Isaac Mulcahy

Instructor Alison Arndt-Wild

COMM-1500

1 July 2017

Misogyny in Final Fantasy

Misogyny as entertainment? [W]hat are we learning as we are launched back and forth

in time and into the worlds of these games? These are questions related to video games and

because the video game industry is booming, global [video game] sales are expected to reach

$111 billion dollars (Campbell, Martin and Fabos 99). There is no doubt that it has infiltrated

our culture and will leave its mark, but what kind of mark will it leave? This exercise will look

at one of the bestselling video games of 2016, Final Fantasy XV and follow the series evolution

since its progenitor, Final Fantasy released in 1987 (Tassi).

DESCRIPTION

In the Original Final Fantasy a player could choose a party consisting of four Heroes of Light

that were chosen to save the world from certain destruction. The characters were undefined and

void of personality (and names) because the point of the game was saving the world by defeating

the villain a dark knight named Garland and it was not a story about the heroes themselves. The

following titles all follow a similar theme, assemble a party that explores the world, meeting its

people, building a reputation and trust from those that youd later save, and level up so that your

party is strong enough to take on the villain and save the world and its inhabitants that youve

come to love. However, the second entry in the series named the characters and applied effort to

have the player invest in their story and development during the course of the adventure.
 The series has always received praise for its high quality visuals and for its soundtracks

and youd be hard pressed to not find a title or two from the series on most gamers top ten

favorite games list (many would list Final Fantasy VI or VII at least) (Final Fantasy). One of the

major criticisms of the series is that it over-sexualizes its female cast. And for the most part Id

agree.

ANALYSIS

As a long-time fan of the series Ive played all of the numbered titles (Final Fantasy I - XV) and

beaten most of them. My first introduction to the series was Final Fantasy VII, the first 3-D entry

in the franchise. The 3-D and the franchises move from Nintendo to PlayStation allowed the

game to increase in scope and it showed off the power of CD-ROMs vs the cartridges that

dominated the market in the years before. Because of the power of the PlayStation the graphics

became more detailed than theyd ever been before.

While still young man I remember one of the female characters named Tifa Lockheart,

childhood friend, ally, and romantic interest to the principal character Cloud. As a character she

is supportive of Cloud, but she subtly pines for the protagonist throughout the game as he

focuses his attentions on another party member. But thats not what makes her memorable, shes

a hardcore streetfighter and extremely tough and powerful in combat. Because shes strong and

powerful its wise to play with her as opposed to other character options. The problem is that

when the party wins (the party can consist of Cloud and two other characters of the nine

possible) the iconic victory music sounds off, the camera encircles the party, and the characters

show off a signature move: Cloud spins his massive sword overhead, a character Red XIII (a lion

dog) howls skyward, and Tifa stretches by clasping her hands behind her back and shoving them
down which causes her chest to become overly pronounced (and she is animated similar to the

likes of Lara Croft from Tomb Raider, another well-known and large chested female character).

In Final Fantasy XV you play as four friends who are all male, which has received

criticism of its own, although the series has had an all-female cast before in Final Fantasy X-2

released in 2004. These characters consist of a prince and his three personal guards on a road trip

to the city of his fiance. A war breaks out the day after they leave and the princes father the

king is murdered. As there arent many women in this game its easy to judge the ones that they

do provide (as in Star Wars you got princess Leia and then Jabbas exotic dancers) the most

prominent being the royal mechanic named Cindy (every entry in the series has a character

named Cid that is a mechanic and loves flying) which would be really progressive as Cid is

traditionally a male character. However, she is a buxom blonde with a playful southern accent,

she sports a trucker cap like her father, knee-high boots, daisy dukes, a long-sleeved jacket

unzipped to show off what God gave her (or at least the game designers).

INTERPRETATION

But what does this all mean? The Final Fantasy franchise is a fantasy and its themes are about

saving the world, in FFXV you play as a young man who is saving the world proper as well as

his own world, the one consisting of friends and family, its about his struggle in losing

everything except for his friends who are loyal to a fault and overcoming the responsibility of

growing up. Final Fantasy is about self-discovery, improvement, and destiny.

EVALUATION
The games look amazing, the music is worthy listening to in a concert hall, and the series

lineage is as long as the likes of Mario and The Legend of Zelda, but is there misogyny and is it

affecting its players? The worlds that are uncovered in the games declare men and women equal

in terms of combat female characters are powerful and important to actually accomplishing the

goal of the player, which is saving the world. In the early games the female characters were

typically beautiful and nothing more than a motivation or a goal for the protagonist to fight for or

to win, they were trophies. As the games advanced the female characters remained beautiful and

became powerful, important, and impactful to the story (around FFIV).

But is being beautiful and dressing scantily evidence of misogyny? Women dress scantily

in the real world. You dont have to go to a video game to see it. You can watch mixed martial

artist Ronda Rousey perform the same stretch that Tifa does in FFVII, they even dress similarly

during combat. I mentioned that the female characters are beautiful and they are, its only more

evident as the graphics improve (my wife couldnt tell that the characters werent real actors

during a cut-scene), however the male characters are beautiful too. Final Fantasy doesnt hate

women; it can put more clothes on them though. For the vast majority of playersvideo games

have no adverse effects (Campbell, Martin and Fabos 95).

ENGAGEMENT

The world of video games resides on Internet forums and YouTube comment sections, but these

are toxic and hazardous places to have an opinion. Going to conventions and communicating

with gaming websites, reviewers, and developers directly are the best ways of getting

constructive criticism to people who can actually do something about it. I am morally against

games like Grand Theft Auto 3 where the point of the game is to play the part of a gangster or
criminal, shoot police officers, and visit hookers just too then kill them to get your money back

(Campbell, Martin and Fabos 95). I vote with my wallet; I dont give money to those that

promote these types of games. And I believe that much of the gaming community does the same

as Tetris, Minecraft, and Wii Sports are better selling games than the likes of Grand Theft Auto V

(List of best-selling video games).

 Works Cited
Campbell, Richard, Christopher R. Martin and Bettina Fabos. Media and Culture Mass Communication in
a Digital Age. 10th. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2015. Textbook.

"Final Fantasy." In Wikipedia 28 June 2017. 1 July 2017.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Fantasy#cite_note-GWR08-RPG-138>.

"List of best-selling video games." In Wikipedia 23 June 2017. 1 July 2017.

<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games>.

Tassi, Paul. "The Best-Selling Games Of 2016 Reveal A Few Surprises." Forbes 23 January 2017. 1 July
2017. <https://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2017/01/23/the-best-selling-games-of-2016-
reveal-a-few-surprises/#69e79983608e>.