Females in Videogames

[Kristy Haruka]

I really, really love females in videogames! Not in the lesbian love kinda way... Its just inspiring to see a female lead in a game. Examples are Samus Aran from the Metroid series and Lara Croft from Tombraider.

Does anyone have any good games with female leads in them? Are you inspired by them? Females have come a long way, and even though we aren't equal to men yet, we will be!

 

[Ace777]

Reimu Hakurei in the Touhou series. Actually, Males in the series are rare. I got hooked on these games when my old netbattle friend Mr Iggeh showed me how to download Imperishable night.

 

[Jumpman16]

Metroid is a classic, I'm glad Nintendo decided to have a woman in Samus Aran lead one of its first games in 1987. I didn't like Joanna Dark in Perfect Dark, though...the whole game seemed to try to copy the greatness that is Goldeneye. This is a pitfall many games that would like female leads are bound to at least encounter if not unfortunately fall into, given the "been there done that" nature of the video game world.

 

[_Rex_]

She isn't the game's lead, but Milia Rage from Guilty Gear deserves a mention.
So badass.

 

[NESgamer]

Samus Aran is my favourite female videogame character, along with Chun-Li (not lead but is one of the big characters of her series) haha, she kicks ass since SF II.

I don't know Jump, Perfect Dark had it's own things... Joanna was cool.

I'm trying hard to think about more lead roles, there are a lot of secondary female characters worth to mention, but the lead roles are few, and that sucks. Even Zelda games, the name of the series belongs to a secondary character, only in one game she was playable, wtf.

 

[Misty]

I think it was Tycho who said that there is a special awesomeness when a video game character is a woman in addition to being a badass.

EDIT: also this topic has a glaring lack of Beatrix from FF9.

 

[Yoshi King]

Metroid is a classic, I'm glad Nintendo decided to have a woman in Samus Aran lead one of its first games in 1987. I didn't like Joanna Dark in Perfect Dark, though...the whole game seemed to try to copy the greatness that is Goldeneye. This is a pitfall many games that would like female leads are bound to at least encounter if not unfortunately fall into, given the "been there done that" nature of the video game world.

No offense Jumpman but that's because Perfect Dark was created by almost exactly the same team that did Goldeneye. It's basically Goldeneye 2.0 with a generic alien story instead, but the gameplay improvements that were made to the genre really (IMO) set the standard- if I'm not mistaken Perfect Dark was the first game to include dual functions for weapons.

And even though it developed into a generic alien shooter the story turned out a hell of a lot better than Halo's, especially with badasses like Elvis.

Anyways I always enjoy a female lead in any game, though I strongly dislike it when they're given incredibly generic personalities (Ie. Bitchy butch that's way too mannish, incredibly snappy or something, etc etc.)... of course, the same standard applies to men for me. Also when women are drastically lacking clothing, it draws away from their character, which is bullshit (one of the reasons Samus is so awesome).

 

[Bologo]

I really like Terra in Final Fantasy III (SNES) and I absolute LOVE Lucca from Chrono Trigger. If I had to pick any, they're definitely my favourite female main/lead characters in pretty much any game I've played. :]

 

[glassbutterfly]

Ada Wong (RE series) and Heather Mason (SH series) are the ones that I find to have decent roles in the games they are in. Heather has the personality and spunk. Although Ada is mostly a supporting character, she has her own flair. I'm just irked that she is bossed by a man. Just for freakiness, I find Daniella from Haunting Ground to be very interesting. Much more interesting than Fiona, who is the game's lead, IMO.

 

[Dragontamer]

Also when women are drastically lacking clothing, it draws away from their character, which is bullshit (one of the reasons Samus is so awesome).

I can agree to that. Samus is badass while the DOA girls look like sluts >_>. Nonetheless, you can't say that they haven't sexualized Samus in more recent games... then again, maybe the graphics have just gotten better to the point where they can actually sexualize a female character in a video game compared to 16x8 pixels that the original metroid had (or somewhere around there)

I dunno, but one habit I get when playing fighting games now is to check-out whether or not the female characters are wearing high heels. It does not make practical sense to wear high heels, but there are some quite absurd examples that I've noticed regardless. Jenny the Bat not only wears high heels in her human form, but she _grows_ high heels in her bat form in Bloody Roar.

(First hit on google images shows you what I mean in a wallpaper)

It just seems a little absurd to me that game artists force high heels on women, and I can almost guarantee that in every fighting game, at least one woman is wearing high heels >_> (Even Peach in SSB:M)

 

[X-Act]

I am a big fan of Lara Croft actually. Hehe.

 

[Calciphoce]

Ask yourself this: What person who calls them self a gamer hasn't heard of Metroid?

 

[pinecone]

The only lead females I can think of that I liked are Lyndis (FE) and Samus. However for non-main characters I have to say the FE series has more than enough fun female characters.

