Nintendo: “Strong Female Protagonists Are a Recent Theme for Nintendo”

Exclusive Interview with NE:

"People have been asking Nintendo to be more inclusive when it comes to characters and relationships in their games. In Tomodachi Life- same-sex relationships. In the Mushroom Kingdom- racial diversity. Nintendo is finally taking a big stride forward, beginning with strong female characters. Whereas, Ubisoft recently came under fire for canning female characters due to ‘doubled development efforts‘, Nintendo is providing many opportunities to play a female heroine."

[-Foxtrot]

Bayonetta - Check

Who else?

Princess Peach is always getting kidnapped and she's had one solo outing in Super Princess Peach

Samus Aran hasn't been seen in a while now. A Metroid game is long overdue

Zelda - She's going to be in Hyrule Warriors but thats it until the next Zelda game next year. Plus Link is the main character of those games unless they decide to make a Zelda spin off.

Who else? And I mean MAIN game characters of big franchises, not side characters.

[Metallox]

"Protagonists", then you are right, but there are many Nintendo games that clearly have "playable strong female characters". Doesn't really matter if they are protagonists or not because, come on, Nintendo games aren't that deep to say "there's sexism here".

The fact that there are a lot of female characters in the roster in the new Super Smash Bros, the Squidgirls from Splatoon, the fact that you can play as a woman in Xenoblade X and there are female characters as well. In Hyrule Warriors there are a lot of "strong female" characters.

This thing of "female presence" has been strong in Nintendo games lately, like it or not, protagonists or not.

But, honestly, I don't care. People focus too much in this topic.

[levian]

I think I speak for everybody when I say we want to be able to play as Zelda in an actual Zelda game! It's cool we can play as other characters in Hyrule Warriors but let's see it in a main game. (If I don't speak for everyone, well, I guess I just speak for myself then)

[Reeze]

“In case you haven’t noticed, [it] is kind of a theme for us; the more recent prominence of female characters. Having female characters playing a role that we haven’t seen often in the past, outside of Samus. And that leads us right back to Hyrule Warriors, seeing Zelda kick some serious ass is pretty impressive. It’s not something that we’ve necessarily seen before from Nintendo. Female Nintendo protagonists are finally stepping into the forefront in their role in the game. Whether it’s all the female heroes in Hyrule Warriors, Bayonetta, the female characters in Super Smash Bros, or Samus in Metroid. Even Splatoon!”

[MSBAUSTX]

Is it Marth from Fire Emblem. Is that the female character from that series. She is a strong character. Not the main but a good one f that is her name. Also there is Impa from LOZ, the girl from Fatal Frame, Main girl from Resident Evil Revelations, I cant remember her name, even though that is Capvom but it was a Nintendo exclusive title. I am just spit balling here but those are the ones I can think of.

[OtakuDJK1NG-Rory]

Marth is a male not female.

Lucina is who you are talking about

[MSBAUSTX]

Ah yes thanks. I wasnt sure. I appreciate it.

[marloc_x]

Mariana Kretzulesco, Brittenay..

[DryBoneKoopa85]

@Foxtrot: I guess you haven't played Super Mario 3D World have you? Princess Peach *SPOILER* Wasn't kidnapped and you get to play as her. Also later you unlock *SPOILER* Rosalina as a playable character.

Another game that has a strong female character is Wonderful 101. Pikmin 3 also has a playable female character.

Nintendo has been doing a pretty good job in including female characters within there titles. A lot of people had been complaining about the balance of female to male ratio in Hyrul Warriors but as of last night Tecmo/Nintendo have now balanced the roster out.

[-Foxtrot]

She was playable character...I mean MAIN character

Like how Bayonetta is the star of her game and Samus is the main star of Metroid. You don't see three other characters along for the ride do you like Super Mario 3D World.

Take Super Princess Peach, she was the star, the one and only main playable character. The roles were reversed and you were aiming to save Mario this time.

[pcz]

nintendo must be tripping out- this recent strong female protagonist theme is imaginary.

even samus was revealed to be a pathetic, bratty, whiney weakling in metroid other M. and even that was years ago.

besides, the female lead thing was done way back in what, 1995 with tomb raider. nintendo are a bit late to start championing females as if they are setting trends.

[Concertoine]

Oh god dont mention Other M. I prefer to remember the Samus in every other metroid game ever, you can choose that one if you so desire.

This isn't some big statement from the company or anything btw... just one observation from one person at the company tangentially stated in one interview... don't read too much into it. So to say the entire company is "championing" them is a bit hyperbolic...

[DonDon]

Samus was not "revealed" to be anything. The makers of Other M were given way too much freedom over her story. Samus HAS a personality but it's never shined in the games (yet). The original manga created by the creator of Metroid is available (translated in English) online. Check it out to get her true cannon persona/story.

