There is a trope of female healers in role playing games. Aerith in Final Fantasy VII, Yuna in Final Fantasy X, Marle in Chrono Trigger, Estelle in Tales of Vesperia, and Yukari in Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 3 are all examples of female party members whose role was primary healer. The medic in Valkyria Chronicles that runs on the field to rescue fallen soldiers is also a female character. This trope feeds from the stereotype of women as care givers and men as warriors and protectors. In general, the warriors in video games are male while the healers are female.
Jiro from Blue Dragon stands in battle with a large blue Minotaur shadow looming behind him.
Jrio from Blue Dragon. Jiro is a teenage male with brown hair, a green tunic, calf-high boots, and a knife he carries at his back.
But not all games insist that their healers be female. In Mistwalker’s 2007 Xbox360 game Blue Dragon the main healer is a male party member named Jiro. The characters in the game each have a shadow that forms behind them in battle. Jiro’s shadow takes the form of a minotaur and he begins with White Magic/healing skills. This initial healer role is slightly tempered by the fact that characters can change their base set up and learn any class/skill set as the game progresses. But, that does not erase from the fact that he starts as the healer rather than the female character in the group taking that role. In the 2009 Nintendo DS sequel, Blue Dragon Plus, Jiro again plays the role of a healer and in this game the role cannot be altered. During the game he states, “Please just because you can use a Shadow, don’t forget I’m the only one that can heal you guys.” which shows his acceptance of his healer role. The role of healer is not weak; it is crucial to the survival of the group and has a power of its own.
There is nothing specific in the White Mage/healer that prevents either male or female characters from taking on the role. It is a powerful and important addition to many role playing groups. Yet, it is often seen as the domain of female characters. Jiro is a refreshing change from that mold. Are there other male primary healers in video games or is he an anomaly?
My mind is blanking on which game, but I know there’s some RPG where you get a male angel as a healer character…
ah, it was the first Star Ocean. He’s not the primary healer, though, the primary healer is a girl with a staff as usual.
In one chapter on Dragon Quest IV, your main character is (the awesome) Alena, who is a female warrior (I think she’s the physically strongest character in the game!). One of her followers is Kirel, a male healer priest. He also seems to be secretly in love with her, but she never notices at all!
Alena is definitely a great character!
Oh, and Guild Wars & expansions have several male healers who can be chosen as party members: Mhenlo (Prophecies), Dunkoro (Nightfall), Ogden Stonehealer (Eye of the North).
Following on… Mhenlo is the only character I can think of who is portrayed as not only a primary healer, but young and good looking, and an object of atttraction for other characters. (http://guildwars.wikia.com/wiki/Mhenlo)
All the other male healers tend to be rather older or younger than is considered “optimum attractive male”. Is this because healing is seen as “emasculating”, being all female and nurturing and whatevs? So writers don’t think of it something that makes sense as a role for a love interest/”real” man character? In which case, yay Mhenlo, and are there any others?
That is a really good point. This post reminded me of one of the characters in Tales of Symphonia… the two main mages (at least for the first 8 hours or so, I didn’t get very far) are a woman and a young boy, both of whom can be healers. But it’s made clear the boy character is really a kid, like 11 years old or something.
That is a great point. I know that Angelo, the male priest/healer in Dragon Quest 8, was actually very flirty/leery with women, a drinker, and a gambler who cheats at cards. Those traits don’t put him into a very nurturing role.
I should also add that while Jiro in Blue Dragon is a young boy, so are all the other characters from his village that are your starting party for the first part of the game. His age is not very different from that of his friends Shue and Kluke.
I looked up Angelo on the wiki, out of interest, and saw that yeah, he did look to be in the “attractive” mold! Which is cool… although it also didn’t describe him as a healer, but someone “as adept with a blade as magic” or somesuch, so basically playing down his healer role, seeing him as more of a warrior/templar type.
I have this game, maybe I should get round to it and see for myself!
Though Mhenlo Drops off as a character after a certain part of the game and is replaced in town by a female healer named Alesia.
Oh, he reappears again later, and he’s in the expansions too. He’s kind of the “face” of healing/monking for the games.
