I was never a big gamer as a child. All we had at my house was a Nintendo 64 and 4 games: Pokemon Snap, Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64, and Mario Kart. I was terrible at these games, but my older brother was amazing at them. Some of my favorite memories are sitting on the back of the couch watching my brother play, to me it was like a movie starring my brother. Though I will always claim victory in discovering the XYZ portals in Star Fox because I did it first. (we thought I had glitched the game at first, but no I had just found something unknown!)
I wanted to be cool like my brother, and he liked video games and was good at them. However, I couldn't get past the first Bowser in Mario 64, and found the later levels too difficult. To this day I've never beaten the game. I tried playing my brother's Pokemon games on his gameboy, as they seemed a bit easier, but I was never allowed to save so I wouldn't mess up his file. So it wasn't until I was older that I got games of my own.
My first game was Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I got it for my birthday after my family got a Wii for Christmas. My mother had grabbed it, thinking that I would enjoy the "story-driven action" and the fact that it stars a girl. (Zelda, who was assumedly, the Twilight Princess). I knew practically nothing about the LoZ franchise- except that it featured a Zelda and a Link from Super Smash Bros. But who was who and why was a mystery to me.
I loved the game when I started it. I was this mysterious kid living by myself, with whispers around the village that the princess of the land was missing and no one knew what she looked like. But they knew she was a different race than they (or had the look of being royal or something). And I'm this kid who doesn't look like anyone else and no one knows where I came from.... obviously I had to be the missing princess! Obvious twist, but fun (I thought). When my gal-pal gave me back my horse I was excited to learn that they had two females being friends, or possibly more than friends ooh-la-la how fantastic! I fought my way through the first temple, witnessed my BFF getting kidnapped and got turned into a wolf. Now I have been thrust into the epic quest. Eventually I get enough tears of light (or something) and change back into my human form. And what do I see on my secret princess Zelda?
It's the freaking green guy my brother always plays as in Smash Brothers. The jerk that shouts nonsense and kills me instantly.
What? I was stunned. And saddened, because now my awesome alter ego gal and her BFF and the strange mini-lady from another world was for sure- a dude. I was heartbroken. I wanted to play as a girl. I got to choose my own name, and I looked pretty gender neutral- why couldn't I be a girl?
Through the rest of the game I was repeatedly reminded that I was, in fact, a man. Or a boy claiming his identity as "hero" and "manly" and such. Then lo and behold, the princess I thought I might have been is actually hiding (trapped?) in the tower and I have to save her. Fantastic. Also the mini-lady is another princess who I have to save because in the end she needs me to finish stuff off.
You might call me out by saying that "Legend of Zelda" is actually about Link and "HE'S the main character its' your fault for not knowing the legacy of the game". Well, I'd have to disagree. Most of the time, if the title is a name, it's the main character. Mario, Donkey Kong, Mega Man, Sonic- they're all the main characters. Even the games that I owned had the basic premise and characters in the title. Star Fox was about the Star Fox team, Super Mario and Mario Kart were about Mario either being super or driving a Kart. Pokemon Snap is all about snapping pictures of Pokemon. The titles are very indicative of what's inside the game. When my mother found LoZ: Twilight Princess she assumed it would be a game about Zelda who is a Twilight Princess (and also wolf from the artwork apparently. That's the whole reason I was given this game. I didn't go out and get it. My mother asked me what games I would like to play so our Wii could be used, and I asked for a story-driven game as opposed to a shooter game or a fighting game.
But how sad is it that in my mother's attempt to find a "story-driven" game for her somewhat dark teenage daughter ends up in a game where the title female is basically unimportant. I don't even remember what Zelda did in the game. That's less memory than Peach's role in a game I never even finished. That doesn't bode well for the storytelling and character departments.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh, after all, anyone who knew LoZ would automatically assume that it would star Link (because when has Zelda done anything in any of "her" games). But to a girl who wasn't that into video games, but very much wanted to be because so many cool people liked video games- it was depressing to learn that there weren't any games starring females. All I wanted was a game that either starred a female overtly, or had a gender neutral main character that could be whoever the player was. In fact, if the game had removed the multiple comments from other characters about my needing to be "more manly" "man up" "be the man" or "become a man" I could have easily gone through the game forcing my newly discovered Link character to actually be me on a grand adventure. I could have imagined that my clearly female name matched the character onscreen instead of being a false name for the "man" actually doing the work.
Though I have a deep fear that it'll never happen, I wish there was a Legend of Zelda game that starred Zelda. It could be the exact same as any LoZ game, except instead of Link, it could be Zelda fighting the big bad and saving Link from certain disaster. But if the already established franchise can't find it in their pockets to pay for a game starring their girl character perhaps there's another game company that would prefer to make a game.
I'm tired of playing games that star men, games that only feature girls as the things to be saved, or worse- competent characters that end up needing to be saved because they couldn't defend themselves after all. I remember hearing about Mass Effect 3, which featured 2 storylines that were identical except that Captain Shepard was a girl in the other game. There was even another box art that featured the female Shepard on the back of the original. But apparently when the game was being sold in stores it only showed the "default" male Shepard on the cover art as that was what the company decided should be facing out. You would hope they would at least split it 50/50 so that they get any on-the-fence female gamers to give the game a chance because it starred a female.
I do like video games, and my SO says I'm quite good at them. I've finally gotten a Steam account and got a few different games to play, as well as an emulator to play some more classic games. I actually finished Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time from LoZ a few months ago. So I can better appreciate the aspect of playing as Link.
But there will always be that disappointed teenaged girl who wanted to save the land of Hyrule only to learn that in order to do so, she had to turn into a boy so he could grow into a man and save the day. My mother wanted to give me a game starring someone like me, a strong heroine. Instead, it starred someone like my brother- who again, I got to look up to but not become while watching in the background. As for the girl who started the quest, she was basically just the kid reading the book, who had no impact on the character at all.
