Best female protagonists in gaming?

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Can't believe no-one has chosen Jill Valentine from Resident Evil yet.

Or any other chacaters in the Survival Horror classics.

Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, Rebecca Chambers, Heather Mason from Silent Hill 3, etc.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Also any Female Character in Fighting Games should also count, regardless of sexualization.

I mean read the lore of Ivy Valentine from Soul Calibur and you be surprised how reletively deep it is:

 

[Foxcubwendigo]

Well i only play games having male protagonist so to answer it. i guess chell from Portal

Okay if I ask why? I mean, there are so many great games with female protagonists, so I can't help but feel you're missing out.

OT: I'm going to have to go with either D'Vorah from MKX for her sheer uniqueness or Elizabeth from Bioshock: Infinite. (A rather typical answer, I know, but there's a reason for that.)

 

[dscross]

Or any other chacaters in the Survival Horror classics.

Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, Rebecca Chambers, Heather Mason from Silent Hill 3, etc.

People have said Claire and Heather further back I believe. Not Rebecca though, and she is clearly brilliant.

 

[Mikejames]

The answer is April Ryan in The Longest Journey. Any other answer is wrong.

April Ryan and Zoe Castillo will always be two of my favorites. They both have a lot of personality and down-to-earth relatable flaws despite the fantastical situations they've been thrown into.

I remember playing Dreamfall when I was younger and really resonating with how realistically Zoe's depression was presented. Just kind of wandering through life from one day to the next, despite having everything she thinks that she needs to make her happy.

I quite liked Kat from Gravity Rush. One of the few girly girl characters in videogames. Most other female game characters are a bit too obvious in their attempt to appeal to the male demographic, either by being hot pieces of ass, or by aggressively coming across as 'so not like "those" girls', or both.

Kat is just... fun, which is a quality extremely few female game characters seem to have. Shantae is another rare example.

Kat definitely deserves more love. In an industry filled with stoic bad-asses and one-note action heroes, Kat's a breath of fresh air in how genuinely kindhearted and optimistic she is as a protagonist.

She's dropped into a city, alone, homeless, and confused, and forced to live in a sewer pipe. So what's the first thing she does? She smiles and goes exploring around town to find furniture and decorations to make her new place feel like home, while readily helping any stranger she meets at the drop of a hat.

She goes through a lot of hardship, but nothing really stops her from doing her best to be a good person. And it's hard not to find her upbeat and helpful personality infectious.

 

[Hawki]

Can't believe no-one has chosen Jill Valentine from Resident Evil yet.

I listed her in my opening post.

 

[The Almighty Aardvark]

I think that part of the reason why this is so hard is that main characters are rarely the most interesting character in their story. I'd even have trouble with male characters. Typically you pick someone who's just generally cool, like Samus.

That being said, I think I'd choose Chloe Price from Life is Strange. She's a really compelling character, and while it's hard to side with her through everything she does, I always found sympathy for her and what she was going through.

Ahh, Amaterasu! Origin of all that is good, and mother to us all!

It always bugs me when people say she doesn't have a personality. How can you not see the well of snark that is Ammy?

 

[loa]

Midna because unlike some other princess whose name starts with a Z and ends with an elda, she gets shit done.

 

[Zack84]

April Ryan from The Longest Journey.

 

[Timedraven 117]

Female Courier form Fallout New vegas. Braindead bimbo who rips and tears? Or super smart scientist who atomizes her foes with but a thought? You can make her anything you want.

Miley from cherry Tree High Comedy Club. Adorable, cute, genuinely funny, and heartfelt. Definitely a strong person.

Lilac, Carol, and Milla are also all adorable and quite capable protagonists in Freedom PLanet.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Kat definitely deserves more love. In an industry filled with stoic bad-asses and one-note action heroes, Kat's a breath of fresh air in how genuinely kindhearted and optimistic she is as a protagonist.

She's dropped into a city, alone, homeless, and confused, and forced to live in a sewer pipe. So what's the first thing she does? She smiles and goes exploring around town to find furniture and decorations to make her new place feel like home, while readily helping any stranger she meets at the drop of a hat.

She goes through a lot of hardship, but nothing really stops her from doing her best to be a good person. And it's hard not to find her upbeat and helpful personality infectious.

She's almost kinda like a Ghibli movie protagonist in that respect. Reminded me very much of Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service.

 

[infohippie]

Spoiler: Yomi, of course

 

[Mikejames]

She's almost kinda like a Ghibli movie protagonist in that respect. Reminded me very much of Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service.

Yeah, right down to trying to use her superpowers just to find work and help people out in an unfamiliar place. A lot of the characters and world design in general always made me think of Kiki or Castle in the Sky, with a blend of charming atmosphere and an otherworldly sense of wonder.

I wish there were more games that took that level of creativity in art direction and writing, but I guess it is a pretty niche series.

 

[Lokislambda]

Senua from Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice,
Red from Transistor
Heather Mason from Silent Hill 3
Ellie from The Last of Us while non-playable most of the game can't argue that she isn't a protagonist.

 

[Tony2077]

She's almost kinda like a Ghibli movie protagonist in that respect. Reminded me very much of Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service.

Yeah, right down to trying to use her superpowers just to find work and help people out in an unfamiliar place. A lot of the characters and world design in general always made me think of Kiki or Castle in the Sky, with a blend of charming atmosphere and an otherworldly sense of wonder.

I wish there were more games that took that level of creativity in art direction and writing, but I guess it is a pretty niche series.

I would love to more games like gravity rush even if its just art and story style

 

[TheSlothOverlord]

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.

When it comes to that very first story, the thing that you have to remember is that it was published a good few years before the others. It's fairly obvious that at that point Sapkowski envisioned Geralt to be much more ruthless and not shy of doing very questionable acts to pursue his goals. You can see that his concept of Geralt changed significantly after that, since in light of how he acts in the whole rest of the books, what he did in the first story is terribly out of character.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

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.

When it comes to that very first story, the thing that you have to remember is that it was published a good few years before the others. It's fairly obvious that at that point Sapkowski envisioned Geralt to be much more ruthless and not shy of doing very questionable acts to pursue his goals. You can see that his concept of Geralt changed significantly after that, since in light of how he acts in the whole rest of the books, what he did in the first story is terribly out of character.

You're right. And not only that, but Geralt is very inconsistent even across the stories in the first book. He's different even in The Grain of Truth and in The Lesser Evil. And then he invokes the Law of Surprise in A Question of Price. That came out of nowhere. It really feels like Sapkowski was testing the ground and playing around with the characters.

 

[Phoenixmgs_v1legacy]

Bayonetta
Badass, sexual but strong, confident and independent.

Cate Archer. Funny, classy and British thief turned spy. Shame probably never going to get anoth NOLF game

I'd love a NOLF revival.

Aloy - Horizon: Zero Dawn

I loved everything about Aloy.

---

I'm guessing Nariko from Heavenly Sword hasn't been mentioned but she was awesome. It didn't hurt that she was voiced by Anna Torv (AKA Olivia Dunham from Fringe).

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Ahh, Amaterasu! Origin of all that is good, and mother to us all!

It always bugs me when people say she doesn't have a personality. How can you not see the well of snark that is Ammy?

Is she though? The whole joke is that she asks like a normal dog while people fawn around her. The only display of personality I remember is being awed together with Issun at the sight of Rao's tits.

 

[Myria]

Another vote for Aya Brea, by far my favorite video game protagonist of all time.

honorable mention goes to reboot Lara Croft, Sylvanas Windrunner (pre-Garrosh 2.0 turn, anyway), and Kate Walker.