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

[Luther Lansfeld]

Hello all! I am doing a little science to figure out about how good female PCs are relative to the average. I was initially wondering if women PCs tend to be better than they 'should' be because magic is often underrated by game designers and that's what gave me the idea to do a list about different casts. Obviously you are free to quibble with anything and I'd love for people with knowledge of games I haven't played or are uninterested in to help out!

I am generally including temps if they are around for a notable period of the game. So not, say, Lunar 1 Ghaleon, but yes to Alonso. This might be applied semi-inconsistently and I am interested in anything noting that.

Please keep in mind that these are averages. Particularly in large-cast games, a couple of great characters of one gender, especially the dominant one, will not necessarily mean a victory.

The biggest thing that I noticed when doing this is that a lot of game worst PCs tend to be male and screw up the averages even with the best character being male.

And obviously, YMMV.

Games disqualified for different reasons which seem obvious enough:
Final Fantasy 1/2/3/5/12/X-2/13-2/Dimensions
Pokemon in general
Mario and Luigi games
XCOM
Blue Dragon
Cthulhu’s Angels

Notable missing things:
WRPGs
N1 games
Tales of ____
Lufias
Skies of Arcadia
Dragon Quest not 8
Arc the Lads
Chrono Cross
Suikoden Tierkreis
Suikoden IV
Phantasy Star not 4
Grandia 1
Breath of Fire II
Persona 3/4
Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon
Paper Mario(for the mcs)

–

Breath of Fire
Cast distribution: 2 women, 6 men
Best PC: Male?
Higher average: Female

The gender without Mogu and Gobi wins.

Breath of Fire III
Cast distribution: 2 women, 3 men, 1 onion
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Ryu is one of the best PCs in RPG history. Momo can't compete with that; she has some trouble beating Garr and Rei. Nina meanwhile has trouble beating an onion.

Breath of Fire IV
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Nina and Ursula is a lethal combo in this game. No one talks about the lethal Cray + anyone combo.

Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Cast distribution: 2 women, 1 man
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Sure, D-gauge, ez mode

Brigandine: The Legend of Forsena
Cast distribution: 26 women, 63 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Most all of the best knights are dudes. Cai, Dinadin, Paternus, Dryst, Vaynard, Gereint, ZEMECKIS, etc. Not sure if there are any countries that have two women in their top 4!

Chrono Trigger
Cast distribution: 3 women, 4 men
Best PC: Fe..male?
Higher average: Female/push

Everyone is about the same, except Frog who is worse. Done!

Cthulhu Saves the World
Cast distribution: 2 women, 5 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

I'm inclined to think that October is in the top half of PCs at least, and Umi is quite good.

Digital Devil Saga
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 4 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female

Heat and Cielo dragging the average down. Argilla is a respectable PC and that's all she needs to be.

Digital Devil Saga 2
Cast distribution: 2 women, 4 men
Best PC: It's complicated.
Higher average: Female
 
The best male PC and the best female PC are the same and they FUSE INTO A FEMALE PC. So... best PC is female? As for the average, Argilla is better than Gale, Cielo, and Roland due to Magic being the god stat in DDS.

Dragon Quest 8
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female by definition

Twin Dragon Lash > your face. Guv has an argument for being the best PC but that doesn't change the outcome of this.

Final Fantasy 4
Cast distribution: 3 women, 9 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female

Edward and Cid and Kain and Edge and Yang all kinda suck. Cecil is good but not quite good enough to make up for the general badness of the other dude PCs. Even Porom, who is quite weak, can't bring Rydia and Rosa down enough.

Final Fantasy 4: The After Years
Cast distribution: 9 women, 13 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

I want to say the dudes have a small edge. The worst character is female and I don't think they have any big victories in individual comparisons.

Final Fantasy 6
Cast distribution: 3 women, 10 men, 1 unknown
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Minerva users win the day. Having a good Magic stat means you are good in this game, and the women all have the best magic stats in the game.

Final Fantasy 7
Cast distribution: 3 women, 6 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

um lol cloud

Final Fantasy 8
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Squall.

Final Fantasy 9
Cast distribution: 3 women, 4 men, 1 unknown
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Summon is good like in all FFs! Vivi is just not as good.

Final Fantasy 10
Cast distribution: 3 women, 4 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

1/2/6 is my kneejerk for the female PC worth in this game. Yuna is more absurdly good than anyone is absurdly bad.

Final Fantasy 13
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Saboteur is more game-changing than Synergist, and those classes work along the male/female split. I think that's the biggest difference. Fang and Lightning also have the most damage. Hope is the main argument for the male cast but he's not enough.

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

Pretty obvious. The top two PCs are both male, and even with Cloud and Malak I think the average should still be higher due to terribleness in the lady cast.

Fire Emblem: The Sword of Seals
Cast distribution: 18 women, 32 men (counting Lalum, Echidna, and Sacae)
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Rutgar/Alan/Lance are probably top three, Sofiya poos on the average by being the rare 0.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Sword
Cast distribution: 11 women, 28 men (including the splitpath PCs only once and not Farina or Karla)
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female?

