Gender challenge

[In Search of Username]

I'm gonna go with Jade from Beyond Good and Evil too. Also April from TLJ, which someone has also said. Cos I have no original ideas. Those are both great female characters whose femininity plays essentially no role in their greatness. Also Commander Shepard, if you play her as a female (and why wouldn't you? Jennifer Hale > Mark Meer). Not sure if that counts though since the gender's obviously going to have no importance if you're allowed to choose it yourself.

For the second question I think I'll go with some more Bioware characters; I'm a straight guy so I don't exactly know, but I expect if I was gay characters like Kaidan and Alistair (Mass Effect and Dragon Age respectively) would fit that description. They're both obviously in good physical condition since they're soldiers, but they also have sensitivity and in Alistair's case, a lot of humour. So I guess they'd generally fit that description.

 

[Twilight_guy]

1. Alyx Vance (Yeah its not original but its a good example)

2. Chris Redfield
Guy is built like a fridge. Men want to have a studly body like him and women want to have sex with his studly body. (I have no idea what his character is like but I know what his art style and design says to the audience).

Actually it'd be far easier to find a female character that caters to both sexes then it is to find a male. I've heard that men tend to fantasy about having sex with women while women tend to fantasy about being an attractive woman. (I obviously have no way to verify this without finding studies but its what I heard from a reliable source).

 

[Lt._nefarious]

1) Heather Mason from SH 3. Empowered possibly isn't the right word as everyone involved in Silent Hill is made the towns ***** but in terms of she wears proper clothes, is reasonably proportioned, charismatic (kinda) and has what can only be described as a "biblical abortion"... Oh and most others die apart from her and she stabs god in the face...

2) Dante from DMC? Or possibly Nathan Drake because all I know is if I were a straight chick I'd tap 'dat, or maybe even Batman since he's, y'know, Batman...

 

[Lugbzurg]

I think Chell from the Portal series fits fairly well for the first category.
She doesn't speak though, but actions speak louder than words right?

Nothing about her appearance feels like it's pandering to the oversexualized crowd of characters shamelessly added to follow the Smurfette Principle and "give something the guys to look at". If anything, she looks fairly normal and sports a pretty descent wardrobe that at least covers %80 of her body.

Chell is a shell. She's just a blank slate like Gordon Freeman that we can choose to project any characterization that we choose onto. She doesn't talk and her actions are controlled by us, not herself. Her wardrobe is just an orange jumpsuit that she has to wear involuntarily as a test subject.

If I had to go with someone I'd choose Alyx Vance.

She's a strong female character who wears sensible clothes and has a rich complex personality which makes her extremely likable not just as a woman but as a person. She's clearly attractive but the Half-Life games never try to push any level of sex appeal onto her. Strong and independent, optimistic and intelligent She and Gordon Freeman have a strong but entirely platonic friendship. She seems like an obvious choice for #1.

As for #2. I have no idea what a woman/gay man would sexually fantasize about. If I'd have to guess I'd say this...

Spoiler

I'm a strait male, and even I can't help fantasizing about this beautiful 8 foot tall golden man.

Starting to feel some seething rage, right now... Do not kid yourself. Alyx Vance is far from a "strong female character". She's not much better off than the stereotypes. She's missing a lot of character in herself and purely exists to make the player feel good about themselves. Doesn't that sound awfully familiar? You really need to see this...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-3gcVICiCs

Anyway... Appropriately-fitting this criteria here, I can definitely say "Samus Aran". Particularity, the way she came off in Metroid Prime. Might've been on several other people's minds, but it certainly needs to be said. She looks nice, is very capable of taking care of herself (no kidding), isn't one to compromise, sticks to her guns, and is rather modest.