History Main / GameFavoredGender

* ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIf'' lets you choose between a male and female character. The female character is revealed to be the canon one in the first two ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' games, which take place in the same universe.

* In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil1'', Jill is very much the easier character to play and is quite literally the Easy Mode (though she's only labeled as such in the Japanese version). Chris has more health than Jill does. In comparison, Jill gets:

** Fewer enemies, especially tough enemies like hunters.

** Starting the game with the pistol instead of needing to explore and find one. Her pistol also does more damage against normal zombies.

** Getting the grenade launcher at the beginning of the game. Chris has to go through 2/3rds of the game with the shotgun as his best weapon, with only a [[VideoGameFlameThrowersSuck pathetic flamethrower]] to compensate.
** If she gets poisoned by Yawn, Barry will carry her to the first floor east save room, where she will wake up at full health and venom free. Chris has to rely on the player briefly taking over as Rebecca, where he can die if you take too long getting to him.

* The ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake'' balances things out a bit more. While Jill still has the lock pick, extra inventory and grenade launcher, enemy and ammo placement is now consistent across both characters, Chris runs faster and has a higher CriticalHit rate, and his defense items are much more useful than hers (to the point where he can essentially skip the first boss with one). He can also start using the kerosene+lighter combo to prevent [[DemonicSpiders Crimson Heads]] from popping up much sooner than Jill.

* The original ''VideoGame/BaldursGate2'' had ''three'' love interests available for a male PC, and only one for a female PC - and he's TheScrappy, to boot, as the two other intended romances for female PCs were cut for time. User mods have since adjusted the balance.

* Let's face it, it's pretty obvious that Creator/CDProjektRed prefers the female V over the male V in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077''. Post its release, she started appearing in every piece of advertising for the game where V is involved, including trailers, the Phantom Liberty promo art, and even [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk03Ch2p3Ts a special "thank you" video for the players who kept supporting the game even after its bumpy initial release.]]

*** There is another very minor example where a female PC will have it easier. There is a bandit not far from the starting village who will demand 50 gold from a male character, but only a kiss from a female one. If you run into him early enough in the game, he will be challenging to defeat, so simply kissing him is the recommended course of action.

* In the original UsefulNotes/PlayStation game ''VideoGame/{{Tenchu}}: Stealth Assassins'', you can play as Rikimaru (male) or Ayame (female). There's one mission where you have to reach a corrupt magistrate. If you play as Rikimaru, when you reach him there's a cut scene where he ruefully confesses to his crimes, and asks to be at least granted an honorable death. Still in cutscene, you assist him while he commits seppuku by cutting off his head after he cuts open his stomach. If you play as Ayame, however, he's enraged that a woman has had the gall to attack him, and the cutscene ends and goes into a boss fight -- you actually have to fight and kill him.

** Getting the grenade launcher at the beginning of the game. Chris has to go through 2/3rds of the game with the shotgun as his best weapon, with only a [[VideoGameFlameThrowersSuck pathetic flamethrower]] to compensate.[[note]]This is a much bigger deal in the original game - the grenade launcher is far and away the most powerful weapon and can kill literally everything including bosses in two shots max. In the remake it’s not measurably better than the magnum.[[/note]]

** The [[VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake REmake]] balances things out a bit. While Jill still has the lock pick and extra inventory, enemy and ammo placement is now consistent across both characters, Chris runs faster and has a higher CriticalHit rate, and his defense items are much more useful than hers (to the point where he can essentially skip the first boss with one). The biggest change is moving the magnum up earlier in the game before you run into any enemies it isn’t wasted on (in the original you don’t get it until well after Hunters show up), rendering Jill’s (very nerfed) grenade launcher redundant.

* The original ''VideoGame/BaldursGate2'' had ''three'' love interests available for a male PC, and only one for a female PC - and he's TheScrappy, to boot. User mods have since adjusted the balance.

