towards being overrated, I think Arngrim slots into similar niches quite easily with the strength and availability of Greatswords and his own in game availability.  For all that you can Send Lawfer technically being an advantage on in game use.  I love you VP for how strange you make everything).

Mmm...Lawfer is a character with legitimately crazy good multipliers (like...second best after bow Lenneth) but isn't that remarkable at the times when spears are weak.  If you item craft, or know where to look for the dinosaur spear and have the patience to get it, though?  Suddenly spears become the best weapon, and combined with his multipliers this is very silly.

Arngrim is a character with mediocre multipliers but better weapons if you just go by storebought stuff or stuff found in sensible treasure chests.  Any time he doesn't have a weapon advantage (if you item craft, or during the bonus dungeon) suddenly he becomes very mediocre.  Like...barely better than Jayle levels of mediocre.

So...yeah, Arngrim vs Lawfer is pretty contextual.  There's definitely situations when it's correct to cut one or the other.  (Usually not both, unless you're running a 3 mage party or you're in the bonus dungeon and have Freya/Brahms).

[Luther Lansfeld]

One thing I forgot to mention for FF9, but most of the randoms are weak enough that Garnet can clean them up easily enough without Boost, particularly if you know that Gems boost the Summon damage. My last playthrough a few months ago involved no Boost, just Garnet spamming Shiva and winning every battle. Her mute phase still only takes about a 1/4 of her turns and the other 3/4s of the turns she instantly killed all of the enemies.

Generally in FF9, the less absolute turns something takes, regardless of if there is a Summon animation or not, the faster it is. Even physicals take an absurd amount of time to execute for reasons I am not clear on.

I also question opposition to using both Eiko and Garnet because you only need one healer. You COULD only have one healer, or you could have a backup healer who does lots of MT damage. The enemies in FF9 average at about three per battle? It's substantial enough that killing them with Summon over physicals is faster (assuming physicals OHKO). I generally found that just mashing X takes way longer than Shiva death.

I think it is telling about FF9 that the ability to complete a battle in real time factors into a character's rating, though!

[Meeplelard]

Really, FF9 characters can be split into 4 categories:

Fighters
Summoners
Vivi
Quina


Vivi, outside of a few stretches (Early game, and right after he gets Agas) is a weaker Garnet all things considered, and basically Eiko without healing.  Quina has a bunch of gimmick spells of questionable use, and not really conventionally worthwhile in the grand scheme of things.

Fighters...to be fair to Zidane, he's regularly one of your best damage dealers in this regard.  Freya only beats him if you get Holy Lance early; otherwise, she gets Holy Lance or Dragon Lance not long before you get Ultima Weapon and Zidane is much stronger, and Zidane's weapons regularly beat hers.  Also, Freya misses a large part of Disc 2, Steiner as well along withj a large part of Disc 1, and Armarant misses all of Disc 1 and most of Disc 2, so Zidane's legitimately going to have no skill problems these characters may have.  I think its fair to say that Zidane is overall the best physical fighter.

THAT SAID, this doesn't make him better than the White Mages, and a follow up argument is "He's not better enough than the other fighters" as well.  Really, what matters most is that Garnet and Eiko are the clear top 2 since they're Healers while retaining a competent (at worst) level of offense, and even if Freya were #8, the average is still in favor of females, so yeah, FF9 is Pro-Female.

If you want to toss in Temps, Beatrix is clearly the best of those, but you could argue Marcus is the only one that really matters due to being around long enough, but he's not exactly a point in Males favors.  He's a skill-less fighter who can steal during a section of the game you lack Zidane (not that it's a big deal, but its still a perk), who mostly exists so you don't have to rely on 2 PCs during Garnet's arc of Disc 2, and one of those 2 PCs is completely damage anemic, so yeah, temps don't really change much.