A lot of the males are the dregs of the cast even though Raven/Lucius/Oswin/Hector are pretty awesome. If you are looking at the best, say, 12 PCs, a higher percentage of women are part of that. The cast is 28% women so if you think 4 women are in the top 12, women are better. Lyndis/Florina/Fiora/Priscilla/Ninian/Louise are all decent candidates. Not counting Karla helps the women, granted.

Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones
Cast distribution: 12 women, 21 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female

Ephraim, Tana, Vanessa, Eirika, and Seth is my tentative top five for the game. Lute is probably sixth! Don't think the male PCs make up for this anywhere else.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance
Cast distribution: 29 men, 14 women(only one royal, and no Nasir)
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female/push

This one is really close! But a lot of the female PCs hover around the top 15.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn
Cast distribution: 43 men, 25 women
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

The three PCs who compete for the crown of best character in this game are all male and the worst three PCs are all female. I think there isn't a huge swing to make up for this in the female direction.

Fire Emblem: New Mystery of the Emblem
Cast distribution: 17 women, 56 men, 1 neither(not counting the four female PCs on the last map)
Best PC: Either
Higher average: Female

Catria + Caeda + Palla raid the skies!

Fire Emblem: Awakening
Cast distribution: 15 women, 14 men, 1 either(21 women, 21 men if you count kids)
Best PC: Either is probably the answer ;)
Higher average: Female

Female Robin is better than male Robin by a hair(Dark Flier shenanigans) and the top 15 has 3 men and 11 women otherwise! Lulz, blowout. I will also note than most of the bad kid PCs are male as well.

Grandia 2
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Sweep up the place ya'll.

Grandia 3
Cast distribution: 4 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Women have higher magic stats, are better PCs. RPG rinse and repeat.

Legaia 2: Duel Saga
Cast distribution: 2 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Sharon is the best, Ayne is the worst.

Legend of Dragoon
Cast distribution: 3 women, 4 men
Best PC: Surely female, regardless.
Higher average: Female

Rose and Sharanda are the two best characters from many views, and Meru isn't BAD.

Lost Odyssey
Cast distribution: 4 women, 5 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

3/4 of the women are immortals, 1/5 of the men are. Done and done!

Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Alex is the best PC and, while Jessica is a decent second, I don't think Mia is all that great at all. Luna is okay but clearly worse than Alex when she is around.

Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Lemina is meh and Lucia is weird and kinda bad. Hiro takes the cake.

Mana Khemia: The Alchemists of Al-Revis
Cast distribution: 4 women, 4 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Pretty balanced cast, but Vayne has Scan and Roxis has time card shenanigans.

Mana Khemia: The Fall of Alchemy
Cast distribution: 5 women, 5 men
Best PC: Female on both paths!
Higher average: Female?

Ulrika and Lily are both pretty good.

Megaman X: Command Mission
Cast distribution: 2 women, 5 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Male

1/6 is the distribution, but Marino/X/Axl/Zero are all decent and Massimo and Cin kinda suck? So 3 vs. 1 and 1 vs. 1. Or something.

Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen
Cast distribution: 11 men, 5 women, 1 either
Best PC: The elusive 'either'
Higher average: Male

Fenril and Rauny are good, but Fogel/Slust/Saradin/Deb/Tris are all around the same as them. Lans is also a good PC in the earlygame. I didn't rate the classes for me own sanity.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment
Cast distribution: 3 men, 2 women
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Maya is better than the rest.

Phantasy Star IV
Cast distribution: 4 women, 6 men (counting Alys)
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Hahn and Gryz decide this handily for the female side. Thx bros.

Radiant Historia
Cast distribution: 4 men, 3 women
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Best PC in the game is male, another male PC is burp copy best PC. Eruca is worse than Rosch in a scrub-off, Raynie, Aht, and Gafka all fight over that third slot.

SaGa Frontier
Cast distribution: 13 men, 10 women, 15 neither
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female/push

I think the game is pretty balanced, but out of the six bad PCs, four are male. I think the men overall win at the top but my kneejerk is that it's not enough to make up for the loss in the lower ranks.

Seiken Densetsu 3
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male/push

Kevin is pretty good. Duran is pretty bad. Shit's hard, man!

Shadow Hearts
Cast distribution: 2 women, 4 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Yuri dominates and the rest of the PC cast is very bland.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant
Cast distribution: 5 men, 3 women
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Blah, I dunno.

Yuri is better than everyone, but the female PCs might be 2/3/4, depending on how much you like Kurando. Gepetto and Blanca are both pretty bad, though.

Shadow Hearts: From the New World
Cast distribution: 3 women, 4 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Shania is a Harmonixer, Hilda has some awesome skills as Skinny Hilda, and Mao's magic is higher than the remaining characters. I personally would call this a sweeeep. Gets a misandry gold star.

Shining Force 2
Cast distribution: 6 women, 24 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Peter and Bowie, yeah yeah.

