Viewer Gender Confusion/Video Games: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

** Parodied in one ''[[VG Cats]]'' [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=103 comic], where Leo and Aeris try to see which bathroom Slippy uses. Doesn't work. "It's peeing in the fucking break room!"

* This has happened to Tails from ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' a few times, even though in the first games in which he speaks, he was actually voiced by a boy.

** It's [[All There in the Manual]], of course, since his given name is the unambiguously male [[Punny Name|Miles Prower]].

** And after so many [[Bishonen]] protagonits through the series, while they weren't many, there were some that originally thought [[Final Fantasy XIII|Lightning]] was yet another girly ''male'' protagonist!

** [[Crisis Core]]: [http://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/25100000/Genesis-Rhapsodos-genesis-final-fantasy-7-fan-club-25151825-337-272.jpg Genesis] is a man, however much the picture might fool you.

** Don't forget Corrine. Girly voice and name, cute and cuddly ball of fluff, multi-colored, Corrine's gotta be a girl, right? ''Nope''. The little fox is a male. However, Corrine can also go into [[Viewer Gender Confusion|an even bigger gender debate]] when you take in two factors, the manga {{spoiler|and the fact he becomes Verius. Verius is obviously male and outright proven so, especially when playing the sequel, and this is yet another factor that can confirm Corrine is male because he ''is'' Verius. However, the manga depicts Corrine differently where Verius is an entirely new entity sharing Corrine's likeness only in their life force and appearance. They also confirm ''Corrine'' is female and ''Verius'' is male. Oi.}}

* Zhang He from [[Dynasty Warriors]] and [[Warriors Orochi]] full stop.

* Fire Emblem has had a couple of examples such as Sephiran and Chainey, but the most amazing ur-example is Lucius, with his bright blue eyes, long, flowing blonde hair, and monk robes that made him look like he's wearing a form-fitting dress. Not a single person thought he was a man when they first saw his official art. His gentle, feminine, almost [[White Magician Girl]] personality really didn't help. Nor did his child-bearing hips. Or the fact that his main support conversation (and the only one with a double-ending for Lucius) is with another guy.

** In the case of Lucius, it's even parodied in-game in one of Lucius's support conversations, where Serra mistakes him for a girl before he meekly corrects her.

'''Lucius:''' Yes. Yes, you do. }}

*** Ignore not the pretty tiara he wears.

** [[Badass Bookworm|Soren]] is girly enough to have been repeatedly taken for a [[Tsundere]] [[Sweet Polly Oliver]]. The [[Ho Yay]] with [[The Hero|Ike]] doesn't help.

* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' always had its share of gender confusion. If you started playing the series with ''Chain of Memories'', it takes quite a while to get everyone's chromosomes right, no thanks to the confusing pixel anatomy and strange, quasi-corset Organization coats making '''EVERYONE''' have an hourglass figure.

** When the promo images of ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' were first released, there was a debate on a Disney forum about whether Riku was a boy or girl.

* Rhyme from ''[[The World Ends With You]]''. Of course, she's a young girl, so unless others are talking about her with pronouns, there's no way to tell. Another example of going by the game cover; it's obvious in-game. Not making it any easier for those playing The Japanese version -- turns out Rhyme is a [[Bokukko]].

* Kanan from ''[[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]''. In fact, you'll probably need to pick a certain path in the main campaign to find out "she" is really a "he".

* Gunstar Red from ''[[Gunstar Heroes|Gunstar Super Heroes]]'' is a girl. It's due either by reading the manual or by her gender being expressed ONCE that you would know this.

** This wiki even mentions that "Her name is ''Lotte''." However; chances are most people didn't actually spot that name since the other characters have rather English sounding names (Jennifer, Laura, Bobby, Mary...)

* ''[[Moviebob|The Game Overthinker]]'' summed Square-Enix's propensity for this rather nicely: "... Oh, wait, I think that's supposed to be a guy... ''Fucking Squaresoft!''"

** While almost immediately refered to as "Prince", preventing any confusion, the hero of ''Suikoden V'' is downright girly. Only when you look at him at a certain angle (And while wearing certain clothes) does he even begin to look male. Most of the time, he looks pretty hot.

** When Subala's character art was revealed, most of the fandom assumed that she was a boy due to her completely flat chest. Much to their surprise, she turned out to be a 16-year-old girl.