* ''VideoGame/{{Siren}}'' allows the male characters to climb higher ledges, use more complicated weaponry, navigate quicker, and just be more fun to play. The ladies on the other hand move slower, can only use knives/semi automatic pistols to defend themselves, die faster, and can't climb nearly as high ledges (with the height limit being around her hips). In stages with both men and women, the player will always play as a man and have to protect the woman, and also help her up ledges she can't climb herself. When it is a solo female mission, the player has to find long alternate routes where a male character could have just passed the road normally.

** The female romance options in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' include only one human, Jacob Taylor, meaning that unless you have a thing for InterspeciesRomance, you're railroaded into either ignoring the romance aspect entirely or sleeping with the least interesting character in the game (not that he's necessarily ''boring'', just ''less'' interesting than the others). This is particularly strange because Jack describes a previous sexual relationship that involved a man ''and'' a woman, but is not a female romance option. It was eventually revealed that the reason for this was because Bioware was still feeling nervous about the controversy over the first game's sexual content and decided to not include an actual gay romance aside from Kelly Chambers (who wasn't actually counted as a "true" romance option). Also, the “threesome” described by Jack above was implied to be of … questionable consent, seeing as how Jack was “just starting out” after having escaped from Cerberus in her teens.

** Getting the grenade launcher at the beginning of the game. Chris has to go through 2/3rds of the game with the shotgun as his best weapon, with only a [[VideoGameFlameThrowersSuck pathetic flamethrower]] to compensate.

** The [[VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake REmake]] balances things out a bit. While Jill still has the lock pick and extra inventory, enemy and ammo placement is now consistent across both characters, Chris runs faster and has a higher CriticalHit rate, and his defense items are much more useful than hers (to the point where he can essentially skip the first boss with one). Chris still doesn’t get the grenade launcher, but the magnum is acquired much earlier in the game and he get a few more rounds than Jill does.

** The female romance options in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' include only one human, Jacob Taylor, meaning that unless you have a thing for InterspeciesRomance, you're railroaded into either ignoring the romance aspect entirely or sleeping with the least interesting character in the game (not that he's necessarily ''boring'', just ''less'' interesting than the others). This is particularly strange because Jack describes a previous sexual relationship that involved a man ''and'' a woman, but is not a female romance option. It was eventually revealed that the reason for this was because Bioware was still feeling nervous about the controversy over the first game's sexual content and decided to not include an actual gay romance aside from Kelly Chambers (who wasn't actually counted as a "true" romance option).

** The ability to auto-pick certain locks instead of needing certain keys that Chris has to find, thus further freeing up inventory slots.[[note]]In the original game, Jill could pick both "simple locks", which Cris requires the one-use "Old Keys" to unlock, as well as the Sword Key doors, but in [[VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake the REMake]] she needs to find the Sword Key just like Chris.[[/note]]

** Getting the most powerful conventional weapon, the grenade launcher, at the beginning of the game. Chris has to go through 2/3rds of the game with the shotgun as his best weapon, and even when he gets the magnum it’s still much weaker than the grenade launcher.

** The [[VideoGame/ResidentEvilRemake REmake]] balances things out a bit. While Jill still has the lock pick and extra inventory, enemy and ammo placement is now consistent across both characters, Chris runs faster and has a higher CriticalHit rate, and his defense items are much more useful than hers (to the point where he can essentially skip the first boss with one). Chris still doesn’t get the grenade launcher, but it’s not as much of an issue since it was massively nerfed and he gets the magnum much earlier in the game. Chris is arguably easier if you can cope with two less inventory slots.

** Female romance options are also significantly more limited. Only 4, one of which is a little kid, and 2 of which are removed from the story for plot reasons so they aren't around for special events. Meaning her only option for a normal love interest is Akihiko. Junpei isn't avaiable because he has a canon love interest in story. The male protagonist meanwhile can romance every female party member and every female S link his age. However, the male character ''requires'' you to be in a romance with everyone once the Social Link passes 5, meaning that you need to carefully plan which girl you're hanging out with if you have multiple at or above 5, but below ten, where they stop getting jealous. The female character, on the other hand, only enters a romance if you choose the proper dialogue.