Soul Nomad and the World Eaters
Cast distribution: 7 male, 4 female, 1 either
Best PC: Either
Higher average: Female/push

Courtesy of Djinn:

<LoveBachelorDjinn> SN, if you ignore generics and Revya... Odie is probably the best, Danette and Trish are up there for spd/range, Vitali has utility, Levin/Juno/Grunzford are middle of the pack, Layna's good but not around long, Galahad and the angels kinda suck... works out to skew more Female slightly.

Star Ocean: The Second Story
Cast distribution: 5 women, 7 men
Best PC: Female? Not an SO2 expert.
Higher average: Female?

Leon and Ernest and Noel kinda suck.

Star Ocean: Til the End of Time
Cast distribution: 5 women, 5 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female/push

Mariaaaa~ Nel~

Star Ocean: The Last Hope
Cast distribution: 5 women, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

I think the male cast holds up a bit better toward the bottom but otherwise it is balanced.

Suikoden
Cast distribution: 17 women, 58 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female?

Ronnie and Cleo and Valeria and Eileen and a lot of the bad PCs are male so eh. Makes up for Tir I think, I could be argued if anyone gave a damn.

Suikoden II
Cast distribution: 20/21 women, 50/51 men, 1 neither (The 50/51 is for the monsters, 20/21 is for Kasumi and Valeria).
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female

Out of the ~18 strongest PCs, 8 are female. Mostly just an informal poll done by yours truly. Suikoden is a bitch to quantify.

Suikoden III
Cast distribution: 22 women, 46 men, 1 neither
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Going through a list of characters, the women seem to win almost every victory.
Chris is better than the other Zexen Knights
Aila and Queen are better than Jacques, Ace, and Joker(although worse than Geddoe)
Elaine is better than the other Duke folks
Lilly is better than her manbitches
Emily is better than other plotless folks
Alma Kinan > lizards
Nei >>> Toppo
Sharon > Futch
Estella is better than the other pure mages
Lucia acquits herself reasonably well against her son(although is probably worse)
there are no duck women, who has their babies anyway
Juan is better than Cecile, but she kicks the ass of the other Budahec folks
Ayame is better than Watari
Geddoe and Hugo are the two big arguments on the male side, but don't think it's enough.

Suikoden V
Cast distribution: 30 women, 40 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female, I think.

Miakis + Lyon + Bernadette + ZERASE + Jeane + Cathari is better than Georg and Kyle and Prince and Belcoot, I feel. (Zerase being MVP due to MT death rained upon all that live. You could argue Georg, but he is just around for so much less blowing up time~)

Suikoden Tactics
Cast distribution:
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Archers + Kika + I don't count Lazlo.

Super Mario RPG
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 4 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female

Cheating averages is fun. Peach is above average.

Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier
Cast distribution: 5 women, 2 men(!)
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Male

Both Reiji and Haken are solid PCs, and I feel like two of the weaker PCs are women.

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

I think the average is actually more female due to including multiple mages.

Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria
Cast distribution: Depends on how you count them
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Rufus tries, but the other girl archers and Alicia and things.

Vandal Hearts
Cast distribution: 3 women, 9 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female

I am inclined to say that because Dolan/Grog/Clint are all in the atrocious Swordsman class, that would skew an average toward the women. Eleni and Zohar are both great but Eleni counts more in her average and has no crappy sworddudes to bring her down.

Wild Arms 1
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 2 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Cecilia's diversity is just too much.

Wild Arms 2
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male/push

Brad is the best?

Wild Arms 3
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Mystic and speed makes Ginny gooood.

Wild Arms 4
Cast distribution: 2 women, 2 men
Best PC: Debatable, I lean female
Higher average: Female

I think Raquel is more potent in randoms than Arnaud and his tricks vs. bosses don't make up for that, and Yulie has some tricks which elevate her about Jude. Close, though!

Wild Arms 5
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

Avril is pretty cool. Otherwise, uh, see FF7.

Wild Arms XF
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female/push

Clarissa > Levin | Ragnar > Labby | Alexia > Felius is my general feeling for PC balance, and I don't think the gaps between any of those sets is very large.

Xenogears
Cast distribution: 4 women, 5 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male

Citan is god.

Xenosaga 1
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

KOS-MOS + MT heal bot Shion = sure, whatever. chaos is probably the worst PC.

Xenosaga 2
Cast distribution: 3 women, 4 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

KOS and MOMO are probably the top two, and Shion isn't bad enough to bring that average down.

Xenosaga 3
Cast distribution: 3 women, 4 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female

MOMO and KOS-MOS get that dumb damage buff.

[Grefter]

So many things to say!  So much coffee in my system!  So little focus!

Points of interest, would be interested in number women vs men in RPGs regardless of averages. 

Median of casts might be interesting?  I suspect SH1 might skew female better that way?  Sample too small of course for that to have much meaning though I think.

Pokemon legit would be interesting just on a review of mans that trend/always are one sex, but pain int the arse to gather data for.

Also the jokes!

Megaman X: Command Mission
Cast distribution: 2 women, 4 men

Ciatos spreading her robocock agenda. 

I had another joke but forget what it was.

Edit- Ducks clearly have a yearly trade of partners in a hedonistic orgy once a year with the lesbian village.

