Team Ico's 'The Last Guardian' And The Illusion Of Half-Realism

Forbes: The protagonist in the upcoming PS3 exclusive, The Last Guardian, was originally supposed to be a girl. In the end, however, she got a sex change. Apparently girls aren’t athletic enough to bridge the realism gap, and besides – girls wear skirts. Those were the reasons for the decision given by game director Fumito Ueda when asked why all Team Ico games feature male leads.

[sinncross]

J. Shea has no idea what the hell he is talking about. His argument is sound to a point, but anyone with any knowledge on Japan would understand Ueda's comments.

Or example, in schools when it comes to sports: basketball is usually pushed towards boys first and volleyball pushed towards girls. The same is said about baseball in which a school will always field boys baseball and girls if they have the infrastructure to do so.

Going back to basketball: girls are taught to do lay ups with two hands and not one... the reason for this is because it is dangerous for girls to use one arm... that's just the way it is there...

So going back to Ueda, and comments such as boys have more grip etc... that notion is not far from what is already established preconceptions that still exist in Japan today.

[ShaunCameron]

<So going back to Ueda, and comments such as boys have more grip etc... that notion is not far from what is already established preconceptions that still exist in Japan today.>

Umm. That's not limited to Japan. And that is not a preconeption. Girls being less athletic than boys is a reality.

[A LIVING LEGEND]

sounds like a stretch....