Zadok_Allen: Not sure it is the actual reason, but... Messing with Dark Souls truly is blasphemy ;)

Zadok_Allen: Seconded!
Not sure about feminism, but it does offer a bunch of strong female characters throughout the series. Some character's background deals with being molested or simply made fun of and describes how they dealt with it. Not necessarily "in the spirit of feminism", but nonetheless revolving around themes feminism might claim as its own. Mind mostly it is a cyberpunk RPG with tactical combat, with cyberpunk bringing its own themes. Don't expect the epic story to be about sex, gender or feminism. It only takes its many female characters seriously as characters.
You've got your custom main, potentially female of course, as well as a party of three for hire.

Specifically I'd recommend SR: Dragonfall, the 2nd installment of the series. It is a common opinion to consider the 1st part kind of an unpolished game with the 2nd being the true thing. The third (SR: Hong Kong) has a good, yet less enthusiastically received plot and was blamed for "too much text" (which is mostly optional dialogues with neutrals met at the hub). SR:HK is most polished mechanically however. These games are plot-driven mind. Although I replayed them mostly to explore different builds and mechanical challenges it would be a waste to play them w/o regard for the plot to begin with.

Oh and of course one detail I cherish: Like Wizardry, Shadowrun is a party RPG that can be solo'd ^^

PS: Wonderful thread here. Had a lot of fun reading through it, never finding the answer as to what "modern feminist themes" are. Well done ;)

LiquidOxygen80: You misunderstand me. I'm not making a realism argument at all. I'm saying that in Arcanum's fictional setting, there could be a reason why women strength tiers are capped versus men's.

Starmaker: No, No, I don't. Implementing sexism as a mechanic in a fictional world is IRL sexism. Like, to borrow an example, you can make a game where fictional Jews drink the blood of fictional Christian babies, and it would be perfectly justified to fictionally exterminate them in-game, but the game would be IRL Nazi propaganda because fucking obviously. If, in the game, women are generally weaker than men, you reflect it by creating female NPCs with lower strength, not by penalties.

A fictional setting where the fictional society is sexist is fine, I'd argue it's even obligatory if in that same world killing people is an acceptable solution. Establishing a fundamental rule that sexism is factually correct is not fine.

(Addendum, because this is important: YES, IRL the strongest women are still weaker than the strongest men, and males should not compete in women's athletic events. But in the game, a strength stat isn't "how much you can bench press", it's "how good a fighter you can ever be".)

Starmaker: No, No, I don't. Implementing sexism as a mechanic in a fictional world is IRL sexism. Like, to borrow an example, you can make a game where fictional Jews drink the blood of fictional Christian babies, and it would be perfectly justified to fictionally exterminate them in-game, but the game would be IRL Nazi propaganda because fucking obviously. If, in the game, women are generally weaker than men, you reflect it by creating female NPCs with lower strength, not by penalties.

A fictional setting where the fictional society is sexist is fine, I'd argue it's even obligatory if in that same world killing people is an acceptable solution. Establishing a fundamental rule that sexism is factually correct is not fine.

(Addendum, because this is important: YES, IRL the strongest women are still weaker than the strongest men, and males should not compete in women's athletic events. But in the game, a strength stat isn't "how much you can bench press", it's "how good a fighter you can ever be".)

KasperHviid: This ... is clear and intelligent writing.

RWarehall: ...

toxicTom: a female character has it easier to talk her way thorugh, either because the man is interested in her, or the other woman feels a "gender bond".

LootHunter: The latter is actually quite arguable. Women can have very strong sense of competition.

toxicTom: But then female chars should have higher charisma by default. There are enough studies that show that most men find even "average" women attractive, while most women only find "top men" attractive (on first sight that is).
Could also be implemented: a female character has it easier to talk her way thorugh, either because the man is interested in her, or the other woman feels a "gender bond".

RWarehall: And if the designers chose to reflect that truth, no one should be complaining about it either. But I don't think the absence of such a modifier is something incriminating to the particular games either. There is plenty of room for "woulda, coulda, shoulda" but if one is going to cry "inherent sexism", they should have more of an argument than "it's different so it must be sexist" especially when the difference has a basis in reality.