* The ''[[Harvest Moon]]''-iverse has Julius, who's... [http://www.fogu.com/hm/wii/img/preview/char_julie.png Well, just LOOK at him!] His favorite items are even things like jewelry and perfume! If it weren't for his name, it'd be next to impossible to tell that he's supposed to be a dude. And yes, you can marry him if you're playing as a girl. Sort of a shame, since there'd certainly be players who would marry him if he were in fact a woman. He doesn't even have the name to help him in Japan, where his name is Juli. The whole joke was that Candace/Kotomi was bullied by Juli as a child, and always thought he was a girl. Then she grows up, meets him again after so many years, and is shocked to discover that the girl who bullied her was a boy the whole time.

* There's also Jamie from ''[[Magical Melody]]'', who is always the opposite gender of your character, but they have the same sprite regardless (and hides this fact well by having Jamie wear a poncho the whole game).

* Thanks to voice acting being brought into the second game, [[Ni GHTS]] from [[NiGHTS Into Dreams|said titular game]] now speaks with a posh woman's accent, causing many people to think that they're a woman ''despite [[Word of God|it being confirmed]] that Nights has no gender''. [[Ni GHTS]]' voice can be interpreted either as a woman or a young boy; it sounds equally like both.

* Birdo from ''[[Super Mario Bros.]] 2''. While there is more than one member of the species (much like Yoshi), the main one featured in the games is a male...most of the time. Nintendo has [[Flip-Flop of God|changed Birdo's official gender from male to female to]] [[Ambiguous Gender|not really saying if it's one or the other.]]

** Lu Xun -- tiny, pretty, big eyes, slight body, looks like a prepubescent girl.

** Likewise, Ranmaru from ''[[Samurai Warriors]]''. He even confuses people in-game.

* ''[[Three in Three|3 in Three]]''. You might think a talking number would be [[No Biological Sex|neuter]], not feminine...

* Arno from ''[[Summon Night|Summon Night 2: Swordcraft Story]]''. Is it a boy, or a girl? Th characters never find out, Arno never goes by any sort of pronoun and him/herself a "child of the wind", and doesn't know their own gender...The only clue we ever get is one of the villains shouting "you neutered freak!" And it's not even a big clue at all. Seriously, [http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2030/2270354388_04c3ef5ed8.jpg?v=0 you tell me.]

* Mao in ''[[Shadow Hearts]]: From The New World''. That's a ''man's'' voice coming out of that cat, and yet it's supposedly a female. Since Mao's a cat without any form of [[Tertiary Sexual Characteristics]], the confusion gets racked up. (She only refers to her gender a small handful of times, easily missed.)

* [http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090610212047/umineko/images/2/29/Kanon.jpg Kanon] from ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'' can be easily confused for a woman when you first see him. [http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20101003014206/umineko/images/4/47/Lion.png Lion] from EP 7 is even worse. But in this case it's intentional, since [[Ambiguous Gender|nobody knows what Lion's gender is]].

* You can make this happen ''yourself'' with the custom players in ''[[Backyard Sports]]'': you can make a boy wear girly clothes and sound like a girl, or a girl look and sound like a boy.

** Giygas falls under this. Officially, Giygas is a "he". But, thanks to a random NPC in the game, several members of the fandom have mistaken "him" for a female.

** In Japan, Giygas/Gyiyg/whatever has an ambiguous gender; it's never defined as explicitly male or female, but that's much easier to avoid in Japanese than English.

* ''[[Grandia (video game)|Grandia]]'': Thanks to the way he's drawn in promotional art (and his appearance in general), you could easily mistake Justin for a girl until you learn his name or hear his voice.

* ''[[Wartech|Wartech: Senko no Ronde]]'': Cuilan. [http://hg101.kontek.net/senkonoronde/Cuilan.jpg Here] [http://hg101.kontek.net/senkonoronde/Cuilan-B1.jpg HE] [http://hg101.kontek.net/senkonoronde/Cuilan-A3.jpg is].

* ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]]'':

** Bugsy.

** Also, [[Playboy Bunny|Lo]][[Killer Rabbit|punny]]. There is a 50/50 chance that the Pokémon is a male/female, and it doesn't help that (s)he has a [[Fetish Fuel|feminine appearance]]. It helps even less that most people say the name is a caricature of ''[[Playboy Bunny|Playboy Bunnies]]''.