[randomass171]

What about all the playable female fighters in Smash 4? And Hyrule Warriors has a bunch of 'em too. Some of them are cool badasses and some of them are adorable. I think there is plenty of variety.

[-Foxtrot]

I think the article was trying to get at female driven games where they are the strong female leads. With games like Smash Bros U it's a fighting game with a bunch of characters to choose from

Think about it though, of all the characters they have...

Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, Dixie Kong, Todette, Krystal, Mona, Zelda, Samus, Palutena etc...

How many of them have had their own game where they are the main characters, the ones where the story revolves around them.

Samus is the only one and we might not have a Metroid game in a while.

[randomass171]

@Foxtrot I read the full quote and they were just talking about playable strong females so the statement wasn't inaccurate. Bayonetta and the girl from Splatoon count toward female leads I guess. -shrug-

[ShadowHarp]

Would Robin from the last fire emblem game count?

[Concertoine]

I'll never get why people think bayonetta is a sexist character. She kicks everyone's ass and uses her sexuality as a weapon. That's awesome.

@Foxtrot

I don't think they're really being that serious with that comment. But Dixie Kong, Bayonetta, chick from the new Fatal Frame, all the female chars in Hyrule Warriors, Splatoon, are all recent ones. Along with Samus and some of the characters from Fire Emblem obviously...

@MSBAUSTX

Marth is a male character. Lucina impersonates him and is a female character but Tharja and Noire are also great in Awakening.

[xHeavYx]

"I'll never get why people think bayonetta is a sexist character" "and [Bayonetta] uses her sexuality as a weapon"

Uh... What?

[Concertoine]

Well i figure from a pure character perspective you have to have some ingenuity to use that to your advantage. I could agree with someone who says her DESIGN is sexist as she really is a walking series of fetishes (though im pretty sure she is designed by a woman which is funny) but her personality, actions, and dialogue are all fairly developed and often clash with her appearance. The first game had a poor story but she kept me interested because she was basically female Dante, and always had goofy moments but knew when to be serious.

But on the topic of this article, its really dumb for suggesting this represents a "stride" of any kind. I hope Nintendo doesnt let western psuedo-politics make any impact on their game development, and that they choose to make female characters on their own terms.

[DonDon]

Society:

Man acts based on his sexuality = badass

Female acts based on her sexuality = victim of objectivication/sexualization and degradation.

Did anyone ever consider that MAYBE women like sex too? It takes two, y'know...

Perhaps Bayonetta is one of those women. So all power to her.

[CloudRap]

They need 3rd party support not liberal propaganda

[wonderfulmonkeyman]

Platinum IS a third party, you know...
If you're talking multiplatform titles, then stop asking.
Third parties have made the majority of their wii u ports inferior in content compared to versions on other consoles, and late, to boot, in many cases.
Third party multiplats are irrelevant to the wii u's future until the games are either getting all the same bits of content (dlc, modes, etc) while releasing on time, or start coming with content built specifically for the Nintendo audience to attract them to the multiplats.
Multiplats, as a majority, won't sell until one of those two things happen, so until they do, third parties are better off using exclusives on the wii u to make money.

[Spotie]

Liberal propaganda? What the hell are you talking about?

[WheatBread]

We need more strong female protagonists.

[IcicleTrepan]

Cuz Samus doesn't exist.

[DonDon]

Samus is mostly mute or of little dialog. And the "Other M" version of her did a huge disservice to the character and franchise.

Personally i'd like to see a character reboot. Even if it's Metroid Prime 4, i'd like to see Samus's personality get a fresh new coat of paint.

[imXify]

Suddenly everybody care about females in video games thanks to Ubisoft talking about it..

[Ogygian]

Most conventional gamers are male.

Most men either like playing as men or as women of the type feminists would balk at (attractive, skimpy clothing; nice to look at).

I wish people wouldn't make such a big deal of "changing" the status quo which results from simple logical deduction.

Perhaps if the people asking put their money where their mouth is they will have their way; at the moment I just feel like they're annoying the gaming community into bending to their selfish demands.

Thus companies like Nintendo try to appeal to actual buyers while getting PR folks to work overtime throwing meat to the SJWs.

[CouldHaveYelledUiiW]

Nintendo has tons of great female characters.

I hope that the Hyrule Warrior title inspires another Zelda spin-off that feature Midna, Zelda/Shiek, and Impa as playable characters.

-Maybe it could chronicle what Zelda and Impa are doing while Link is doing his thing.

Anyway,
If we are actually going down this road...
Why so few Black and Latino Protagonists in the video game world? And when they are made why do they have to be in "Certain places".

Not grinding an axe, just pointing out something in a LAND where everything is pointed-out.