Women in video games: which ones do it right?

[Rawle Lucas]

Inspired by the frequent posts and discussions about women's place in gaming, whether as players or as characters, I figured that all of this discussion about what's wrong was getting tiresome. I want something more positive -- which games do female characters right?

I'm aware that some of your perspectives on "right" may differ, but try to keep civil.

To start off, I offer Fire Emblem and Pokemon. Fire Emblem manages to make its female characters attractive without dressing them like strippers, and it often develops all of its characters, whether male or female, very well through the use of support conversations. Additionally, none of it seems forced, and the male characters are not denigrated to compensate. Though Pokemon is more about the mons than the humans, the (human) female characters never came off as either incapable or overbearing, all without sacrificing their femaleness.

I'm sure all of you have other examples.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

Alyx Vance.

/thread?

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

The obvious answers (To me, at least, and an easy way out) are Mass Effect 1 & 2.
Female Shepard is good... and people say Jennifer Hale is a better voice actor than her male counterpart. I can believe that.

 

[Lazarus Long]

The old chestnuts of Beyond Good and Evil and Half-Life 2. Although those just get their points for having female characters who are not particularly sexualised until Rule 34 has its way with them.
Being male, I can't really say if any game has featured a well-written female character.

The obvious answers (To me, at least, and an easy way out) are Mass Effect 1 & 2.
Female Shepard is good... and people say Jennifer Hale is a better voice actor than her male counterpart. I can believe that.

Shep is an interesting example, and may very well be what I was looking for, because romantic subplots aside, it really doesn't matter much which gender the character is. And Jennifer Hale is a better voice actor than any counterpart. She should be in everything.

 

[Amethyst Wind]

The obvious answers (To me, at least, and an easy way out) are Mass Effect 1 & 2.
Female Shepard is good... and people say Jennifer Hale is a better voice actor than her male counterpart. I can believe that.

Well that's not fair, we can only fairly say that in this instance, Jennifer Hale destroys Mark Meer at voice acting.

 

[Iron Lightning]

Beyond Good and Evil, it has a strong well characterized lead who doesn't become a supercilious badass action girl. She isn't afraid of teamwork and is capable of platonic love.

I'd also say the Metroid series, before Samus got completed fucked up in Metroid: Other M. To be fair, the only reason she hasn't been messed up is that she's basically a space marine who happens to be female.

 

[The Madman]

Absolutely no doubt in my mind:

April Ryan from The Longest Journey isn't just my favorite female game protagonist, but probably my favorite overall. Her voice-acting is perfect, her dialogue well written, her reactions throughout the game to what happens believable, and her commentary entertaining and often funny. All that thrown together not only makes her an extremely believable and sympathetic character, but also makes the series so much more heartbreaking when bad things simply continue to happen to her.

I honestly can't think of a single other game character from any genre to match, regardless of genre.

 

[Rawle Lucas]

The obvious answers (To me, at least, and an easy way out) are Mass Effect 1 & 2.
Female Shepard is good... and people say Jennifer Hale is a better voice actor than her male counterpart. I can believe that.

Well that's not fair, we can only fairly say that in this instance, Jennifer Hale destroys Mark Meer at voice acting.

Try to stay on topic now.

 

[J. MB]

The Boss, Metal Gear Solid 3. That is all.

 

[SomethingGerman]

Rebecca Mayes, lol.

Obvious ones: Farah from Sands of Time and Alyx Vance from Half Life; both 3dimensional rounded human beings.

Now what we are looking for is a human character with free will, personality and a wide emotional range, something interesting and reasonable.

...

Mass Effect maybe? Oh, right:

Ignoring the story from SH3 (because it largely deals with religious cults and bla bla bla),
Heather is the only fairly mainstream character I could think of, that is very well written and acted, while not being talked about that much.


Also, was the protagonist in Shadow of the Colossus really a dude? Seemed very feminin to me

 

[Weaver]

For me; Mirror's Edge.
We have a strong female lead who is not oversexualized, seen as very competent and relatable. Hell, even I could relate to her.

Her motivations are clear, understandable and none of it seems overly forced.

 

[Lacsapix]

The obvious answers (To me, at least, and an easy way out) are Mass Effect 1 & 2.
Female Shepard is good... and people say Jennifer Hale is a better voice actor than her male counterpart. I can believe that.

