Issue with Gender

[Aero]

Why in a game all about customization and making whatever you want with gunpla and dioramas, does your main character have to be a guy? For some reason they didn’t either let you change your gender or even just keep it ambiguous for you. Like with how many female characters there are it is so strange they just assumed you are a guy.
At first I thought it would be nothing just some that would come up very occasionally but no it is like almost every mission so far. There were even lines where they seem to specifically call it out. It just feels so odd to have a game where your avatar is a gundam and you can make whatever you want as long as you, the character, are a dude.

[CrowRising]

Originally posted by Hannah:

Some of you are saying that it doesn't matter, since you're just controlling and building a Gundam, not a person, but... The Gundam isn't your character. Everyone else is a character, we see their avatars, not just a Gundam. If Tao's avatar was just a little SD Gundam instead of a guy, if Lin's avatar was a Gundam instead of a human, that argument might hold water! But it doesn't. The game is clear about gendering you, it tells you that you aren't the Gundam. You're a person. And you, the player, must be male.

And it sucks.

I think the bigger reason why people think it doesn't matter is because it's such a tiny detail in a broader experience. You can equip a female passing avatar to your profile card, change your callouts voice to female, and use female parts on your Gundam. For all intents and purposes if you want to play as a female, you can play as a female. The characters in the story not really acting like it is a really small thing that is a minor inconvenience at worst, and so the massive backlash some are having against it comes off as a bit hyperbolic. It's the kind of thing worthy of a minor complaint, not a full blown rant against.

[fredcheckers]

It's probably the writer in the mindset that it's just a boy's club playing games, along with a rough localization. The good news is that the story is so bad it's absolutely worth skipping the cutscenes. Why are your friends showing fear of dying in a diagetic video game without permadeath?

[Selphea]

I don't really remember the Japanese lines during the cutscenes referring to the main character as a male. The localized lines do of course, though it got more of a "hmm interesting" from me than anything else.

[Tenshu]

Originally posted by CrowRising:

Originally posted by Hannah:

Some of you are saying that it doesn't matter, since you're just controlling and building a Gundam, not a person, but... The Gundam isn't your character. Everyone else is a character, we see their avatars, not just a Gundam. If Tao's avatar was just a little SD Gundam instead of a guy, if Lin's avatar was a Gundam instead of a human, that argument might hold water! But it doesn't. The game is clear about gendering you, it tells you that you aren't the Gundam. You're a person. And you, the player, must be male.

And it sucks.

I think the bigger reason why people think it doesn't matter is because it's such a tiny detail in a broader experience. You can equip a female passing avatar to your profile card, change your callouts voice to female, and use female parts on your Gundam. For all intents and purposes if you want to play as a female, you can play as a female. The characters in the story not really acting like it is a really small thing that is a minor inconvenience at worst, and so the massive backlash some are having against it comes off as a bit hyperbolic. It's the kind of thing worthy of a minor complaint, not a full blown rant against.

What massive backlash? This topic? LOL

[BLOOD ASYLUM]

Originally posted by Aero:

Why in a game all about customization and making whatever you want with gunpla and dioramas, does your main character have to be a guy? For some reason they didn’t either let you change your gender or even just keep it ambiguous for you. Like with how many female characters there are it is so strange they just assumed you are a guy.
At first I thought it would be nothing just some that would come up very occasionally but no it is like almost every mission so far. There were even lines where they seem to specifically call it out. It just feels so odd to have a game where your avatar is a gundam and you can make whatever you want as long as you, the character, are a dude.

What do you have against playing as a man in a game?

[Torean]

Playing through GB4 made me wish they had dialogue and customization for your character, not just the gunpla. The few times it did let me talk, I felt like I was actually integral to the plot. Most of the time however, the story is gassing up characters who sit by and do nothing while I do all of the work, or ignore me, the clan leader and the Ace.
For example, at the end of the story Lin gets AI powers but I rolled my eyes because I did 100% of the work for both phases of the fight.

[CrowRising]

Originally posted by Tenshu:

Originally posted by CrowRising:

I think the bigger reason why people think it doesn't matter is because it's such a tiny detail in a broader experience. You can equip a female passing avatar to your profile card, change your callouts voice to female, and use female parts on your Gundam. For all intents and purposes if you want to play as a female, you can play as a female. The characters in the story not really acting like it is a really small thing that is a minor inconvenience at worst, and so the massive backlash some are having against it comes off as a bit hyperbolic. It's the kind of thing worthy of a minor complaint, not a full blown rant against.

What massive backlash? This topic? LOL

Re-read what I said. I didn't say that there was massive backlash in a general sense, I said that some people were having massive backlash against it. Or to put it another way, it's not that there's a lot of people complaining, it's that some people's complaints are exaggerated for what the perceived issue is.

