Biracial Characters in Videogames.
Jill Valentine of Resident Evil fame has been confirmed to be of mixed ancestry (French-Japanese). Here is the link
This is a growing trend in gaming in which various characters are of mixed ancestry. The most famous is Ken Masters (3/4 Japanese, 1/4 American). Benimaru Nikaido is also half-Japanese, as is Hitomi and Kokoro of Dead or Alive, Aya Brea of Parasite Eve, just to name a few.
Goes to show just how far games have progressed in the past years.
Yeah. Clementine is clearly bi-racial when you see her. And when you see her parents in the end, dad is black I think and mom is white or hispanic(hard to tell since she's zombied out).
And on the topic of Assassin's Creed.
Connor is Native American/English(Grandma Tessa)/Welsh(Grandpa Edward)
Desmond is a bit of everything brown skinned it looks like.
The Vance brothers from GTA are black and white.
Originally posted by Tzeentch
Regarding the Japanese mixed characters. It's interesting to note that almost none of their Fathers are Asian. The woman is almost the Japanese one, while the father is whatever else.Timid Japanese woman getting swept up by the big strong white guy/brown guy.
Every male's fantasy. 👆
Lars is the exception. Heihachi is his dad. And Ken's dad is half-Japanese.
Originally posted by -Pr-
I honestly think that games are only going to be fair to everyone when the majority of them allow character creation (most Bioware games) and/or multiple protagonists (GTA, though with more diversity). As long as the narrative doesn't suffer, then the more options, the better imo.
I think it is great that these options exist. But I think the narrative will always suffer when you go that route.
Originally posted by Bardock42
I think it is great that these options exist. But I think the narrative will always suffer when you go that route.
I think it only does if you let it. I think in, say, Mass Effect, it didn't really hurt it much if at all, though I know there were some complaints about interacting with certain party members.
Dragon Age did it spectacularly well imo, but I'm a huge fan of DA so ymmv. I also liked how Skyrim did it.
Now, if you mean something like "the narrative suffers because it has to stretch itself to accommodate so many variables", then I can see it being a worry.
And there are times when it just wouldn't work. Like Assassin's Creed for example.
Now to clarify, I only mean games where you can make your own character, not narratives written for multiple characters.
And the problem I think is mostly due to the immense complexities it would create. Worlds that have to accomodate all sorts of character can not make much of a statement regarding the differences within these characters. At least to me all the Bioware games I played and also Skyrim and other RPGs take me out of the immersion due to the vague or incongruous interactions the world has with my character (admittedly the bioware games are further brought down in what they can achieve with the moral choice systems that they need to connect to my character as well).
For example, take The Last of Us, I think this would have seemed somewhat odd if instead of a Joel I would have been able to choose a small, black lady with a funny hat. At the very least I would have wondered why my funny hat isn't always the only topic of discussion...
Ultimately I think that, at least with the limitations we have currently, can really only say literally nothing about my choice of character and how it relates to the world (perhaps by making the world very bland and/or unrealistic) or at least have moments of "wait...that doesn't make sense, really).
Again, I say the narrative suffers, as in, you could make a more powerful story if you didn't have to account for these choices, not that they are all shit. Both Skyrim and Mass Effect have very good narratives and it works mostly.
But even with Mass Effect, the choices you make on your character are very slight. You choose sex, race and a pre-defined history.
You can't even choose your last name based on how the story would play out.
I also agree about Bioware moral choice system. It's soooo gamey. When you have a choice to make, having the moral system makes into "what makes me more light sided" instead of "what would I do". It's even worst when there is powers associated with the moral choice system.
I'm replaying the ME series and making an effort to make decisions based on what I would do.
Originally posted by Bardock42
Now to clarify, I only mean games where you can make your own character, not narratives written for multiple characters.And the problem I think is mostly due to the immense complexities it would create. Worlds that have to accomodate all sorts of character can not make much of a statement regarding the differences within these characters. At least to me all the Bioware games I played and also Skyrim and other RPGs take me out of the immersion due to the vague or incongruous interactions the world has with my character (admittedly the bioware games are further brought down in what they can achieve with the moral choice systems that they need to connect to my character as well).
For example, take The Last of Us, I think this would have seemed somewhat odd if instead of a Joel I would have been able to choose a small, black lady with a funny hat. At the very least I would have wondered why my funny hat isn't always the only topic of discussion...
Ultimately I think that, at least with the limitations we have currently, can really only say literally nothing about my choice of character and how it relates to the world (perhaps by making the world very bland and/or unrealistic) or at least have moments of "wait...that doesn't make sense, really).
Again, I say the narrative suffers, as in, you could make a more powerful story if you didn't have to account for these choices, not that they are all shit. Both Skyrim and Mass Effect have very good narratives and it works mostly.
I suppose I can agree with you for the most part.
Originally posted by Smasandian
But even with Mass Effect, the choices you make on your character are very slight. You choose sex, race and a pre-defined history.You can't even choose your last name based on how the story would play out.
I also agree about Bioware moral choice system. It's soooo gamey. When you have a choice to make, having the moral system makes into "what makes me more light sided" instead of "what would I do". It's even worst when there is powers associated with the moral choice system.
I'm replaying the ME series and making an effort to make decisions based on what I would do.
Honestly, every time I play ME, I just do what I would do. It hasn't spoiled the games for me, though admittedly I haven't finished 3.
I have found Old Republic to be horrible in that regard though. It being an actual points system just ruins it, imo.
"Oh, you want to hit Dark Side level 2? Better commit genocide during this conversation then, or it's light side points for you."
Spoils at times what is one of my favourite games of the last few years.