[DjinnAndTonic]

Just my impressions of the games on Ciato's list that I'm most familiar with:
N1 games

La Pucelle
Cast Distribution: 4 women, 4 men, 4 cats
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Prier/Eclair rock the damage curve and Papillon has movement utility shenanigans. Croix has range which is awesome, but the other male PCs either suck or aren't around long enough to matter. Cats are all male as well, which would hurt the guys if you add them in too.

Disgaea
Cast Distribution: 3 women, 5 men, 1 robot
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male

Gordon probably has the best raw stats, Laharl tends to be the best ingame option due to Sword supremacy. Jennifer is the best of the girls, and Flonne, while an awesome mage option, kinda sucks without twinking. If Kurtis and the monster duo weren't around, it'd be kind of slaughter against the girls. As is, this cast isn't diverse enough for there to be that many meaningful differences unfortunately.

Phantom Brave
Cast distribution: 1 female, 1 male!
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Death goddess Marona lol

Disgaea 2
Cast Distribution: 4 women, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male

Taro solos maps, Adell is consistent damage, Tink ignores geo puzzle bullshit. Rozy has a cool passive buff to the male cast and Yukimaru does that Sword supremacy thing (which is a lot less supreme in Dis2) and Hanako just kinda sucks, dragging her entire gender down. Etna is probably the best female PC, but still is just kinda mediocre gameplay-wise.

Disgaea 3
Cast Distribution: 5 women, 4 men
Best PC: Female?
Higher Average: Female?

Not sure who exactly I'd see as the gamebest here. In terms of availability and general usefulness, Mao and Beryl kinda trade off. Monsters are a lot better in Dis3 than previous games, Beryl might just take it. And Beryl's flunkies Asuka and Kyoko tend to be better than the rest of the named cast, amusingly.  Whatever, it's Dis3, no one besides me cares.

Disgaea 4
Cast Distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Desco destroys game balance thanks to Monster supremacy. In addition to being the best, she also doubles as a tool to make all your other PCs gods too! Fuka is the strongest of the humans, with Emizel and Valvatorez fighting for third. Artina is the worst, but the two stronger girls make up for her in spades, and being a healer isn't a bad niche.


Tales

Tales of Phantasia
Cast Distribution: 2/3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male

Chester sucks, but Suzu is even worse. Cless is gamebest, with the mages kinda rolling around in the middle. Leans towards misogyny.

Tales of Destiny
Cast Distribution: 4 women, 4 men
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male

Chelsea dragging the women down immensely. Mary's AI is also bad. Philia and Rutee are just okay. The boys are just overall better, not including Leon because fuck Leon.

Tales of Eternia
Cast Distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male

The main four kinda even eachother out, though Reid is slightly better than Farah. Chat being the worst thing ever cinches this for misogyny.

Tales of Symphonia
Cast Distribution: 4 women, 5 men
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male

Presea is probably the best female PC but she is slow and it's not enough to the girls out of the depths of Sheena's terribleness. Meanwhile, the worst on the guys' side is Genis and he has his uses. (Let's ignore his plot.)

Tales of the Abyss
Cast Distribution: 3 women, 3 men (Asch is excluded)
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male/push

Much closer! I've heard the argument that Natalia can solo the game but I lean more towards Guy's speed, damage output, and faster self-healing. Melee damage far outpowers magic, but the healers are pretty good. Even Anise isn't useless, so it's a pretty close game.

Tales of Vesperia
Cast Distribution: 3 women, 3 men (Flynn and Patty excluded)
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Pretty well balanced again. Yuri is gamebest damage by far, but Rita's utility trivializes the whole second half of the game with Tidal Wave spam. Estelle is pretty damn useful, though Karol/Raven together can obsolete her healing together. Judith outdamages either of the boys due to her speed, though, so she's not far enough behind to drag down Rita and Estelle, who are generally a far better use of two party slots than Karol/Raven.

Tales of Graces f
Cast Distribution: 3 women, 4 men (counting Richard)
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Another fairly well balanced cast. Sophie is probably gamebest, while Pascal is probably gameworst. Cheria being one of the best healers in the history of Tales helps the girls here. Tight curve on usefulness, I'd say.

Skies of Arcadia
Cast Distribution: 2 women, 4 men
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male

Possible sweep for misogyny here. Vyse and Enrique generally have the best skills. Gilder and Fina kinda hang out in the bottom of the barrel. Aika has utility with Delta Shield for some boss fights, plus random-sweeping, speed, and availability that probably edges out Drachma. Depending on how much you respect those, she could end up below both Gilder and Drachma though?

Phantasy Star
Cast Distribution: 1 woman, 2 men, 1 cat (male)
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Alis wins by definition!

Phantasy Star 2
Cast Distribution: 4 women, 4 men
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male

Rolf owns everyone so much, he skews the average on his own. The boys have some crap, but the girls have Shir, so there's no hope for them.

Grandia 1
Cast Distribution: 4 women, 4 men
Best PC: Female
Higher Average: Female

Could be some arguments against Feena being gamebest? Grandia likes its overpowered female PCs. Sue is the exception rather than the rule. Milda's not great overall, but good for her joining time. Feena and Liete are pretty awesome. Rapp is kinda average, and Gadwin's not terrible, but the boys never had a chance.
Guido, 'nuff said.

