Best female characters introduced to gaming in the last decade

[Kopikatsu]

I'm going with The Boss from Metal Gear Solid 3. (Which coincidentally was released in late 2004, which makes this almost exactly a decade old). She was the leader of an American Spec Ops unit in a time when women weren't even allowed in the combat forces, but was so badass that nobody dared to question her, not even Colonel Volgin.

 

[Ambient_Malice]

Curly Brace - Cave Story, 2004.

Just saying.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Gaige the Mechromancer from Borderlands 2 totally rocks.
Also Rosangela Blackwell from Blackwell games.
Also Victoria McPherson from Still Life.

Edit:
Chell from Portal.
GLaDOS from Portal. (aww, yeah)
Faith from Mirror's Edge.
Nastasia and Svetlana from Heroes 6.
Almost all cast of Skullgirls.
Nilin from Remember Me.

And that nameless young lady from They Bleed Pixels forever lives in my heart for all the blood she shed.

Darnit, you've summed most, if not all the characters I wanted to name.

 

[Sack of Cheese]

MONOMI!!

She's adorable, persistent, badass, cuddly and has good character development, sort of. Gosh I love her so much!! Other Dangan girls can be good examples too.

Other than that, there're Lucatiel of Mirrah (Dark souls 2), Phi (Zero escape), Kinzie (Saints Row), Makoto (Blazblue), Juri (SF4), Totori (Atelier's Arland), Aurora (Child of Light), I'm just listing my favourites now... and some frequently mentioned characters like Ellie, Clementine, such and such.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Kit Ballard from Blade Kitten.

(I may not have played many character driven recent games)

 

[karloss01]

Spoiler: This one immediately comes to mind.

That's right, shield knight. she ain't some helpless damsel in distress that needs saving, she was a sister-in-arms who fought side by side with Shovel Knight and each complimented each other well abilities-wise. and in the end she herself was the one saving shovel knight from the power of the amulet.

 

[endtherapture]

Flemeth is a great female character. Mysterious, not sexualised, has her own agenda, witty, funny, and great.

 

[Fox Pocket]

The Boss - MGS3
Strangelove - MGS Peacewalker
Lady/ Mary - DMC3
Recette and Tear - Reccetear: An Items Shop's Tale
Faith - Mirrors Edge
Katherine - Catherine
Amarerasu - Okami
Bayonetta and Jeanne - Bayonetta
Kay Faraday - Ace Attorney series
Naoto Shirogane - Persona 4
Entire cast of SkullGirls
Any of the female protagonists from the Disgaea series (along with a few other NIS titles)

 

[MetalDooley]

Many people consider gameplay to be part of characterization. Although Chell never saids anything we can assume she has the motivation to over come the obstacles presented in her Universe because we actually play as her.

This is also why I'm going to suggest Samus, expect in Other M of course.

Just shows that many people have no idea what makes a good character or have the mentality of "I like the game therefore the characters must be good".The only thing separating Chell from the protagonist of something like Doom is Chell has a given name(I don't think Doom Guy does correct me if I'm wrong)and is female.Other than that they're both just essentially a camera with arms

 

[Sizzle Montyjing]

Like, all the female characters in the Borderlands series. Also Krieg. Krieg is best girl.
Oh and a few others like Elizabeth from Bioshock, Anne Bonny and Mary Read from AC4 [and also history, kids!]
I also liked the female characters in the inFamous games, more the second and third as, y'know, they actually existed in those games rather than the first.

 

[veloper]

1+2 Rosa and Lauren Blackwell from the Blackwell AGs.
3 The Cat Lady
4 Kate Walker (Syberia)
5 Kreia

The search for good game characters (any) begins with games that have a lot of dialog and character focus, so you'll have something to go on. That means AGs and to a lesser extent cRPGs.
We know next to nothing about characters like Chell.

 

[Story]

Many people consider gameplay to be part of characterization. Although Chell never saids anything we can assume she has the motivation to over come the obstacles presented in her Universe because we actually play as her.

This is also why I'm going to suggest Samus, expect in Other M of course.

Just shows that many people have no idea what makes a good character or have the mentality of "I like the game therefore the characters must be good".The only thing separating Chell from the protagonist of something like Doom is Chell has a given name(I don't think Doom Guy does correct me if I'm wrong)and is female.Other than that they're both just essentially a camera with arms

I respectfully disagree, though you might have just misunderstood me.