And I'll never forgive Legend of Zelda for that.
I wanted to be cool like my brother, and he liked video games and was good at them. However, I couldn't get past the first Bowser in Mario 64, and found the later levels too difficult. To this day I've never beaten the game. I tried playing my brother's Pokemon games on his gameboy, as they seemed a bit easier, but I was never allowed to save so I wouldn't mess up his file. So it wasn't until I was older that I got games of my own.
My first game was Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I got it for my birthday after my family got a Wii for Christmas. My mother had grabbed it, thinking that I would enjoy the "story-driven action" and the fact that it stars a girl. (Zelda, who was assumedly, the Twilight Princess). I knew practically nothing about the LoZ franchise- except that it featured a Zelda and a Link from Super Smash Bros. But who was who and why was a mystery to me.
I loved the game when I started it. I was this mysterious kid living by myself, with whispers around the village that the princess of the land was missing and no one knew what she looked like. But they knew she was a different race than they (or had the look of being royal or something). And I'm this kid who doesn't look like anyone else and no one knows where I came from.... obviously I had to be the missing princess! Obvious twist, but fun (I thought). When my gal-pal gave me back my horse I was excited to learn that they had two females being friends, or possibly more than friends ooh-la-la how fantastic! I fought my way through the first temple, witnessed my BFF getting kidnapped and got turned into a wolf. Now I have been thrust into the epic quest. Eventually I get enough tears of light (or something) and change back into my human form. And what do I see on my secret princess Zelda?
It's the freaking green guy my brother always plays as in Smash Brothers. The jerk that shouts nonsense and kills me instantly.
What? I was stunned. And saddened, because now my awesome alter ego gal and her BFF and the strange mini-lady from another world was for sure- a dude. I was heartbroken. I wanted to play as a girl. I got to choose my own name, and I looked pretty gender neutral- why couldn't I be a girl?
Through the rest of the game I was repeatedly reminded that I was, in fact, a man. Or a boy claiming his identity as "hero" and "manly" and such. Then lo and behold, the princess I thought I might have been is actually hiding (trapped?) in the tower and I have to save her. Fantastic. Also the mini-lady is another princess who I have to save because in the end she needs me to finish stuff off.
You might call me out by saying that "Legend of Zelda" is actually about Link and "HE'S the main character its' your fault for not knowing the legacy of the game". Well, I'd have to disagree. Most of the time, if the title is a name, it's the main character. Mario, Donkey Kong, Mega Man, Sonic- they're all the main characters. Even the games that I owned had the basic premise and characters in the title. Star Fox was about the Star Fox team, Super Mario and Mario Kart were about Mario either being super or driving a Kart. Pokemon Snap is all about snapping pictures of Pokemon. The titles are very indicative of what's inside the game. When my mother found LoZ: Twilight Princess she assumed it would be a game about Zelda who is a Twilight Princess (and also wolf from the artwork apparently. That's the whole reason I was given this game. I didn't go out and get it. My mother asked me what games I would like to play so our Wii could be used, and I asked for a story-driven game as opposed to a shooter game or a fighting game.
But how sad is it that in my mother's attempt to find a "story-driven" game for her somewhat dark teenage daughter ends up in a game where the title female is basically unimportant. I don't even remember what Zelda did in the game. That's less memory than Peach's role in a game I never even finished. That doesn't bode well for the storytelling and character departments.
Perhaps I'm being too harsh, after all, anyone who knew LoZ would automatically assume that it would star Link (because when has Zelda done anything in any of "her" games). But to a girl who wasn't that into video games, but very much wanted to be because so many cool people liked video games- it was depressing to learn that there weren't any games starring females. All I wanted was a game that either starred a female overtly, or had a gender neutral main character that could be whoever the player was. In fact, if the game had removed the multiple comments from other characters about my needing to be "more manly" "man up" "be the man" or "become a man" I could have easily gone through the game forcing my newly discovered Link character to actually be me on a grand adventure. I could have imagined that my clearly female name matched the character onscreen instead of being a false name for the "man" actually doing the work.
Though I have a deep fear that it'll never happen, I wish there was a Legend of Zelda game that starred Zelda. It could be the exact same as any LoZ game, except instead of Link, it could be Zelda fighting the big bad and saving Link from certain disaster. But if the already established franchise can't find it in their pockets to pay for a game starring their girl character perhaps there's another game company that would prefer to make a game.
I'm tired of playing games that star men, games that only feature girls as the things to be saved, or worse- competent characters that end up needing to be saved because they couldn't defend themselves after all. I remember hearing about Mass Effect 3, which featured 2 storylines that were identical except that Captain Shepard was a girl in the other game. There was even another box art that featured the female Shepard on the back of the original. But apparently when the game was being sold in stores it only showed the "default" male Shepard on the cover art as that was what the company decided should be facing out. You would hope they would at least split it 50/50 so that they get any on-the-fence female gamers to give the game a chance because it starred a female.
I do like video games, and my SO says I'm quite good at them. I've finally gotten a Steam account and got a few different games to play, as well as an emulator to play some more classic games. I actually finished Majora's Mask and Ocarina of Time from LoZ a few months ago. So I can better appreciate the aspect of playing as Link.
But there will always be that disappointed teenaged girl who wanted to save the land of Hyrule only to learn that in order to do so, she had to turn into a boy so he could grow into a man and save the day. My mother wanted to give me a game starring someone like me, a strong heroine. Instead, it starred someone like my brother- who again, I got to look up to but not become while watching in the background. As for the girl who started the quest, she was basically just the kid reading the book, who had no impact on the character at all.
And I'll never forgive Legend of Zelda for that.