Breath of Fire II
Cast Distribution: 3 women, 5 men, 1 neither
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Female

Ryu2 may be the best damage dealer, but he's both the worst Ryu and competing against Deis, Nina2, and Katt. No fusions for him either. Rand is decent, but Sten/Bow/Jean are terrible. The boys are just lucky we aren't holding Spar against them.

Persona 3
Cast Distribution: 3/4 women, 5/4 men, 1 dog (in P3P, main is either gender, also, counting Aigis as F)
Best PC: Male, usually
Higher Average: Male?

In vanilla P3, Minato skews things so much, it's surely male, but the other non-Akihiko male PCs are generally worse than the the 3 usual female PCs (counting Koro as male and Aigis as female). But it's not so much worse than it outdoes Minato's influence. Taking Minato out, it skews more Female. Unless you count Fuuka, then it skews back towards Male!

Persona 4
Cast Distribution: 3 women, 4 men
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male

Narukami skews this immensely. Pretty balanced otherwise. Without Narukami, Yukiko and Teddy balance eachother out, Kanji and Chie roughly balance out, and Yosuke and Naoto round out the bottom. Slight edge to the girls maybe?

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon
Cast Distribution: Caeda and not-Caeda PCs
Best PC: Caeda
Higher Average: Caeda

FE11, no one cares, but Caeda skews it enough and the actual distribution isn't too different from FE12.

[Random Consonant]

Well this is a thing.

Not really going to bother with gender counts, just going to share thoughts

AtL1: there's one female PC and i don't remember if she was above average or not

AtL2: Weak Enemy and Invincible are the only things that makes playing the game bearable and the folks that get 'em are dudes.

AtL3: Theo kind of sucked IMO and I wasn't too impressed by Velhart.  I guess there was that one optional girl that sucked but the other two female PCs were okay enough.

BoF2: Nina/Katt/Deis are all good, males have the likes of Sten and Jean kicking around.  Clear win for the girls.

Chrono Cross is soooo hard to care abouuuuuuut.  Girls tend to have the better magic stat IIRC so you could argue they win there?  I dunno, me and Chrono Cross, caring is not happening.

G1: Rapp is the worst of the main four PCs, Guido is the worst temp, girls take it again.

Lufia 1: Lufia > Aguro, Jerin > Hero IMO.

Lufia 2: Selan is arguably game best and I consdier Tia perfectly fine when she's around, the worst two PCs to me are the slow male fighters.

FE11: too many turds among the dudes, can't really judge, Caeda is op and the only one gets to use Hammerne is a girl, though Cain/Abel/Frey are all good PCs and Merric is fine too. 

 

[DjinnAndTonic]

Chrono Cross
Cast Distribution: 18 female, 26 male
Best PC: Male
Higher Average: Male/Push

Surprisingly balanced. Took forever, but we basically decided based on "who has less terrible PCs?". Girls had about 5 pretty awful options, Guys had about 8. +-2 for opinion. Girls have a lower percentage of terrible. But the guys have the top 3 PCs, and Serge is notably better than everyone, so it skews Male.

Blame CmdrKing for talking about it enough that I actually figured it out.

[superaielman]

I was initially wondering if women PCs tend to be better than they 'should' be because magic is often underrated by game designers and that's what gave me the idea to do a list about different casts.

I think it has more to do with how uncommon female PC's are. Avoiding the bad generic fighter type (Aguro/Kongol) helps a ton with that.

Lufia 2: Selan is arguably game best and I consdier Tia perfectly fine when she's around, the worst two PCs to me are the slow male fighters.

I'd think guys carry L2. Tia's okay. Selan has issues for the first half of the game; appallingly bad stat mix and magic not being as strong as it is late. Meanwhile Lexis/Artea are both competent for their sections, Dekar has use due to the nutso STR/durability and Maxim is a fighter who can heal.

7th Saga

Cast distribution: 5 male, 1 female, 1 robot
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female

Esuna is quite good. Kamil/Ovlan/Lejes all suck.

[VySaika]

Am I the only one that finds taking the "average" of a gender when there's only 1 of that gender kinda....off? Like saying females > males in DDS or SMRPG when there's only the one girl and she's not the best PC just feels weird to me.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Technically the average of one is just the value of that one. I agree that those games aren't very revealing, but if you're going to count them at all this is the correct way to do it.

[VySaika]

I guess. Maybe this is just me not "getting it" due to not being a math person.

[Luther Lansfeld]

I would agree that it is not a very meaningful average. Small cast games in general are a little suspect.

If you wonder about the math portion...

If you have a character spread of 9 / 7.5 / 5 / 4 / 2, and the 7.5 is female...

The female average is 7.5 because 7.5 /1 = 7.5
The male average is (9 + 5 + 4 + 2)/4 =  5

This was the purpose of having both the 'best character' category and the 'higher average' category. I would argue that the one that is more important in this comparison is based on the cast size. "Serph is better than everyone, so dudes win" would be a reasonably thing to say from DDS, whereas even if Frederick is the best (gendered) PC in FE13, the cast is clearly dominated by women.

