Best female protagonists in gaming?

dscross

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Because there are fewer of them I thought it would be fun to see who everyone's favourite heroines are, in gaming.

I'll kick off with Samus from Metroid. Despite any controversies, in Samus, Nintendo created a character that is widely held as a hero by female and male gamers alike. She's a hero that should be celebrated for defying gender stereotypes.

Who are yours and why?
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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A classic, really - Lara Croft. Not the new one though. This one!



I have a thing for badass ladies. I like her intelligence, skills, confidence, education etc. That's also why I'm one of the few people who doesn't consider Yennifer from The Witcher 3 to be a *****.
 

Terminal Blue

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Hahaha, no..

I mean, generally the state of the industry is so terrible that I'm struggling, and while I can think of a few games I'd probably connect with I haven't actually played them as of writing, so I'm going to cop right out and also drop some shade.



Femshep, a character who managed to be one of the best female protagonists in gaming despite literally being a re-skinned and voice-swapped version of a male character.

A character whose uniqueness and personality stemmed in large part from the fact noone bothered to swap out her animations for more girly ones (and who thus ended up being unintentionally queer-coded).

Truly, the female protagonist the gaming industry deserves.
 

Hawki

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Choosing one protagonist per franchise (not including custom characters), and limiting this to playable characters:

-Advance Wars: Sami

-BioShock: Elizabeth

-Crash Bandicoot: Coco

-Darksiders: Fury

-Diablo: Li-Ming

-Fire Emblem: Lyndis

-Gears of War: Kait Diaz

-Golden Sun: Sveta

-Killzone: Luger

-The Legend of Zelda: Zelda

-Metroid: Samus Aran

-Overwatch: Tracer

-Perfect Dark: Joanna Dark

-Resident Evil: Jill Valentine

-Tomb Raider: Lara Croft

-Sonic the Hedgehog: Blaze

-Spyro the Dragon: Cynder

-StarCraft: Sarah Kerrigan

-Star Fox: Fara Phoenix (shadup, she counts)

-The Walking Dead: Clementine

-Warcraft: Jaina Proudmoore

-Xenoblade: Melia

Obviously there's others, but it would take far too long to discuss every female protagonist in-depth.
 

Drathnoxis

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I feel like I should have a really good answer to this question, but I just can't think of it...

Hmmm, it might be easier if secondary protagonists are included, but it feels like cheating. As do ones from games with character creators. As for main, playable protagonists, maybe:

Alex Roivas from Eternal Darkness was alright, but thinking about it she doesn't get a whole lot of character development.

Then there's Emily from freeware indie adventure game Emily Enough. As a psychotic serial murdering little girl, she's definitely one of the most interesting female protagonist I've played.
 

Neurotic Void Melody

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As great as the Metroid series is, the thought that Samus is anything but devoid of literally any personality is a bit of a strange one. She's a space/doom marine with better toys and indeed games

For my choice, I'll have to throw an attempted custom character under the bus to give Morrigan from Dragon Age: Origins this 'n. She's way more protagonist than my empty shell of a canglegruff

Orrr Max from Life is Strange

Orrrrrrrrr Clem from Walking Dead

Ok, make those "orrr"s "and"s, I can't decide

maybe Jade from Beyond Good and Evil, but it's been so long I remember very little other than thinking she seemed pretty cool at the time. It's quite possible I just really liked her trousers and hairstyle

There were a few in Pyre; Sandra, Jodariel and the Moon-touched Girl. Everybody in that game's a protagonist, so this is justified probably

Am a very decisive thing

evilthecat said:
Nonononooo...That's a dormant memory that was far happier comatosing until it faded away entirely! What have you done?? Some creepy evils are best left forgotten
 

JohnnyDelRay

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Bayonetta
plot and character development could have been better, but despite the wildly exaggerated physics, animations, and body proportions, she was just fun to play as. Badass, sexual but strong, confident and independent, and she shoots guns on her feet.)