[Reiska]

A couple insights I can throw in from games in Ciato's notable missing things:

Phantasy Star 2
Cast distribution: 4 male, 4 female
Best PC: Male (Rolf/Eusis/whatever)
Higher Average: Male

Just looking at the cast down the line...
Rolf/Eusis - clearly gamebest PC.  Main character, best equipment, best techniques, reasonably durable.
Nei - great earlygame (very early she's better than Rolf even), starts falling behind in the early midgame, and would fall off a cliff after Climatrol if she stayed alive due to equipment upgrades not existing and no technique progression.  The remake fixes both points, IIRC (since it has an extremely convoluted FAQbait sidequest to avert her death) and she's still not amazing as far as I know but manages to at least hold her own.
Rudo - gamebest durability, competitive damage.  No versatility, but versatility is frankly low-value in PS2 compared to damage and durability because PS2 buffs are mostly awful and the one that isn't can be itemcasted.
Amy - awful durability and damage, healer PC with poor MP pool in a game where item-based healing is plentiful, cheap, and equally competent to magic healing (and that's not even counting the ubiquity of Gires itemcasts).  Her only niche is MT healing which is badly overcosted, learned badly late, and generally not that useful.  This is how you make a healer not worth a party slot, because she certainly isn't.  She'd be better if Deband wasn't itemcastable.  But it is.
Hugh - Amy with slightly better durability and damage, but that damage only works against the easier half of the game's overall bestiary.  May as well use him over her when better options aren't available, which isn't often.
Kain - mediocre durability, damage competitive with Rudo in general and superior against the harder half of the game's overall bestiary (and, notably, in the final dungeon and against both final bosses).  Very easy argument for overall third best PC.
Anna - mediocre durability, mediocre damage (better than the dregs, worse than Rolf/Rudo/Kain).  Okay random sweeper, techs mostly useless because PS2 Shifta is worthless, in practice is relegated to itembot most of the time (but her speed makes her the best itembot).  Probably fourth best PC, only because of how quickly she can get itemcast Deband off.
Shir - gameworst PC.

Breath of Fire 2
Cast distribution: 6 male, 3 female if I counted right
Best PC: Up for debate between Ryu or Deis?
Higher Average: Female

There is no bad female PC in this game and there are multiple bad male PCs.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon
Cast distribution: 45 male, 14 female, I think (rough count)
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Male

Interesting distribution here, Caeda is gamebest PC by a huge margin because forged wing spear is absolutely stupid but then most of the rest of the female PCs but two (Lena and Minerva) are either bad, growth characters in a game which really does not do them favors, or okay but inferior to male counterparts - Navarre > Athena, Merric > Linde, Jagen > Midia.

Persona 4
Cast distribution: 4 male, 3 female
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male (PS2), Female (Vita)

I don't actually completely agree with Djinn on PC balance here but it's not enough to shift the overall balance.  Yu's broken as hell, Kanji is clearly better than Chie for 95% of the game, Yosuke is 2nd-best PC in game, Yukiko is marginally better than Teddie because Teddie's weakness comes up slightly more often, and Naoto is gameworst.  Vita remake changes the dynamic completely because Naoto rockets up to 2nd best PC and the gap between Chie and Kanji narrows significantly (but Kanji is still overall better).

Dragon Quest 2
Cast distribution: 2 male, 1 female
Best PC: Male?
Higher average: N/A

I feel like Midenhall is best PC and Cannock is worst but the gap's not really big between him and Moonbrooke, it's certainly debatable. 

Dragon Quest 4 (maingame only)
Cast distribution: 4 male, 3 female, 1 either (not counting temps)
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Hero is best PC regardless of gender, female hero > male hero due to equips.  Alena > Ragnar > Torneko for physical bruisers, but Borya is slightly better than Maya (ice is less resisted and he has slightly better utility magic).  Kiryl/Minea comparison is version dependent, Minea wins on DS and Kiryl wins on NES.  I give the average to females overall anyway because Alena is THAT far ahead.

Dragon Quest 3/9
Cast distribution: entirely player's choice (created PCs)
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Gender doesn't matter for stats and females get exclusive equips which are situationally better than anything males get.

[metroid composite]

So...Paper Mario's still kinda weird, and I've been thinking about it.

Yes, if you use badges on offence, then Mario's damage is much higher than his allies damage.  But there are very good defensive badge setups (some of which actually decrease Mario's damage).  And defensive badge setups work with whole party HP.

Like...Mario is weird, just because he kind-of represents the whole party, and kind-of doesnt.

[Captain K.]

Eh, those star ratings are from very early in the FAQ-writing.  Not entirely inaccurate though.  Llewelyn's normals are garbage, his PWS is occasionally great but on average poor.  Whereas Janus is usable in most any situation, and his PWS works in any position.  And Badrach is *the* best character for crystal farming, period.