And the men are starting to look more and more like women too. I just looked at a photo of Lightning awhile ago and I thought that the detail on her hair and face is amazing. Then I thought, has there been an "average" looking female character in any Final Fantasy game (of course, pixelated graphics don't count; official artwork counts more, and non-human characters aren't considered either)?

Looking back, I don't know of a single one. All of them have been made to look like supermodels.

Is it so necessary to make ALL the women in these games attractive?

EDIT: to make it clear, the point I'm trying to make is..

even if your taste is different (i.e., you don't like big boobs, therefore Tifa is ugly in your opinion), all the girls in FF are "made" and "designed" to be beautiful. None of them are designed to be "a real, typical, average-looking" girl. 

It has been like that since VII when they stopped being about story and strong character development and more about being pretty with emo main characters (with a few exceptions of course).

Well, the characters are generally young and athletic so it is not to hard to believe that they will be attractive individuals. I wouldn't say they are outrageously attractive like you posit.

even before 7, the official artwork of the female characters have been scantily clad beautiful girls as well.

who are the exceptions you mention?

It is also that a lot of the stories involve love or at least sexual tension between the main character and the female characters. It would break immersion if they had your character going after someone most people don't find mildly attractive.

Are you complaining?

At least they're dialing it back a bit. Lightning isn't as distractingly gorgeous as Quina.

I'm with you, though. More homely girls, plz.

girl are always attractive in mainstream media

point.

Eh, I disagree with the OP, but I do think that Square has always been able to have very beautiful women in their games.

nobody wants to play/know about boring looking characters.