Princess Rosella - King's Quest
Hey I grew up on Sierra adventure games ok. She was probably the first girl character I played as, and also stuck with me because it was the first time I had to use intelligence instead of brute force through a puzzle.)

Sherry Birkin, Claire Redfield - Resident Evil
I just like Sherry. One of the youngest in the franchise, she's positive and tough, maybe even tough to the point of making up for a complex. But she's always rational and calculating, and has a strong moral compass, considering what her and her family's been through.
Claire is just solid. Actually it was a tough call between Jill and Claire, I'd have voted Jill but the last game I played with either of them was Revelations 2.
 

Worgen

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Whatever, just wash your hands.
Bayonetta, hands down. Not only is she a badass but shes also supremely confident and has the skills to back it up.
 

Squilookle

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I'll stick with Jo, thanks. An equal of any other FPS protagonist, and the fact she's a woman has nothing to do with anything. She just gets on with the job, like a professional.

 

dscross

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Since most of the others have already been mentioned -

Chloe Frazer, Uncharted 2-Lost Legacy
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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I'd also like to add a character that's not really a character, but I enjoy playing with her these days:



This is my first time playing with Gaige and she's freakin' awesome. MORE ANARCHY!
 

Hawki

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Silentpony said:
Does Elizabeth count?


She's not the player-character, sure, but she's clearly the protagonist of the story.
She's playable in DLC, so I'd say so.
 

Gethsemani_v1legacy

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Obviously, it is High Queen Khalida. An immortal, crazed, withered and mummified husk who gleefully sends her armies out to find a person who's been dead for millennia (and if those armies kill everything in their way, that's just the cost of doing business). Combined with the King of Kings, Settra, and you've got the power pair that gaming needs.
 

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Adam Jensen said:
I have a thing for badass ladies. I like her intelligence, skills, confidence, education etc. That's also why I'm one of the few people who doesn't consider Yennifer from The Witcher 3 to be a *****.
Yennefer isn't a *****. She a homicidal maniac. Geralt is sometimes forced into situations where he has to kill people. Yennefer seeks out killing people and like to experiment, sending people in to get killed by spells to see how it works. She a villain and not in the good Dijkstra or Bloody Baron way. In the Whoreson Junior way
 

Gethsemani_v1legacy

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trunkage said:
She a villain and not in the good Dijkstra or Bloody Baron way. In the Whoreson Junior way
You take that back! Dijkstra is a hero and a bloody icon! Who else could stop the mad king Radovid and bring peace to the streets of Novigrad?
 

dscross

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Xsjadoblayde said:
As great as the Metroid series is, the thought that Samus is anything but devoid of literally any personality is a bit of a strange one. She's a space/doom marine with better toys and indeed games
You have to look at it in the context of the reveal in the 80s. Back in 1986, female protagonists were really scarce, which perhaps explains why Nintendo kept Samus gender ambiguous. On the one hand, it could be a statement about how women shouldn't be treated differently to men in games. On the other, it could well have been a ploy to avoid alienating a group of players accustomed to seeing leading men in games. In reality, its probably a mixture of both. But whichever is the case, she defied stereotypes for me.
 

Adam Jensen_v1legacy

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trunkage said:
Adam Jensen said:
I have a thing for badass ladies. I like her intelligence, skills, confidence, education etc. That's also why I'm one of the few people who doesn't consider Yennifer from The Witcher 3 to be a *****.
Yennefer isn't a *****. She a homicidal maniac. Geralt is sometimes forced into situations where he has to kill people. Yennefer seeks out killing people and like to experiment, sending people in to get killed by spells to see how it works. She a villain and not in the good Dijkstra or Bloody Baron way. In the Whoreson Junior way
I was talking about the game version. If you wanna talk about the book, then we don't even have to go past the very first chapter of the first book. Geralt totally didn't have to kill the guys at the inn. He was within his rights, sure. But he didn't have to exercise that right. He just wanted to show off.

And in all honesty, if I had her powers, I'd probably be the same. Who cares about a few nobodies that will probably die of starvation or plague when there's so much to learn.