[Meeplelard]

I mentioned this once before, but for purposes of analysis of whether games are misogynistic or what not, a few factors to take into account:

Is the Game Best Character the Main character?  Male or Female, a number of games go out of their way to make their protagonist, especially a forced party slot one, game best, or if not game best, at least impressive enough that you don't want to remove them.  Breath of Fire games are good example of this in general. 

Not saying these should be ruled out for averages, but for general cast analysis, it wouldn't hurt.

Doubly so if the Main Character in question is given Plot Super Powers that gameplay tries to reflect.  Again, Breath of Fire is a fine case of this, generally speaking.  If you want a non-Breath of Fire example, Shadow Hearts where Yuri > everyone, because Harmonixers are badass.

Obviously, characters like Dart and Fei exist, who are not the MVPs in any way, but are forced into your team, and hard to really buy them as being intended to be the best either (Citan beats Fei in like everything that matters, for example, pre-Overleveled Deathblows)

Following that, looking at the "Game Best character" if it's not the main, does this character have plot justification behind it, male or female?  Yuna, for example, is blatantly supported by plot.  They hype Summoner powers a lot, and sure enough, that's why she's MVP.  Good example of Plot/Gameplay integration right there.

Can't think of an inverse example offhand. 


Just tossing ideas out there.

[Luther Lansfeld]

This assessment is not about misogyny! If anything, it is to prove that gameplay and plot representations are sometimes at odds. We'll get into that... later.

[Jo'ou Ranbu]

So far, the gameplay worth has been reasonably skewed in favor of female PCs, come to think of it.

[Fenrir]

"Is the Game Best Character the Main character?  Male or Female, a number of games go out of their way to make their protagonist, especially a forced party slot one, game best, or if not game best, at least impressive enough that you don't want to remove them.  Breath of Fire games are good example of this in general. "

Well then, you realize that every JRPG main character ever is male, and that's way worse re: misogyny?



Earthbound
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 3 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male
Paula's second worst I'd say?

Mother 3
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 3/5 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Female
Paula isn't very impressive, Ness is.
Kumatora is fairly better than Duster and the dog.

Castlevania Portait of Ruin
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 1 man
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male


Tactics Ogre Snes/PSX
Cast distribution: Doesn't matter
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female
Healing. Resurrection. ARCHERS.

Devil Survivor
Cast distribution: 5 women, 6 men, 1 black frost
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male
Men sweep. The MC rocks, and you're stuck with a girl with lower movement than everyone else for the whole game.

Penny Arcade 3
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 2 men, 1 skull in a jar
Best PC: Skull in a jar
Higher average: Women
Tycho is the only really lackluster PC from the cast. Moira is a nasty item user.

Lufia 3
Cast distribution: 5 women, 7 men, 1 walking dog
Best PC: Walking dog (Not sure if he counts. He's the least removable from the team because he gets free turns. Otherwise, best character is a toss-up between Wain and Alma)
Higher average: Women
Isaac, Yurist, Randolph are the worst PCs, while Alma and Melphis are among the best.

Borderlands
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female
I haven't played the game a lot with other classes other than Brute so YMMV on that. But Brute seemed a lot worse.

Front Mission 4
Cast distribution: 3 women, 8 men
Best PC: Female?
Higher average: Female
Elsa and Latona definitely know how to kill shit. Ines isn't very good but you can give her one of those Minotaur Arm things. In Elsa's route, the male late joiners like Bosch are pretty crappy.

Dragon Age: Origins (excluding the main character)
Cast distribution: 3 women, 5 men, 1 dog, 1 golem
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female
All the mages are girls.

Secret of Mana
Cast distribution: 1 woman, 2 men
Best PC: Female
Higher average: Female
Best PC is close between Girl and Sprite, but Weird Hair Dude is significantly worse than either.

Yggdra Union
Cast distribution: 4 women, 5 men
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male
This is pretty amazing since the main character is female.

Unlimited Saga
Cast distribution: 12 women, 15 men, 5 other
Best PC: Male-ish Anubis thing
Higher average: Leaning towards Male
Female characters in US definitely tend more towards magic than male characters. Magic tablets are too hard to find in game, familiars are decent but overall not as good as a good axe. If you're going blind, girls -might- be better since familiars don't require work to be good.

Dragon Quest 4 (excluding the main character)
Cast distribution: 3 women, 3 men
Best PC: Female
Higher PC average: Female
Alena > Ragnar, Nara > Taloon, Mara and Cristo eeeh well at least she's not using Beat on the boss

[Fenrir]

Gref do Planescape. TNO and Ignus cancel each other out. After that I just don't know.

[superaielman]

Oooh, going to argue wtih you Fenrir since I just finished Lufia 3 and love FM4.

Lufia 3
Cast distribution: 5 women, 7 men, 1 walking dog
Best PC: Walking dog (Not sure if he counts. He's the least removable from the team because he gets free turns. Otherwise, best character is a toss-up between Wain and Alma)
Higher average: Women
Isaac, Yurist, Randolph are the worst PCs, while Alma and Melphis are among the best.

