Do you consider non-superhero video game character "superhero"?

[spikeeagle2]

Another question for you all.

Lately I have been playing a bit of game, along the like of Helldiver 2, Baldur Gate 3, The lies of P, Final Fantasy and so on.

A lot of the characters in these game have superpower (probably not Helldiver 2) and a lot of those characters are either as feminine, if not more than most Marvel/DC superheroine. So would you consider they are the same thing as the superhero counterpart?

I mean, I personally see this as an alternative to superhero peril, especially now there are quite a lot more of these character coming from Japanese AV maker, and they started to flood the Western market with cosplayer (especially so with "game porn" such as Genshin Impact and Nier Automata)?? I would probably as enjoy say 2B from Nier Automata in peril than Batgirl in peril.

What do you think?

[DonShip]

I think of them as super heroine adjacent. Equal, but different.

[Mr. X]

Or the reverse. Is Batgirl a super hero? No powers. Just a costume.

[spikeeagle2]

I think of them as super heroine adjacent. Equal, but different.

How different? May I ask?

Is it character-wise, fetish-wise or universe-wise?

[spikeeagle2]

Or the reverse. Is Batgirl a super hero? No powers. Just a costume.

Or MacGyver........Literlly doing the same thing without costume......

That did beg the question "What is a superhero" tho

[TheVillain]

I don't make differences.. Superheroines can be from comic book, videogames, tvseries(Xena for example). Simply the comic books were born early so they are the beginning of this type of character. BTW one of my favorite heroine is Cammy!

[Dogfish]

I don't really consider characters to be superheros or not, what I would consider instead is whether something has a comic book style or narrative or aesthetic. Some things do, some things don't.

For example a character in Conan Exiles has comic book vibes, a character in Mount and Blade: Bannerlord doesn't - because a furry bikini and a crazy big sword go a long way to establish the vibe and tone of a thing.

Max Payne, comic book vibes, Red Dead Redemption not comic book vibes. Why? Because Max Payne went for that aesthetic deliberately, even using a graphic novel for the cutscenes, whereas Red Dead doesn't. Kind of puts Max Payne into 'superhero' territory alongside The Punisher.

Functionally anybody who can recover from a gunshot wound by picking up a healthkit or a turkey dinner off the floor is a superhero, but for the term to have any validity there has to be more to it than just the capabilities of the character.

[awsman]

For the purposes of porn genre classification, I’d say video game heroines are close enough, powered or not. IMO all of my customs would fall under SHIP, and I’ve used Lara Croft as the star of multiple videos.

[ThatOnePervert]

I feel it mostly in fighting games. Most fighting games focus around super powered martial artists with at least some of them trying to stop a world ending threat, Chun-li and Cammy in Street Fighter, Ivy and Sophitia in Soul Calibur, etc. Hell Street Fighter V had Rainbow Mika diving out of a helicopter, without a parachute, in full luchadora gear so she could body slam evil grunts. Doesn't get much more heroic than that without slapping on a cape.

[GWalb]

I would consider any especially strong female character who you wouldn't expect to be in a DID situation or losing a fight to a villain or villainess, including goddesses such as Inanna, female angels opposed to devils, cowgirls especially if they have a badge or are someone like Linda Stirling in Zorro's Black Whip, or heroic policewomen, or Jungle Queens such as Sheena. As for video games certainly no one I can recall has ever complained about Chun Li and Cammy being included in the superheroine genre.