Title. This franchise has a beautifully diverse fanbase in every respect, but has always had a difficult time catching up, in terms of actually catering to them. The sexual orientation problems has been widely covered to the point that we're all aware of the problems and shortcomings there. But this, however, is something I've always wondered about without seeing much discussion.

Rune Factory is the only farming sim that was initially designed to be catered towards boys specifically, yet still held a very strong female fanbase, for obvious reasons. After the initial entry, and before the eventual advent of a female protagonist as a direct, equal counter to the male one, there have been attempts to give girls something to enjoy, in rather unique ways.

In Rune Factory 2, we had your daughter as a playable protagonist in the second half. A rather poetic implementation of the old, cliche male protagonist, literally leaving, and the new dual generation taking over. (If RF3 hadn't dropped the ball with not having a female protagonist, we'd probably be praising this more as a community.)

In Rune Factory: Oceans/Tides of Destiny, we have Sonja. Literally combining a male and female protagonist into one entity. In every interaction, we have both a male and female perspective on things. Then once you get to the end of the story, you get to pick who you liked the most to play as, and keep the other as a villager. My opinion on this: The implementation is close to perfect, if you'd had a choice of playable body at the start, flipping their story roles with said choice.

So, to bring it back around: What were your thoughts on these at the time of release/play, when every other farming sim had female protagonists but RF, and what are they now, in retrospect?

Edit: I see downvoting going on in the comments. Don't quash other perspectives because they're different please peeps, that's kinda the point here.