[ELDEN LORD]

would i enjoy this game if i know nothing about gundam?

[.gantz]

Originally posted by ELDEN LORD:

would i enjoy this game if i know nothing about gundam?

Probably yes??? I think it is fun enough on its own if you like to build mechs
but having seen a gundam show or two can add a lot to the enjoyment cause you'll recognize some of the suits from the models

That being said I don't think its a dealbreaker as I've only watched 4 Gundam series completely and there's like over 30+ so there is a ton of stuff I have no clue what it is and its cool to try the parts out

[ELDEN LORD]

Originally posted by .gantz:

Originally posted by ELDEN LORD:

would i enjoy this game if i know nothing about gundam?

Probably yes??? I think it is fun enough on its own if you like to build mechs
but having seen a gundam show or two can add a lot to the enjoyment cause you'll recognize some of the suits from the models

That being said I don't think its a dealbreaker as I've only watched 4 Gundam series completely and there's like over 30+ so there is a ton of stuff I have no clue what it is and its cool to try the parts out

hmm ok , will thnk about it, thanks

[Spearhead]

There's 0 character customisation, and only loose queues in the game that would indicate you're a guy. It's not difficult in creating a persona for the character being played in the game, the only limit is your imagination and your ability to get offended at any and every thing.

For all I care, my character is an alien from Alpha Centauri, or some bunny girl from the Andromeda galaxy, or I could just simply be myself. The fault is on you for being incapable of creating a character fantasy.

In the end your Gundam is your character, and the game has been made as such, hence no avatar.

[BloodDragoon]

who cares? here for gundams.

[YuGames]

Originally posted by Hannah:

Honestly, I didn't think I'd come back again but this thought has been sticking in my craw.

Gundam Breaker 4 is an RPG. And RPGs can, broadly, be divided into two types- The type where the main character is a character, and the type where they are a self-insert. You can identify the first type easily- If your main character has a name, an appearance, dialogue, they're a character in their own right. On the other hand, if a character has no lines other than occasional multiple-choice options, if they have no name, you're meant to put in your own name. They aren't a character, they're an avatar for you, the player. A self-insert.

(I am personally of the opinion that with rare exceptions, silent protagonist/self-inserts in the modern era are just laziness and bad design, but that isn't the point of this.)

If Gundam Breaker 4 had had its protagonist as an actual character, I imagine I, and everyone else with the same complaint, wouldn't be complaining. No one complains that Amuro is a boy. No one complains that Cecil Harvey is male. They're characters, with their own identities and motivations. They aren't the player's avatar.

But the player character in GB4 is nothing but you. You have no lines outside of multiple-choice options, no personality, no face, no name, no voice. No identity of their own, and so games ever since the start have trained people to latch onto them as "this is me". When it's a character being male, that's one thing. But when it's a player avatar, the subtext here is the game saying "you, the player, are male, and girls aren't welcome here." Intentional? Maybe not, but that's still what the subtext of the design is saying.

And it's rough. Gundam gave us Witch from Mercury, a compelling series about two women, even if Sunrise's handling of it was... well, let's just say it was mishandled and leave it at that. It was still an incredible series. Gundam should not be exclusive of any of its fans.

Some of you are saying that it doesn't matter, since you're just controlling and building a Gundam, not a person, but... The Gundam isn't your character. Everyone else is a character, we see their avatars, not just a Gundam. If Tao's avatar was just a little SD Gundam instead of a guy, if Lin's avatar was a Gundam instead of a human, that argument might hold water! But it doesn't. The game is clear about gendering you, it tells you that you aren't the Gundam. You're a person. And you, the player, must be male.

And it sucks.

I've tried to leave this as non-confrontational as I could, so I hope people will take this in good faith instead of just dismissing it as "ha ha go play concord" or whatever the current Epic Pwn Lulz is. If not, all I can say is, man, Mr. Rogers would be disappointed.

It´s less about "women not being welcome" and more about developers being still allowed to make games for their young male audience in 2024 despite what some may think.

There are other products, series, games and media, self-insert and not, in which the protagonist is female even when they have barely a face or agency, for instance, Honkai Impact, and that despite the fact you can choose your name etc to be male at the start.

It´s less about discrimination and more about developer choice.
Sometimes, they want to aim a product or series at a specific demographic, and it is fine.

[Rxproject]

Imagine playing a game with gundams and...getting stuck on the gender of our character, who never acts and has no reason to exist other than narrative...
Some people should absolutely avoid JRPGs, or they'll turn them into a neurosis...

[Exavier Hellbrand]

theres an option to change your voice in config? may or may not affect story.