I said gameplay can be used as a way of characterizing someone in a video game. I did not say that the game is good therefore, I liked the main character in the game. Heck even bad games can characterize their characters this way.
Like, you used the Doom example, the person in Doom is an avatar for the player yes, but he is also his own intinity. He exists in a hostle world with demonic creatures trying to kill him and he has the skill and determination to survive. I know this because he can shoot 100s of these creatures no problem within his universe and he is looking for a way to escape because I as a player am controlling him.

Not every characterization needs to be narrative driven. In fact it is erroneous to think so as it limits video games as a story telling medium.
I know this is kinda of abstract, but this is why I love video games. This is something pretty much unique to the genre and even many developers don't even bother with it so I can understand why people don't even consider it an aspect of that narrative.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Claret Spencer from Skyborn, a JRPG-seque indi game on Steam. She's sassy, strong, bull-headed, and doesn't take crap from anybody.

 

[Halla Burrica]

Good female characters in gaming? I've got a list of those.

Alyx Vance (of course) from Half-Life 2. She might actually be one of the most important female characters from this decade of gaming. She has a strong will and attitude with more than enough firepower to back it up, making her an extremely useful partner in combat, while at the same time being very well characterized into someone you want to follow.

The Boss from MGS3 Snake Eater. Apart from being a great female character, she is probably one of the most badass characters in the MGS universe, which says a lot when we're talking about a universe that has a vampire, cyborg ninjas, a super-soldier able to control bees and shape them into different things, including Tommyguns (seriously, how the fuck did the Pain do that?), a 100-year old sniper grandpa who is said to be photosynthetic, a terrorist carrying a huge electroshock weapon that can't be hit by any weapon and a senator so ridiculously strong and over the top no one knew what to make of him when he first appeared.

Pretty much every single female party member from Fire Emblem Awakening. Seriously, I can't think of a single female support unit from that game I didn't like, it's kinda baffling.Even Severa grew on me, despit how unneccesarily bitchy she could be from time to time.

Hyun-ae from Analogue: A Hate Story. I don't want to say too much about this game, because I think it's a really great game and I have a feeling most of those who will read this probably hasn't played it and I don't want to spoil what happens. But she is a really good character.

 

[Silvanus]

Silent protagonists can have a lot of personality; an example would be Amaterasu, who is characterised through quite a lot of expressive body language (aided by the art style) and her interactions with other characters. Chell doesn't get that.

I would put forward Ellie (The Last of Us), Lulu or Yuna (Final Fantasy X) and GLaDOS (Portal) as my picks.

 

[Story]

Silent protagonists can have a lot of personality; an example would be Amaterasu, who is characterised through quite a lot of expressive body language (aided by the art style) and her interactions with other characters. Chell doesn't get that.

I would put forward Ellie (The Last of Us), Lulu or Yuna (Final Fantasy X) and GLaDOS (Portal) as my picks.

Just out of couristy though does Chell not have personality because she's viewed through a first person perspective? Aren't the actions taken by the player part of her personality?
I don't want to derail the thread even farther, I think I'll just make a new topic on the subject when I have the chance.

 

[Ishal]

Let's see here...

Last of Us: Ellie
Bioshock Infinite: Elizabeth
The Walking Dead: Clementine
To the Moon: River
Skullgirls: Every character
Half Life 2: Alyx Vance
Mass Effect: Liara and Tali
New Tomb Raider: Lara Croft
Portal: Glados
MGS3: The Boss

I don't play JRPG's, but I'm sure there are a host of decent to good female characters there.

These might be a little older than 10 years, but I'll put them anyway.

Beyond Good and Evil: Jade
KOTOR II: Kreia
KOTOR II: The jedi exile (female) Yeah I know that is a player created character. But so much stuff is attached to the character no matter what you choose. I still say the lore behind that character and what she is to the universe of Star Wars bears mentioning.


I'm sure there are more, but that's all I can think of right now. But I prefer games that don't try to tell stories traditionally, so most of those games aren't my bag. I prefer to tell my own story and create my own character, and then unravel a story myself instead of having the game tell it to me. In those types of games I usually do multiple playthroughs, and there is always one that is a female character. That is the true strength of games, and those characters resonate with me more than any of the above.

 

[Silvanus]

Just out of couristy though does Chell not have personality because she's viewed through a first person perspective? Aren't the actions taken by the player part of her personality?
I don't want to derail the thread even farther, I think I'll just make a new topic on the subject when I have the chance.

I think the first person perspective is part of it; it removes body language, which is mostly what characterises Amaterasu so well.

