Suggestion: Make Yooka Female

[chameleojack]

I really love the character's design, and even owned a chameleon myself in the past. The red tips on its [heavily stylized] flanges, plus the default-red nails (real chameleons can change the color of every square mm of their body, nails too), along with the feminine suffix of the name, imply Yooka is female.

Of course the character is however Rare wants him/her to be. I just think it would be complimentary for Yooka to be a girl and Laylee to be a boy--inversely as Banjo-Kazooie. Seems to me all the pieces are in place for that to work.

[dream09]

The main issue though is that Yooka is confirmed to be a boy. So if the make him a girl, Playtonic will have redo voice acting. And I love the voice acting at the moment.

[chameleojack]

I doubt they're married to the gutteral sound-fx only 3 months into developement! I noticed in the demo, though, that both characters sound too similar. They probably intend to tweak the voices to increase the pitch on Laylee. Just my two cents, I think they'd be a more interesting duo if Yooka were female.

[dream09]

I don't see how gender affects the game or makes the characters more interesting. But then again that's your opinion.

[chameleojack]

That's ok. I didn't realize Laylee was already confirmed female, too. still think the genders would be better suited to the designs if they were inverted, but I really like how this game is shaping up either way. Hope we can count on a villain as comically diabolical as Gruntilda!

[DarkTone]

It would be great if we didn't know the genders until the credit crawl.

[GildasMagnus]

Kazooie being female was only mentioned about twice in the first game. Yooka is male, Laylee is female, but neither gender is going to make any difference to gameplay, and certainly only minimal difference to dialogue. Whatever the case, they've already decided.

[dotEXE]

[Nanirourou]

I think Laylee as a female is endearing. She has that huge schnoz, but is proud of it anyway. I like that it goes against your expectations of gender without making an overt statement. Like how Kazooie was a girl...that made my childhood self so happy when I found out. She was a spunky, full of life, snarky, funny main playable that was actually a girl!! No other games we owned that let you be a girl. (Yes, it was a duo boy and girl, but that made it relatable for both me and my brother.) The only other girls around were princesses you had to rescue (I'm looking at you, Mario 64 and Ocarinan of Time), or else there was a character you hoped was a girl but came to find out wasn't (I'm looking at you, Tails in Sonic 2). It was belittling, like girls were not good enough for adventures. But then B-K came along and let me know I could be a dynamic, active hero, be rough around the edges, AND a girl. It was empowering. Girl characters can be more than soft, pretty pink princesses. It seems the same with Laylee. You don't need luscious eyelashes or a petite nose to be defined as a "girl."

I like Yooka as male, too. He doesn't seem like your standard macho, star-of-the-show either. He doesn't have to be tough and rude and muscly and rugged and belligerent and cool and impatient to be a boy. He can be comfortable in his abilities and own personal strengths, which seem to be that he is calm, passive, and collected.

My twin brother and I kind of had that dynamic as kids, too. I was the more forceful, stubborn one, and he was the kinder, gentler soul. We related a lot to Banjo and Kazooie.

I love the reversal of what are typically masculine and feminine traits, while also not making it feel like a stretch or forced. These are just characters with their own personalities, it just happens one is male and one is female. It makes them feel more real to me. In real life you have a spectrum of personalities in each of the sexes, why perpetrate only the stereotypes?

[Blue]

I'm honestly surprised by how many topics I see by people who want Yooka to be a girl. Thanks, internet.

Anyway, the gender of the characters shouldn't matter. If Yooka is a manly man now, chances are he'll stay one.

[GildasMagnus]

They'll most likely both end up fairly androgynous. I'm sure Playtonic are going to leave their genders by the wayside and have them have no impact on anything. As Nanirourou states, Yooka isn't your buff superhero manly man, which is why he's changed from Tiger (original plan) to chameleon. If anything, he's likely to be a little bit cowardly, with Laylee providing the punch.

[Elsdrake]

sorry, but yooka is already confirmed as a male character

besides...it would be a bad idea to make yooka female.

....no need to say why is a bad idea...most already know

[Yavga]

He is confirmed male... But he's a chameleon. He could very well swing both ways! Heck, make him camo-transgender! Imagine the possibilities! Oh and don't forget the clothes. Definally would love to see a chameleon in a bikini

...

On second though I'd rather not.

[Taylor]

This suggestion seems so arbitrary to me. How does changing someone's gender offer a better gameplay experience? Gender is just a side quality of the character, especially when the characters are anthropomorphic animals. Gender isn't important.

[Pgcrooner]

Not a fan of this idea if I'm beeing honest. I actually really like the current dynamic. At first I thought it was just me being nostalgic, but i can't see them being reversed. Laylee's backstory bits released yesterday (the bit about her being picked on because of her big nose, and her eventual accepance of it) made her more endearing to me.

In the end alot of people have it right, gender doesn't make a huge difference to the gameplay and is thus irrelevant. It all comes down to personal preference. I like the current dynamic.

[travisschultz95]

Whether or not you agree with the gender of the character, they aren't going to change it.

[Bonkard]

I think it's nice that the designs are switched up. At a glance, Yooka appears female, and Laylee you'd expect to be male, but that's just not how it do. A shift in expectation can be healthy when it comes to character design.

Let's just roll with it.

[chameleojack]

[Moonray]

I think the real reason it doesn't matter is, as someone mentioned, it won't change dialogue or character.

There are very few character traits that are restricted solely to one gender and I'm pretty sure none of them would alter the characters. I also remember in one video a Playtonic dev, sorry I can't remember who it was, said the big one is calm, the little one more erratic (I forget the exact words). These character traits are based on their sizes and role in the game, swapping gender would make no difference to that. It's like in Banjo-Kazooie, their genders get mentioned a couple of times but beyond that they're quite gender neutral in their actions and dialogue.

So yea it might be cool from the perspective of it being different to most games but beyond that it doesn't add anything.

[travisschultz95]

Have you ever heard of a game changing the gender of its main character during production for no reason other than "some fans thought it would be better this way"?