 

[QuickDraw]

there is actually a new game coming out called "Wet". i believe it's for the sexbox360 and it looks pretty awesome. the lead character is a woman who uses guns and a sword in a massively bad-ass fashion. here's a game trailer: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/779817/wet_game_trailer/ i will definitely be looking at this when more info comes out.

 

[norulz]

I definitely love Gardenia and BlackRose on the .hack series, even though they're not leaders, which doesn't run too far from the "effeminate male hero stereotype" in japanese video games.

I guess Terra from FFVI would be a good leader.

 

[Jumpman16]

No offense Jumpman but that's because Perfect Dark was created by almost exactly the same team that did Goldeneye. It's basically Goldeneye 2.0 with a generic alien story instead, but the gameplay improvements that were made to the genre really (IMO) set the standard- if I'm not mistaken Perfect Dark was the first game to include dual functions for weapons.

And even though it developed into a generic alien shooter the story turned out a hell of a lot better than Halo's, especially with badasses like Elvis.

While that is true, it kind of proves my point...it literally was a "been there done that" with a male lead in James Bond. It's almost not fair to women to have a "sequel" to a game's lead be a female, because the comparisons would be drawn no matter the lead's gender.

 

[Aeolus]

Chun-Li

She was by far the best character in SF II!

 

[Yoshi King]

While that is true, it kind of proves my point...it literally was a "been there done that" with a male lead in James Bond. It's almost not fair to women to have a "sequel" to a game's lead be a female, because the comparisons would be drawn no matter the lead's gender.

Ack, it seems I completely missed the point of your first post, but now I understand what you mean. I wouldn't say Joanna Dark is a direct rippoff of Bond though. While they both dabble in espionage and whatnot, Bond's a Ladies' man and I personally think Joanna has a well-developed personality. She's witty, charming, but at the same time gets the job done... (oh shit sounding like Bond FUCK)

Okay, you got me. The only difference is that Joanna isn't a Mens'... lady...

*cough* Goddamnit I can't debate worth a shit.

Agreed with Pinecone on lots of FE females being amazing characters. A lot of them are sexualized (Lyndis, Eirika, Karla especially... just to name 3 of like over 150 different characters) but a lot of the time they're original and cool too.

 

[Elminster12]

Jade in Beyond Good and Evil is a good one. Lost Kingdoms also features a pair of female leads(Katia the Princess in the first and Tara the Emo in the 2nd). One of the best lines I've ever seen in a game comes from the first one, when that old lady says, "You sure you don't have any heroic prince-types locked up in the tower or something? No? Oh well, you'll just have to do then."

 

[glassbutterfly]

Maya Fey and Emma Skye from PW were also pretty cool and funny.

She isn't the game's lead, but Milia Rage from Guilty Gear deserves a mention.
So badass.

I find A.B.A to be pretty awesome. Maybe, it's because she uses a key as a weapon.

It just seems a little absurd to me that game artists force high heels on women, and I can almost guarantee that in every fighting game, at least one woman is wearing high heels >_> (Even Peach in SSB:M)

Not the case for The Last Blade and Samurai Showdown series, however.

 

[Elminster12]

*face palm*
How could I forget Sarah freaking Kerrigan! I just played SC last night, as the Zerg no less!

 

[Age of Kings]

Anyways I always enjoy a female lead in any game, though I strongly dislike it when they're given incredibly generic personalities (Ie. Bitchy butch that's way too mannish, incredibly snappy or something, etc etc.)... of course, the same standard applies to men for me. Also when women are drastically lacking clothing, it draws away from their character, which is bullshit (one of the reasons Samus is so awesome).

The "damsel in distress" storyline never fails to make me sick.

Props to the last sentence, you stole my words.

 

[Uskuri]

Lyn from Fire Emblem is definitely an awesome example of a good female lead. Not only is she easily one of the best characters in the game, but shes a strong character personality-wise as well.

As well, I find that Zelda consistently is a strong character in the newer games, contrasting the typical damsel-in-distress role (that until recently she was the epitome of). This especially applies to her alter-egos, Sheik and Tetra. Nintendo does a good job on the strong female leads, it seems.

Also notable is Cortana from Halo. Shes just cool.

 

[Synre]

Hmmm...


I suppose less so than the guys who posted or the girls I couldn't care less about females in video games but my tops would probably be Big Boss and Sniper Wolf in the Metal Gear Solid series(the former being a great deal stronger than the latter but both very good characters). Celes in FF6 was pretty good too but in general the FF series has done a pretty shitty job of having the female party members do much other than be love interests of varying degrees(although Yuna and Ashe were both steps in the right direction in spite of various flaws that prevent them from being really great characters imo). My personal favorite was mentioned by Misty already in Beatrix from FF9 though, I only wish she'd had a more vital role in the game...

I am kinda alarmed at the fact I'm having a hard time coming up with anything else that stood out to me after so many years playing video games...

 

[Kristy Haruka]

I also want to add Aeon Flux, Bloodrayne, Bullet Witch, Jeanne d'Arc, Okami, and Valkyrie Profile. :P

All of them are strong and pretty female protagonists who don't show that much skin. =D