The actions undertaken by the player... Sometimes they can characterise. I wouldn't go so far as to say Chell doesn't have a personality at all; just that her personality isn't very well developed, because we only have a few little windows into it.

Ooh! I've thought of a particularly good example. The actions undertaken by the player can be great characterisation, I would say, when they're particularly mould-breaking. Chell escaping Aperture Science indicates a great resilience, but the same could be said of most video game heroes, silent or otherwise. It doesn't really indicate anything noteworthy in the context of video game protagonists. On the other hand, look at Daniel from Amnesia. At one point, Daniel must fill a large stone container with water to solve a puzzle, but the muffled noises from inside seem to indicate that something- or someone- is inside, and will drown if you do. There is no other way to progress, however.

That, I would say, sets Daniel apart. The player was in control, but It is part of his story that he filled that tank, and that differentiates him quite starkly.

I'm not sure whether I'm making my point very well...

EDIT: I forgot Grace Holloway, of Bioshock 2, and Brigid Tenenbaum from Bioshock 1 and 2. Those games have great all-round casts of characters, but those two are particularly complex and well-thought.

 

[Adam Lester]

Venessa (King of the Fighters)

Zero (Drakengard 3)

Chie (Persona 4)

Naoto (Persona 4)

Argilla (Digital Devil Saga...what can I say? I lurve me some Shin Megami)

Jade (Beyond Good and Evil)

Bayonetta (er...Bayonetta?)

Farah (Prince of Persia)

Olivia (God Hand)

Samus (THE BABY THE BABY THE BABY)

Amanda Ripley (Alien: Isolation)

Clementine (Walking Dead)

 

[LaoJim]

Faith from Mirror's Edge.

Faith - Mirrors Edge

Love Mirror's Edge, but the problem I have with Faith is that she is a great character design, rather than a great character. That is to say at the end of Mirror's Edge what do we really know about her? She's a good runner and she looks out for her sister. Having played through the game twice, I'm sitting here and I can't honestly remember if she's a silent protagonist or not? I vaguely think she might occassionally say something like "On my way" after her boss gives her the next location to get to, but I'm not entirely sure. There's a whole preface to ME about how the runners are fighting the faceless corporations but that doesn't really feed into our understanding of Faith, who she is or why she does what she does.

Just shows that many people have no idea what makes a good character or have the mentality of "I like the game therefore the characters must be good".The only thing separating Chell from the protagonist of something like Doom is Chell has a given name(I don't think Doom Guy does correct me if I'm wrong)and is female.Other than that they're both just essentially a camera with arms

Again this comment could apply to Faith, although Chell is a particualy bad example as I didn't realize when playing the first Portal that my character was supposed to be a woman, and assumed that I was just supposed to project my personality onto the nameless test subject. I think this actually works better for the game since it seems to help with my apprecation of GlaDos gradually going from impersonal corporate speak to highly personal insults.

(At least with Half-Life you had people saying "Morning, Gordon" for the first half of the game.

I said gameplay can be used as a way of characterizing someone in a video game. I did not say that the game is good therefore, I liked the main character in the game. Heck even bad games can characterize their characters this way.
Like, you used the Doom example, the person in Doom is an avatar for the player yes, but he is also his own intinity. He exists in a hostle world with demonic creatures trying to kill him and he has the skill and determination to survive. I know this because he can shoot 100s of these creatures no problem within his universe and he is looking for a way to escape because I as a player am controlling him.

Not every characterization needs to be narrative driven. In fact it is erroneous to think so as it limits video games as a story telling medium.
I know this is kinda of abstract, but this is why I love video games. This is something pretty much unique to the genre and even many developers don't even bother with it so I can understand why people don't even consider it an aspect of that narrative.

This is an interesting perspective in many ways. While I think it is right on some levels (the Prince of Persia is surely defined to some degree by his athleticism as is Faith), I'm not sure it really works for all characters. We don't know anything at all about the Doom guy and we don't even see him in the game. He doesn't really interact with the environment in any way that is unique to him (he shoots guns and opens doors). Duke Nukem becomes a character when he picks up a rocket launcher and says "Hail to the King, baby" or hands a (10?20?) dollar bill to a stripper with a lewd remark. That is starting to tell us something about the kind of guy he is.

Similarly Mario may be a great character design, but since he's never really evolved (in the main series at least, I haven't played the RPGs) into saying anything particularly meaningful or doing anything more than rescue the princess he's not really a great character.