Mogster wrote:I'd argue that at the time of the Mega Drive, most games were incredibly light on story to the point where the main character could be pretty much anything; male, female or indeed anthropomorphic animal. I would imagine you'd find a far higher percentage of male leads in 16 bit RPGs or point and click adventures for instance.
Hmm, actually that's an interesting point, but adventure games are... actually not bad. While there's undeniably more guys, they're often treated as bumbling and ineffectual; Monkey Island's Guybrush, as opposed compared to say, Rosella from Kings Quest. But that's partly due to the nature of the genre and the gender stereotypes.
Since you can't hack and bash your way through an adventure game, in an unusual twist, the male protagonist needs to be physically ineffectual, where the female protagonist is expected to be smarter than, and outwit all her foes practically by default.
As for RPGs, many of the most famous 16bit rpgs are actually famous FOR their female protagonists, with Celes and Terra taking a huge role in FF6, Alis Landale in Sega's Phantasy Star, and I hardly need to mention the gender breakdown of protagonists in Chrono Trigger, surely.
The Secret of Mana cast: Short one is a sprite, The dragon-thing is Flammie. Genders undisclosed, so far as I know.