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Post by derboo on Jul 14, 2015 20:26:45 GMT -5
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Post by dskzero on Jul 15, 2015 8:02:06 GMT -5
I was curious about the game but it sounds completely awful.
It's still funny to see how they hid the main character's gender.
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Post by Magma MK-II on Jul 15, 2015 20:21:12 GMT -5
Why did they even do that anyway? Was it such a taboo to have a female protagonist?
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Post by JDarkside on Jul 15, 2015 20:40:53 GMT -5
Why did they even do that anyway? Was it such a taboo to have a female protagonist? This stuff really did used to be a huge boys club for a long time, so yeah, it was a taboo in some circles (and probably the audience they were targeting like bloody idiots).
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Post by derboo on Jul 16, 2015 4:43:06 GMT -5
Less a taboo and more the idea in American marketing to kids that every toy must be gendered and you can't have a character of the "wrong" gender be the face of a toy franchise.
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Post by tbb on Jul 16, 2015 17:43:42 GMT -5
Maybe they just wanted it to be a surprise, Metroid style.
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Post by Allie on Jul 16, 2015 17:51:02 GMT -5
Errrgh.
This game.
THIS game...
I tried playing this, and even though it's ultra-mega-weird, I just couldn't. I'm not the kind of person who likes to draw maps, and in this game, you HAVE to.
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Post by Allie on Jul 16, 2015 17:53:16 GMT -5
Why did they even do that anyway? Was it such a taboo to have a female protagonist? In the US version at least, the hero was originally a male who got changed into a female due to a spell cast on them.
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Post by hudakj on Jul 18, 2015 1:03:22 GMT -5
It was a deliberate attempt to market it as a broader D&D style game. Pretty much any high fantasy game with stats was marketed strictly for that sort of crowd, which was mostly male (in the US) in the 80s.
Also, in this case it looks like it was changed just so they would not have to deal with the Japanese anime look, which was also marketing poison at the time. The suit of armor at least leaves it ambiguous.
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Post by spirasen on Jul 18, 2015 11:59:53 GMT -5
*Forcing you to wander
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Post by Leona Phoenix on Jul 18, 2015 12:17:26 GMT -5
I remember adding this to my list of games to play after reading somebody's article where they complained about the gender swap plot twist, and then forgetting about it completely. Looks like I didn't miss much.
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Post by tbb on Jul 19, 2015 14:27:39 GMT -5
It was a deliberate attempt to market it as a broader D&D style game. Pretty much any high fantasy game with stats was marketed strictly for that sort of crowd, which was mostly male (in the US) in the 80s. Also, in this case it looks like it was changed just so they would not have to deal with the Japanese anime look, which was also marketing poison at the time. The suit of armor at least leaves it ambiguous. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it's weird on their part, because I don't remember anyone balking at Phantasy Star, which had both a female lead and a Japanese animation look (or what passed for one in an 8-bit game). If that was their thinking, I believe it was misplaced. I know the Master System wasn't popular, so maybe that changes perspectives by the publishers, but I knew a lot of kids back in those days who didn't have a Master System that still talked about Phantasy Star looking awesome and wishing they could play it.
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Post by llj on Jul 20, 2015 12:53:40 GMT -5
It was a deliberate attempt to market it as a broader D&D style game. Pretty much any high fantasy game with stats was marketed strictly for that sort of crowd, which was mostly male (in the US) in the 80s. Also, in this case it looks like it was changed just so they would not have to deal with the Japanese anime look, which was also marketing poison at the time. The suit of armor at least leaves it ambiguous. I'm not saying you're wrong, but it's weird on their part, because I don't remember anyone balking at Phantasy Star, which had both a female lead and a Japanese animation look (or what passed for one in an 8-bit game). If that was their thinking, I believe it was misplaced. I know the Master System wasn't popular, so maybe that changes perspectives by the publishers, but I knew a lot of kids back in those days who didn't have a Master System that still talked about Phantasy Star looking awesome and wishing they could play it. Remember that the guys in charge of business/marketing were older guys from a different generation. Kids in the 80s were already less sexist than the generation before them. So, many of the suits were still working under the assumption that a female lead was sales poison. But as a kid, I can't ever recall an instance where the gender of a character in a video game was really a big issue among my peers. The important thing was that the game LOOK "cool"... whatever "cool" meant.
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Post by Allie on Jul 20, 2015 14:18:57 GMT -5
I will say that back in the early 90s, I think more parents would have associated something anime-looking with porn moreso than they do now.
I know when my father first became aware of such a thing, he assumed all of it was pornographic, no exceptions.
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Post by 320x240 on Apr 9, 2018 19:16:35 GMT -5
Just wanted to say that the Famicom cover for Faria is one of my favourites ever. Does anyone know if it was designed by Akihiko Yoshida?
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