Let's discuss: Kya

I'm  in the midst of writing a review for the Playstation 2 platformer Kya: Dark Lineage, but I wanted to look at some aspects of the game before publishing it, so I'm putting it on hold for now. One of my (many) goals of this blog is to look at characters (and/or video games) to determine if they're "female-friendly," since that is something that has always been important to me as a gamer and as a woman. As such, I thought I would give a little preview of Kya, the protagonist of Kya: Dark Lineage, before publishing the game's review.

At one point in my adolescence, I decided that fully developed female characters were important to me. I suppose this came about after playing games and seeing games with many cool male characters/protagonists and female characters that... left more to be desired. When my best friend first showed me Kya: Dark Lineage, I think Kya being female really added to my love of the game.

Kya is an admirable character. She is a young woman (her age is never stated, though she is probably in her mid-to-late teens) who is strong and determined, if not a little stubborn. She lives with her half-brother, Frank, and, presumably, a mother the audience never sees. The game starts off with Kya investigating a strange noise in her house, only to find Frank messing around in a secret room neither of them knew about. While exploring the mysterious room, Frank accidentally knocks over something that causes Kya and Frank to be launched into another world. Upon waking, Kya finds herself surrounded by strange creatures and no Frank. The creatures, Nativs, take her back to their city, teach her about the antagonist of the world, Brazul, and teach her how to fight Brazul's minions so she can rescue Frank.

First, it might serve as a good idea to discuss Kya's design. Kya is not, exactly, oversexualized in the way that many female characters tend to be, but she wears attire that would probably not be acceptable for a male. 

Kya in the Roots (image from IGN)

Kya wears a midriff shirt, which is pretty forgivable considering how sexualized female characters normally are though, it is worth mentioning, Frank would not be wearing such a thing if he were the protagonist. The only reason it's all that forgivable on the part of the designers is because she's female. Midriff aside, Kya's design is pretty-okay. Her body size is a little too small, her waist is certainly too small to be healthy or realistic, but, it's something I can more or less overlook because Kya has a strong personality.

I feel the need to mention this, because I've noticed it too many times in video games, anime, and other media forms: fan service. I can't recall any clear fan service moments, certainly nothing outrageous like having her take a dip in a spring while she's on her mission (I'm looking at you, Final Fantasy X-2). It seems a silly thing to mention but it's important (to me) because so many character designers decide to throw in fan service when female characters are involved.

Kya is a strong character who doesn't allow the fact that she's human stop her from braving dangerous wastelands, volcanic islands, or monsterous dogs that devour everything whole. While her reasoning for going after Brazul is, at first, to help the Nativs and personal in that she wants to rescue her brother, by the end of the game, it becomes personal on a much closer level: she wants to go after Brazul to stop his plans and get her revenge. Her revenge for what, you ask? That would be too much of a spoiler, so you'll have to play the game yourself.

I enjoyed the fact that Kya is a character with her own goals and a real personality. She is, at first, upset about what has happened to her and her brother and worries about Frank's life, but then she "toughens up." She learns how to fight and she braves the strange new world in order to accomplish her goals. I also enjoyed the fact that they added more to her personality than "concerned about brother, must save brother." While that is by no means a bad goal, it doesn't make much of a character. There are times where Kya is downright stubborn, determined to fight the Wolfen and destroy Brazul even though she's only a weak human, and times where she is downright human: when she is afraid for Frank's life, when she loses trust in an ally, etc.,

It's worth mentioning that Kya is also the only female character in the entire game. All of the Nativs that speak are male and, since all of the Nativs have a similar body shape, presumably every Nativ is male. How they procreate now and how they did in the past is a mystery to fans, though I have heard many... interesting theories.

All in all, Kya is a bad ass character who also happens to be female. More female characters could learn a thing or two from her. While Kya isn't my favorite female character, or the strongest, she deserves to be mentioned as a solid female character. There is more to be desired from her in terms of design and character development though, perhaps, if Kya fans had gotten the sequel to the game, there could have been all of that and more.

(Be on the look out for that Kya: Dark Lineage review. It will probably be finished by the end of the week.)