Was hoping someone would mention Mhenlo.
I did find it unusual in a positive way that Mhenlo had all those women pining over him.
Heh, most of them pining from a distance only. Like, say, a fireball’s distance. I love Cynn.
I can’t say as I blame her. Mhenlo may not be my type, but I’ve been known to throw fireballs over Kai Ying from Factions…
A male healer wouldn’t be all that remarkable though if (nearly) all characters in the party are male.
True, that would be a factor. Is that the case with Blue Dragon? Not played it myself.
It’s not the case with the games I mentioned, plenty of female party members too.
I believe the trend is to have the ONLY female character in a group of mostly males be a magic user, and often the white magic user = healer. The token female character frequently gets boxed into that role.
Characters in the original Blue Dragon:
Shue – male, warrior type
Jiro – male, HEALER
Marumaro – non-human male, attacker
Kluke – female, black magic- offensive magic
Zola – female, assassin type
Mostly males but just barely.
That makes me think of TF2, where the Medic is definitely a male… but it’s a cast of all male characters, so who cares.
While I wish they had made several of the characters in TF2 female, there is speculation that the pyro is a woman due to the flower adorned purse inside her/his locker.
It’s older than old, but Shining in the Darkness had a female mage (a sort of Lina Inverse type) and the male priest (a sort of Friar Tuck type). Priest did the major healing. I think this game was made before “female healer with a stick” was really the trope.
I remember Ronfar in Lunar 2: Eternal Blue Complete. Although he was a alcoolic and a gambler when you first meet him.
Oh yes, Ronfar. Very memorable character.
I recall that in Breath Of Fire 2 the primary healers are the main character named Ryu and his dog-man friend Bow. Of the three girls one is a physical powerhouse and two others have a wide variety of attack magic.
In the GameCube Fire Emblem, Rhys (male) is one of two primary healers, and the more dedicated-just-to-healing of them (the female is sort of a light attack / healer type).
Nice article.
Hope in is the most adept healer in Final Fantasy 13. As for more male support staff in FF13, Sazh has the best buffing magic. The cast is about 50/50 male and female.
I like playing male healers in games like Final Fantasy Tactics that let you choose the sex of your party members.
Final Fantasy 13 definitely does of good job with having either Hope or Vanille as main healers as well with the gender diversity in the cast. I am surprised that I didn’t think of Hope while writing the article.
I think several strategy RPGs do a good job with healer roles. Disgaea is another one where the healer class can be either male or female.
Nice article! I’ve been thinking of looking into Blue Dragon Plus.
In Dragon Quest VIII, the only female of the group is an offensive mage (Jessica, she of the barely restrained boobs), and your healer is a male priest named Angelo.
Have you seen Blue Dragon: Awakened Shadow? It is an action RPG sequel in the series that just came out on the DS.
I forgot about Angelo. Good call.
I mentioned Jessica previously in http://borderhouseblog.com/?p=1128 Her puff puff attack is difficult to ignore. I will now remember her as “she of barely restrained boobs”.
The main character in Dragon Quest V is the closest thing to a healer among the human characters, iirc.
Billy Lee Black in Xenogears. I suppose you could argue that Billy isn’t a straight healer, but he’s the most effective one in the game, which is good enough for me. He’s the only one to get a group heal and only one of two characters to get a raise spell (the other being the dog). Further, only four of the nine cast members get healing spells, and of that, the dog is the only female character that gets one. The other three ladies are too busy doing damage.
Both Healer player charakters Clive Barker’s Jericho are male.
But, given that one is an old priest and the other is a ghost “healing is seen as “emasculating” ” could be the case here.
The three female player characters are in support roles: Sniper, time-manipulator and wizard.
In the old Shining Force games on the Sega Genesis there were male primary healers. In fact, in Shining Force 1 of the 4 healers in the game, only 1 is female. The other female characters in the game consist of a knight, 3 mages, a swordswoman, and an archer. Shining Force 2 reverses the healer ratio with 3 of the four healers being female. Though that is balanced slightly by the fact that those healers can also have the highest attack stat of any character in the game.