I'd say Lufia 3 is male. Yurist is fine in game. He gets Dances, those are hugely important for later bosses (Final Dance is nuts.) Isaac kinda sucks, I want more STR on my fighters. The bigger issue is that the average women in L3 are just bad. Seena/Melphis/Milka/Ruby are all fragile as hell with bad IPs. Melphis is decent due to getting some HP late and ChampionX, but the rest? Blah. Milka is my vote for cast worst character. She joins with one dungeon left, has terrible IP and specializes in completely useless stats like magic defense.  Randolph is terrible, but red always has use due to how the matrix system works. Flipside, the male cast is good outside of Isaac (Aforementiond blah) and Randolph (real bad).

(Best PC I'd say is Aima due to uber attack and the skillset from hell though.)

FM4 is female. Not much to say there, the two worst characters on both paths are male (Luis and Bosch).

Dragon Quest 5- Male. The wife character is barely in your party and the main's daughter is bad. Tuppance and Sancho being bad doesn't make up for the best characters being male.


Legend of Mana- Female. Blackpearl trumps everything else offhand.

Radiata Stories- Male, you can only control Jack. There are scrubs of both genders and awesome PC's of both genders, but... Jack. That makes this a no brainer.

Legend of Legaia- Female. Gala actively sucks, Noa's probably the best character.

[Fenrir]

I was tempted to put Seena on the list of really strong female character since her spells can definitely carry a party through the game. (Reduce!) I think Ruby is supposed to replace her somewhat and agree that she's not very good, but I once did some insane damage in a tight situation with Double Up!

"Melphis is decent due to getting some HP late and ChampionX, but the rest?"
The way the game works, only three chosen characters out of much more getting to act each round, a healer not being able to do anything well but healing doesn't matter at all.
The game rewards exceptional qualities, and Yurist being subpar as a healer condemns him. I can't remember him getting Final Dance though. A double opener with Alma might be good. But like literally the only good thing about him. He's a red mage in a game against red mages.

Decent point about Randolph's red.
I'm not going to argue Ruby and Milka are very useful.

In general I'd rank them like this:

(Mousse and Egg Dragon?)
- Alma and Wain
- Melphis
- Deckard and Seena
- Dei (Kind of inferior to the Wain/Deckard/Alma trinity as far as physicals go against randoms, which relegates him to mostly just IP whoring against bosses)
- Isaac, Ruby, Milka, Randolph, Yurist, all having existing but minor uses.
Girls coming on top. They're sometimes fragile (except Alma) but they're blasting from the back row anyway (except Alma)

[Dark Holy Elf]

Since I was looking at CC today anyway: DJ's right that it's really balanced, and Serge being the best does help. The main spanner in the works for the argument that it's a male win is Harle, since she's clearly better than any other non-Serge PCs (see my post in the CC stat topic). Going by raw stats I think women have a sliight win overall (86.9 average Str+Mag instead of 86.4 by Dhyer's notes, too lazy to use the non-randomised max stats to get better numbers), but Serge is better than the stats indicate so it may average out to a push.

EDIT: Also it's probably worth calling FF7 into question. Checking Meeple's topic, the males averaged 4.8, the women 5.03. Cloud's the best, yes, but Vincent is the worst by at least as large a margin. Now, my biggest quibble with Meeple's results is that I think they underrate Cait Sith a bit... though probably not by enough to close that gap singlehandedly. Still it's very close overall, it's possible that Barret is also a bit underrated, etc. I'm fine with calling that a male average win but it's a very near thing if so.

[Luther Lansfeld]

Here is my very lazy tier list.  to all who submitted stuff!

Misandry lifetime achievement(female characters are all better than male characters EASILY)
Still waiting, game designers!

Misandry gold star(Female characters are uniformly better than male characters, although there is some competition/arguments against it)
Shadow Hearts 3
Grandia 2
Grandia 3
Legend of Dragoon

Sabotaged by feminazis(female characters arguably/do occupy top two slots):
Breath of Fire IV
Final Fantasy 6
Final Fantasy 9
Final Fantasy 10
Final Fantasy 13
Fire Emblem 12
Lost Odyssey

Games with female tokenism that wins
Dragon Quest 8
Legaia 1
Phantasy Star 1
Phantom Brave
Secret of Mana
Wild Arms 1
Wild Arms 3

Less blatantly tilted, but still cleanly pro-female(Games I think win female/female)
Cthulhu Saves the World
Disgaea 4
Dragon Age: Origins
Dragon Quest 4
Fire Emblem 11
Fire Emblem 13
Front Mission 4
Grandia 1
La Pucelle
Legaia 2
Lufia 1
Mana Khemia 2
Persona 2
Phantasy Star IV
Suikoden III
Suikoden Tactics
Valkyrie Profile 2
Tactics Ogre
Xenosaga
Xenosaga 2
Xenosaga 3

The hermaphrodite angel counts as a woman right? tier
Digital Devil Saga 2

When one good man isn't enough(male/female)
7th Saga
Breath of Fire
Breath of Fire II
Final Fantasy 4
Fire Emblem 8(okay two good men)
Mother 3
Suikoden
Suikoden II
Super Mario RPG
Vandal Hearts