** A better example would be the Ralts line. They are supposed to be ballerina based however their "clothing" is feminine. As in "female tutu" and "dress" feminine. They gained a male counterpart the next gen, however you still have to go through the Kirlia stage and the males evolve by a (somewhat rare) evolutionary stone.

** And then there's the [[Pokémon Black and White|Generation V]] counterparts [[Elegant Gothic Lolita|Gothita, Gothorita and Gothitelle]], which have a 25% chance of being male.

** Silver, your Johto rival, invokes this. In the remakes they gave him a more masculine appearance however he still invokes this due to his young age, [[Bishonen]] good looks, and long hair.

** Mostly for Tate; because Tate can actually be a feminine name, too, outside of ''[[Fire Emblem]] 6''. To clarify, Tate is the boy, and Liza the girl.

** Wallace. With that pose, cyan styled hair, and fabulous clothes, anyone could mistake him for a girl and never know the truth.

** This also could have occurred to the translation team for ''[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire|Ruby and Sapphire]]'', who named a Team Magma admin with a slightly ambiguous-looking sprite the very feminine "Tabitha." Unfortunately, [[Gender Blender Name|Tabitha is a man]].

* US players of the original [[Phantasy Star]] had a couple of examples. First there's the [[Bishounen]] Noah who is referred to by both gender pronouns thanks to the [[Blind Idiot Translation]]. Thankfully the re-release on the Gameboy Advance fixed it so he's always referred to as a male. Then there's the cat-like [[Punny Name|Myau]], whose gender is never revealed in the Japanese version nor have I ever heard an [[Word of God]] on the topic.

* Flea from ''[[Chrono Trigger]]''. [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|He's so girly]] that the entire party (in particular Marle) is shocked to learn he's a guy.

** Doesn't help his official artwork is buxom. Maybe he's a [[Hermaphrodite]]?

* In ''[[Chrono Cross]]'', Flea is wearing a pink-and-white [[Joshikousei|schoolgirl uniform]] with a cute pink hairstyle.

* Invoked in ''[[Baldur's Gate]]''. An early sidequest has you hunting down a [[Ax Crazy|deranged]] necromancer serial killer, and when you track him down, he confuses you for his dead parent...''of the opposite gender then you''.

* [http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i212/Kerrah_photos/Ehl.jpg Ehl] from ''[[Solatorobo]]'' is a boy, to the surprise of many a gamer. The pink-ish fur and stockings don't exactly help with the issue. {{spoiler|Subverted, Elh is actually a girl who acts like a boy, they find out her true gender thanks to a [[Shower Scene]] in Chapter 4.}}

* In the first ''[[Tekken]]'', Kunimitsu was an [[Ambiguous Gender]] [[Palette Swap]] of Yoshimitsu with the same voice, but was made distinctly female in the second game.

** When the first playable Water Adept was revealed, fans were confused by "Crown", who wears an absurdly short tunic and leggings similar to Karis's, has [[You Gotta Have Blue Hair|blue hair]] in a bowl cut, fights similarly to Mia, and has [[Voice Grunting|high-pitched squeaks for a voice]]. "Crown" was [[Dub Name Change|renamed Rief]] for the dub, which makes his gender a little more clear: the [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|dude looks like a little girl]].

** Then the second playable Water Adept was revealed. A slender, [[Moe]] [[The Ingenue|Inegenue]] whose name in Japanese is phonetically identical to "[[Spell My Name with an "S"|Harmony]]". And an introductory storyline including an extnded [[Shirtless Scene]]. The European official site cited the [[Dub Name Change|redubbed]] Amiti as a girl for a while, and we can't really blame them for being confused. {{spoiler|Them being second cousins could indicate that this is a family trait.}}

* Dorrie from ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' falls under this. Cutesy-looking plesiosaur with a feminine sounding name? Sounds like a girl, right? Nope, Dorrie's a boy. All official descriptions of the character refer Dorrie as a "he".

* In the ''[[Etrian Odyssey]]'' series, you always have two male and two female character designs for each class. In several cases, at least ''one'' of the male designs could easily pass for a girl, while there are a few potential [[Bifauxnen]]. The Survivalists and Troubadours from ''I''/''II'' are prime examples, are are the Hoplite of ''III'' and the Swordsmen of ''IV''.

{{reflist}}