A way better counterpart! after playing ME for the second time and played the female version I knew that Shepard had to be female.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Mass Effect maybe? Oh, right:

Ignoring the story from SH3 (because it largely deals with religious cults and bla bla bla),
Heather is the only fairly mainstream character I could think of, that is very well written and acted, while not being talked about that much.

Nailed it. You took the only example I could think of that was left. Maybe Faith from Mirror's Edge...

 

[migo]

Bayonetta - there's no identity crisis, she revels in her sexuality, and some women totally dig her. (Just to put it into perspective, there are some men who totally can't identify with Fenix, Dom, Baird or Cole in Gears of War but others who are perfectly fine with them).

Faith - nothing was made of her gender. She looks like a runner should and for how she's characterised there isn't anything that strikes me as being done to make her more female or to subvert anything. She's a woman, that's it.

Yuna - I liked her, my ex-girlfriend liked her - what else is there to say? She appeals to all demographics, and just depends on the individual.

Chun-Li - she's got exaggerated features, but they're her thunder thighs, and she's contrasted with Zangief who's harry and wears a speedo.

Samus - nobody knows her gender playing the game, it makes for an interesting back story, but people who just play will usually assume she's a man. That's not necessarily the greatest thing, but not making a big deal of her gender and deciding she's female is a good way to handle the game.

Giana - she's a punk, rebellious. Perfectly fitting for when the game was released.

Nariko - she's definitely very attractive and wearing little, but no exaggerated tits and the dreadlocks are somewhat individualistic. And again, I know several women who like her.

 

[2fish]

Mass Effect: Since the gender/sex of the character did not matter since the character was so well written.

Perfect Dark: Joanna Dark, I mean come on he is a super spy sho is smart, has the tools, and can kick ass.

KoTOR/Oblivion: Both were good games where being female had no hinder on your character since either way your character could handle the situations she was put in and it made sense as to why she acted the way she did.

make the character relatible, competent, have a clear purpose, and for the love of god make the armor into armor not a bra and panties.

 

[Rawle Lucas]

Good responses, everyone.

I'd like to offer another game: Golden Sun.

From what I remember, Mia, though a staff chick, [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/StaffChick] didn't spend most of the game getting kidnapped, nor was she incompetent at fighting. She wasn't busting down brick walls with her bare hands, but she never came off as weak or whiny either -- just competent.

Would you say that female characters seem to fare better in certain genres? Correct me if I'm wrong, but they don't seem as common in FPSes as in tactical RPGs or fighting games.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Bioshock. The female characters all felt human (even if most of them were voices on tape) and natural. Hell, even the one who was supposed to be a slut and a stripper was well characterized, even though she barely had any lines. And needless to say, Tenenbaum is a very strong and determined woman and definitely fit for the world of Rapture.

And, er, I guess I could mention the Eldar Farseers from the Dawn of War games (I only played the first and the first two expansion packs). Strong and determined, and ouright despising the male-lead culture of humans.

 

[Vrex360]

The ladies of Mass Effect 1 (Ashley, Liara, Tali, Chatwas and Female Shepard) were some good examples of well written female characters. In fact, the fact that they weren't merely used as eye candy and had actual real personalities complete with a few flaws here and there made them more interesting to involve in the story.

As always, personal pick for this list is Ashley. She felt very real and at points I liked her and at points I disagreed with her, it's rare to have such a fully put together character like this but truth be told, she's my pick out of all the ones in Mass Effect.

I refuse to add Mass Effect 2 onto this list of good female characters simply because of the game's immature obsession with making the camera show off Miranda's arse.

Also I actually want to list characters like Lightning from the latest Final Fantasy and Samus from Metroid simply because, while neither are all that realistic (with all them crazy acrobatic fight scenes and whatnot) not a lot of male protagonists in games are judged by such standards. They are judged by their 'coolness' and in that respect Samus in particular is quite cool.
I hear she got messed up in Other M but still, I label her as awesome anyway. One can't spend a twenty year cycle battling space monsters and pirates without being certified of awesomeness.

 

[Erana]

Choice of games also writes with realist female characters.
Except for the princess in Choice of the Dragon, but I kinda ate her... >.>

Legend of Zelda, of course.

Kings Quest...

I can't fail to mention Quest for Glory, featuring my namesake, Erana.

And I really adore Rosalina from Mario Galaxy. She's one of my most favorite characters ever.