Balanced but leans female
Chrono Trigger
Disgaea 3
Penny Arcade 3
Soul Nomad
Star Ocean 2
Star Ocean 3
Suikoden 5
Tales of Vesperia
Tales of Graces f
Valkyrie Profile
Wild Arms 4
Wild Arms XF

In a world where everyone is the same, sword girls win...
Wild Arms 5

Bored Internet people could argue about these all day(roughly balances out)
Chrono Cross
Digital Devil Saga
Fire Emblem 7
Fire Emblem 9
Lufia 2
Lufia 3
SaGa Frontier
Seiken Dentestu 3
Tales of the Abyss
Tales of Phantasia
Trails in the Sky

In a world where everyone is the same, dude main character power wins...
Final Fantasy 7
Final Fantasy 8

Balanced but leans male
Fire Emblem 6
Mana Khemia 1
Shadow Hearts 2
Star Ocean 4
Unlimited Saga
Wild Arms 2

When one combat lady isn't enough(female/male)
Megaman X: Command Mission
Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier

It's a man's world, baby(games which are cleanly male/male)
Arc the Lad
Disgaea
Disgaea 2
Final Fantasy 4: The After Years
Lunar 1
Lunar 2
Ogre Battle
Tales of Destiny
Tales of Eternia
Tales of Symphonia
Yggdra Union

Games with male tokenism that wins
Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

Undeniably pro-patriarchy(male characters arguably/do occupy top two slots):
Arc the Lad 4
Earthbound
Final Fantasy Tactics
Fire Emblem 10
Radiant Historia
Skies of Arcadia

A true cockfest(games with a generally dominant male character and a overall better male cast)
Arc the Lad 2
Breath of Fire 3
Devil Survivor
Persona 3(PS2)
Persona 4(PS2)
Phantasy Star 2
Shadow Hearts 1
Shining Force 2
Xenogears

Misogyny gold star(Male characters are uniformly better than female characters, although there is some competition/arguments against it)
Super convinced me that SoA isn't this, so nothing goes here yet.

Misogyny Island(MRA paradise where all male PCs dominate female PCs)
Okay, this doesn't exist either. I think.

[DjinnAndTonic]

If you count the onion as nongendered, BoF3 fits your misogyny gold star category.

(Which amusingly reads that all male characters are better than all male characters.)

[Dark Holy Elf]

Momo's too good for that.

Ryu: 9.8
Rei: 6.95
Teepo: 4.60
Nina: 4.10
Momo: 6.6
Peco: 3.00
Garr: 4.9

[Luther Lansfeld]

Mmm. I feel like Momo's healing and buffs are more essential to the team than anything Garr does. Garr is also quite slow.

[Dhyerwolf]

Arc the Lad 3
Cast Distribution: 3 Men, 3 Women
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male
Could be misogny gold star? Alec is an all-around, Lutz is a great random killer, Theo's cards are nasty and Velhart is just a beast. Marsia has some argument to not be at the bottom with that damage, but she's pretty middling and the niche feels like useful than others (game skews heavily towards randoms, IIRC).

Atelier Iris
Cast Distribution: 3 Men, 3 Women
Best PC: Male
Higher average: Male
Klein can do near everything, Arlin (when available) is the best slugger. Delsus is probably cast worst.

Most of the non Iris Atelier games obviously skew very heavily in the other direction

Shadow Hearts 3, I'd say that Ricardo at least via natural skillset is clearly better than Mao (and Johnny has better option at endgame). Should probably be a tier lower.

Not also sure about FF 9's top two being clearly female based on Summon. That's...wonky for Garnet to say the least (taking both a while to get the skillset and then having black out periods). If I replayed, eventually Zidane's ability to pump out all that damage against randoms for free might go pretty well. I guess it also factors in that I wouldn't really think of using both Garnet and Eiko (there big advantage is healing, the game doesn't require 2). Dunno there, but just a gut reaction.

[Fenrir]

In Skies of Arcadia Aika's actually pretty much the MVP and the only other girl is Fina, who might at least be better than Gilder.

Girls are even better in the original game. Random sweeping matters even more there since the encounter rate is crazy. Bosses are practically just a footnote.



Misogyny gold star goes to Inindo: Way of the Ninja.

The PC team in this game has 3 characters, the MC being forced. You'll definitely want a healer (Try the final boss without a sage) as one of the two remaining characters, so there's only 1 non-sage non-MC available character slot left.

You do not want to waste that on a female ninja, a class that has the same (meh-ish) skills as the main character with way worse stats. Female ninjas are also fairly hard to get except for one who automatically joins very late. So they're strictly lategame and completely outdated at that point.

[Luther Lansfeld]

SH3 was mostly based on Mao having the highest magic stat and that being a niche that should definitely be filled. You might be right that Ricardo has an argument due to skillset, though. Johnny is better late but overall worse because he is brutal stat wise before Incan Stripper. I will look at this one more carefully!

I actually thought Zidane was the worst character in the game. Is his goodness based on pumping his move based on Steal or something else?